electrician daily rates/hours

angiehp

I've just had some electrical work done in my home by a newly qualified electrician. He's done a very good job.

He informed us that there would be 2 days work for what needed doing, he would be charging us his daily rate of £150 per day = £300 total, this did not include the bits and bobs he had to buy. His hourly rate is £20 per hour.

The first day he started at 8.45am and finished at 2.00pm
The second day he started at 8.45am and finished at 1.30pm

He did work really fast but even so, compared to his hourly rate it looks like we've paid £30 per hour - after all, with the hours left over that i had paid for i could have got him to do some similar electrical work in another room.

What is the etiquette when you pay someone to work for the day, would you expect them to be at your premises for 7.5 hours or is it the norm that if the job is done in half the time because they've worked fast that they can knock off early.

thanks,
angie

andyhop

If the job took 4 days would you pay him £600

If the job has been done correctly, certificates have been left and your happy with the end result then i would pay and be happy in a job well done

He gave a fixed price and completed it within the time

chrislee765

I believe £150 a day is the going rate. I can understand your frustration as it feels like you've paid him to be there longer than he specified. I guess you need to think about it in the respect that he quoted you £300 for the job and ignore the time element. andyhop is right, if it took him 4 days you wouldnt pay him £600.
Its nice to hear the job was done well, theres so many horror stories out there.

angiehp

thank you both for your reply.

i'd got nothing to set this against which was the reason for my question, it certainly wasn't a complaint, i'm self employed teacher but in my situation if i'd managed to do a 15 hour job inside of 10 hours, i would be still be expected to fulfill the time.

nevertheless, i am very happy with the job done and now you have told me that this is the norm as far as electricians are concerned i will be able to relax and accept the situation.

i really appreciate your time in coming back to me.

angie

angiehp

sorry i just wanted to add, he did not quote 300 for the "job"

he told me there would be two days work, and he charges 150 for the day.

thanks again xx

munkypuzzel

Also these guys have to go and buy parts, which takes time (and may not be on the day he works for you) plus they have to come around to quote the job, it all takes time.. It may seem that he is having an early day but its not so straight forward being self employed.

btw ive always been PAYE so i am not biased!!

angiehp

thanks for your response too ..... i wish i had worded my first posting better with all the information because now it looks like i'm complaining, which i'm not, my original question was regarding "the norm"

the 10 hours work included trips out to the shops, and i should have said that in my first posting, i'm sorry about that.

now i know a "FULL days work" actually means anything from 4-8 hours i can stop feeling so bitten .... :rolleyes:

nickj_2

youtr electrician still had to buy the bits and bobs - his time for this is all part of the job

andyhop

angiehp wrote: »

now i know a "FULL days work" actually means anything from 4-8 hours i can stop feeling so bitten .... :rolleyes:

Think the guy over quoted the job a little, Was probably a day and a halfs work but thought he would get away with 2 full days

A full day to me isnt 4hrs,I have collected my material for the day and arrived the customers house at 8am,Normal working hours for me is till 6pm(partly to miss traffic)but on larger jobs the customer is usually happy to push the work on, Yes we do get jobs that we get done quicker than expected buy 4hrs work is not normal!