need an opinion on pricing

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raza246

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I have to submit an estimate on a 4500 sq' house with a 2 car garage, a 135' 400 amp underground service with a 100 amp sub panel on the second floor, 3 3 ton ac units, a 3 zone heating system, and 60 recessed lights I haven't estimated such a big house before and am a little hesitant to put a price on it. I came up with a price of $26,000 and was hoping to get an opinion if its to high or to low.
 
How many paddle fans, floods, out gfis, multiple cooking appliances, under cabinet lights, closet lights, AHU strip heat, septic pump, well pump, ect. sounds like this house may have a lot of extras. Why are you running 135' of service lateral and not the POCO?
 
6 fans, 6 outside floods, 3 out gfi, no under cabinet lights and the kitchen is a basic setup just bigger with a wine cooler
 
What is the cost of your materials?
What is the cost of your labor/burden?
What is the cost of your expenses?
What is the cost of your overhead for this job?
How much profit do you want for this job?
 
raza246 said:
I have to submit an estimate on a 4500 sq' house with a 2 car garage, a 135' 400 amp underground service with a 100 amp sub panel on the second floor, 3 3 ton ac units, a 3 zone heating system, and 60 recessed lights I haven't estimated such a big house before and am a little hesitant to put a price on it. I came up with a price of $26,000 and was hoping to get an opinion if its to high or to low.
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I really don't bid a house I bid a job. I would start out with where it's located. Is it in town or way out in the middle of no-where. It really makes a difference when you have to travel long distances. Who is doing the building? Is it a homeowner acting as a contractor or is it a builder that has a game plan to knock this job out in a short amount of time and a set of plans that can be followed or with the homeowner getting to make changes.

Other than the electrical what are you to furnish? Are you expected to furnish any of the exhaust fans, ceiling fans or fixtures? What type of recessed cans are they wanting? Your choice of cheap contractor grade fixtures or something better and more expensive.

When it gets right down to it what type of switches and receptacles are going in? Lots of dimmers and Deco stuff or old cheap snap switches and cheap cover plates.

The size of the house doesn't mean a lot because I have seen some really huge houses that were wired on the cheap. One big house that I worked on had all five bathrooms ( receptacles ) all on the same circuit. Legal but poor design. I'm not sure who did the house as they went bankrupt but it really was as close to code minimum as I have seen and very poor quality work all around. I doubt they were paid much at all.

Is this a project that's being built on the cheap for resale to some sucker or is it a high quality job for a customer that's really interested in quality?

Get as much information as you can about the project to include a time schedule for completion. I walked away from a job like this a few years back because they didn't have a real plan for completion. Glad I did because it was over a two year project even after it was dried in and ready for electric rough. People had no idea what they were doing.
 
Based on the info you gave a quick price would look like this(PROVIDING your labor cost is about 13-15 +burden (total of about 20)
-7-9K Service and subpanels (assuming copper feeds)\
-4.8-6.3K Recessed fixtures. Assuming 30-40 dollars fixtures(which might not be true for that kind of house), 15 for wiring material and 35-50 for labor.
- 1.5-2.1K for 3 AC units.
-1.5-2K for dedicated outlets (range, dryer/s, water heater, etc) Figured least 10 at 150-200
- 5.6-6.0K for general switches and receptacles. I figure least 80 with least 20 some 3 way sw and/or dimmers. Average material price @ 30 (considering the dimmers and 3 ways) and average labor @ 40-45.
- 2.0-3.0K for miscellaneous stuff I missed.
-1.5K-2K for permit fees, inspection times, etc.
Low price 23.9K (I'm sure someone gave this price, I can see the low bidder being at around 22K)
High price 30.4K
Keep in mind though this is based on labor of around 30-35/hr INCLUDING profit. And I'm sure I don't have all the facts.
So all things considered 26K puts you in the middle. It's doable, but don't expect much profit.
raza246 said:
I have to submit an estimate on a 4500 sq' house with a 2 car garage, a 135' 400 amp underground service with a 100 amp sub panel on the second floor, 3 3 ton ac units, a 3 zone heating system, and 60 recessed lights I haven't estimated such a big house before and am a little hesitant to put a price on it. I came up with a price of $26,000 and was hoping to get an opinion if its to high or to low.
Click to expand...
 
I agree with growlers reply 100%. Too many gc's got used to a sg. ft. price in the late 90's and early 2000's, like we were installing shingles. Price the job as if it were any other job. How much time is it going to take? how much material? Overhead and profit. Our price would be 720.00 per day per truck at the jobsite(8 hrs) . Material plus 35%. permit plus time to get it. Plus any potential problems like, who's paying, how do they pay, when is the job going to be completed, how far away from shop. Oh yeah and dont forget to get 75% at rough-in and 25% at trim-out.:)
 
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