Small Electric Job £290!!

tessy_t

I recently had a few electricians come round to offer quotes for a small job of chasing and burying an electrical point and changing the casing on that and one other point in the same room. I had 3 quotes ranging from £75 to £85 for the job. Then a fourth guy came round to look at the job and asked to see my water and gas mains, he started to check all of this very thoroughly and after about five minutes I was wondering what he was up to as I didn't see how this had anything to do with electrics. He then started to spout off all sort of legislations and talking about cables, much of which I didn't understand. The long and short of it was that he said before he could touch the electric job he would need to earth my electrics to the gas pipes. At this point I was thinking this guy must think I'm some sort of idiot and was just trying to make an extra buck, and as it turned out he wanted £290 for the whole job which would include the earthing of the electrics linked to the gas pipe.
I wont be contacting this guy, as I didn't like his attitude anyway regardless of the price!
Are there any electricians reading this who can offer an opinion on whether this guy was talking a load of rubbish and just wanted the extra cash??

dwarvenassassin

It is possible that he was correct when he said that your gas main needed bonding. Any electrician working on your house needs to issue a certificate upon completion of the work (as required by BS7671:2008).
One of the items on this certificate that has to be checked (and not just visually) and then certified is 'Main Protective Bonding'. This is the wiring connecting your gas and water supplies to the Main Earth Terminal of your Electrical Installation.

Without being on site I cannot make any comment regarding the price quoted but I WILL tell you that it can be a real nightmare getting an earth cable to the gas main or water main (floors up, walls chased, etc. etc.) and so it is equally possible that his price was honest and a true reflection of the work required.
NO electrical work can be carried out unless the bonding is up to standard or made so.

An installation without bonding is in a dangerous condition and should be rectified without delay.

You may have thought it was just a bit of chasing and plastering but it is a lot more involved than that. That is why electricians (real ones at least) have spent a lot of time gaining the experience and qualifications to do the job.

Ask the other guys about certificates and main protective bonding and see what answers you get. "It doesn't need a certificate" or "we don't need to do that" or "its only a cash job" should see you sending them packing in short order.

mercurystar999

Agree with dwarvenassassin.

baldelectrician

I agree. The dear electrician was probably spot on

I went to a house last month and a 2 new sockets came in at £300 as the consumer unit needed upgraded (to a RCD type). Client thought it was a bit excessive to change a consumer unit to fit a couple of sockets
It was one of my repeat customers, and I told him of a couple of contractors who were less fussy about saftey (win some lose some)

It is a pain in the socks as I would prefer to walk away from a job rather than leave sub standard works.

It's your decision- do you want a socket or two, or do you want a socket or two and a safe house?

See this LINK on bonding (it's not that good a read- once you put it down you can't pick it up )

tessy_t

Thanks for your replies, I would add that when I first purchased the house in late 2007 I did have an RCD box fitted. And regarding the bonding work related to the gas main, the gas supply is only a couple of feet away from the fuse box (both in the hall entrance) so I'm still a bit curious as to why this quote was so high, the electrician himself did say it wouldn't be too difficult to do that bit of work. If I remember correctly he said it would be £180 to do the chasing and fitting of two new sockets (twice the price of the other quotes) and the remainder to do the bondng work.
I will ask the other electrician about the bonding work before he comes to do the job this weekend.

baldelectrician

Me thinks the dear spark may be too dear

£35-£45 per item (socket, fused connection unit etc) plus maybe £35-£90 for the GAS and WATER bonding

I have just done 4 new sockets, install a fused connection unit and remove 3 reduntant sockets for £220