Fuse box installed for £150 what!!!

[1shortcircuit]

I had a text alert come in whilst I was still snoozing this morning.

"I need a replacement fuseboard" Approx budget £250 cost of lead 9.00 plus VAT = Put phone back down and continued to snooze for quite a while longer lol I was hoping it was a bad dream but I checked my phone when I actually surfaced and chuckled at the fact that the message was there.

Perhaps it was just a four way board and fault free? Still don't give a monkeys

 

[Paul.M]

I had a text alert come in whilst I was still snoozing this morning.

"I need a replacement fuseboard" Approx budget £250 cost of lead 9.00 plus VAT = Put phone back down and continued to snooze for quite a while longer lol I was hoping it was a bad dream but I checked my phone when I actually surfaced and chuckled at the fact that the message was there.

Yes mate it was me! I charge £400 and tell you via text what your getting LOL .

On the serious side of things, now that the general public/potential customers can price up materials for themselves on the net and then work out what they want to pay for labour it won't be long before they tell us our quotes!

 

[lloyd1980]

I used to charge 200 for the day, 150 for the board all in, wasnt VAT registered,
350 price for the job
I used to get the duel board for 70 all in and this included the tails and earth,
I had great relationship with the wholesaler and would chanrge me same price whatever the way duel board
My price didnt include upgrading the earthing or fault finding afterwards.
The price was for the board change only.

Job would take me 8am-12.30pm for the swap and the test.
Then lunch
Afternoon spent siting in the office at home with a cuppa filling in test sheets Invoice and notifying the job online.
280 quid in my pocket.

I would take mains changes 5 days a week , easy easy money.

A quick IR test of the ccts before starting tells you any potential probs, do this at the pricing stage, then if you get the job any ones with potential probs book in for the start of the week, to avoid the nightmare friday afternoon scenario when they need power for the weekend and RCD wont set.
Test at CU wont tell you if shared neutral on landing 2 way but even if there is then you just put both lighitng ccts on the same RCD so they have lights and then come back and rectify it.

Easy money easy work , a blissfull Friday job with the radio on and the pub to look forward to at 4pm

 

[Dave 85]

I normally ask £375 for a 15 way £350 for a 10. I wouldn't tell them its £200 for a day labour and £150 for the board though and then F off at half 12, it doesn't look good, just tell em the price and let them decide. But yeah easy money, If I could do 10 a week I'd be a happy man. The guy at the start of the thread who does em for £150 would make more money stacking shelves at asda.

 

[Stevesplatto]

£12PH? How does that work?
tax, accountant, van, insurances, CPS, tools, calibration, top up training, and and and
That's less than minimum wage why bother?
In London, just starting out self employed working on mostly pre war/victorian housing £350/day £50/h charging low to start with to get work. I quote a day worst case scenario (and it always is!). Materials? i charge at cost and include sundries in my labour rate, cant be bothered chasing £45 wylex's..
used to work as a chippie many years ago, always getting caught out undercharging, never again!

cheers
s

 

[hercule]

Just seen screwfix are doing split load mk boards with mcbs for £70 all in, thought might be of interest

 

[R4BOE]

Here is some more pictures for you if you would like to use them, and yes i am WELL AWARE they are 16th edition boards because the pictures were taken a while ago

View attachment 8478View attachment 8479View attachment 8480

has any one noticed the holes in the backs of the consumer units **** me gently, Vernam616 must have thought the backs of the unit should be missing like the old Wylex ones from the sixtys !!! pehaps they were "taken a while ago" with the consumer units brought back by Marty Mcfly in the Deloran in 1955

 

[jamie-spark]

Forgot to add the db install was fresh cables on a rewire, to be quite honest i dont really care if jamie-spark doesnt beleve it, ive seen it done with my own eyes, dont beat yourself up jamie if your not very quick or good

pay peanuts get monkeys

 

[R4BOE]

well said mate !

 

[gottahugenoggin]

has any one noticed the holes in the backs of the consumer units **** me gently, Vernam616 must have thought the backs of the unit should be missing like the old Wylex ones from the sixtys !!! pehaps they were "taken a while ago" with the consumer units brought back by Marty Mcfly in the Deloran in 1955

yep.....and the second photo (attachment8479)no back and mounted on a combustible surface :nono:

 

[R4BOE]

thats what i meant mate, pretty shocking if you will excuse the pun

 

[gottahugenoggin]

shocking to the value of 1.21 gigawatts to be precise!

 

[R4BOE]

lol doc

 

[Thomas123]

I offered to do a consumer unit change before for £150, (a relative's friend) as a favour, he said "that's a rip off im not paying that, british gas are coming to give me a quote next week any way..."

i walked away with a smug grin on my face, thinking what an idiot.. people dont like paying anything for electricians, as long as their tv is on they dont care if its safe or not..

They would rather pay more per hour for a tiler or painter... winds me right up

 

[richy3333]

people dont like paying anything for electricians, as long as their tv is on they dont care if its safe or not..

So true mate. So some days I hand out Dangerous Situation Reports like dolly-mixtures to cover my arse when the proverbial hits the fan!

