How Much Does It Cost To Change a Light Fitting?



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Cost to Change a Light Fitting






Job
Description
Labour



1Why not?….Let’s have a 6 lamp downlighter grid in your 12’ x 10’ (3.6m x 3m) kitchen but they must be symmetrical, the chaps hit a joist and the room above has a laminate floor. That’s the kitchen ceiling gone then! That’s 2 men 2.5 days. inc. a plasterer for half a day and all materials.
£900



2Same as job1 but the floor in the room above is accessible. You have completely cleared it all out and will return everything. 2 men 1 day inc. materials.
£335



2aIf they are stripping and returning the room above add….
£150



3You want to replace a boring pendant light with a fancy glittering multi LED affair (£750 from “they saw us coming are us”). He will charge half a day because he can!
£100



4The easiest 6 downlight installation is in a bedroom where loft access is available and the loft has not been boarded. 1 day for 1 man inc all materials
 £235




“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 Putting Up Light Fittings


Pendants

These are the normal “lumieres” (electrician speak) which hang from the middle of your ceilings. They comprise the “rose” which is the (plastic) shroud immediately against the ceiling. The “flex” which emerges out of the rose and connects to the lamp holder (more electrician speak, they call light bulbs… lamps).

It’s called a flex because the wire inside the plastic sheath is made up of very thin strands of copper wound together, these are relatively flexible and hopefully hang vertically. If normal electrical cable was used (the sort that is usually under the floor), because this is made from solid copper wire, it wouldn’t straighten out when the light fitting was hanging from it.

There are lots of regulations regarding having electrical work done but if you want to renew one or all of your pendants you can, without troubling “officialdom”. You can even get your granny to do it. This doesn’t apply to either the kitchen or bathroom however, here the rules are very strict.

Downlighters

Popular little blighters aren’t they? Personally I think they are a bit over used, kitchens and bathrooms yes but kids bedrooms? I suppose they go with all the other hi tech stuff nowadays but I come from a gentler time with the biggest spotty dog in the whole world and Shirley Abicair and her zither. (I was only 5 and of course knew nothing but I did know that it wasn’t just a father’s love, which sat him down with me to watch young Shirl every Tuesday afternoon)!

There are two main types of downlighters, those which operate on mains power and low voltage ones which need a transformer. Don’t confuse low voltage with low energy. Low voltage are still use 50 watt bulbs, low voltage bulbs are about 4 watts. The same light output but at far less cost.

Fitting them, particularly if a large number are needed and symmetry is important can be a nightmare for two reasons.

One… they are really designed for thin plasterboard ceilings and don’t fit happily into the much thicker old lath and plaster ones. These can be unstable anyway but cutting 65mm diameter holes into them and not snapping the laths is nigh on impossible. If it is accomplished, you can bet your life some if the lights will be quite loose and as soon as the first bulb “goes” and you disturb the fitting, it will never go back flush with the ceiling.

Two…. if you are hoping to fit a grid of say six lights, you want them to be symmetrical on the ceiling. So you set off by deciding roughly where you want them all, then spend quite a long time having a good old measure to get the 6 spots marked dead right. Then if you know no better you cut the correct sized hole for number one, spend half an hour getting the plaster out of your eyes and go for the second and third ones. Good we’re half way through, piece of p*ss this building lark isn’t it! Hole number 4 seems to be giving you trouble though, what’s this erking great chunk of wood doing here?

I don’t care who you are, you will hit a joist with one of the holes and that will completely (place your own adjective here)… up the job. What are you going to do with the holes you’ve already cut (go on just you try and fill them, it’s impossible)!

There is no way around it, there are only two ways the job can be done.

One…You have to resign yourself to the fact that the ceiling is going to be completely messed up. Even if you manage to cut the holes without hitting joists, the cables have still got to go in. How are you going to drill through 75mm thick joists via 65mm holes. It would be like papering the hallway through the letterbox!

So take out shares in “Optrex”, wreck the ceiling, work out where the lights can go (you might even get lucky and they will be symmetrical), fit the cables then fix plasterboard underneath it all. Now cut the holes in that (how many sodding holes have you cut so far)? Plaster the whole new ceiling, paint it twice and at long, long last, fit the (same adjective probably) lights!

Two… Work from the room above, move all the furniture, take up the carpet and far more boards than you thought you’d have to and start measuring. Poke small holes through to mark the positions for the lights, fit the cables, return everything and hope to goodness you made the small holes big enough to see, when you get downstairs.

(Builders secrets no. 43)
To fill the unfillable hole (Track 3, Perry Como 1958, on the “Catch a Falling Star” album), dab plaster (via the hole) on either side of it on the top side of the ceiling. Take a 150mm length of plasterboard that’s 60mm wide, with a “little finger” sized hole cut right in the middle of it. Wangle it through the unwanted hole, set it equidistant on top so its sitting on the wet plaster, put your smallest digit into the little hole you cut and stand there on a chair, finger in hole, pulling gently downwards for two hours till it sets. Oh and hope your neighbours don’t come round for a cup of sugar. Now you can plaster the hole over.

Dimmer Switches
If you want one, find out it’s wattage capacity before you buy it. Lots of them will only accommodate a total of 250 watts, that’s 5 x 50 watt bulbs. If you want to dim a grid of 6, you will be in trouble. You will probably end up with 2 switches because the higher wattage ones the supplier can get, won’t match the range of lovely slim, trim, brushed satin alloy nonsense which none of us can do without nowadays, in this fabulous “look what we’ve got now” world we are so privileged to inhabit.

Questions to ask the “sparks” during his quotation visit.

Does the intended work, require him to be a member of a “competent person scheme”?

He may not know, but he should, shouldn’t he?

Is he a member of a scheme and if so which one? If he’s not, will building control have to be involved and who will inform them, organise their visit, and pay them? (Actually, if he is an employee of a larger firm, the man himself doesn’t have to be a scheme member but his employer does)!

Will he be issuing an electrical safety certificate?

Can he offer you insurance?

Does he have a formal complaints procedure?

Will he be undertaking pre- and post- checks of the relevant circuit(s) as part of the process?


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