Electricians pricing jobs - what's the best way to provide accurate information to get like for like responses?

[JamesN]

If you are an electrician what do I need to provide you to provide and accurate accurate cost price for the works? I can mark up plans showing where lighting power and data will be but would a schedule also be required to cost from? How granular should the information be?

[ProDave]

I estimated labour at 1 hour per point.  A "point" being a switch, a socket, a light fitting, a smoke alarm etc.  For a new build that has always proved pretty accurate for me.    It should be easy to count up the number of points in your house.

 

Materials can be harder, anything from £2 for a basic white plastic switch for £10 for a stupid expensive "designer" one.

 

So make sure they know exactly how many switches etc there will be and what sort you want.

 

 

[nod]

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

I estimated labour at 1 hour per point.  A "point" being a switch, a socket, a light fitting, a smoke alarm etc.  For a new build that has always proved pretty accurate for me.    It should be easy to count up the number of points in your house.

 

Materials can be harder, anything from £2 for a basic white plastic switch for £10 for a stupid expensive "designer" one.

 

So make sure they know exactly how many switches etc there will be and what sort you want.

 

 

I can’t keep agreeing with you Dave 

Yes keep it it basic You can always add extra later If you  can afford 

[joe90]

57 minutes ago, nod said:

I can’t keep agreeing with you Dave 

Nor me (great minds think alike eh?)

[Nickfromwales]

4 hours ago, JamesN said:

If you are an electrician what do I need to provide you to provide and accurate accurate cost price for the works? I can mark up plans showing where lighting power and data will be but would a schedule also be required to cost from? How granular should the information be?

The more detail you can provide the more accuracy / reduced ambiguity there will be in the quotes.

Mark as much as you can on the plan, including TV coax and CAT6 outlets, CCTV, outside lights etc and then ask the electrician to review and comment before quoting perhaps, as they might make some suggestions to better the end result. 

[joe90]

9 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

reduced ambiguity

Not as an electrician but as a builder some laughed at the level of detail of my quotes but I hate ambiguity and it only leads to arguments. Never had a single problem with a customer (unless they were a dickhead)).

[ProDave]

My usual suggestion when starting was walk round together with a marker pen or pad of post it notes, and mark where you actually want sockets and switches.  It rarely bore any relationship to what an architect had drawn on plans.

[saveasteading]

4 hours ago, ProDave said:

I estimated labour at 1 hour per point.  A "point" being a switch, a socket, a light fitting, a smoke alarm etc.  For a new build

If  I could find my little black book, then this would go in it.

It is full of such info from all the trades.

m2/hr and such like.

The value of such information is that it does not change over the years with inflation.

It might however need some factor applied to the work ethic of a region.

[ProDave]

I liked to estimate jobs and charge by the hour of actual time spent.  Plenty on this forum don't like that, thinking I would work slowly and drink lots of tea while ticking up my hourly bill.  I differ in that charging by the hour you pay what the job takes.  If I had to give a fixed price I would have to factor everything that could possibly slow the job down and charge more.  Some seem to prefer that.  I guess it is an ethics thing, if you think the guy is going to work diligently, or slack and do the job deliberately slowly.

[joe90]

I used to do fixed price work simply because the customer needed certainty on their spending. However estimating is a hard thing to do and to be fair to myself I always put a (shit that didn’t work) caviet in. Rarely did a job go completely to plan so I can live with that. One of my last jobs before retiring had several “oh shit” moments and when I presented the bill the customer insisted on paying me more than quoted because they were very pleased with my work and didn’t try to charge more come the end.