Electrical Costs - New Extension?

[JTbradflad1]

Hi,

We have recently had a new extension done and the electrical work has been ongoing as part of the build (all work now on hold for Covid19).

We have had an interim invoice for electrical works done so far, and rather shocked at the bill of £6000. There is likely another £2000 to get to completion, and I wondered what general costs are for this type of work?

The work is straightforward and consists of wiring, plugs, spotlights, outside lights and a new consumer unit. The extension is a 2 storey side extension to our regular 3 bed semi detached house, and then a 4 metre single storey extension out on the rear of the house.

Many thanks!

Our electrician generally advises it’s about £50 fitted cost per downlight or plug socket or outside light, so it can quickly add up (plus VAT), no idea about the cost for the consumer unit though I’m afraid.

That seems massively high , try and get some sort of breakdown. What was the original cost of the electrician ?

Did you not have an electrical specification for which electricians quoted against?

Billing you like this is a license to print money

Hi, if you work on an approx 50% labour/materials basis that gives 12 days labour at £250 per day, (as an average depending on location, etc, may be an idea to ask for the dayrate as well and assuming its a single person job), but also strongly agree with others, you are entitled to a breakdown and a fully costed estimate for the remaining works, which you need to specify and agree with them.

Thanks for the info all. I have asked for a breakdown (not received yet) and only info I have is a £2400/£3600 split between materials/labour.

In particular the materials at £2400 I was surprised, as expected wiring/spots/plugs/consumer unit to come in at around £600/700 (?).

With hindsight I should have got a fixed cost and different quotes before work began, but as it is all being led by our builder (rather than direct with electricians) and being happy with how the build had gone, we were content to just go along with that. I'll need to agree fixed cost and spec to complete as suggested/advised.

Does anyone have similar experience of total cost of this type of build? It is it way out? (I was expecting about £4000-5000 total costs).

Thanks

I’d say £2400 is incredibly high for materials. A reel of cable is £20. Have you specified anything particularly high end? (Smart switches, fancy spots etc). We had a consumer board replaced on mates rates of roughly half price, plus 12 spotlights (which we supplied) and about 10 new sockets for £700, so the material simply cannot cost that much. Standard day rate is around £200-250.

Although just a thought, was there much chasing out involved? The time and mess to chase new cables in can add up. Not on the material side though really...

Our builder has just been caught out on this, his quote to me was 7k and his sparky came back to him with an estimate nearer 17k! Re-wire of whole house though

Thanks all. @AGreatUsername yes that was what we thought that £2400 was high - no high end materials all basic/standard stuff. Even down to basic white plug sockets. It will be interesting to get the materials breakdown. £250 a day for labour is roughly what we have been charged, though I don't think it equates to 14.5 days worth or work (but unfortunately we haven't tracked when they have been here so don't exactly know). I'm kicking myself for not getting this all tied down to a firm quote before they started..

Also @AGreatUsername - no chasing out at all, this is all new extension/fresh build. Thanks

We had our 4 bed detached house completely rewired last year for approx £4K. It’s not a big house but it gives you an idea. We’re in the midlands if that helps.

Our large 4-bed house + detached garage cost £7k to completely rewire a couple of years ago, about £3k of which was materials (we had some expensive fittings and sockets). Two guys working over a couple of weeks; basic filling of chases but no finishing. Eastern region.