How much romex will it take?

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brantmacga

Señor Member
Location
Georgia
Occupation
Former Child
What are you using to figure out your 12-2? Or are you using 14-2 for your outlets?

i use 14/2 where allowed, 12/2 where required.


haven't done a house in a couple of years but I used an excel program i wrote to figure materials.

but before that, when i did it all manually, we never exceeded 1.5' per sq ft of romex on a "code" job.
 

tryinghard

Senior Member
Location
California
Estimating is funny because the better you are, the more money you lose the company.
Easy now depends on how you define better; I define it as actuals were less by 10% +/- a few points. If this is true and the sale price is market good profit is available.

I recommend doing your take-off by assemblies the total pertinent footage will extend from these. Then only purchase up to 80% of what extended.
 
How much romex will it take?

My rule of thumb on residential projects is this:

Count your devices, such as receptacles, switches, lighting, etc...
Once you have your count I do 15-20' per/device. Then I add 20-30% for homeruns depending on the distance to the panel.
That should give you a pretty good Idea of how much romex, 14/2 and 12/2. 14/3 for S3's , etc...

Ofcourse for commercial projects I add more. Varioubles are distances between devices.
 

bullheimer

Senior Member
Location
WA
why in the world would you be trying to figure out how much material is going to cost? oh yeah, you do commerical.

forget all that. tell him you want $3/square foot. it's up to you to include the garage or not. i generally do not if the garage gets only one outlet and a light and another outlet for the gdoor.

this is for basic nec WITH overhead lights. three ways only for largest rooms. it would be less if romex wasn't $80/roll.

this is with homeowner buying all lights except can lights, which i give them 10 to 15 free then charge $75 each over and above that. or... i will buy the 'boob' lights or the 'mushroom' lights at 2 for $16 at HD.

No other extra circuits or under cabinet lights. extra outlets, $150, such as for dishwasher or microwave. $250 for a 240 ckt at 20Amps $350 for a 30 Amp. $450-500 for a 50A.
$500 up for a heat pump. etc etc. the extras add up. same with some clown that wants 3 ways everywhere, or lights in every closet. put them as add ons. give them a base price like i said of $3/sq ft and you can't lose. and almost everybody is the same. lowest i heard of was eastern washington at $2.50/sq ft. i could do that but forget having overhead lights anywhere but where code requires. with keyless lights in the garage. that was also over summer when romex was $50/roll.
extra for tv and phone as well, except at 3/sf include them at no charge. 2x3 is still dirt cheap at $6000!!!!!! that also is only for a homeline panel. charge $500 more for type QO. more for a septic system (maybe up to $1500) same for other sub panels somewhere, like a detached garage. lots of variables, but the 6K is in stone for bare bones house with overhead lights at $10ea. dont forget all 120V breakers have to be arc fault or at least the bedrooms (per wa state code) except gfi. it costs alot. i dont think anybody here is going to figure material plus time. that is not the way to do it. plus you can make estimates on the phone or advertise at that as well. there are very few that have been able to get it for less, but not so much on custom homes. you probably don't even have an electrical print to go by. more time bra. but you dont need one anyway. good luck widat! my last 6000$ bid ended up costing them like 9.5K. and just for yourself, NEVER BELIEVE THE INFO A HVAC CONTRACTOR GIVES YOU FOR A HEAT PUMP. i swear what the (h e double tooth picks, cant say that place where the devil lives or the moderator will have a hissy fit.) is wrong with these hvac guys that they cant EVER get the size of wire or number of wires right?

i added on for: extra tv in the ceiling ckts; floor heat in the bathrooms, like $800 a shot; kidney dialysIs outlet; extra oven outlet; microwave, d/w, no disp but that woulda been extra too; sub panel in downstairs, gave it away cause i saved wire and time; lights in all closets, $100 for two; extra can lights 25 total, charged $75 times 10; heat pump; wall heat units on each floor; water sprinkler system ckt; extra dryer ckt; extra microwave ckt, undercabinet lights $125 each; extra this extra that, i could write a book. extra moolah...... outlet for security system, i gave them plenty too, like cable for the ceiling tv units, plugs for the gas fireplaces, outlet in one closet, blah blah blah an extra $25 for the recessed light cover over the shower. every little thing above and beyond the base price. make sure you talk to the owner or gen about it as soon as they open their mouth that they want it 'that will cost extra'. they don't like it there is nothing they can do about it. if they don't like your price it's up to you to lower it, and DONT.

on the garage you could tell him it will be another $1/sq ft if you have to go all the way across it to get to the rest of the house. extra distance for each run means mo money mo money mo money. that price includes the permit, DONT FORGET TO ADD SALES TAX TO THAT.
 
