Electrician in Ashford: a price before anyone drives over

The bigger jobs we take on in Ashford are rewires, consumer unit changes, EV chargers and commercial work, and this page is about getting those priced without a wasted trip for either of us.

Ashford is inland from our base in Folkestone, so the most useful thing we can do for an Ashford job is put a number on it without a wasted trip for either of us. For most small and medium work, a handful of good photos and a couple of answers are enough for a guide price. For the bigger jobs they are enough to tell us what the quote visit has to look at, which keeps that visit short.

Send them whenever suits you, evenings included, and you hear back from us with a price or a next step within 24 hours.

What helps us most

This is the list we would ask you for on the phone anyway. Six photos or answers, and most of the guesswork goes.

• The fuse board with its door open. Close enough that we can read the switches and any labels, then one more from further back so we can see what sits around it. Under the stairs, in a hall cupboard or in the garage are all fine.
• The room, taken from the doorway. Stand back far enough that the picture shows the ceiling and some floor, not just the patch of wall where the new thing is going. Where a cable can travel matters as much as where it ends up.
• The distance in paces. Walk from the board to the spot for the new socket, light or charger and count your steps. It does not need to be exact. Paces tell us whether the run is short and simple or long with corners in it.
• Flat, house or business, and which floor. A first floor flat whose board sits in a shared cupboard is a different job from a semi with the board by the front door.
• What the ceilings are made of. Knock on one. A hollow sound is usually plasterboard. A dull, solid sound can mean older lath and plaster, which needs more care when we cut into it.
• Anything odd you have noticed. A board that hums, a socket that has felt warm, a breaker that keeps dropping. Mention it even if it is not the job you are asking about.

WhatsApp is the easiest way to send all this. Email works too, at info@lanawayelectrical.co.uk, with Ashford in the subject line.

The guide prices, and what each range is really about

Every range below exists because of something physical in your house. Knowing what it is tells you which photo settles it.

• Rewire, whole house or part, priced after a free look. Size, access, floors and how much plastering and decoration follows decide it, so photos tell us what to look at and the visit does the pricing. The rewire cost guide explains what moves the figure.
• Consumer unit change, from £550. The figure climbs with the number of circuits and with how you want them protected. Giving each circuit its own protection costs more than one shared switch, and it is the version where a single fault leaves the rest of the house running. The photo of the open board answers most of this.
• EV charger, £750 to £1,200. Nearly the whole spread is cable. A charger on the garage wall a pace or two from the board sits at the bottom of it; one across a driveway from the board sits near the top. Your paces count is the single most useful number for this job.
• Commercial work, priced after a free look. Shops, offices, cafes, units and building contractors who need electrical labour. Drawings, a scope or photos of the area are enough to start.
• An extra socket, £90 to £150. Whether it sits on the wall in a surface box or is cut in flush, and how close the nearest circuit is to borrow power from.
• Downlights, £350 to £600 a room. How many fittings the room takes, and the space above it. A room with a loft over it is easier to work from than one with a bedroom over it, which is why the ceiling photo matters.
• Fault finding, £80 to £180. The one range photos barely narrow, because the time goes on the hunt. Telling us when it trips and what was running at the time narrows it more than any picture.

Time on the job is charged at a first hour from £80, then £48 an hour, and domestic work carries no VAT. The full breakdown, including which small jobs fit in an hour, is on the price guide.

What a photo cannot price

Some work needs us in the room. A rewire, whole house or part, is the obvious one: what is under the floors and inside the walls decides it, and no picture shows that. Garden offices and outbuildings are the same, as is most commercial work, and any board where the photos show something we want to test before putting a figure on it.

For those the quote visit is free and there is no obligation attached. Your photos still earn their keep, because we turn up already knowing what to look at. Either way the guide becomes one fixed figure, written down and agreed before any work starts.

Booking a visit around a working week

Louis is on the tools Monday to Friday. Quote visits are usually Friday evenings and Saturday mornings. Once a price is agreed, the work goes in the diary and we confirm the day with you.

If you can smell burning, see smoke or sparks, or anyone has had a shock, ring 999 first. If something is dangerous right now but it is not that, call us rather than emailing. A photo can wait. A hot socket cannot.