 

[SPARTYKUS]

So true mate. So some days I hand out Dangerous Situation Reports like dolly-mixtures to cover my arse when the proverbial hits the fan!

So....following on, I prefer liquorice, what would that get me? Minor works? Im guessing a green & blacks massive bar of choc would be a 100% EICR? ;-)

 

[Dave 85]

Some companies round my area charge silly amounts for DB changes. I quoted one guy about £225 to stick in a little single RCD 5 way board in a flat and he texted me back all confused. Turned out another firm had come in and quoted over £750! they had insisted the 6mm bonding had to be upgraded which it didn't.

With regards to time I normally reckon a 10 way board takes me about an hour and half on a good day between power off and power on but with testing, smoking a tidying i'm rarely away before lunchtime. Some jobs I've done I've spent about 3 hours prepping before even screwing the board to the wall.

 

[RWJ]

£125 is the new low in this area.
The job was for a relative of a good customer of ours, normal scenario 5 way wylex no bonding gas and water both other end of house!
We quoted not sure quite how much as PJ did it.. but he heavily discounted it due to the relation of a very good customer.

We lost it to a guy who charged £125 (NIC DI registered)straight up on my kids life £125 We've seen the bill!! (will try and get a copy a post it one here)
Took him just over 2 hours.... can't imagine bonding was installed but who needs bonding!!!!!


Luckily our customer was also not convinced he could have done a good job..... or we could have lost them also!!

 

[oldtimer]

How can this NIC DI registered guy do it for £125 even if he got a good board for £80 he is looking at £45 that would not cover for the survey time and what about certification ???

 

[D80]

wtf is he fitting? Test cert (if any) should be interesting!

 

[Octopus]

Staggering, 2 hrs to do a board, fully tested, certificate, etc.

HMRC need to be told, as you can't do those sort of jobs and cover all your overheads, tax and NI.

 

[RWJ]

I'd never heard of him before but did check with the NICs website and he checked out.

Our customer's put doubt in their relatives mind... hence they're coming to us for some heaters.... We're going to try to get a copy of the guys cert and obviously look for the bonding (about 30 mtrs) that I'm sure can't be installed.

Then we'll contact BRCS who'll tell us to put it right the NIC will foot the bill and never pay us....... that old chestnut again!!!

 

[tony mc]

How can this NIC DI registered guy do it for £125 even if he got a good board for £80 he is looking at £45 that would not cover for the survey time and what about certification ???

Also what do NIC charge for notifying LABC which he will have to pay!

 

[D80]

Some of those install photos would be nice:17:

 

[D80]

How can this NIC DI registered guy do it for £125 even if he got a good board for £80 he is looking at £45 that would not cover for the survey time and what about certification ???

Can get a cheap board for £50, perhaps less.

Maybe whack in 2 a day, its £150 back to you. Minimal chance its tested or anything, seems like he is changing as quick as possible and fooking off to the next one.

If he was over here I'd report him in an instant (would check his work is sub standard first mind!). The NICEIC Sparks here seem to think they are above everyone and better than everyone!

 

[Silly Sausage]

I got £200 off the MiL about 10 years ago for a CU change.
Non of that notification balls back then as well.

 

[OldskoolUpNorth]

150 sounds low but some companies out there don't give a ****.
I went on an IPAF course last november.
There were some sparks doin house bashing rewires at 350 and finished in a day!!!!!!!!
How does that work then????

 

[highspark]

150 sounds low but some companies out there don't give a ****.I went on an IPAF course last november.There were some sparks doin house bashing rewires at 350 and finished in a day!!!!!!!!How does that work then????

That can't be done!!!! 350 wouldnt even cover materials.I had one the other day. Got a phonecall off a guy who won the council tenders in a neigbouring borough. He was looking for subys to carry out rewires on empty council properties and would I be interested. I said yeh just give me a shout and il give you a quote per house. He said no its 650 for a full house that the going rate. All materials supplied. must be done in 2 days. I told him where to go. Needless to say it was possible to do because they where empty but the profit the guyt will be making for sending out a suby is unreal. Lets say it costs him a grand for the suby at 650 and materials. he's easily looking at profits of between 600 and 1500. Absolute ----

 

[Deleted member 26818]

Do you have to actually replace any of the wires when doing a re-wire?
I had my Council house re-wired once whilst I was away.
They changed the CU and all the accessories and light fittings, nothing else.
Fortunately they left with my wife all the old accessories in a box.
They informed my wife that I'll be changing them back, as the new ones they had fitted were rubbish.
Even left me the old metalclad split board, which I later used to replace an old Wylex re-wireable board at my parents house.

 

[oldtimer]

"If he was over here I'd report him in an instant (would check his work is sub standard first mind!). The NICEIC Sparks here seem to think they are above everyone and better than everyone! "

Thats because they think they are God

"HMRC need to be told, as you can't do those sort of jobs and cover all your overheads, tax and NI. "


I am not sure where HMRC come into this and they wont be chasing him any time soon to get the tax on £45-£65 profit and also the more I hear this the more this sounds like an urban legend in other words if its too good to be true it is Me I would not even consider doing this type of job without initial IR Ze tests so even if he is getting £50 fuseboards this to me does not add up to a going business model

 

[OldskoolUpNorth]

Yeah highspark,

Could of been subs wi materials provided but didn't give me that impression.
Either that or they were going spinlondons route and choosin which bits to change.... the ones you can see probably!

