Installation of 2 plug sockets

Wolff

I had an electrician round to quote for installing two additional plug sockets on a wall which already has two existing sockets, and swapping out a lightbulb holder (a 15 min job I believe)

I was quoted £185 which includes any parts and filling of the wall for bits cut out for the cable.

Is that typical? I had expected it to cost just over £100.

My previous electrician (on the trusted trader website) who installed one of the existing sockets (and did a whole days work of other jobs I needed done) charged £35 an hour and said an solid wall socket would take around 1.5 hours to install. Unfortunately he's fully booked for the forseeable so I had to look elsewhere, but at those rates I'd expect to pay around £110-£130 for the two sockets.

The new electrician was a nice guy, but it does feel pricey in comparison. I don't want to waste a whole lot of different electricians' time getting them all round to quote, so hoping I might get some advice here on whether it seems fair or if it seems overpriced.

Thanks!

Risteard

Perfectly reasonable. I'd estimate (not having seen it) around £200 for the job.

Mickey666

Seems a reasonable price.
The thing with electrical jobs is that an awful lot of it is nothing electrical at all and it's more like building work.  So, if you're handy at DIY you can save a lot of money by doing the 'building' work yourself and then getting an electrician to just do the wiring, testing and certifying.  
Depends on the work though because they might charge a minimum fee to account for their call out time, which is not unreasonable.

cattie

With all skilled tradesmen, It often works out cheaper to be doing a whole days worth of jobs, as with your first electrician charging around £35 per hr for multiple jobs. Single jobs, such as the 2nd electrician has carried out will generally have a higher pricing structure & as Mickey points out, things such as mininum fee/call out charges can come into play.

henry11vr

I would also consider about letting electrician to make the wiring, certifying and testing of those inner cables, etc. By the way, I've searched recently for such help from electricians for some areas in my house. And I could find this great website of emergency electrician help. What can you say about it? Do you think is it worth it?