Replacing (RCD) fuse box

[Michael999]

How long would it take to replace a fuse box with a new(RCD) box?

Small 3 bed semi-detached house, with Aqualisa power showers,recently re-wired.

Why do I ask? I (upnorth) spoke to our trusted electrician who has done work for me and my familyfor the past 20 years and asked him for a price and he told me £100 for partsand 3 hours labour £100 total £200. Myson (down south) who is buying the house that needs (according to the surveyor)a new RCD unit has been quoted £350.

The price of materials is the same in the north as it is inthe south does the cost of labour vary across the country?

TIA

Mike

 

[Swicade]

£350 is around the average price for a board change.It's not just changeing the fuseboard it also involves a full test of the circuit's plus notification.

£200 sounds like your trusted electrician is doing you a favour with 'mates rates' as you always use him.

It's not so much a North/South divide thing though prices do obviously vary.

 

[telectrix]

agreed^^^^ £200 is a very good price. bear in mind that you have stated yours has been recently rewired, so the job may be more straightforward than your son's.

 

[RISElectrical]

£350 is average price in my opinion.

I have done CU changes for family etc for £100 cash with all materials at cost before but as said that a good price

 

[1shortcircuit]

£350 in Bristol from me:thumbsup

There are cheaper but what kind of job can be expected is unknown?

Just be sure to ensure the person carrying out the work can notify the work to local authority building control as per part P of the Building regulations as this is required by law:thumbsup

 

[Robertbaker63]

i do fuseboards for £200- £250 in devon but if the bonding needs doing it'd be £350, takes about 2-3 hours to change a fuseboard and 2 hours to test it if its about 6 circuits. a fuseboard to buy is between £80 - £120 depending if you want a duel rcd fully loaded board or a board populated with 8 rcbos (denmans - designa curve 93+vat)

 

[Amp David]

3 hours to change a CU and test everything, thats some going.

- - - Updated - - -

Also how long do you class a 'recently' rewired?

 

[Octopus]

£200 for a cu change, test and part p notification - one suspects its a cash job with no notification.

£350.00 is a reasonable cost and it should take about 1 full day, baring any issues being identified.

If its a recent rewire, why is a new CU required?

 

[StuSpiers]

I always allow 1 Day for a fuseboard change.

so I would be charging £350 - £400

Fuseboard changes are rarely plain sailing, however if you have had a recent re-wire then perhaps your sparky is confident there will be no problems.

 

[Amp David]

If its a recent rewire, why is a new CU required?

My thoughts exactly.

 

[Dave 85]

Im glad I don't live up there..... £350 all day long. Taking the old board off and putting a new one on is perfectly doable in 3 hours (or even an hour and a half) if the circumstances are good, but with testing, certing, rectifying, notifying and what not, anything much less than £350 is silly.

With regards to labour costs north and south....in my experience the sparkys working with 50 miles of london arn't particularly desperate for work, even now so can afford to charge the going rates. From what I hear, its not like that in much of the north these days.

 

[Guitarist]

Depends on the make of board, but for a standard dual-RCD board I would agree with the others... £350-£400 including testing and notification. Adding RCBO's is what tends to push the price up.

 

[Michael999]

Is there some 'body' which sets guidelines and standards on how long a job should take? I know, for example, that if I take my car in for a part to be removed and fitted some 'body' has agreed that will take x hours. It's all very well for you here to say I'll spend all day doing that, if it can be done in 3 hours or 4 hours why should I pay for someone (who may be less efficient) to spend 8 hours doing it?

 

[PC Electrics]

£400 is my "standard" charge for a board swap in a typical 3 bed.

£200 is way too cheap for my liking. I'd be wondering about those niggly hard to find faults that won't be detected. That's if there's any testing going on at all (other than the new RCDs "testing" the installation after fitting).

 

[Octopus]

It's all very well for you here to say I'll spend all day doing that, if it can be done in 3 hours or 4 hours why should I pay for someone (who may be less efficient) to spend 8 hours doing it?

May be the person who takes 7-8 hours is more thorough and dilligent.

Have you asked the sparky who's quoted you £200 what will you be getting for your money? To set your expectation you will get an EIC (electrical installation certificate) with a schedule of inspections completed for each circuit and if you live in England or Wales your Part P notification, plus of course an invoice!

 

[telectrix]

Is there some 'body' which sets guidelines and standards on how long a job should take? I know, for example, that if I take my car in for a part to be removed and fitted some 'body' has agreed that will take x hours. It's all very well for you here to say I'll spend all day doing that, if it can be done in 3 hours or 4 hours why should I pay for someone (who may be less efficient) to spend 8 hours doing it?

that analogy is a bit different. agreed, there is a set time specified with car repairs. e.g. 3 hours to remove and refit a gearbox. but then, during that job, it may be found that the clutch is knackered and would entail a further hour.

 

[StuSpiers]

Is there some 'body' which sets guidelines and standards on how long a job should take? I know, for example, that if I take my car in for a part to be removed and fitted some 'body' has agreed that will take x hours. It's all very well for you here to say I'll spend all day doing that, if it can be done in 3 hours or 4 hours why should I pay for someone (who may be less efficient) to spend 8 hours doing it?

The problem with your thinking here:

You should be employing the Local tradesman that is Dilligent, thorough, guaranteeing his work and doing his up-most best to do a fantastic job for you.

However it seems from your post that you would prefer to employ a tradesmen that will be cutting corners, buying bad quality equipment, and doesn't much care for you safety - would you know the difference between a properly filled out Electrical safety certificate and one that has been made up?

