I'm sure some of you have had this occur (in general, not to the extent you are about to read):
You quote a job (kitchen remodel) and the potential client (in my case a return customer's new wife) sends you email citing your quote is high, based on another electrician's (in my case the former remodel was done by the ex-husband, an electrician, who is now an estimator...whew!) review of my quote. I now find myself up at 1AM responding and justifying my quote.
The previous remodel was done in the early 90's, and I have no idea what sort of workmanship was involved and bet that I will have to re-wire at least a portion of the job. I am sure there will be needed changes in some of the layout, panel (arc faults taking up more space and re-positioning existing circuits, tying handles together, etc.) but they assume that if all the dedicated circuits are there, they shouldn't have to pay so much for the new kitchen. The layout is not changing dramatically, so it may be true for some of the circuits. From a $ position, I understand their point. From a position of experience, I never had a remodel where all the existing wiring was reusable, and I would be a little remiss thinking I could get away with using old wire from a liability standpoint.
Anyhow, I have suggested the option that I do this portion of the kitchen on a T&M basis. I think that would be fair, but I would like to hear from the field and see what you all would do in a case like this.
From a sales point I individually addressed all of the ex-husband's comments in his email which she shared with me. Not worried about that. Moreso what you guys may have done in similar situations. I generally boilerplate kitchen quotes regardless of the fact that there is "already" wiring in place. You just never know what you find in the walls after demo, and I would bet my liability insurer would say rip it out and start clean (which I explained to my customer). I am considering drafting an agreement that says any wiring not replaced by me is their future responsibility, should some issue arise. Feedback to that is aoppreciated.
The hard part is that the new husband is a friend and previous client, the GC is a friend that I am very loyal to and to top it off I really don't need the work. The job starts Wednesday, so I feel obligated to come through so the schedule can stay on track, vs. saying (as my wife chimed in) "That's fine, have your ex-husband do it!" He's already suggested finding them (cheap) help.
Thanks for reviewing and commenting!
Bob