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bullheimer

Senior Member
Location
WA
after all that i see you are in Looziana. jeeze you are like almost in a third world country down there the scale is way lower down there than up here in wa or in say Joisey. if you want to make sure you get it you could make out okay at $2.50. but you wont be cuttin as fat a pig in the coolo. but still, BARE BONES CODE DUDE, throw in the garage and lights (only one light per room too) if you are desperate. you will still make money no matter what. if you are doing it plan on 2 weeks to rough it in, cause resi aint your forte'. i take two weeks and know what i'm doing. i just like to work 6 hours a day and go as slow as possible. usually time isnt that important, but if it is, just work harder. no big. if you do it for 2.50 then tell them it's PLUS PERMIT AND PLUS TAX. if you are in a big city then charge more.
and oh yeah, NO DECORA style devices at this price either. charge more FOR EVERYTHING BEYOND BASE CODE BUBBA! peace out

PS alittle tip. take pics when you are done. also put a squirt of spray paint underneath every box on the floor, so you know for sure if the rocker buried a box on you. use #14 for everything you can, too. need any help pm me ifn you want. it would be nice to getta letter from somebody beside a p.o'd moderator in my mail box. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
 
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bullheimer

Senior Member
Location
WA
RIGHT ON, M'BRUTHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA :cool::cool::cool: YOU BE $ITTIN IN HIGH COTTON!!!

wish i could say i helpd ya sum but i know you didnt read my post first.
BUT AH'LL JUST PRETEND YU DID! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!;)

and dont dont forgit about them extrees broski!
 
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Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
I never did figure out how to bid by sq ft. I go buy openings and the type involved.

16 - sw1
8 - sw3
2 - sw4
50 - gp recept
10 - kitch recept
30 - fixtures
6 -smokes
1 - disposal
1 - g furn
1 - washer
132 openings total

2772' of wire
396 of 14/2
649 of 14/3
1726 of 12/2

When I was doing them myself this was pretty accurate.
 

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
RIGHT ON, M'BRUTHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA :cool::cool::cool: YOU BE $ITTIN IN HIGH COTTON!!!

wish i could say i helpd ya sum but i know you didnt read my post first.
BUT AH'LL JUST PRETEND YU DID! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!;)

and dont dont forgit about them extrees broski!
:confused:
 

bullheimer

Senior Member
Location
WA
that will help, as will all the other posts, in figuring out your expenses, if that is what you want to do, but he was wanting to just give a bid. plus, if the owner is like all the ones i deal with, there isnt an electrical blueprint. that will take alot of time to fill one in for him, then lets say you give it to him with your estimate, then he gives it to somebody else who uses it to beat your bid. at least in my world that's how it goes.

here is some stuff for the op. if you don't do resi much you are sure to blow a couple of things.

You can NOT run your range light off'n your countertop receps. they 'shall have no other outlets' two exceptions only: plug for gas range and clock outlet.

You may not have to buy $65 AFCI breakers for all your 120V ckts if your local AHJ lets you. As i said in WA state only bed rooms need to be. and btw that includes the smoke alarms in the bedrooms too.
I hate AFCI's. i heard they improved the breakers to not nuisance trip but i still, given that i only have to run a ckt to each bedroom, (i think you are allowed 10 outlets on a 15A ckt), so you may or may not be able to put two bedrooms on one breaker, each outlet figure 180VA 15Ax120V is 1800W so, yeah, but it is not written in stone either, you can fudge alittle, with lights etc. That is why i charge more for closet lights and outlets, often times it will prohibit you from putting two rooms on one breaker, cha-ching, there goes another $65.
Also, i never anymore run an AFCI ckt wire within 12" of another circuit. never thru same hole, cross as close to 90 degrees etc. i have had a really bad time with nuisance tripping in the past.

You can run two or three bathroom gfi's only on one ckt, (we have been getting away with three), and run all the lights and fans from any other ckt. Or, you can run everything in the bathroom on one ckt. Floor heat units i think have to be on dedicated.

All outside outlets, 2 reqd, have to be marked WR. weather resistant, and they are about $15 each.

All outlets have to be tamper resistant, marked TR.

