How to judge a quote - is expensive sometimes best?

[onesandwichshort]

We've bought a tip project, and stage one is complete rewire and install central heating.

For the rewiring, one electrician has quoted £5k, the other £16K (ish, will depend on what he finds). Both are recommendations.

Now, this ought to be a no-brainer, but the more expensive electrician spent well over an hour going round the house, working out what the floors are (and why, therefore, we probably need to get the ceilings down), how it all works, what will happen. His daily rate is £200/day, and they will only bill us for hours worked. So I am inclined to trust him and his judgement more. Or am I being daft?

Or do I, as I suspect, need to get some more quotes in. Sigh.

I would personally get at least one other quote. The difference between those two quotes is quite big so with another quote you can have a rough idea what average if that makes sense.

How big is the house?

We've had a quantity surveyor assess our building plans and he has suggested £12,500 + VAT for full rewire of a 4 bed house if that helps. £5k sounds wildly cheap and would make me suspicious.

But I would get him to agree a fixed price otherwise the days could go on... and on...

The gap between those quotes is too big. Get another couple of quotes and see who has made a massive mistake with their sums.

did you provide a floorplan, showing how many switches and sockets you wanted, and where? (if not, they will have guessed - do it now)

same for lighting, and especially kitchen and utility outlets.

did you specify what make and style of accessories you wanted? White plastic, chrome, brass?

Did they both quote for the same number of circuits, and the same kind of RCD protection?

Have you been to local houses they have recently rewired, looked at their work and interviewed the householder?

Have they both included lifting and replacing carpets and furniture, and replastering, or are they expecting you to arrange it yourself?

Have you checked both of them on the Website of their respective Competent Person Schemes? Is either of them a recent joiner, or a Domestic Installer?

The house is big (4 bedrooms, 2 receptions) and listed - hence huge problems with joists and thick walls according to the expensive electrician. Which is also why a fixed price won't be offered as who knows what will come out of the woodwork.

PigletJohn thankyou for that very useful list of qs. They've both done this on the basis of white fittings, and four sockets one switch per room. The house is empty, we are doing the replastering as it will have to be done anyway. Expensive electrician has pointed out areas where we can get cheaper labour in to help him out.

But you're right, I need to get two more quotes in from reasonable sized firms to see what they would charge. Thank you for that.

We've just had our 4 bed house rewired for £3.5k and I thought that was a lot. We're in Yorkshire. We are not living there so maybe that made it a bit cheaper, but £16k is mental

I have renovated several houses needing re wire and never paid over 5k inc new consumer box etc. I am in SE but have only done terraces and 3 beds

They say in the trade that rewiring a house costs the same as buying a second-hand car.

£4.7K + VAT for 5 bed, 3 bath house including a new consumer units, loads of LED downlights downstairs and in the bathrooms plus CAT5 (data cabling throughout). Plan your kitchen & bathrooms e.g illuminated mirrors, summer switch for towel radiators & underfloor electrical mat heating in bathrooms. Domino hobs obviously require more power than your 'normal' hob. I have an integrated dishwasher, wine cooler and boiling water tap in my kitchen island so plumbing & electrics go hand in hand. Warning - plumbing is more expensive than electrics for a complete refurb but glazing costs beat them all. HTH

I knew which Building Company I wanted to use for renovating our house so I did not get any other quotes at all. However I took the builders quote to a quantity surveyor. It cost a few hundred quid but gave us peace of mind that the quote was fair. The QS raised a couple of issues that we went back to the builder about. This resulted in him reducing the price.
As the builder knew that I was not getting other quotes but that I would be using a QS he knew that, as long as the quote was fair, he would almost certainly, get the job, this meant he was happy to spend a lot of time with us discussing exactly what wanted and that he was happy to prepare a detailed and accurate quote.
I thought it worked really well.

We've got a 5 bed in conservation area. £6.5K total rewire. New heating system quotes ranged fom £5K - £8K including all boilers, radiators etc.

I don't think how long they took to go round the house should play much of a role.

Get two more quotes.

Don't, whatever you do, agree to pay for the days worked!! Martim Lewis always says, agree a price and stick to it rigidly and don't pay until it's done.

The fact he took ages going round, says to me, he was thinking all the ways he could fleece you!!!! A two storey extension on our 4 bed is only going to be around £80 000 so in comparison, £16000 for a rewire seems a heck of a lot.

If you are happy with the ethos of the cheaper company, ask them to just double check the floors etc and also get at least one more quotation.

"The fact he took ages going round, says to me, he was thinking all the ways he could fleece you!!!!"

there's no place for a diligent tradesman in your world.

just saying piglet what it could have been. I think a diligent tradesmen could easily have walked around and assessed a home(unless it's a mansion) in way under an hour to give a quote.

daytoday how long did your guy take to assess before quoting?

Full rewire of an old house for 6k. Agree that the per day quote is very dodgy. If he is an experienced electrician he should know how long it would take.

Estimate is roughly 50 per plug point or light.

Plus cost of fuse box.

My two storey + single storey extension with two lots of groundwork to first fix was quoted at 80,000 probably cost a wee bit more as have had to do it in stages for savings.

16,000 does seem a bit steep.

Would definatly get more quotes to get an average.

Expensive is not always best in my opinion.