I hope that your Electrician is just short on work and is cutting his prices and NOT his standard of work.

However, I personally would never cut my prices, I am a professional tradesmen you pay for what you get.

 

[Amp David]

Is there some 'body' which sets guidelines and standards on how long a job should take? I know, for example, that if I take my car in for a part to be removed and fitted some 'body' has agreed that will take x hours. It's all very well for you here to say I'll spend all day doing that, if it can be done in 3 hours or 4 hours why should I pay for someone (who may be less efficient) to spend 8 hours doing it?

Well that's probably the labour guides that a garage would use are usually set by the manufacturer. The manufacturer know exactly how the car is put together so can have a very accurate estimate on how long each job should take.

If i had rewired you house then you come back a while later and ask for a CU upgrade, then chances are I would probably quote less than somewhere i'd never set foot in. That's because i'd have a pretty good idea of whats what and that everything that should be was in place, bonding etc.

As a spark you can't win win most customers. Lets go back to your garage example. Go in and ask them what their hourly rate is, then ask the spark the same question. I can almost 100% bet that 99.99% of the public wouldn't even raise an eyebrow when the garage say 40 quid plus the VAT, but if the electrician says the same, they're seen as being a rip off merchant and too expensive.

Would love to know what the OP does for a living. Or do you volunteer you time for free:dita:

 

[telectrix]

round here the back street garages charge £50/hour + VAT. the main dealers you're talking £90. talk about being in the wrong trade!!!

 

[oldtimer]

The thing is I will not do a fuseboard and all it entails for £200 more like £400+ earthing if this guy is ok then bite his hand off for £200 although I am just not getting this because you say you know him something is not adding up for me.

Also I have had customers try to screw me right down on cost but the funny thing is most of them will spend £20-£25k on a car £3-£4k on a good holiday but for some reason just will not spend £400-£500 on a decent fuseboard with all that it entails so my friend you need to ask yourself is you and your families safety more important than your car or holdiay

 

[drew35]

There is no comparison to a garage, manufacturers time themselves to do every repair on their own vehicles so that when garages do warranty repairs the times they charge are set by themselves, the manufacturer. And most main dealers will tell you these times aren't realistic, and most main dealers do not use repair times to charge for retail work.
As every house, and job, is different there is no way to set a known time. We all work differently, and use different parts. If you want an out of square consumer unit, loosely fixed to a wall, with some of the circuits half tested, and no certificate, then three hours will do. If you want neat, tidy, fully tested, fully certified, fully warranted, then its a day.

 

[Amp David]

Heres the start of a 200 quid CU change

Oh balls, the old tails aren't long enough. I know, lets not use new tails, but move the main switch over to suit. LOL



Do they do Electrical Trainee course in vehicle mechanics yet?

 

[Guitarist]

A better analogy would be to ask how long it takes to fit a gearbox to a "vehicle". The garage will charge you according to whether it is a nissan micra or a double-decker bus. Same with a Consumer Unit... 3 circuits or 10? 20 sockets on each ring which need testing or just 6? There is no actual fixed price, unless you are talking about a series of houses all with exactly the same spec.
Hope that answers your question.

 

[Nik_lamb]

Is there some 'body' which sets guidelines and standards on how long a job should take? I know, for example, that if I take my car in for a part to be removed and fitted some 'body' has agreed that will take x hours. It's all very well for you here to say I'll spend all day doing that, if it can be done in 3 hours or 4 hours why should I pay for someone (who may be less efficient) to spend 8 hours doing it?

Yeah there is............... the "body" of the person doing the work for you. You get what you pay for in electrics same as everything else in the world.

£200 for a CU change with parts, testing and certs is way way too low.

 

[Amp David]

Michael999, never to be seen from againrrr:

 

[telectrix]

has he hanged himself on a pendant?

 

[oldtimer]

No yet again they get caught out and we all end up talking to ourselves either that he has just come back from his holiday in Bermuda and his new jag has been delivered so he is full of remorse and will pay his electrician a fair wage for a fair job I DONT THINK

Now he is just a lurker until he find the unsubscribe line on the email

 

[Michael999]

As a customer (and you all will be customers for other trades at some point or another) all we want is a good job for a fair price. Of course we would all like to think that we are worth £bigbucks an hour because we are so well qualified doing highly skilled work that can only be done by the super intelligent. This job can be done in 3 hours. You can then dance around testing whatever for another hour and fill in some paper worl for another hour. At best you've got 5 hours work that means that you believe that your skills and qualifications make you worth £50+ per hour that puts you on an annual salary of in excess of £100,000. You of course are happy with that but would you be happy to pay the plumber, carpenter, builder etc., that kind of salary and what about the teachers, nurses etc, surely they should be on an equivalent salary. That's how Greece ended up where it is!

 

[RISElectrical]

Yes they do make a guide as such, however I can also guarantee that by the time you have added the 0.01 or whatever it is hours for a screw and a plug and the 0.003 hours per clip etc you will probably end up at a day also!

Why not get 3 or 4 estimates and then look at it that way.

Or take the word of 3-4 electricians.... oh wait, you've already had those and because they didn't fit in line with what you wanted you disregarded them. Instead looking for a holy grail of electrical estimating, which I also guarantee wont say - Consumer unit 4 hours... doesn't work like that!

 

[Snapester]

I think the problem here is no one wants to pay £350-£400 which is what i charge! And everyone always has that mate who does it for £200 and it doesn't get notified and no paperwork but it works so what the hell!
This is what gets my back up about our trade being a professional just dont make the difference to people!!