Electrical help

[Vrugtebome]

Dagse

Doing some renovations at my home. Kitchen mainly. Got a quote for the electrical work that needs to be done, and I am shocked to say the least. Came in at 15K (for 20 plugs, 3 x singe light switches, 2 x double light switches, 1 x triple light switch, and the stove/oven)

Anyone here in the industry? Do you think this is a reasonable price??????

If you know of anyone that would not try to rape me like that, please let me have their details.

I am in the Benoni area, any help/advise will be appreciated

 

[Mets]

Sounds about right - Electricians are ridiculously expensive. If you take that they easily charge R500 just for a call-out. I did some work at my place recently - 1x Light switch, 1x Two Socket wall plug and 14x Downligters (only holes in ceiling and wiring, not holders or installation) @ R4 600. But if you look at the risk of your house burning down due to faulty installation, it seems like a small price.

 

[Nicodeamus]

do you have conduits in the house already or do they need to pull the wires?

 

[Vrugtebome]

Some new wires will be needed, and some plugs will just be moved. I would say 40% moved, 60% new

 

[Humberto]

I would say get a few more quotes. You may simply have been unlucky in getting the expensive guy to come out.

 

[Nefertiti]

Yea, that sounds about right. Considering I moved two plugs recently for R2000 your price is not too bad.

 

[P924]

They charge about R500/plug, R300 per switch point, R450 per light, and R1800 for stove, R800 for extractor. So I think you have a very good deal there.

 

[Vrugtebome]

Am trying to. But it seems like these guys want a call out fee if you dont accept the quote. So getting 5 blokes to come will cost me a pretty penny. Trying to mail people the specs now to get a quote like that to dodge the fee. Think I might just change my career. These guys rock up in skorokoro bakkies, but their BM's are obviously at home

 

[Vrugtebome]

It might not be a bad deal, I honestly dont know. That price at least includes the chasing. Maybe it just came as a bit of a shock. My initial plan was to do all the work myself, but ja, illegal as far as I heard. And my kitchen installers need a COC. Argghhh

 

[Sonic2k]

It might not be a bad deal, I honestly dont know. That price at least includes the chasing. Maybe it just came as a bit of a shock. My initial plan was to do all the work myself, but ja, illegal as far as I heard. And my kitchen installers need a COC. Argghhh

On my previous home, I did all the work myself. But because I did it to the standards, when the time came to sell and the COC had to be done, there was no issue They thought another electrician did it.

I know more or less what the standards are because before I went into electronics I was studying to be an electrician. I changed my vocation pretty quickly when I saw how they get treated and its basically working like a dog.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Am trying to. But it seems like these guys want a call out fee if you dont accept the quote. So getting 5 blokes to come will cost me a pretty penny. Trying to mail people the specs now to get a quote like that to dodge the fee. Think I might just change my career. These guys rock up in skorokoro bakkies, but their BM's are obviously at home

They want a call out fee for a quote?...

Quite literally I would not deal with any person who is like that. Requiring a "call out fee" to quote is instantly indicative of the fact that they don't think their quote will be competitive.

 

[TelkomUseless]

They want a call out fee for a quote?...

Quite literally I would not deal with any person who is like that. Requiring a "call out fee" to quote is instantly indicative of the fact that they don't think their quote will be competitive.

Yea.. I had the same experience. Guy wanted double the price (from 2nd quote) to fix my gate motor, when I decline his price, he said now I have to pay the call out fee. Said fine, but F.U and you won't ever get business from me or family..

 

[Tacet]

I had a broken plug in the kitchen recently. I bought most of the components at Builder's Warehouse. The plug, about 5m single core cable and a strip connector cost me about R120. That's only for one plug.

The plugs alone cost about R60 each, thus R1200 for 20 plugs. The actual copper wire is even more expensive, I guestimate that you'd easily use about R150 worth of wire per plug (for new plugs). If you add that for 12 plugs, it is another R1800. So for the plugs alone we're already on R3000, and that excludes the conduit, connectors and the casings that goes into the wall. For 12 new plugs you'll probably need a new breaker as well, adding to your cost.

Isolators (stove) are more expensive than plugs. All in all, 20k might be steep, but it isn't necessarily insane. See if you can find someone who doesn't ask a call-out fee for a quote. I'm sure that if you explain the scope of the project someone should be willing to waive the fee for a quote.

Regarding self-install: AFAIK you're allowed to work on your side of the DB, but not behind it. In your shoes I'd do the work myself and get someone else to CoC it. That said, I'm an electronic engineer so I do have some relevant background. If you don't know exactly what you're doing, rather get someone else to do it. 240 VAC can kill.

 

[DVWM]

I think that electricians these days base quotes on the number of points x their rate per point. If you have about 28 points in your list x say R400.00 per point that gives you R11200.00 Then add the hardware, plugs boxes, switches etc. which you should really work out and provide yourself so you know where the money goes. If the electrician provides there will be a mark up on what he pays. so R15000-R11200 = R3800.00 remaining for materials. Once you have done DIY and experienced the difficulties of most jobs you will appreciate that it is hard work, you have to keep a labourer, run a bakkie, put up with huge inconveniences etc. So what I did was get fairly clued up, do most of it myself (especially all the cutting out, fitting boxes and other labour work) and get the electrician to come check, modify, test for earth leakage and other compliances and give a certificate. It all depends on the complexity of the job EG where will power come from etc. All the best...

 

[Vrugtebome]

Cheers folks thank you for all the input. Much appreciated. Wanted to do some of the dummy labour myself (chasing etc), but they only ask 1K to do all of that, incl in the 15K (but this exludes all the actual sockets and switches). Anyways, looks like their price isnt so bad after all. Still trying a couple of different guys for a comparative quote. But thanks. MBB rocks!

 

[ToxicBunny]

Yea.. I had the same experience. Guy wanted double the price (from 2nd quote) to fix my gate motor, when I decline his price, he said now I have to pay the call out fee. Said fine, but F.U and you won't ever get business from me or family..

I would have told him to get knotted, and also never sent any business his way and let all my friends know that he had tried to charge a call-out fee for a quote (which was ridiculous anyway)...

I'm not one to bad mouth businesses, but businesses also need to learn that even saying something truthful about them can be massively negatively impacting on their bottom line. Yes the customer is not always right, but you should never ever try and screw the customer over.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Cheers folks thank you for all the input. Much appreciated. Wanted to do some of the dummy labour myself (chasing etc), but they only ask 1K to do all of that, incl in the 15K (but this exludes all the actual sockets and switches). Anyways, looks like their price isnt so bad after all. Still trying a couple of different guys for a comparative quote. But thanks. MBB rocks!

You could also go and buy all the materials yourself, might save a few bucks that way as well.

 

[Colin62]

I would have told him to get knotted, and also never sent any business his way and let all my friends know that he had tried to charge a call-out fee for a quote (which was ridiculous anyway)...

Or just tell him to come and repossess his quote

 

[ToxicBunny]

Or just tell him to come and repossess his quote

That would be an option as well......

 

[Humberto]

I think that charging a call-out fee is reasonable.

It takes them (often times more than one person) a while to drive to your house, a while to assess and quote you, and a while to drive back to their shop. All of this can easily take two hours or more. So you are paying them for their time and petrol.