I have a job, in a commercial laundry facility that serves a couple of hotels. It started out with just a bid to run a new circuit for a new commercial dryer. All their appliances are 3phase, 240v. Not huge loads, most of the appliances operate on propane. The washers are about 10 amps, and the dryers are about 8 amps.
Problem is the panel is a small mlo with a back fed 70 amp breaker as the main. That leaves space for 5 more 3-pole breakers. They currently have 9 appliances (and want to add 1 more!). So I’m trying to figure out what they have going on there so I take the cover off the 3-phase panel (they also have a small single phase panel for smaller loads). It turns out most of the breakers are double tapped, one is even triple tapped!
Not only that but most of the breakers are 40, 50, or 60 amp breakers (with #12’s!) So instantly my bid turns into a service upgrade for their 3-phase panel! And the manager knows it. He understands what I’m telling him about how bad the setup is. So he says to give him a number.
I spend nearly 3 hours mapping out the place to get a better understanding of what the issues are and my list of things that are acceptable is short compared to my list of code issues!
How the heck does a person even start working on a bid for a job like this?! I’m a little overwhelmed with where to start. What steps would you take to start bidding a job like this?
I know that T&M won’t be acceptable for them. I could maybe bid a portion of the job (like the service upgrade and wiring up the new dryer) and then leave the rest of code violations for T&M...? But not sure if they’d go for that.
They’re a good customer that I want to keep, they keep me pretty busy throughout the year. I don’t want to just throw out a number that either screws them, or me, over depending on how the job goes.
Thanks for any advice!
Problem is the panel is a small mlo with a back fed 70 amp breaker as the main. That leaves space for 5 more 3-pole breakers. They currently have 9 appliances (and want to add 1 more!). So I’m trying to figure out what they have going on there so I take the cover off the 3-phase panel (they also have a small single phase panel for smaller loads). It turns out most of the breakers are double tapped, one is even triple tapped!
Not only that but most of the breakers are 40, 50, or 60 amp breakers (with #12’s!) So instantly my bid turns into a service upgrade for their 3-phase panel! And the manager knows it. He understands what I’m telling him about how bad the setup is. So he says to give him a number.
I spend nearly 3 hours mapping out the place to get a better understanding of what the issues are and my list of things that are acceptable is short compared to my list of code issues!
How the heck does a person even start working on a bid for a job like this?! I’m a little overwhelmed with where to start. What steps would you take to start bidding a job like this?
I know that T&M won’t be acceptable for them. I could maybe bid a portion of the job (like the service upgrade and wiring up the new dryer) and then leave the rest of code violations for T&M...? But not sure if they’d go for that.
They’re a good customer that I want to keep, they keep me pretty busy throughout the year. I don’t want to just throw out a number that either screws them, or me, over depending on how the job goes.
Thanks for any advice!