How Much Does It Cost To Fit Wall Lights?



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Cost to Fit Wall Lights



Job
Description
Labour
1Two pairs of living room wall lights, on opposing walls, switched at a third position. The bedroom above will need completely clearing and everything returning, as part of the job. That’s 2 men, 2 days + a plasterer for two hours inc. their materials
£650
“Labour” at £175 a day (tradesman) £100 (labourer), includes incidental fixings etc. and tipping charges. “Materials” if mentioned, are larger things (a boiler) and stuff only you can choose (tiles etc).  Also VAT must be added all round.

Information Sheet on Fitting Wall Lights


Wall lights then!……..If you’re just replacing nasty old ones you are lucky, if you want to put them on a “virgin wall” it could be a bit of a rude word to sort out. First, you need power, electrical power that is and it should be from an existing lighting circuit. It can be diverted from a ring circuit (which supplies wall sockets) but it will need to be “fused down”, which requires an accessible (visible) fused spur, being fixed somewhere.


Fusing down is necessary because ring mains supply more power than lighting circuits, which use thinner cables. This isn’t a problem until a fault occurs somewhere, then the extra power a ring main can supply, will flow through the smaller lighting cables and they will overheat and burn and the ring main fuse won’t know anything about it! Fusing down, stops your house burning down! Remember that! You might even want to try and weave it into a nursery rhyme!

So. Where is this power to be found? Why…… in the floor above of course and because most wall lights are fitted in ground floor rooms, that requires the “bedroom” boards to come up and what if they’re all laminate flooring? The cables then need to be run to the new light positions, which means channels in the wall, replastering and probably redecorating. And what if you have a lovely cornice, how will the cables get behind that? Then a new light switch will probably need to be fitted…..on the other side of the room.

Sophistication……it’s a costly business when “sparks” charge two hundred a day!


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