Electrician time required - is this reasonable?

[Lizzie848]

Hoping for some advice on electrician quote. We have a few electrical jobs that need sorting:

• replace bathroom extractor fan
• replace 7 bathroom downlights with LEDs
• replace outside floodlight
• replace outside motion sensor

One local electrician has said it will take 8 hours. Is this a reasonable amount of time for these jobs? It feels like quite a long time but I might be underestimating how much is involved! We're in the process of moving house so trying to get everything sorted and don't have a lot of time to be getting various people in to quote

Will they be replacing wiring etc as part of the above jobs? Or just swapping out units with the existing wiring in place?

As a DIYer who has done all the above jobs personally at one time or another - and given that I work quite slowly, 8 hrs seems seriously excessive.
I replaced an outdoor floodlight (from Halogen to LED) a couple of years back and it took me less than 30 minutes (even with the wiring being quite short which made it fiddly to do).
Likewise, I recently had to remove and refit an LED downlight recently and again took less than 10minutes - again with short wire run making it a fiddly job...

Yeah assuming there is no modification to the wiring required and its just replacement of fixtures and fittings that sounds a bit much unless you are very remote and they are factoring in travel time.

Have they just assigned it a day's worth of labour? Because it'll take up enough time there won't be time to do another job that day?

Think this is the correct answer. When we discuss the many many jobs needing doing with our electricians we pool them into half day or one day tranches and discuss them as such with them, we don't typically get quotes for small jobs we just get it done as we trust them and their work is good. What you describe is too much for a half day, unless there is almost nothing except taking a fitting off and putting the new one on, and they won't be able to get to another client afterwards.

It's a lot IMO. But it does depend on the jobs and whether or not the wiring needs replacing or just the item.

If you are just replacing the items I would say :

Extractor fan : 1 hour.
Downlights : If this is just replacing the bulbs and doesn't require anything else 15 mins.
Floodlight : 1 hour.
Sensor : 1 hour.

So unless he is billing you for 4 hour travel time then it seems a bit excessive.

If it is that it takes a whole day and they have to bill for that I'd suggest finding some more for them to do.

I think it's reasonable to charge a day, the electrician will need to collect materials from a supplier.
He may have to provide minor works certificates for the bathroom works.
Gives him sone room for correcting any problems he might come across, which can be numerous in odd properties, which have been subject to modifications.

Thanks - for the downlights he's replacing the units as the bulbs keep blowing and he thinks that will be quicker than trying to find the issue

Thanks - he's asked me to order all the fittings myself, so can't be collection time!

thanks - he's just swapping old units for new ones so, unless he finds any issues, I was thinking it would be fairly quick!

He's only a few miles away so, unless he's walking, it does seem excessive!

I should have added, we do have a trusty electrician that we usually use but he's booked up a long time in advance - trying to avoid being ripped off by someone we don't know!

It might be worth having a think about if you have any other jobs that could be done on the same day. He is charging you for the day so make the most of it?

It sounds like he’s charging you for the day and insuring himself he has adequate time to fix any potential issues.
ie. Investigating whatever is causing the light bulbs to blow.

Halogen bulbs blow all the time. A lot of the time it's because people put fingerprints on the bulb surface. That causes extra heating and stress which burns them out.

If he swaps halogen bulbs for LEDs generally they last a lot longer, but really depends on the quality of the LED you use, some last ages and other low quality not very long at all.

I'd be very surprised if changing the fittings improved the lifespan of the halogen. Making sure the bulb surface is claen and free from grease after it has been inserted is a better idea.

If you are swapping halogen bulbs for new LED bulbs I would just swap the bulbs myself and see whether they blow first.

If you are swapping existing LEDs that blow for new LEDs then there are two possibilities. One is that you bought cheap low quality LEDs and that is why they have blown. In which case first try replacing them with better quality/more expensive bulbs. The other is that you might have something wrong with the bulb driver. It really depends on whether your bulbs are powered direct off the mains or have some sort of step down voltage.

In any case, replacing the fittings is much more effort than replacing the bulbs. It could take 30mins to an hour or so for each fitting. Which makes his time quote a lot more reasonable.

The bigger question is whether you actually need to replace the fittings.

I’m no electrician - but even I know that these jobs will not take that long at all - seeing as you are sourcing the materials and it is basic work that need’s completing- I would say max 4 hours. That said though, there may be some issues where re-wiring may need to take place…
I would ask why he estimates the job to take that long..

It doesn’t matter if it takes him 4 hours or 8 or even 12 !!!!! Your either happy with what he’s quoted you or your not. If your not get some more quotes.

I had an electrician in to replace 4 downlights in a bedroom, replace a fluorescent strip light in the garage and sort out a faulty extractor fan in the bathroom (which wasn't extracting anything due to the previous useless electrician who fitted it). He had to go up in the loft and replace damaged venting pipe. He was here for 1 hour - all done and tidied/hoovered up the dust in the bedroom that fell out of the lights. He had an apprentice with him who helped fit the lights - so that probably slowed him down a bit - although the apprentice did do the hoovering up whilst the electrician was up in the loft.

I would say your electrician is massively overestimating the time needed unless he thinks he's got to actually replace wiring rather than just swapping things over.

8 hours? Give over! 1/2 a day absolute max and that's being generous.

We had 3 guys here to replace our old spotlights with new low energy ones, they did 8 in 2 hours, they had tea. They had to make bigger holes, so some drilling and a lot of cleaning up of mess. Bathroom extractor fan is probably not going to be the same as existing so new wiring may be required so allow 1 1/2 hours, plus tea. Then lunch 1 hour, outside light 1 hour, sensor 1 hour, that’s your whole day. In the end as long as you are happy with the price, it doesn’t matter how long it takes him.

It's just a quote or estimate from the electrician, they haven't done it yet.

Find out what their hourly rate is and ask them to bill you at the hourly rate. Be at home when the work is being done.

In the firm I work for a full day booked in advance is £410 but smaller jobs, maybe half a day or less, are charged at £75 per hour. There comes a point, somewhere around the 5.5 to 6 hour mark where it is better value for the customer to pay the day rate and have the electrician there for a whole day. Don't forget the a NICEIC electrician does quite a bit of testing on the relevant circuits (which will all be different for your jobs) to check for safety and compliance.

Thank you, I hadn't realised this about the bulbs! Will give different bulbs a try first - and try to keep my greasy fingers off them!

Thanks everyone for the comments

Excellent advice. My DH is a time served approved electrician, he won’t let me anywhere near the bulbs, he has a little device he uses to replace them it sort of fits over them. Like a little clear shroud.

We had the same problem with downlights and replaced them all. It did take much longer than 15 minutes!