Cost to change out a single row board

indie armada

just wondering what electricians would charge to change out an old type fuse board to a single row consumer unit. nothing major straight swap with an elcb for the shower and an earth rod sunk approx 5 mtrs away. i know what the gear costs so looking for a ball park labour charge.
thanks in advance

Randyleprechaun

Hard to ssay, any kind of problems could arise ie. mixed neutrals(lighting neutrals tapped off socket circuits etc) through out the house, damaged acbles etc etc.

The whole job would have to be tested at the end and who knows what that could throw up!!!

Ball park €300-€500

M cebee

ya they can't be just swapped out and walk away

if your DZ board has a socket rcd that's a help

Randyleprechaun

M cebee wrote: »

ya they can't be just swapped out and walk away

if your DZ board has a socket rcd that's a help

Highly unlikely to be that easy...........the complete electrical installation will need to be tested once changed at least

indie armada

i understand it would be difficult to price due to unforseen problems but do electricians give a fixed price for a job before they do it or do they charge by how long it takes to complete the job.
thanks for the replies

Randyleprechaun

If it was me I'd give a price to do it but I'd tell you that if any major problems arose that that would be extra

Stoner

you should be able to get a fixed price for this work, you should also consider getting an upfront rewire cost, or a worst case cost there could be visual elements of the installation that are sound and wont need redoing, you dont to be held over a barrel if it turns out that he/she can't certify the new board due to the condition of the existing installation

eoghan.geraghty

You can't possibly price for the unknown. If I find a circuit that does not meet regs, I isolate the fault and leave it disconnected. The customer is not obliged to use me to remedy the fault but in every instance they have, probably because if it can be done easily enough i'm not going to stick the boot in.
Expect to pay closer to €500 for what you're looking for, but make sure you get a vat receipt and cert.

johnjoe 123

im only new to this boards but i think i posted something on this last night and see its dissapeared?? it was in relation to my view on the cost of changinging a single row bird. you can buy 1 for 50 to 80 euro and any decent spark shold knock it out in a day faults or no faults and there are few sparks will test it. 400 cash is more than enough.

Randyleprechaun

The whole installation should be tested when finished. No point putting in a nice, new, shiny board full of lovely modern protective devices if you can't be sure that they are going to function correctly in the event of a fault. You cant rely on these items to function if fault paths etc are witin regulation.

You might be right to say that most sparks wouldn't test but those guys aren't too proud of their work, or else they don't know how to do the tests.

I'd feel better leaving a job, knowing that I tested it and all was ok rather than just doing a nice neat job and hoping that things are ok.

If you do the job right, test it, give test results and a cert to the client....then they shouldn't have a problem paying an honest price for it!!! Break down your price to show exactly how you came up with it and I don't think too many will argue.

indie armada

the question arose after a relation of mine asked me about getting this job done. i had a sparks who we deal with lined up to do the job and as he owes me a few favors was going to do it for about 100 euro if i supplied the board. on a spur of the moment thing the relation got another guy to do the job costing 450 euro approx. i wasnt sure if this was too steep a price cause the price i had got was on the back of favors owed. i doubt this job was tested propperly or tested at all. what i originally meant by a straight swap was the upgrade from fuses to a consumer unit without the addition of any other circuts, i understand it would have to be tested but as im not a sparks i could only assume the tests involve the ammount of load on each circut.

Randyleprechaun

Bit more to the testing than that. For €450, the guy should have tested it and furnished you with the results and a cert.

Some people will say it doesn't need to be tested as there were no new circuits added, but I'd disagree, as I said in previous post, no point getting all that work done if you dont know that it's all working(or going to work when required) and safe.

There is a sequence for testing starting with visual inspection and leading to check continuity of all bonding & earthing conductors, polarity of all circuits & MCB's, make sure switches are on phase not neutral, fault loop impedance, RCD trip times etc. The guy who did the job would(or should) now all this stuff of by heart.

I'd demand the test results and the cert!!!!!!!!!!!

COWBOYS TED!!!!!!!!!!

indie armada

its not really up to me to obtain or ask for the certs, its not my house or installation. i think a lot of lads wouldnt test incase they uncover something they might be obliged to fix. the lad i had lined up to do the job is a good sparks and would of tested and made sure it was done right. i dont have the ability to say weather it was done right or not but as the guy was only there for about 3 hours i doubt he tested it.

Randyleprechaun

indie armada wrote: »

its not really up to me to obtain or ask for the certs, its not my house or installation. i think a lot of lads wouldnt test incase they uncover something they might be obliged to fix. the lad i had lined up to do the job is a good sparks and would of tested and made sure it was done right. i dont have the ability to say weather it was done right or not but as the guy was only there for about 3 hours i doubt he tested it.

3 hours means he didn't and yes it's not up to you I suppose to look for the cert.

Get your mate to give it the once over and that should be case closed

indie armada

Randyleprechaun wrote: »

3 hours means he didn't and yes it's not up to you I suppose to look for the cert.

Get your mate to give it the once over and that should be case closed

thats actually not a bad idea, wouldnt mind being there while hes doing it to see whats involved.

Stoner

johnjoe 123 wrote: »

im only new to this boards but i think i posted something on this last night and see its dissapeared?? it was in relation to my view on the cost of changinging a single row bird. you can buy 1 for 50 to 80 euro and any decent spark shold knock it out in a day faults or no faults and there are few sparks will test it. 400 cash is more than enough.

If the deleted post was approached like the quoted one above it would not have been removed, the post I removed could have opened the door to a thread derail along the lines of certification as it had a little pop at the other posters intentional or not. Randyleprechaun had already offered the same kind of price range so I removed it.

indie armada

on a similar note, why do some sparks prefere certain boards over others. is it down to who they deal with or are some consumer units better then others. they all seem to have similar capacity, ie a 1 row hager has pretty much the same room as a 1 row garo. i thought 1 mcb is pretty much the same as any other except when you look at the special stuff like square d.

M cebee

a board like the GE euroline has plenty of room for wires

2 row board generally for domestic

the guys who have limited knowledge- think everything is simple

indie armada

M cebee wrote: »

a board like the GE euroline has plenty of room for wires

2 row board generally for domestic

the guys who have limited knowledge- think everything is simple

i would have a limited knowledge and i handle the goods electricians use everyday, some of it i understand and and some i dont but i do not think everything is simple.

M cebee

i can see that
i was generalising.i don't know it all myself:D

Bruthal

M cebee wrote: »

a board like the GE euroline has plenty of room for wires

2 row board generally for domestic

the guys who have limited knowledge- think everything is simple

I think my knowledge is becoming more limited every day, not just in electrical:)