How long does an EICR take?

For a typical two-to-three-bed home, expect roughly 2–4 hours on site. Bigger properties, more circuits, poor access or a rough installation push that up. And the number nobody quotes: the write-up afterwards, which routinely adds an hour or more per report.

What sets the on-site time?

• Number of circuits. Testing scales per circuit, not per bedroom. A small flat with a modern board can be quicker than a two-bed with a sprawling, undocumented installation.
• Access. Furniture against sockets, lofts, locked cupboards and tenants at home all add time — sampling decisions and agreed limitations need recording, not guessing.
• Condition. A tidy, labelled board flies. An aged installation with alterations from three different eras does not — and it generates the observations that take time to investigate and code.
• Scope agreed up front. The extent and limitations agreed with the person ordering the report shape everything downstream. Agree it before you start, in writing.

The hidden hours: the write-up

The part that quietly eats the evening is not the testing — it is turning site notes into the report: wording each observation properly, assigning codes, citing regulations, transferring test results from the instrument into the schedule, and formatting the lot. Done by hand after a full day on the tools, that is commonly 45–90 minutes per cert, unpaid.

It is also the part software can genuinely absorb. Modyx exists for exactly this: dictate what you find as you walk the job, and the observations come back worded, coded to BS 7671 with the reg cited, and the schedule of test results filled in from your voice. You review it and sign — the write-up happens while you are still on site.

Should you quote by the hour or the job?

Most sparks quote EICRs per job, banded by bedrooms or circuits — which means every hour saved on the write-up is margin, not lost billing. If your write-up time drops from an hour to minutes, a three-EICR week returns you an evening. That is the actual economics of inspection work: the testing is the job, the paperwork is the tax.