Rewire nearly 4k

MarcoM

Hi all,

Just agreed a job with a reccomended electrician for the rewire of 4 bed house in manchester.

£3700 including plastering.

Had a major headache getting someone down to quote (someone who is part p etc etc).

Downside is he says it will take nearly three weeks

five days for chasing and first fix, three to five days for plastering (see previous thread) and two to three days for final fix, testing and paperwork.

Any thoughts?

It will be one electrician and a helper doing the job.

Nelly does this look all right.

Thanks

andywilson460

Having done a rewire on a house last year it is the labouring that you are paying for -- Paying a qualified electrician to gouge holes in walls, do cable pulls etc is very expensive.

Depending on how competent you are why not sit down with the electrician, pay them a fee for wiring design, discuss wires that will be needed and grades, draw up a plan and do the tough stuff yourself (cable pulls and chasing out walls) then let the electrician do what they do best - connecting up wall boxes and consumer unit (fuse box). That way you only pay them for the tough stuff and not for labouring - not all electricians are willing to do this though

bowlingo

Hi Marco,

I own my own electrical contracting business and the quote seems about right. 3 weeks however is rediculous me and my father in law (also an electrician who I get in for domestic rewires) rewired a 3 bed house last week in 3.5 days. We only needed to do 3 chases and that was in the kitchen. Its very rare that you need to chase out switch and socket drops as 99% of the time you can use the existing conduits. Unless hes been over the property with a fine tooth comb i.e dropped all light switches etc he wont know the extent of the chasing needed until he starts the work.

Heres an example of how we would do a standard 4 bed house (we did a 4 bed house last summer and the below is from memory)

day 1 : 1st and 2nd fix upstairs lighting and start on upstairs sockets
day 2: finish upstairs sockets and 1st and 2nd fix downstairs lighting
day 3: 1st and 2nd fix downstairs sockets, install cooker circuit
day 4: fit consumer unit, do main and supplementary bonding
day 5: shower circuit, front outside light, making good, test and inspection and issue electrical installation certificate.

Thanks
Alex

P.S is the existing cabling twin and earth? If it is it might not neceserily need rewiring if it is I would recommend getting a periodic inspection report done on the existing installation (will cost around £100-£200) and they will do an insulation resistance test on the existing cables and if they pass you could leave some or all of the existing cables. A lot of people assume the whole installation needs rewiring when it dosent and a lot of electricians will happily carry out a full rewire when its not needed.

Garetha

OP said:

Just agreed a job with a reccomended electrician for the rewire of 4 bed house in manchester

Is all this advice too late?
Interesting to us onlookers though!

olibrofiz

I'd guess it was about right. I had my big 3 bed terrace completely rewired about 4 years ago plus new electric box thingy (the previous owner was a diy nut and one whole wall of the house was 'live'), cost about £2500 incl filling in the tracks in the walls. Took 2 electricians and an apprentice about 6 days.

sloth69

andywilson460 wrote: »

do the tough stuff yourself (cable pulls and chasing out walls) then let the electrician do what they do best - connecting up wall boxes and consumer unit (fuse box). That way you only pay them for the tough stuff and not for labouring - not all electricians are willing to do this though

Did anyone find a electrician in the Manchester area to work like this ?

2 bed terrace house Manchester needing full rewire wouldnt mind getting my hands dirty if it saves a few quid, anyone have any suggestions please

mynameisdave

Parents paid £3k for a full reqire on a 4 bed house in Cheshire 3 years ago.

Similar area and allowing for the 3 years seems a similar price.

Glaswegian

We paid just over 2k for a our large 2 bed dining kitchen so your quote seems fine. We were quoted lower however these electricians could start straight away and took around a week from start to finish.

dopester

One one hand I read forums with lots of electricians, including in the North-West, experiencing really difficult economic times.. even working the till at Tesco to get some money in because they've got no sparky jobs.

On the other hand, people who need electricians quoted massive money for electrical work they want done.

I hear you talking mate, im realy finding it difficult at the moment.A day here a day there, doing my head in. Got two kids to feed as well, the youngest being nine weeks
So if any one is looking for a j.i.b approved electrician in and around gtr Manchester get in touch.

bloomin' heck, lot of sparkys on 'ere! (I'm one too!)
i do a bit of private work here and there to help top of the monthly income and i've just started working sundays now at Sainsburys working on Tills.


sorry you're all struggling and i hope you can find work, don't forget there are agencies out there too, i used them last year between employed work and it got me through.

http://uk-mkivs.net/forums/p/276626/1823194.aspx#1823194

RLH33

I would have said that the actual price sounds fine. Depending on what fittings you are having, and their quality, you will be looking at at least £500 - 750 just for materials, meaning you are paying just over £200 per day for 15 days for two men, one qualified and one not. That sounds like a very competitive day rate for an electrician.

However what I would question is the amount of time it is going to take them - 3 weeks seems excessive. I would say it would take about a week to 10 days for two men to do the rewire. The plastering is the unknown quantity - what are they doing - replastering the whole room or just the holes made? Are they trained in plastering? I have seen some electricians 'have a go' and have left a terrible mess so it may be worth asking a few more questions about this aspect.

poppysarah

There are loads of blokes who do this.

If you want it done quick get a big gang in. Much better in the long run imp. Get it all over with quickly.

Get more quotes!

1500 for a 3 bed house excl plastering (but you'll probably want more plastering doing, so get a plasterer in to quote separately, and it'll be a better job)
so scale up price for an idea.