 

[RWJ]

Cost DID include materials.

We got the Ze and some Zs before PJ quoted I doubt if the "NIC DI guy" did.... but to be fair he may have.

Ze 0.11
Sockets Zs 0.40 max
PME (TNCS)

Also I didn't know before but the main earthing conductor needed upgrading to 16mm (Just reading Job sheet so no idea what it was)

 

[Paul.M]

Another forum member contacted me last year asking if I'd be up for some work in the neighbouring town?

Council house rewires, subby, £100 per day each, 2 men need to complete 1 rewire per day!

Needless to say we knocked it back, its just not possible even in trunking. Ok they may be times when it is possible but not every day of the week. We would have to work as fast as speedy gonsaless and tazmania devil for £100 before travel costs, tax, NI and replacing tools! Not a chance.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

I did some re-wire for Pimlico Council many years ago.
I think we were on £100 a unit plus extras.
We were required to re-use existing conduit, where possible.
If trunking had to be used, then we were paid extra, something silly like 20p per meter.

 

[Dave 85]

Staggering, 2 hrs to do a board, fully tested, certificate, etc.

HMRC need to be told, as you can't do those sort of jobs and cover all your overheads, tax and NI.

Im not sure HMRC are going to investigate someone just because they've been grassed up for NOT making any money.

 

[sparkie-leeds]

You find that companies will advertise a cheeap deal... once in the faults will come rolling and bonding etc will not be up to scratch, this is when the customer ends up paying out of the nose..

 

[Plonker 3]

Unless that is just what the invoice says and not how much money is actually paid?

 

[sparkie-leeds]

cheap advertising always seems to attract the customer, then its the extras that hurt once their through the door..

 

[londonlec]

I'd take £650 for a void all day long! I was doing them for £500 for a while.

National schedule of rates are shocking, a 1 bed rewire is £1200 if I recall, trunking or no trunking.

 

[Octopus]

Im not sure HMRC are going to investigate someone just because they've been grassed up for NOT making any money.

My point is that they are probably not declaring their income, and/or are on benefits. Prices so low can't be substained at that level.

 

[SIIVION]

A rather handsome board there.

£45 is good. Where from?

I'm getting a BG 17th Ed board tomorrow for £71 from CEF City Electrical Factors.
This is after the customer had bought a Wylex 10 way split board from Screwfix for about £95! It arrived broken, as did a second!

 

[Spazz]

From Gil-Lec

17th Edition 12 way Hager CU fully loaded with 10 MCBs only £58 + VAT (£69.60 inc VAT)

 

[supasparxs]

I charge at £12 per hour for tracing unmarked circuits and faults

If you don't mind me asking, what is the JIB rates now a days
where is the allowance for your holiday pay?
where is your allowance for your £2m PL insurance?
where is your allowance for your NIC EIC, ELESCA, NAPIT membership?
where is your allowance for the maintenance for your vehicle?
where is your allowance for advertising and any other administration costs
and whatever business I have excluded from this list.
I personally feel if you are charging £12 per hour and that includes all business expenses then you are selling yourself short

 

[oldtimer]

If you don't mind me asking, what is the JIB rates now a days
where is the allowance for your holiday pay?
where is your allowance for your £2m PL insurance?
where is your allowance for your NIC EIC, ELESCA, NAPIT membership?
where is your allowance for the maintenance for your vehicle?
where is your allowance for advertising and any other administration costs
and whatever business I have excluded from this list.
I personally feel if you are charging £12 per hour and that includes all business expenses then you are selling yourself short

Selling short no stupid yes at these costs does the customer think they are getting a good deal and no doubt it is a cash job as for insurance and running costs me dont think this is a running business more like a visit to the pub and speak to the guy standing in the corner and if they want to do them for that cost then here is one who will not stand in their way

 

[telectrix]

A rather handsome board there.

£45 is good. Where from?

I'm getting a BG 17th Ed board tomorrow for £71 from CEF City Electrical Factors.
This is after the customer had bought a Wylex 10 way split board from Screwfix for about £95! It arrived broken, as did a second!

same board is £50 from B&Q.

 

[antlewis]

That's a brand new install. If you are swapping an old DB for a new one, it is very unlikely to look like that.

 

[Spazz]

not fully loaded

I will check now as I have the trade point catalog in my hand - have you got the page number off hand or is it on the website?

 

[Spazz]

I just checked and B&Q dont do Hager at all online and nor in their trade point catalog.
Where did you see it - in store or online or in the trade point?

 

[bugsy]

Very nice , very neat, very new , very crabtree, very 16th, is that why their cheap. (and are you quoting 2007 prices

 

[Spazz]

Just found the one I think your on about - a BG CU - 10 ways fully loaded for £50 + VAT.

Out of interest what is BG like? What is their reputation like for protection or are they a budget range?