Electricians / Electrical Contractor Pricing

When you've never had to use an electrician (or any trades person) before it can be hard to know what to expect in regards to what it is going to cost. Costs vary quite radically from electrician to electrician, I've seen and read reviews on pricing for an hour (normal working hours) of an electricians time starting at £12 right up to £85 and I'm sure there have been cases of electricians charging lots more.

Frankly there are electricians out there that don't have much of a business head (I don't mean this in a derogatory way) and pluck figures out of thin air or are not sure what to charge and undercharge, which will eventually put them out of business.

I'm sure many people when told an electrician charges £50-£60 per hour think this is massively overpriced and they must be very wealthy indeed, this however is not so, when running a business there are many overheads that have to be covered in order to keep the business running and invest for the future, so what are some of these overheads?

• Vehicle costs - Maintenance, Fuel, Repairs, Insurance etc.
• Public Liability and other insurances.
• Tools, machinery and equipment.
• Professional fees - accountants, solicitors, associations etc.
• Advertising and Marketing.
• Premises such as an office.
• Phones
• Employees

This list is not exhaustive and there is also what is know as non-chargeable time such as admin work and going out to look at jobs and quote for them, all cost time and money. I figured when I was going to build a big business and employed staff, that if I'd calculated what I paid myself divided by the hours I put in, I'd probably been on around if not less than minimum wage! Each business is unique there is no set way to run an electrical business and no set overheads, also the skill level of every electrician is different and every job is different. While the electrical regulations are the same for all electricians there are different ways to do almost every job, one electrician may see one way of doing any particular job and another may see it another way, sometimes I've started a job got half way thought and thought it would have been easier if I'd done that a different way.

Of course lets not forget that this is a business and we do want to make a profit too.

Please note that I have based this post on calling out an electrician to do a repair or fault find, for other quoted works, inspection and testing pricing should be different. Personally I like to be upfront about pricing so have posted it on my website.

Remember the old rule though, always get 3 quotes, but don't necessarily go for any particular one based on price, I would base it on how much value you believe you are going to get.

Kind Regards

Paul Jennings