Electrician just quoted me 4k

[emsa1]

We have been quoted 4K by a roofer to put in a skylight, skim, insulate ceiling and exterior walls and install Spotlights. Meanwhile his electrician has come in and said that we need a new subboard, Rcbo’s in every socket in the kitchen full ecir in property and new fuse box…. An additional 4K!!!! When all we asked for was spotlights but he’s saying he will not sign off spotlights unless the properties brought up to scratch. We really don’t know what to do and that feel that we are being held to ransom as the roofer now cannot continue with his job until the electrics are done we would obviously like to get another quote to compare as we have no idea if all of this work is required/reasonably priced. I’ll be really grateful for any comments from those of you who had a similar experience. Many thanks.

Can't you just get a few more quotes?

Find another electrician. If you’re wiring is fairly recent and there’s a RCD on the consumer unit there’s no reason spot lights can’t be added

No specifics, but I normally get 3 quotes for anything. More if I'm not happy with any of the 3.

It's not being held to ransom. He's told you what he can do and what he'll charge - you're free to go elsewhere. If the roofer won't work with someone else, get a new roofer?

Our electrics aren’t recent ! But we don’t know if all of this is required just for spot lights and also if it’s a fair price?

Well thats why you get other quotes so you can work out what seems like a typical price for the work?

The roofer is part way through the work so we’d have to stop work to get more quotes

Get another quote but if that work is required I’d say that price does sound reasonable

Definitely get other quotes! How old are your electrics?

If they're mega old / out of code, they can't just wire up further spotlights to it, they have to bring it all up to code before adding anything else and signing it off. If the electrics are old you're best getting someone in who does a proper job and recognises that it needs sorting, rather than someone who doesn't and will bodge a few bits in!

I guess it depends what a mess your current electrics are in.

You say they "aren't recent". Which could mean anything from 30 years old to a complete hideous nightmare that should have been redone years ago.

Some electricians can be a bit overly keen on bringing stuff up to the latest standards. For example some will recommend upgrading a plastic fuse box to a metal one. But I am not sure that this is mandatory, just an improvement in standards that came in a few years back because metal gives improved fire protection.

Not sure about ecir, unless he thinks the electrics are in such a bad state that he doesn't want to work on them without a full health check ?

Are you renting out this property ?

If you are dubious about the costs being quoted then the solution is to get someone else in to quote and to review what the other person has quoted.

The electrician wouldn't be in a position to certify his work so can only do the work if the rest is brought up to standard. If you don't believe him get other quotes. Yes the roofer will need to stop work while you get this done.

We had to have our fuse board upgraded recently for the same reason. Three electricians refused to do any new work until it has been done. It was an antiquated 1970s fuse board with no RCD protection, and I'd been worried about it for a long time tbh!

However I paid £780 which included the system survey, supply and fit.

I'd get that done separately if you can.

We have been quoted 4K by a roofer to put in a skylight, skim, insulate ceiling and exterior walls and install Spotlights. Meanwhile his electrician has come in and said that ...
You have a contract with the roofer (I assume). If his subcontractor (the sparky) is causing problems and blowing the budget then that's the roofer's problem.

I had the same issue - asked for a metal ceiling light to be fitted and ended up with a full rewire.

You won't know if the electrician is being over cautious until you get more quotes. He may be right and you don't want a fire as that could destroy all the work you have had done.

The other option is to ask the person who recommended the electrician to you to see if they know if the electrician has form for this.

In my case, the electrician who worked for the kitchen company fitted dangerous electrics so as to not affect the kitchen schedule and did not tell me. When it came to the lounge, all other electricians and quotes agreed I needed a complete rewire and that's what I had to do - and get the kitchen electrical work redone.

