Help with an AV project and quote for work...

[Kuroblack350]

All,

Just recieved a quote for some interior build and audiovisual work, and I'd appreciate the PH collective thoughts

I'm trying to fabricate a partial floating wall type-thing in our living room to house a large plasma TV and a simple electric fireplace. I envisage building a simple wooden frame, say 1.5 metres wide and perhaps 6" deep. The frame will hold the TV and the fireplace and will be finished off with plasterboard and made good by a plasterer. The effect this creates will almost be like a false chimney breast with a recessed TV on the upper half and a partially recessed fireplace on the lower half.

Part of the work will also be relocating a power socket from an adjacent wall, and relocating an aeriel socket from the same wall. I have also requested that all the required cabling (HDMI etc.) is buried in the wall and taken to an adjacent wall where the Sky and other kit will live.

Now, I appreciate that I'm a Yorkshireman and therefore by default, everything is expensive - however for this project the quote is coming in at £1300. My basic understanding is that the raw materials are fairly simple: (trade prices let's not forget)

1. Wood for the frame - some boggo bits of 2x4 maybe exaggerate and say 10m worth - say £75
2. Plasterboard perhaps 5sqm - absolutely no idea, let's guess and say £100
3. Provide HDMI wall plates and cables - £50
4. Accessories, screws plugs and stuff - say £25
5. Contingency say £50

So by my reckoning that's about £300 worth of materials, and a grand of labour - does that sound right? Got to admit, from my perspective it sounds more like it was priced to perception rather than cost plus...

For the record I was happy to pay £500 +/- %25

Interestingly the quote for the TV was £100 more than John Lewis - and presumably without their 5 year warranty. What gives there then - surely if you've got a specific telly in mind, you *know* where the better deals are..?

Next step - audiovisual self-build; Epic cock-up diary to follow

[DavidY]

Three types of tradesman

Part P Registered Electrician
Basic Fabricator
Plasterer

Expect your man subs some of it out, so margins are applied

[BoRED S2upid]

As above your spark will probably want £200 labour likewise the plasterer and the joiner plus materials, these guys don't get out of bed for nothing its not going to be any cheaper than a grand no matter how hard you barter.

Can't be hard to do the majority of that yourself, simple frame plaster board with holes cut out for the wires then get the spark to finish it off and a plasterer to skim it after. Get whoever is delivering the TV to fix it to the wall and job done.

[E36GUY]

BoRED S2upid said:

As above your spark will probably want £200 labour likewise the plasterer and the joiner plus materials, these guys don't get out of bed for nothing its not going to be any cheaper than a grand no matter how hard you barter.

Can't be hard to do the majority of that yourself, simple frame plaster board with holes cut out for the wires then get the spark to finish it off and a plasterer to skim it after. Get whoever is delivering the TV to fix it to the wall and job done.

This.

Surely you could build a frame yourself and cover it with plasterboard ready for finishing?

[OldSkoolRS]

I've seen a few of these over on AVforums, they have used MDF instead of plasterboard as it is stronger and can be painted/wallpapered over. I've built a pelmet at the front of my room to hide my projector screen in and used MDF, then painted it to match the rest of the wall. I used 12mm (I think) though you could go to 18mm with your wall perhaps. You could countersink screws in from the front side to hold any wood framing. Then you just need to cover the screwheads rather than plastering the whole thing.

Personally I think the whole 'floating wall' thing is going to look dated in a couple of years time as it's been going on for a while now on AVforums anyway, so best to make it easy to remove if you decide to move house at some point.