commercial
Commercial electrical installation and maintenance
Commercial rates run £45 to £80 an hour, or a project price. The difference from domestic work is not the wiring, it is everything around it: a compliance trail, other trades on the same programme, and a business that cannot stop trading while you work.
What this covers
What it costs. Hourly rates run £45 to £80 and project work is priced per job. Full cost breakdown.
What the job covers
- Distribution boards and sub mains in commercial units
- Lighting, power and containment in offices
- Out of hours work so trading is not interrupted
- Periodic inspection across a portfolio of sites
- Small works under a call off arrangement
What is involved
Most commercial electrical work is one of four things. Small works under a call off arrangement, where a rate is agreed and jobs are done as they come up. Planned maintenance on a schedule, with periodic inspection across a portfolio. Fit out and refurbishment, which is programme work alongside other trades. And breakdown response, where the value is how fast somebody gets there rather than the hourly rate.
The compliance trail is what a commercial client is actually buying. Periodic inspection intervals are shorter than domestic and are set by the environment: an office on a long cycle, a commercial kitchen or a workshop on a short one. Emergency lighting needs a monthly function test and an annual duration test, recorded. Fire alarm servicing runs on its own schedule. All of it lands in a site file that an insurer, a landlord or a fire officer asks to see, and an immaculate installation with an empty log book is the finding that causes trouble.
Working hours are the other real difference. A shop cannot lose its tills at eleven on a Saturday and a restaurant cannot lose its kitchen at seven in the evening, so a great deal of commercial work happens at night and on Sundays and is priced accordingly. Agreeing the window before the quote rather than after is the single thing that keeps a commercial job on budget.
Choosing someone for the job
Ask what the working window is and whether the price assumes it. Ask whether the quote includes the certification and the log book entries, not just the installation. Ask about response times if a call off arrangement is part of it, and what counts as an emergency. Ask to see the scope of a periodic inspection: how many boards, how many circuits, sampled or tested.
Common questions
How often does a commercial installation need inspecting?
It depends on the environment rather than on a single number: an office runs a long cycle, a commercial kitchen or a workshop a much shorter one. The inspection itself recommends the next date, and an insurer may impose its own.
Can the work be done out of hours?
Usually, and it is priced accordingly. Say so before the quote rather than after, because a night shift changes labour cost more than any other single variable on a commercial job.