Hourly rate for Sparks?

[Gees]

I had an estimate of £1500 for a cu replacement
Another for 650 and a third for 800

[RF Lighting]

How much of that was for materials?

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I downlights

[ban-all-sheds]

Does your employer contribute to a pension?

Does he pay you on Bank Holidays?

Does he pay you when you are off sick?

Does he pay you for 5 days a week even if for some reason there's only 4.5 days of work for you to do?

Does he pay for your share of the running costs of the office you work in?

Does he pay the accountants/auditors each year, or do you chip in?

Does he pay for any advertising the business does, or do you chip in?

Does he pay for your share of the insurances he has to have, some of which are for your benefit?

Does he pay for the computer on your desk, or do you have to provide your own?

Is there a stationery cupboard, or do you have to provide your own pens and paper?

Does he pay for you to receive training?


I could go on, but if it hasn't sunk in by now it never will.

[chapeau]

Very little annoys me more than self employed people moaning about their overheads.

[LiamPope]

chapeau wrote:

Very little annoys me more than self employed people moaning about their overheads.

I don't see anyone moaning about overheads - just pointing out that they exist to clueless idiots like Gees who calculate price-of-job divided by duration and come to the conclusion sparkies and other self employed tradesmen are on footballer's wages

[1john]

chapeau wrote:

Very little annoys me more than self employed people moaning about their overheads.

and very little annoys me more than people who think that £20 / £30 an hour is excessive when some people on here would deem that to be cheap.

[chapeau]

The figure quoted by the original poster was £60 per hour. It is quite legitimate for a paying customer to look at a quote, work out effective hourly top line rate, and decide whether he thinks that is good value or not.

[1john]

I am vwery interested in how these figures are accuratly calculated. a year or so ago i was asked to quote for a family member, it was a big job which would have been very awkward, i neeeded to employ someone to help me with the job and i was to supply all the materials. I never got the job because they had "priced the job and all the materials and i was charging £400 a day labour". They never told me this, just the rest of my family. I wasnt even given the change to justify myself. If the truth be told i would have been earning about £80 to £100 a day if the job had gone to plan, if it had taken longer then i would have been earning less.

You will get different prices because some people will be cowboys, some people will want to use very expensive materials, some people may work with one or two apprentices, some people may use cheap materials, some people may not want to do the job.

This is a DIY site, why not do it yourself, break the law, possibally make your house difficult to sell, have no way of testing anything and put yourself, family, pets and property at risk. that will be really cheap and save you a fortune, and no one will be making any money, except screwfix, which have to make money to stay in business (bit like the electricians)

[chapeau]

Absolute nonsense. You had ample opportunity to 'justify your rate', you went round to his house so should have told him then, you gave a quote and it should have been clearly stated on that document. If you had been up front with your rate then you might have got the job because you were the only person honest enough to be straight with the paying customer.

Yes it is a DIY site. No doubt a lot of the DIYers who come on here asking how to change a consumer unit do so because they cannot find an electrician who is straight with them about the rate they are charging. That is one of the reasons I now do most of my electrical work myself. I recommend this DIY approach to anybody who is prepared to do the job properly.

[Chri5]

I wish I was on £60 an hour..........

49 y.o. ex BT eng, ex commissioning engineer, ex operations manager, ex world wide voice comms projects guru, re-trained 5 years ago and earn about £450 net a week for an average of 4 day work a week.

I'm not complaining about my lot, if I'd stuck with my BA role I'd be on £60k a year + £20K expenses and see my family 48 hours every 2/3 weeks!

As for the hear and now rates, I charge £40 1st hour, £25 after or for multi day work it's £175 a day all materials at cost + 10%

Surveys and advice chats are free and cost me half a day a week in non revenue.

Overheads include membership £450 odd, insurance £350, van £2000, fuel £1500, tools £500 then there's minor items like mobile, home office, land line, accountant, work wear, knowledge time, books and the odd training course.

Each individual can charge what they want, but what they want and what they (in area) will get varies massively. Extremes, well look at Pimlico plumbers site, the hourly spark cost is as high as £120 ph

I'd be surprised if the average across our forum is anything more than £25-£30 ph.

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Please note compliance for Part P, LABC and 17 Edition.

[galliano2001]

Well i work for a large engineering consultancy in the wonderfull world of asbestos. My company charges me out at £85 ph, rest assured i dont even see a 1/3 of that pre tax.

When i get a quote i like to see materials and labour clearly defined on the quote, and details of what materials are being used. I totally understand overheads and costs, but like most customers im not best happy if materials are being marked up 100% on top of a healthy labour rate.

Luckily i have found good contractors for most things in my house, just missing a good spark still, so anyone in North Surrey send me a PM, i like to think i am a good customer, i want a good job not a cheap job.

[ban-all-sheds]

chapeau wrote:

Absolute nonsense. You had ample opportunity to 'justify your rate', you went round to his house so should have told him then, you gave a quote and it should have been clearly stated on that document. If you had been up front with your rate then you might have got the job because you were the only person honest enough to be straight with the paying customer.

Maybe he didn't expect the customer to carry out an ignorant and grossly incompetent "calculation" which yielded an "daily rate" so wrong that you wonder how the person who did it has the brains to find his way home after he goes to the corner shop.

chapeau wrote:

No doubt a lot of the DIYers who come on here asking how to change a consumer unit do so because they cannot find an electrician who is straight with them about the rate they are charging.

No, it's because they are going to use an electrician, but right now he's holidaying on Mars and can't be reached, and they want to buy everything before he gets back.

Or because they are going to use an electrician, but first they want to learn everything about it so that they can tell if they're being ripped off, in exactly the same way that they have become fully knowledgeable in car servicing, MOT testing, appliance repair, dentistry, ophthalmology.....

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I mustn't warn people that the "experts" on the plumbing forum can't be trusted to tell the truth.

[Donkmeister]

Gees wrote:

Oh but I am .. Only £26,000 a year though ( IT hardware maintainance ) Thats just less than £12 an hour...

Break it down like this. Your hourly CHARGE rate, to your company, is a lot more than £12. Assuming your company is purely IT maintenance and you head to different sites to work...

Salary: £12
NI contribution: £2
Sick/holiday cover: £2
Pension: depends on your company I guess
G&A: lots.
Profit: never enough

G&A can be broken down into
1) All the people in your company who don't directly do IT maintenance, such as admin staff, salesmen, config testers, directors, etc
2) Maintenance costs of company facilities, including cleaners, the bloke who changes the lightbulbs, paying to have the toilets fixed and the canteen overhauled now and then, that sort of thing
3) The cost of services to company facilities, i.e. electricity, gas, water etc
4) Possibly rent on your company facilities.
5) The cost of contracting your transport and paying for fuel

Then the company pays tax on the profits.

So, you might see £12 of that, but you can be sure that you are not being sold for £12 an hour.

[Adam_151]

Gees wrote:

I had an estimate of £1500 for a cu replacement Another for 650 and a third for 800

Thats a large amount of variation, it sounds like the spec provided was incomplete and the contractors had to work to a generic spec and issue a comment of what they were quoteing for (which would then vary between contractors)

You should look closer at what is actually being quoted for, decide what you actually want, and be more specific when asking for quotes in the future

[Donkmeister]

ban-all-sheds wrote:

ophthalmology.....

I've got a really powerful laser pointer, how do I go about it?