Electrical work - ballpark figure for rewiring a house

macman

200 hours in 6 months? So he's doing maybe 35 hours a month. Little more than an hour and a half a day? What does he do the rest of the time?
What stage is the rewire now at and when do they expect to complete it?
I can't believe you agreed an hourly rate and have let this drag out for so long.

Rural_Puppy

Thank you for all the replies. It has been a tortuous process, we have been continually asking the electrician to meet us on site and give us timescale for completion. It was supposed to be done by September.....
We are in a rural area of Scotland where tradesmen behave in a manner I have never come across before. They refuse to give estimates or quotes for work (that's if they even turn up to look at a job!), they either don't turn up when they say they will, or turn up unexpectedly. They all insist on working on an hourly rate. They all know each other, and if you fall out with one, you end up falling out with all of them. It is deeply unprofessional and very frustrating from a customer's point of view.
We have tried really hard to keep the electrician on side, but the standard of work has been poor, and very slow, and, despite raising this with the electrician directly, he did not do anything to manage his worker any more effectively. Over 6 months on, what we envisaged would be a simple rewire is still not finished, with silly wee things that should have been done weeks ago still not attended to, despite several reminders. 
We have experienced similar issues with other tradesmen, and talking to other folks around here also involved in similar projects, we are not alone.
I accept it is partly my fault that I did not agree costs and timescales at the outset, but it is exceptionally difficult to get anything done here, and we thought we could trust the tradesmen to act fairly. Clearly we were wrong in that.
But my question remains, what is the ballpark figure for a competent electrician to rewire a 3 bedroom house?

Anthony147

Risteard said:

It's really not that unreasonable. The last new build I did was 10,000 Euro plus VAT and the last partial rewire I did was around Stg £5,000 - I really don't think £4k is terribly realistic for a rewire. Sorry to burst your bubble. 

Whilst it’s your profession so what you’ve charged is what you’ve charged - I didn’t pull the figure or the timings from the air it’s what I’ve paid and the timings for the last four 3 bed rewires of vacant properties in London + face plates.

Risteard

Anthony147 said:

Risteard said:

It's really not that unreasonable. The last new build I did was 10,000 Euro plus VAT and the last partial rewire I did was around Stg £5,000 - I really don't think £4k is terribly realistic for a rewire. Sorry to burst your bubble. 

Whilst it’s your profession so what you’ve charged is what you’ve charged - I didn’t pull the figure or the timings from the air it’s what I’ve paid and the timings for the last four 3 bed rewires of vacant properties in London + face plates.

Believe me costs have rocketed. It is no longer a realistic price - perhaps a decade ago it was reasonable.

ka7e

I paid £4200 for total re-wire of a 3-bed 1930s semi and that included re-siting the consumer unit and liaising with the electrical supplier to move the meter. One week full time on site to do most of the work and another 5/6 days to do work as it was scheduled with other building works. All paperwork signed off and a few months later he asked if the work could be inspected by a representative of his professional body as proof of his competency. He mainly worked on commercial installations and my house was one of the few residential rewires he had done recently. A 2 hour inspection of all his work was completed and passed - so no corners were cut despite the price and timescale.

Anthony147

Risteard said:

Anthony147 said:

Risteard said:

It's really not that unreasonable. The last new build I did was 10,000 Euro plus VAT and the last partial rewire I did was around Stg £5,000 - I really don't think £4k is terribly realistic for a rewire. Sorry to burst your bubble. 

Whilst it’s your profession so what you’ve charged is what you’ve charged - I didn’t pull the figure or the timings from the air it’s what I’ve paid and the timings for the last four 3 bed rewires of vacant properties in London + face plates.

Believe me costs have rocketed. It is no longer a realistic price - perhaps a decade ago it was reasonable.

Last one was less than six months ago and agree on rocketing prices if we were talking building materials but not notice it being the same for wiring and consumer units, i’ll just say we obviously see different market conditions and price trends.

FreeBear

Rural_Puppy said: We are in a rural area of Scotland where tradesmen behave in a manner I have never come across before. They refuse to give estimates or quotes for work (that's if they even turn up to look at a job!), they either don't turn up when they say they will, or turn up unexpectedly.

It isn't much better down south - Been trying to get quotes for a re-roof. Had a couple that were around the ballpark I was expecting to pay. Selected one and he said he could start in late August.... Still waiting.... Now trying to get quotes from other roofers.

Rural_Puppy

I found a calculator with figures here: https://www.checkatrade.com/blog/cost-guides/rewire-house-cost/
Average for a 3 bed property is £5750, with a range between £4000 and £7000.  So my original thoughts on what it should have cost are not unrealistic. The property was also empty, making it (at least in theory) a simple job.

macman

The key point here is that it is not 200 hours of work. That's 5 weeks at a full 4 hours a week, 8 hours a day, no breaks.
Would not 100 hours be a reasonable estimate for this work, no more than 2 weeks?
Based on what you have told us, they are simply treating this as a filler job when they have a few spare hours, and dragging it out to twice the time that is reasonable. 
How much have you already paid? I would bring this to a head by insisting in writing that the contractor (not the subbie or employee) attends a meeting on site to agree how much longer this will take and how much more is to be paid. Unless you get to grips with this, they will continue to exploit you. You've shown weakness, and they've taken full advantage.
What hourly rate are they using?

Wkmg

I live in the south east. Just had a full rewire of a 4 bedroom solid walled house + 2 security lights, an outside light, new consumer unit etc… It was £6000 +VAT including making good the runs in the plaster but not decorating. Very high standard of work. The price was agreed 12 months ago but the work was done 6 months ago. £9000 doesn’t sound insane especially as it sounds like it’s a tradesmen’s market at the moment with lots of people wanting work done and there not being enough workmen to do it.