If you've got a gap day, how far is it worth travelling just to do an inspection?

[Rockingit]

I'm watching it pee down with rain outside whilst I'm waiting for plaster to dry on a site before 2nd fix, other stuff all nicely diaried throughout the rest of the month, and didn't have a mad rush over crimbo to now need attending to = semi bored sparky sat at his desk and not making any money for a few days.

Enquiry from an internet site for an EICR, West London. It's about four hours round trip. Guy seems happy to use me and as it's a pre-move in then there might be work from it in the future....but match quote the local DI's to around £130 plus VAT.

So the moral/business dilemna is do I go out and do something that will take me all day and make me about £80, just because I've nothing better to do, or do I leave well alone and not get into the 'DI's driving the prices down' war??

There's also a tad bit of professionalism involved in that I know he'll get a quality, technically accurate and honest report off me, which he may not from some cheap DI.

 

[Paul.M]

Empty house, 4 hours round trip, £80 profit but may lead to more work? Depends on how bored you are.

I've got a similar problem, day off whilst van is being repaired but a kitchen rewire I did last year, the customer now wants brushed steel sockets that he has bought to replace plastic that I put in.£50 job minus ten quid round trip in a taxi? End of the day its money in your/my pocket. I'll book mine in for late afternoon and hope the van is ready.

 

[JD6400]

We are based in Bucks but each year seem to get at least one job from our existing client base that have either moved or have property bloody miles away and only trust us to do the job !
It has ranged from a complete new build 7000 bird free range chicken unit and about a 5500 square foot barn conversion (up here where i now live 5 miles down the road !) in Lincolnshire , to a 4 bed new build down in Tintagel , Cornwall , and one of the last was a 3 bed bungalow rewire just to the side of Hove .

Work is work , even if you do not want or need it sometimes , there will always be a day that you wish you had taken it !

And it is always interesting to see how things are done elsewhere in the country.

 

[Rockingit]

OK, OK, I'll get my coat. But I draw the line at cooker elements. And probably sewerage pumps. Oh, and customers that like Stephen Fry. Or that Bieber kid. And the fog on the Tyne can stay right where it is, thank you.

 

[Octopus]

Hum, 4 hour round trip, and if there are issues later........

 

[Rockingit]

I figure you can't really have an issue with a PIR that requires a call-back! I think in this case, it's likely to be mostly visual appraisal and a few sample readings to give them an idea of what work needs doing as their surveyor has flagged up some potential issues.

Who knows, might be a whole load of work in the future, or just a drive on the grey wet A303. It's a brave world out there.

 

[Spudnik]

If you have nothing on, its better to have that money than none at all.

I am typing this whilst listening to a man replacing some fence posts and panels for next door, in the ****ing rain, with a chainsaw.

He is either very busy and/or stupid.

 

[oldtimer]

4 hour round trip ? I tend to stick within the city limits or even step a toe out on the fringes but my business model does not work and me thinks 4 hours at 50 miles and hour it would cost me £50 on fuel