Estimating building/electrical work

JonathanRyan

JonathanRyan

Suspended / Banned
Messages
10,765
Name
Jonathan
Edit My Images
Yes
A while back, somebody posted a cool website where you could put in details of a job and the system would estimate costs based on average labour rates in your area. Anybody know a link? NOT one of those where tradesmen bid for the work - I'm a little way off that yet and need very rough numbers for budgeting.

Alternatively......ballpark costs for

1. Rewiring a large (200 m2) 4 bed detached house

2. Taking down a wall 4m dividing wall to make 2 rooms into 1. At a rough guess it's load bearing. Take it down, dispose and leave ready for decorating. Oh and put a steel in :D

If you can guesstimate in days I can work out figures from there.
 
wiring? how many sockets? do the walls need chasing-out for cables? spots in ceilings ? are the walls studded upstairs ? lots to consider for estimate i would say a week to do wiring at a guess..
the wall ,about the same time, thats if you need pillars built to take the steel RSJ? again there is a lot to consider. ( does radiators need moving?)
 
Wiring. Ball park figure would be £250 per room + £250 for fitting consumer unit + £250 contingency.
So, 4 bed house with lounge, dining room, kitchen, study, utility room, hsl = £3000
That's labour only based on one lighting point per room.
 
mark richards said:
wiring? how many sockets? do the walls need chasing-out for cables? spots in ceilings ? are the walls studded upstairs ? lots to consider for estimate i would say a week to do wiring at a guess..
the wall ,about the same time, thats if you need pillars built to take the steel RSJ? again there is a lot to consider. ( does radiators need moving?)
Click to expand...

You're right.....some details would have helped :)

19702 house so assuming brick and plaster walls even for non load bearing. Walls will need chasing and making good. I don't know (it's a house I'm looking at buying) but I assume walls upstairs are brick also. Spots is a good point - I can see that a whole bunch of downlighters would look good downstairs.

Wall - honestly I don't know enough about how to do this to answer questions. I assume you could chop the wall and leave a bit at either end to support the steel. No rad to move.
 
Craig20264 said:
Wiring. Ball park figure would be £250 per room + £250 for fitting consumer unit + £250 contingency.
So, 4 bed house with lounge, dining room, kitchen, study, utility room, hsl = £3000
That's labour only based on one lighting point per room.
Click to expand...

Cool - add on £1000 for sockets, pendants and a consumer unit? Oh and wire...
 
Walls about £1000 non load bearing £2000 if it is from memory.
 
JonathanRyan said:
Cool - add on £1000 for sockets, pendants and a consumer unit? Oh and wire...
Click to expand...
In my experience labour works out somewhere near 50% of total cost, so I'd add another 3 grand to that for your materials. Very ball park but that's what I'd be basing it on.
 
From what I remember removing a load bearing wall comes under building regulations so add some money on top for paperwork :)
 
Craig20264 said:
In my experience labour works out somewhere near 50% of total cost, so I'd add another 3 grand to that for your materials. Very ball park but that's what I'd be basing it on.
Click to expand...

As much as that? I know that's a rule of thumb for heavy trades but electrical stuff always seems pretty cheap. I presumed labour would be about 2/3 or so.
 
Get a builer and electrician to give you a quote. It will give you a ball park that you shold be able to better, if you take out a few competitive fixed quotes later.
 
JonathanRyan said:
As much as that? I know that's a rule of thumb for heavy trades but electrical stuff always seems pretty cheap. I presumed labour would be about 2/3 or so.
Click to expand...
It is a ball park figure, but I can pretty much guarantee you won't get the materials for a full rewire of a 4 bed for £1000. You might do it if you open an account at the wholesalers and get some discount. Cable is the killer. I've been out of the game for a couple of years but if you want to e mail me your requirements I will give you a price that I would be charging so you have something to go on when you get some quotes. I for one would never use any materials that the customer had purchased as I couldn't guarantee quality. Let me know if you need any advice. Happy to help.
 
Craig20264 said:
It is a ball park figure, but I can pretty much guarantee you won't get the materials for a full rewire of a 4 bed for £1000. You might do it if you open an account at the wholesalers and get some discount. Cable is the killer. I've been out of the game for a couple of years but if you want to e mail me your requirements I will give you a price that I would be charging so you have something to go on when you get some quotes. I for one would never use any materials that the customer had purchased as I couldn't guarantee quality. Let me know if you need any advice. Happy to help.
Click to expand...

Thanks v much. My plan would be to leave sourcing the materials to the electrician. I bet they can buy stuff better/cheaper than me ;)

Terrywoodenpic said:
Get a builer and electrician to give you a quote. It will give you a ball park that you shold be able to better, if you take out a few competitive fixed quotes later.
Click to expand...

It's a house I'm looking at buying so I was hoping to get a ballpark for my spreadsheet rather than actual quotes. The numbers on here are close enough for planning - I just wanted to check it wasn't like £30K to remove a load bearing wall ;)
 
Ballpark in my area (Bournemouth) would be £4500/5000 for electrics and £1250/1500 for the wall and rsj.
Both to include materials. That is provided there is nothing rather extraordinary.
 
We had some load bearing walls removed recently. It looked like a very difficult job. I'd be wary of trying to make any kind of reasonably accurate estimate without your preferred builder seeing the house, but it's going to be closer to £5,000 than £50,000.
 
Depends on where you live obviously. I'm in Surrey, nothing's cheap round here. Friends of the family have just been quoted £7k for a full rewire on a three bed semi. A plumber agreed to do the pipework on their bathroom and kitchen for £1700, then told them when he arrived on site that they'd have to go and buy the materials for him. :confused: Clearly I've been in the wrong job all my life.
 
Incidentally, if you haven't seen how it's done...

Here's a snap of our house after the load bearing walls have been removed but before the big RSJs have gone in to take the weight. Two walls have been taken down, one running left to right in the foreground, and one from front to back in the middle of the picture. (So two RSJs, bolted together to form a T shape, are required.) Upstairs, the builders have put 'needles' - basically, short scaffolding poles - through the walls; the needles are supported on the joists and the joists are supported from below on the veritable thicket if supports which you can see in the photo.

(So yeah, that reminds me - remember to budget for redecoration of the rooms above, because putting needles through the walls is going to leave a mess behind.)

It's quite a delicate operation and one which needs thinking through in advance. For example, how do you get a 7m long RSJ into place through all these supports? Answer: you can't, so you have to get it in place before the walls are taken down, and build the network of supports around it. And you have to ensure you leave enough space between the supports to manoeuvre the fork lift jacks - the machines on the left with the blue steel bars - into the right place for the lift. So many different ways to get it wrong!
 

Attachments

  • 1464444722419.jpg
    1464444722419.jpg
    50.1 KB · Views: 32
Last edited:
JonathanRyan said:
Blimey - a 7m RSJ? Hope it was worth it :D
Click to expand...
A 7m RSJ and a 5m RSJ joined in a T shape. The two rooms at what used to be the back of the house, plus the new extension, are all one big open plan area. It'll be good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top