Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 30, 2011 8:11 pm Just want to see what people are paying for the there upgrades to there electrical plan, as we recieved our back and it was $9k and just want to see if this is the norm. We just upgraded to the basics 44 downlights, 12 extra powerpoints + 2 outdoor ones, extra light points and loops and 2 way switching, and also upgrading of the alarm with extra sensors and door reeds, installing of our own lights we provide for the the bedrooms and fan, and basic exterior lighting (3 x flood lights) Thanks Re: Curious to what your electrical plan cost? Any Builder.. 2Mar 30, 2011 8:22 pm Hi Jacknruby, That sounds about normal for the items you've listed. You will find the biggest cost is in your downlights - we charge around $150 per low voltage downlight, as you are needing an extra light point, plus the actual downlight, plus the fireguard for it. If it's not too late, a cheaper option can be to get junction boxes installed instead of your downlights, and get a sparky in after handover to do your downlights - if you can be bothered Re: Curious to what your electrical plan cost? Any Builder.. 3Mar 30, 2011 9:53 pm CA3105 Hi Jacknruby, That sounds about normal for the items you've listed. You will find the biggest cost is in your downlights - we charge around $150 per low voltage downlight, as you are needing an extra light point, plus the actual downlight, plus the fireguard for it. If it's not too late, a cheaper option can be to get junction boxes installed instead of your downlights, and get a sparky in after handover to do your downlights - if you can be bothered This might be a silly question but what is a junction box and what would that cost? Re: Curious to what your electrical plan cost? Any Builder.. 4Mar 30, 2011 10:25 pm Quote: If it's not too late, a cheaper option can be to get junction boxes installed instead of your downlights, and get a sparky in after handover to do your downlights - if you can be bothered Is this only possible for a single storey? Can I also do this dowstairs for my double storey? Quote: This might be a silly question but what is a junction box and what would that cost? I too would like to know, as I'm too lazy to Google. 13-08 Moved in 13-05 Build restart 13-04 VMIA compensation 12-08 Builder liquidation 12-03 Fixing 11-12 Lockup 11-11 Frame 11-09 Slab 11-09 Start 11-07 Contract 10-11 2K deposit 10-06 Titled land Re: Curious to what your electrical plan cost? Any Builder.. 5Mar 31, 2011 1:20 am doing downlights through the builder is like throwing money down the toilet. We have got the builder to replace the cheap light globes instead with a clipsal '413' in the ceilings at no extra charge. A clipsal 413 is like a wall plug, but for ceilings. lights, fans etc plug right in. Its already switched up ready to go. This way the ceiling is left unaltered and theres no holes to patch up and paint. After handover i will be purchasing my own downlights etc, marking out positions and getting sparkie to come do the fitting and connection. Instead of paying $150-$200 a downlight. you pay $20 to $30 a downlight. $80 a downlight if you want LED. Re: Curious to what your electrical plan cost? Any Builder.. 6Mar 31, 2011 1:36 am Carolleigh CA3105 Hi Jacknruby, That sounds about normal for the items you've listed. You will find the biggest cost is in your downlights - we charge around $150 per low voltage downlight, as you are needing an extra light point, plus the actual downlight, plus the fireguard for it. If it's not too late, a cheaper option can be to get junction boxes installed instead of your downlights, and get a sparky in after handover to do your downlights - if you can be bothered This might be a silly question but what is a junction box and what would that cost? Not a silly question at all! It sounds similar to wrexters wall plugs above - A junction box just means they leave the wiring coiled up in the ceiling, so you still get your light switch and wiring chased down the wall, but no hole in the ceiling. The electrician can then come along and make the holes in the ceiling where you want, install the lights there, and just connect to the wiring that was left coiled up waiting for him. Keep in mind that you would move in with no lights though unless you get your electrician in quickly As for cost, I can't speak for all builders but my work doesn't charge any extra - it is the same cost as a light point. I always steer all my clients in that direction, it's so much cheaper for them. Re: Curious to what your electrical plan cost? Any Builder.. 7Mar 31, 2011 1:40 am Also I'm not sure about the double storey (I only have experience in single storeys for now) - my guess would be that you couldn't do junction boxes on the ground floor, because there wouldn't be room for an electrician to get in there to hook it up - but I may be wrong. Re: Curious to what your electrical plan cost? Any Builder.. 8Mar 31, 2011 1:50 pm We paid $500 extra for elec. $250 of that was the "charge" for the elec to dig the phone line trench and run the conduit for telstra. The junctions for facade lights that cost us $50 each x 3 and 1 extra power point at $50 and a two way switch for lights at $50. Everything else i`ll be doing after handover. Paying 9k for extra elec is crazy. Re: Curious to what your electrical plan cost? Any Builder.. 9Mar 31, 2011 2:04 pm We added about 8 extra dbl power points, 3 external lights, 2 way switches, extra phone and tv point and a few extra power points in the roof cavity. All up the extra cost $500. We also added a few extra cables for home theater and speakers throughout the house and that was $1000. We decided to go this way so all we have to do is plug in the speakers, amp and projector and its done. "I would never expect anyone to do something that I would not do myself" http://www.squeakbuilds.blogspot.com Custom Designer home. - Builder to be determined Re: Curious to what your electrical plan cost? Any Builder.. 10Mar 31, 2011 2:05 pm Phillshz $250 of that was the "charge" for the elec to dig the phone line trench and run the conduit for telstra. They charged you extra for that?? It's required for every home, so should be included in their contract price. That's a really cheeky builder... Re: Curious to what your electrical plan cost? Any Builder.. 11Mar 31, 2011 5:36 pm We provide our own fittings which works out to about 3k Fan installation, a few extra lights & power points, power doobies (yes I'm technical) for future fence,pool, shed supply all came to around 5k I think but I got a couple of grand back because my builder overestimated meterage for some cable they used Re: Curious to what your electrical plan cost? Any Builder.. 