You supply all fart fans, and make sure your laundry fan is big enuf to serve as a whole house fan. Req'd here, as well is a timer control to automatically for some insane reason, turn the fan on periodically.

You can NOT run romex outside for more than about three feet. Even in liquidtite or any other conduit. Stupid i know. So if you have heat pump on roof or on slab, make your romex terminate on the outside wall.

Any pipe on the ground, hate to say, has to be in rigid steel or schd 80. Inspector asked me if you could roll a bbq on it or slide a lawn chair into it. How in the world that would hurt schd 40 or EMT is beyond me, but i have to do a change out on that on something i did here soon.

i like to run about a 1.5" pipe either up to the attic or down to the crawlspace just for future reference.

You have to lable, here at least, every cable when it comes into the panel with a sharpie. You may want to put a 2x4 sideways 12" above and below the panel to staple to as well.

Any 3 wire has to be landed on a 2pole breaker now. If you hard wire the Dishwasher then it has to have a breaker lock out on it. And if you put an outlet for it, they want it under the sink, not behind the dw now they're telling me. DW and disposal on same ckt okay if load calcs are only 80% capacity, which it almost always is, but you should check.

There is no hgt requirement for outlets or sw. hammer hgt works for outlets and 4 ft for sw. counter top outlets 4" lower. All accessible outlets in garage must be gfi. so not the g.door opener.

All grounds have to be made up for rough in. Make sure you know how to use a Buchanan if you use them. green wire nuts bite the big one.
Also make sure you only buy the longer Deep nail on boxes. If you dont you will be sorry.
Use push in connectors instead of set screw, cheaper and easier.
Need two ground rods w/#6
Need to bond metal gas and water pipes with #4
Dont try to daisy chain tv cable. you can daisy chain phone lines tho but always use those little phone line connectors you put in without stripping the wire and squeeze with your pliars.

Try to never run anything (power) to a light location. only switch legs. And try not to dead end three wire for 3 ways, although it's easy to do if you have to.
No outside boxes in same bay as an inside box.
Plastic nipples from panel to meter socket dont have to be bonded, and i believe you can run your ground wire thru one. if you use a metal nipple it has to be bonded either with a bonding locknut if you are in the biggest hole, or with a bonding bushing if there are large concentric knockouts.
keep tv/phone 12" away from power
consult local power co for requirements for securing service mast.
URD is okay for service wire
#2 Aluminum is only good for 90A anymore if its feeding a subpanel
use lots o noalox
dont run wire to breakers up and down the panel before you land them, cut them to fit.
dont forget your AFCI neutrals DONT land on the neutral bar!! i twist them around the hots, like i do with the line side of a GFI in a gfi box.
When you make up boxes thy to leave them so there are only two wires going to the switch on trim out, and no more than four wires for outlets ie more than two cables, pigtail them
watch your box fill, know that 14 ga is 2cu inches per wire and 12 is 2.25 and grounds only count once. also that devices count as two wires and gfi's now count as four. i think. you dont want to have to remove boxes, which is why i say use just the deep ones, esp if you have to shove a gfi in one.

Keep your point of attachment on the mast over three feet from the roof, 8 ft if it's flat. you could go down to 18" but there are conditions for that and there are exceptions to much. you need 10' hgt over grass, 12' over driveways.

am i stating the obvious? well good.

make damned sure your boxed DONT stick out farther than 1/2" in alittle is ten times better than sticking out.

w/o a box connector or clamp you have to staple within 8 inches of a box, not 12"/ those tabs you push in on the black boxes count as a clamp. those tabs you knock OUT of the blue boxes are not clamps. (one holds the wire, one doesnt.)

Oh yeah, i HATE using a 3.0 round box for an outside outlet and will never do so again. And now builders are putting blocks where outside outlets and porch lights go. So you have to drill it for a 3-0 box.
Keep the fart fan motors and elec. heaters in the box till trim out, dont install on rough in
man, what else can i think of??? Anything with a fuse/breaker has to have that 3 ft of clearance in front of it. Keep that in mind for the A/C disco.
I dont know. Anybody else out there got more tips for this guy, lay them on him.
1 smokie in each bedroom and outside hall way. one on each floor,
Lights are required only in kitchen bath and stairways. ceiling lights that is.
I also usually throw a keyless in the attic too. anywhere there's equipment needs an outlet. gfi in crawl space. w/in 25' of outdoor equipment. equip in the attic or crawl also needs a light near it.
No wires within six feet of attic access on tops of ceiling joist/truss. That's if no permanent stairs. if there is then none anywhere you can walk.

