Doing electrical work through the home builder

My wife and I are building with Adenbrook and we are not sure if we are better off doing our electrical through them or just getting them to do the basics and then we get a sparky to come in before we move in to do the rest.

We have had multiple problems with them so far so it's not a case of just doing it with them to be hassle free.

My question is will it cost less to have someone come in AFTER the house is built to add in down lights and power points?

They are charging $54 to upgrade a standard light to a downlight and $104 to add additional downlights. Additional double powerpoints are $57 each. This includes the supply and installation of each.

The cost of the downlights are $17 each from a lighting store and the additional powerpoints are all to external walls.

Anyone on here a sparky or anyone done something similar recently? I know it all depends on the quotes we get from different electricians but some help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Hi SouthBris

First Question (they may seem odd) - Have you got a tile or colourbond roof?

Second - What sort of insulation is being put in?

Hubby is a sparky and I know these are the first 2 things he looked at with ours.

Anne

Are you building a 2-storey house. If so I would suggest getting the builder to install the lights on the ground floor only and do the upper level after handover.

Hi South Bris

We are also building with A and recently went through this. They were wanting to charge $117 to add a 12v downlight!!!

We asked our supervisor and he said he was ok if we added a few extras directly through the sparkie that they use. He just gave me his details and i met him on site when he was doing the rough in. Gave him some cash and away we go. It was only $50 for supply and install of a quality 12v downlight through him! Big savings to be had. Unless you are doing major work i am sure they will be ok with a few little extras. It is much easier to get the hard work done at rough in stage especially if you are putting lights under eaves or any hard to get to spots. Where are you building? May be the same electrician?

Hi SouthBris,

I'm also building with Adenbrook & I'm doing something similiar to what you're thinking about - that is, getting the basic electrical work done by them & then getting items such as downlights, extra powerpoints, etc done after handover. The things that I'll get done after handover is additional powerpoints, additional downlights / lights, ceiling fans, etc.

My understanding is that where the sparkies really make money through project builders is through the 'extras' - downlights, external lights, extra powerpoints, etc.

The main reason I'm doing this is because I know a sparkie. Ideally I would have had my mate do the work during rough in, but I didn't want to rub Adenbrook the wrong way - especially since I'm trying to get them to pull their finger out & get things moving on site a lot quicker..

I think it will come down to how much your sparkie will charge for his time. Whilst my knowledge of electrical work is stuff all, I think there are items that are easy to do after handover, and items that are difficult. I think work around the external walls is the most difficult, along with any areas that has restricted room to move around in the roof space. I had to take this all into consideration when I met with the electrical team to finalise lighting locations, etc.

We are building a single story house with a tiled roof and R2.5 fibreglass batt insulation to ceiling.

We have had some major problems with the contract so we aren't expecting the builders to be overly helpful with allowing us to get onsite during framing or to pay the sparky directly.

I was planning to get all powerpoints to internal walls through them and lighting points put to any external eaves that we want with just the standard batton lights then change them to downlights later. They charge $50 just for the wiring with a batton and then we can buy the downlights for $15-$20 and pay our normal sparky $9 per light for installation.

We are going to get all of the powerpoints on external walls done later because I was told that it's very easy to feed wires down the brick-plaster cavity. We are also going to get just the 1 standard light per room but relocate off centre where one of the downlights will go so that there won't be a nasty hole in the centre of our roof.

We have some honest electricians around here that will charge around $55 for a light wired, supplied and installed. Thats around $60 cheaper per light!! Adds up really fast with downlights.

I guess we just don't want to end up getting told later that we can't get the lights installed for some strange reason .

mmmmm you guys have got me thinking... I'm also building with Adenbrook in South Brisbane. Maybe I should get a sparky to put the lights in after handover. I haven't done the electrical plans with the builder yet so this may be a good idea.... So you're getting all batten lights to start then putting them in after??

Does this viod any warrenty with the building or anything?

I'm sure they will try to scare you with voiding warranties and things like that but I wouldn't let that bother you.

I got the consultant to draw all of the plans for what we want and lastnight i crossed off SO MANY THINGS!! now I am left with a plan that I can show to another sparky. I worked out that I will save $2500 just in downlights and powerpoints and that's on a 31 square home.

Honestly guys i would be talking with the sparkie on site when he does the rough in - It is another headache you can do without after handover.

Yep…what Slugger said!

You’ll have plenty of other financial commitments after handover.

Ditto.
I would still be mindful of the maintenance/warranty issue, especially if you do them after handover. During construction is always a good bet, then the builder can't say that they were never aware of their existence.

Novice question time...

Can you access the roof space of the downstairs ceiling through the floor of the second floor?

If you cut through the floor.

Sorry what I meant to say was if you were desperate to do the lighting after handover could you cut through the floor (MDF?) to access the ceiling below to put the extra lighting in. The floor is only going to be carpeted over anyway...

Cookie have you heard back from BH council yet?

I'll update my Clarendon thread...
http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?p=38534#38534

One thing that you need to make sure if doing the lights afterwards, the each light and power point circuit needs to be balanced forthe correct amperage of the circuit which is based on the number of lights and the current draw on that circuit.

This might be part of the reason fro the builders uplifted cost.

But you can't have 10 batton lights on a circuit and then install 50 downlights without splitting the circuits to match the current draw on each.

and re getting into the upper floor to lower ceiling space, normally there is not much room in there.
My thoughts
Steve