12Mar 31, 2011 8:32 pm CA3105 Phillshz $250 of that was the "charge" for the elec to dig the phone line trench and run the conduit for telstra. They charged you extra for that?? It's required for every home, so should be included in their contract price. That's a really cheeky builder... yes its cheeky because they had to dig a trench anyway for the electricity to go it. Builders usually use the same open trench. Actually telstras contractor pays for the conduit and cable. They usually charge extra if you want them to dig a trench. Re: Curious to what your electrical plan cost? Any Builder.. 13Mar 31, 2011 9:42 pm CA3105 Carolleigh CA3105 Hi Jacknruby, That sounds about normal for the items you've listed. You will find the biggest cost is in your downlights - we charge around $150 per low voltage downlight, as you are needing an extra light point, plus the actual downlight, plus the fireguard for it. If it's not too late, a cheaper option can be to get junction boxes installed instead of your downlights, and get a sparky in after handover to do your downlights - if you can be bothered This might be a silly question but what is a junction box and what would that cost? Not a silly question at all! It sounds similar to wrexters wall plugs above - A junction box just means they leave the wiring coiled up in the ceiling, so you still get your light switch and wiring chased down the wall, but no hole in the ceiling. The electrician can then come along and make the holes in the ceiling where you want, install the lights there, and just connect to the wiring that was left coiled up waiting for him. Keep in mind that you would move in with no lights though unless you get your electrician in quickly As for cost, I can't speak for all builders but my work doesn't charge any extra - it is the same cost as a light point. I always steer all my clients in that direction, it's so much cheaper for them. Thanks for explanation... so am I correct in understanding that whether I go the clipsal option or the junction box option - I am still without light until I get a sparky in to do something for me? Or can I go clipsal option and put my own temporary light in? I'm a bit confused! Squeakaz...why did you put powerpoints in the roof cavity? Xmas lights? Re: Curious to what your electrical plan cost? Any Builder.. 14Mar 31, 2011 9:46 pm As you all sound like you knoW what your talking about I'm going to ask this here... What is a two way switch. I keep seeing the term everywhere but have no idea what it means!! Re: Curious to what your electrical plan cost? Any Builder.. 15Mar 31, 2011 9:55 pm 2 way switch.... 2 switches which operate one light.... ie. switch to turn on/off light for passage at front door and switch to turn on/off same light at end of passage (just an example) Re: Curious to what your electrical plan cost? Any Builder.. 16Mar 31, 2011 10:54 pm I think we got off pretty lightly... Our builder included enough lights / power points to have one light and one power point in every room, plus one outside light, as well as a phone point and tv point. By the time we added a few extra power points and a couple more lights (standard baton lights... we can upgrade them to downlights later), a double waterproof outdoor power point, a 15amp power point in the garage, door bell, 2 lights at the front door and a couple of extra tv points, we came in at less than $1000 (three phase power was included seperatley for the air con). There is a couple of places that I wish we had have put some more power points (no where to plug the spare fridge in in the garage ), but all in all, I am happy with that... helps that DH's brother and also a mate of his are electrician's, so we can get things like down lights done cheaper at a later date... Built the Coral Homes Hamilton 252 - moved in 20/10/2010 and loving it!! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=27215 Re: Curious to what your electrical plan cost? Any Builder.. 17Mar 31, 2011 11:34 pm @Carolleigh - It is possible that the clipsal option is the same as the junction box option, but I asked around at my work today and no one was sure what the Clipsal box was, it could be that they are different and the builder I work for just doesn't offer that option for clients therefore no one knows about it, or it could be the same but my work only uses the generic term rather than brand label "Clipsal". But yes, if you have junction boxes you definitely won't have any lights until the sparky comes out, because the builder will not punch through the ceiling so you will have no light points, only a clean slate of a ceiling so you can choose light positions later. Wrexters clipsal option sounds the same, because they don't punch through the ceiling. @Nic - if you know an electrician, you can probably get them to install some extra GPO's later - really easy for them to go down a cavity wall and punch through the wall to put the GPO plate in - all my clients on a tight budget do this as a standard anyway, so it's quite common. Also some people that forget a GPO in their garage end up putting a conduit on the wall with the wiring in it - obviously it doesn't look all that nice having a conduit running down the wall from the ceiling, but it's only the garage so it's not on full view to everyone, and allows you to have your spare fridge Re: Curious to what your electrical plan cost? Any Builder.. 19Apr 01, 2011 7:58 am 44 downlights is part of the basics? That's a lot of downlights, and they're expensive to run and maintain as well. Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: Curious to what your electrical plan cost? Any Builder.. 20Apr 01, 2011 11:04 am I think we paid about $6000 or so. That was for extra internal and external powerpoints, 10 downlights, projector wiring, ducted vaccuum, stairwell lights (which I absolutely love), digital tv antenna and a few other bits and bobs. Came over the 5k I had budgeted, but at this point I'm glad we spent that cash. Now: Building another new home Settlement: 8 July 2021 Construction due to start: In two months Hi Mofflepop, I would recommend finding a building designer to prepare plans, they should design to your specified budget. The benefit is you can tender the project out… 9 22112 Thank you so much. This has been very helpful. We definitely wish to settle and get these people out of our life. 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