No more than 3 cables per hole. no more than 2 in some places. has to do with fire areas. and i'm not too clear on that either. 4 cable in same hole for more than 2 ft is bundling and you would have to derate.
Drill big holes! but not too big, they measure from the edge of the hole, not where the wire is in the hole. and guess what. 2x4's are no longer 3.5 inches wide. they shrunk them. so make sure you nail plate where you need them.
Keep your refer outlet non protected.
There was a mention in the latest Elec. Contractor mag, where mike holt, (some smart guy) says that all outlets in the kitchen had to be gfi protected even if they weren't above the counter top. so i would check with your AHJ on whether the DW and Frige outlets can not be gfi, or if they have to be.
Around here you have to buy a $15 extra permit for every thermostat. Also, not all thermostats with disconnect all power to an elec wall heater, as in using a 2 wire thermostat for a 240V heater.
hey, i gotta go.

i just want to say Thank you to God for dropping a big money job right into my lap this morning. Wow! i got something i prayed for! doesnt happen often. but i'll take it!!!!! ps big money to me is a $7500 job that takes $3500 worth of material.
 

marti smith

Senior Member
"You supply all fart fans, and make sure your laundry fan is big enuf to serve as a whole house fan. Req'd here, as well is a timer control to automatically for some insane reason, turn the fan on periodically."

FWIW, the whole house fan on a timer: this is a requirement in many moist climates where excess moisture (i.e. laundry or bathroom/sauna) will accumulate and the result is mold growth/buildup; the intake of fresh air is regulated by a timed fan to help in the prevention of this.
 

bullheimer

Senior Member
Location
WA
it is a good thing to remove excess gasses from the immediate vicinity.
too bad all the HEAT in the house goes with it!! back in the day they were all trying to make the house as Air Tight as humanly possible. Now that they do, we blow it all out! Still think it' lame.

thought of a couple more things for you.
staples got to be, like holes at least 1and 1/4 inch from the edge.
do not put a second staple over the same cable within an inch of the other one.
keep your staples straight
Use "stack-its" when ever you need them, like over every 2 gang switch box
you can't fuse #6 aluminum at 50Amps, for the range. you still generally use 6 AL but on a 40A breaker.
don't try to put one leg of a 3-wire 2 ckt cable under a gfi breaker. it wont work.
i generally only use 12/3 to run my kit counter top ckts. one for the countertop recepts, the other to a micro wave, or DW, or reefer. you have to make sure you keep your nutes straight tho, but no biggie.
Around here you can't start till the plumb bobber and the hvac guy are gone, if they come back, check every cable for having a hole drilled thru it.
you also have to stay 1 and 1/4" away from the outside walls, if they haven't been sheeted yet.
Stack-It's are great for going across a garage for the home runs in the same bay. just remember they are only good for 8 14/2 cables only. not for anything else. but still good for 4 of anything.
old news but dont forget all dryer and range plugs have to be 4 wire.
Any recessed lights get only the all black or all white trim packs ($4ea)
Stay AWAY from HD's cheapo plastic trac lite. oh my god!
Also, plan to spend alot of time reading directions for owner purchased lights. also the chinese lights sometimes dont go together right.
Hurricane wrap all your splices.
Stabbing devices in the back? up to you. i generally only stab wires if they have been pigtailed first.
You really want to know how to make up your boxes so that anybody can come back to the house in six months maybe and know exactly what goes into the box. wrap your travelers together before you wrap them around the hot. i usually wrap the ground around the hot before i stuff them into the box.

i have not done all that many houses either. which is why i dont expect you, commercial/industrial guys, to know most of this crud. hopefully you know about everything i said. but i know i surely left some good tips out. dont pm me for anything after all because i visit this site rarely. peace
 

gndrod

Senior Member
Location
Ca and Wa
Any pipe on the ground, hate to say, has to be in rigid steel or schd 80. Inspector asked me if you could roll a bbq on it or slide a lawn chair into it. How in the world that would hurt schd 40 or EMT is beyond me, but i have to do a change out on that on something i did here soon.

I dont know. Anybody else out there got more tips for this guy, lay them on him.

No offense to the mega-blog being read by any DIY's, but the inspector was referring to the bbq that is painted yellow with a D9 stenciled on the side of it rolling over direct buried Sch 40.
 
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