If it’s post 1970s wiring and has not had loads of DIY add ons it should be fine. The consumer unit may need upgrading if it is very old. The current standard is for a metal consumer unit which I had in my last house because I had a complete rewire. Current house has plastic consumer units and with RCD and is fine.
The issue you may find is the good electrician who won’t rip you off probably doesnt advertise as they will have a steady stream of work constantly. There may be a firm that employs a number of electricians locally, we have one locally who do a lot of survey work, in addition to electrical work and don’t rip people off.

Then you really should have got the quotes earlier, why have you left it till now rather than getting quotes for everything at the start of the project?

None of us know what state your electrics are in, so none of us know whether the electrician is being reasonable or not. The only way you're going to find out is by getting more quotes, even though it'll mean your roofer stopping work

@emsa1is this for a new extension / loft extension? have you a pic of your existing fuse box? If it’s not up to par then a sub board might be necessary but can’t see why it’s a sub board and full fuse board?

Rcbos are now advised in kitchens but not sure it’s mandatory in existing installations. Might be worth doing some research yourself.

ecir as in the report? To my limited knowledge (our family rent out a few properties) that’s something landlords need to provide and not necessary otherwise.

I really would get two additional quotes. Yes it may delay your work but the electrician could have come in at an earlier stage to assess so it wasn’t such an issue at this late stage. It’s either delay the work and find two quotes. Or it’s magically find and pay £4K and always wonder if you were ripped off.

When we had spotlights put in our extension the electrician did have to do some other stuff to make the electrics compliant. It was either that or nothing, but it wasn’t 4K worth of work!

Speaking purely on price terms, we paid £2800 for a new consumer unit about 2 years ago (London). I’d say if he’s wanting to put in a new consumer unit and then more wiring and then do the work to put in the spotlights then 4k is about right price wise. Whether or not it needs doing, nobody here is going to be able to tell you. When we had ours done, the electrician said that it’s a bit of a luck of the draw - sometimes you plug it all back in again and circuits will trip due to ageing faults, sometimes not. With ours it all went back together again fine and no faults, so all good. Depending on the layout of your house, you could see about spurring the lights off an existing circuit. I’ve extending the lighting circuit in our house a couple of times, and you may need to cut out some plaster etc to run the new wires, but putting in additional spotlights is an easy job - just daisy chain them on. This would mean they are on the same light switch for control, so you’d need to install a new switch which is a pretty straight forward job too. Maybe however the electrician has seen something he doesn’t like the look of and hence the want to replace the lot of it. Ultimately it’s his liability so can understand wanting to play it safe. As others have said, get other quotes / opinions.

@VimesandhisCardboardBoots I'm inclined to agree with @senua that the OPs contract is with the roofer and he should have got his electrician to review and advise on cost before starting work.

Cost-wise for comparison we paid about £950 for a new consumer unit less than 2 years ago. Not London but an expensive part of the country.

Ah, I'd missed that the roofer was the one who'd organised the electrician.

In that case yes, very bad form by the roofer not to have had the electrician come take a look prior to the start of work.

We recently had wiring done for a two storey extension, plus a new consumer unit, for £3k. We were initially quoted £8k by the builder's electrician so got more quotes. I think sometimes when they think the job is in the bag they quote wild prices.

Sounds a little over but not crazy. A new consumer unit itself - a big one with surge protection is around £400-600 with all the bits and bobs like meter tails.

Some extra works, maybe some new sockets/switches maybe £500-£1000.

Sign off and building control paperwork is around £400 (fixed fee from electrical body).

Spotlights about £20-30 each.

Electrician's time:
Consumer board -a day
Testing 1-2 days depending on size of house
Spotlights fitted c 1 day
Other stuff ?
4-5 days at min £250/day

VAT.

Definitely get a few more quotes—£4k sounds pretty steep for that job. Where are you based?
For comparison, I had a new consumer unit fitted for £1,200 (in Portsmouth).
I also just had spotlights installed in my bathroom, and it only took the plumber about half a day. We didn’t need an electrician since nothing was being added to the circuit. You can get spotlights really cheaply on Amazon unless you’re after a brass or other fancy finish