How Much Should I Pay Electrician For Labour Only

[dmax]

my bungalow is 70 metres square. i need only lighting and sockets and 2 ceiling fans and metre box installed,nothing fancy and no air con or anything else.what is the going rate in isaan for paying an electrian to do this,i buy materials myself. the cheating thai builder agreed with me twice before he started that the money i was paying him for labour only "inclided everything"now he has told my wife that its up to me topay electrician as he cannot do electrics,is it normalpractise to pay electrician myself ? is it normalpractise for builders just to do building wirk only ? advise needed please.

i need only an average basic price what to pay .

[MrRichard2009]

I paid an electrician\plumber to do some odd jobs in my house 300 bht for 6 hrs, he was happy enough..... I was going to give him 1000 but my wife said it was to much.

[TexasRanger]

400 Baht per day is the usual going rate for most contractors where I live but it depends on their work, I am notorious for overpaying someone who does a good job and will just pay the standard for a crap job then never use them again.

My regular electrician worked for 8 hours on a job for me recently with 2 helpers and he looked embarrassed when he asked for 1000 Bt???

[Gary A]

It's been several years ago now. I had the house rewired and that included pulling wires through the attic, the poor guy was covered with spiderwebs and soaking wet with sweat. It took a day and a half. I gave him 500 baht and he seemed quite happy. When he left my wife told me that I gave him too much. Since that was several years ago, I would say that today 350 baht per day for an upcountry electrician would be enough.

[ReThai]

We've had lots of re-wiring done (grounding, new sockets and separating the fuses for the air conditioners and computers etc). he's charging us 500thb per day + supplies (wires etc).

[Cuban]

I have not employed people locally as I do that type of work myself, however a neighbor paid 400 Baht for a short days work - he is known to over pay in the belief that people will like him more, so 300-350 for a full day seems correct IMHO.

However - it depends on the skill level and what their work is like. We have a builder that did a great job of tiling and cement walls, we will not be using his skills as a plumber again though.

[Pib]

The 350 to 500 Baht/day range for most semi-skilled labor should be about right.

[elkangorito]

Not wanting to hijack the thread but I have a quick question...

If you were guaranteed that any electrical work done in your home met an international standard (e.g. IEC), what would you be prepared to pay per hour for a "qualified" person to carry out this work?

Please also bear in mind that Thailand does not seem to possess any written "standard" regarding the wiring of domestic installations & Thai electricians are not specifically trained in house wiring. Nor are Thai electricians "licensed" in any way.

Edited November 28, 2009 by elkangorito

[david96]

My wife paid 700B in late 2008 to have a split system Aircon cleaned and checked. 3 men x 1 hour plus consumables. 200B per man per hour.

For an Electrician, competent to Thai standards for residential electrical installations perhaps 200B to 250B per hour, based on a monthly salary of 10000B. That is employing him directly. Using an electrical contracting company it might be 50% more.

You should get quotes for 1, an hourly rate and 2, to complete the work. A quote is a fixed price.

The 4 stages 1. Install cables 2. Fit off, lights, switches, socket outlets etc. 3. Install switchboard and connect and 4. Testing for compliance.

Remember if you employ 2 persons you may get the job done in a 30% of the time, depends on the work involved.

[monty]

For an Electrician, competent to Thai standards for residential electrical installations perhaps 200B to 250B per hour, based on a monthly salary of 10000B. That is employing him directly. Using an electrical contracting company it might be 50% more.

That's some weird calculation you use!

AT 200 Baht per hour, working 8 hours per day and 5 days per week (what is way less then average!) he would be making close to 35,000 Baht/month!

That said, I do not really agree with some of the above mentioned remunerations.

The numbers (350/day upcountry, more in the big city) are probably correct for labor only, like in a worker working for a company with company supplied tools, transport etc...

But if you want to hire a self employed electrician, who owns his own proper tools, then that number is too low, at least if you want the job done properly. A proper set of tools can set a self employed electrician back several tens of thousands of Baht (side grinder, pneumatic drill, the proper clamping tools etc).

You simply cannot somebody to come do a specialist job with the proper tools for the same money he would be getting working for a boss...

I would say upcountry we're looking at between 500 and 700 Baht/day, in the big cities closer to 700 to 900 Baht a day.

[david96]

For an Electrician, competent to Thai standards for residential electrical installations perhaps 200B to 250B per hour, based on a monthly salary of 10000B. That is employing him directly. Using an electrical contracting company it might be 50% more.

That's some weird calculation you use!

AT 200 Baht per hour, working 8 hours per day and 5 days per week (what is way less then average!) he would be making close to 35,000 Baht/month!

That said, I do not really agree with some of the above mentioned remunerations.

The numbers (350/day upcountry, more in the big city) are probably correct for labor only, like in a worker working for a company with company supplied tools, transport etc...

But if you want to hire a self employed electrician, who owns his own proper tools, then that number is too low, at least if you want the job done properly. A proper set of tools can set a self employed electrician back several tens of thousands of Baht (side grinder, pneumatic drill, the proper clamping tools etc).

You simply cannot somebody to come do a specialist job with the proper tools for the same money he would be getting working for a boss...

I would say upcountry we're looking at between 500 and 700 Baht/day, in the big cities closer to 700 to 900 Baht a day.

Yes I agree one made a mistake it should have been 60B per hour, I based the calculation on a weekly rate instead of a monthly rate. 40 hrs/ week. 2500B per week, or 5000B per fortnight.

Edited December 1, 2009 by david96