What Drives the Cost of Electrical Work in Melbourne

Why per-item pricing misleads on bigger work

A per-item rate works for a job that is genuinely repeatable — one power point in a plastered wall, in a house with a board that has room in it. It stops working the moment the job touches the switchboard, the mains, or a wall someone else is going to close up. On that work the variation between two properties is larger than the variation between two electricians, which is why we scope it rather than list it.

Switchboard and mains upgrades

Four things decide the scope, and the first two are usually invisible until the board is opened:

• Circuit count and board space — whether the existing enclosure can hold a compliant board, or whether the enclosure itself has to change
• Asbestos backing — dark backing panels behind the switchgear in boards from roughly the 1960s to the 1980s have to be removed under controlled conditions
• The consumer mains — the incoming cable is often sized for the load the house had decades ago, and upgrading the board without it just moves the bottleneck
• The meter position — moving or rebuilding a meter box brings the distributor into the job and adds lead time

Switchboard upgrades →

Rewires and renovation rough-in

On a rewire the floor plan tells you less than the construction does. Roof cavity height, subfloor clearance, whether the walls are plaster or lath, and whether the house is occupied all change how long cable takes to run. On a renovation the scope splits in two — the rough-in before the walls close, the fit-off after — and those are quoted and programmed separately so they sit inside the builder's schedule rather than across it.

House rewiring →   Renovation rough-in →

Three-phase and heavy load

Ducted systems, induction cooking, pool plant, workshop machinery and EV charging can push a property past what a single-phase service can carry. Whether the answer is load management on the existing supply or a three-phase upgrade depends on the distributor's supply at the street, which has to be checked before anyone can quote it properly.

Three-phase upgrades →

Commercial and fit-out

Commercial work runs to a programme, and the programme is usually the cost driver. Where a site cannot lose power in trading hours the switching happens out of hours and is priced that way from the start. Where the work is going to tender, we price against the drawings as issued.

Commercial & industrial →

What to send us for an accurate quote

The more of this we have up front, the fewer assumptions end up in the quote:

• A photo of the switchboard with the cover on, and one with it off if it is safe to take
• A photo of the meter box and where the mains come in
• The property type, rough age, and whether it is single or double storey
• Drawings, if there are any — even a marked-up floor plan helps
• What is prompting the work, and when it needs to be done by