Basement Wiring Special

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480sparky said:
My material alone would exceed that.
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I know $500 for that is cheap, but your material would exceed that? Two arc-fault breakers for $100. 250 feet of wire is about $50-75. Good boxes at $0.75 a piece...maybe $12, 2 fan boxes maybe $8. Add an a good exhaust fan for about $125 plus 4" vent hose (if you do that instead of an HVAC guy). A GFI is $13 at the most and then you add a couple of fixture boxes for some vanity sconces...

Damn...that adds up to much more than I guessed at first without including any kind of special wiring (recessed lights, phone and cable, etc.)
 
jaylectricity said:
I know $500 for that is cheap, but your material would exceed that? Two arc-fault breakers for $100. 250 feet of wire is about $50-75. Good boxes at $0.75 a piece...maybe $12, 2 fan boxes maybe $8. Add an a good exhaust fan for about $125 plus 4" vent hose (if you do that instead of an HVAC guy). A GFI is $13 at the most and then you add a couple of fixture boxes for some vanity sconces...

Damn...that adds up to much more than I guessed at first without including any kind of special wiring (recessed lights, phone and cable, etc.)
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Hahahaha:D it always does...
 
satcom said:
You can wire 2 bedrooms and a bathroom for $500 not counting material, if your one of the guys that keeps NM cable in the open bed of their truck, and has a full time day job, and don't get tied up with any pesty taxes or premits.
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And doesnt have to buy those pesky arc fault breakers.
 
Teaspoon said:
A 200 amp up-grade in my area falls somewhere between $1200.00 & $1500.oo depending on circumstances.
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Holy c&*P.
BTW, aren't basement bedrooms illegal? IME anyone asking for this type of work also wants a kitchen"ette" and a "game room" and it's all off the cuff - no permits.
 
Good way for Joe homeowner to learn you always get what you pay for. Many times as we all know, you get less than you pay for. IMHSO, ANYONE - who is stupid enough to invite Joe Hackmaster into their precious home, (Largest investment most people will ever make) and let him start the basement wiring hacking, guessing game, deserves to learn a tough lesson. I guess all the common sense is jobbed out to India also. Just think of all that kindling right below their childrens sleeping heads. But hey, they saved a thousand bucks. ya know, that will cover almost half the cost of one of those new Lexus rims. Gotta have those for sure. Idiots...
 
macmikeman said:
After reading some of the posts in this thread,I'm so glad we don't have any basements around here.
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We wire basements all the time. I love doing basements, and $1500 is probably a good # for me to do what is talked about here. There are a lot of Hacks running around trying to do basements here and people are getting ripped off. But thats what you get for $12.95.
 
LawnGuyLandSparky said:
....BTW, aren't basement bedrooms illegal?
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Nope. As long as there's two paths of egress. One is the traditional stairway going up, the other is an egress window. Typically they're in a 'well' around the foundation and must meet certain size & heigth requirements. Basement finishes are a boon in the midwest right now. I've got 5 on the stove right now, and 4 bids out a-waitin'.
 
I got more information on the 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom $500 basement wire job. I found out the homeowner already bought the boxes, receptacles, switches and bath exahaust fan. The contractor was only supplying the wire, breakers and misc. hardware.

Also the homeowner wanted the receptacles and switches installed during the rough-in. He was installing his own sheetrock and said he would work around them. He was going to install his own light fixtures and smoke detectors so there wouldn't be a need for the contractor to make a second trip for the trim-out.

I still wouldn't do this job for $500 though.

Pretty much every house around here has a basement. There's lots of work in finishing basements. The problem is it's worse than wiring new houses. At least with new houses you can't get away with not pulling a permit and having inspections done. Not the case with basements. Anyone and everyone will wire them whether they know what they're doing or not.

Worked on one the other day that was wired by an unlicenesed handyman. He mixed #12 with #14 on the same circuits and they were on 20amp breakers. He added receptacles in the kitchen by coming off the #12 20amp small appliance receptacles with #14. Tapped into the #12 wiring in the attic with #14 and had six flying splices in the attic.

He did the work for an elderly lady and she had no idea he had to be licenesed to do electrical work. Something he had failed to mention to her. She didn't know he was supposed to pull a permit when he finished her basement. He did all the work himself including the electrical and plumbing.
Somehow she found out and hired me to inspect all the wiring and fix any problems I found.

She's having a new roof installed with some skylights that will have lights in them. The roofer told her they would just tap into some existing wiring to wire up her skylights for her. She asked me if I thought this would be ok.

I'm going back next week to wire the skylights for her. :)
 
aline said:
Worked on one the other day that was wired by an unlicenesed handyman. He mixed #12 with #14 on the same circuits and they were on 20amp breakers. He added receptacles in the kitchen by coming off the #12 20amp small appliance receptacles with #14. Tapped into the #12 wiring in the attic with #14 and had six flying splices in the attic.

He did the work for an elderly lady and she had no idea he had to be licenesed to do electrical work. Something he had failed to mention to her. She didn't know he was supposed to pull a permit when he finished her basement. He did all the work himself including the electrical and plumbing.
Somehow she found out and hired me to inspect all the wiring and fix any problems I found.
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This is a simple 3-step process.
1. Take photos.
2. Get the guys name, busniess, address & phone number
3. Contact the AHJ.
 
480sparky said:
This is a simple 3-step process.
1. Take photos.
2. Get the guys name, busniess, address & phone number
3. Contact the AHJ.
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One thing I would like to add. If he handyman is dumb enough to give a receipt for the work done or leave a business card that advertises electrical or plumbing services this can be as good as catching them red handed ( some are actually that dumb ).

When they end up having to pay to get a job or two like this corrected they may find it's cheaper to hire an electrician.
 
aline said:
He did the work for an elderly lady and she had no idea he had to be licenesed to do electrical work. Something he had failed to mention to her. She didn't know he was supposed to pull a permit when he finished her basement.
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Don't believe this for a minute. "Little old ladies" aren't a ignorant as they'd have you believe. For starters, what does an old lady need a finished basement for? Her famous Superbowl parties?
 
there are people who are very good at doing cheap and making money at it. if you try to compete with them, you will make yourself crazy.

we run across these kind of people in our business, too. I do not know how they pull it off, but some how they can. but they never seem to be able to rise above the cheap and dirty side of the business.
 
LawnGuyLandSparky said:
Don't believe this for a minute. "Little old ladies" aren't a ignorant as they'd have you believe. For starters, what does an old lady need a finished basement for? Her famous Superbowl parties?
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Little old ladies must be ignorant. After all, I hear all the time about how often these overpriced contractors rip them off and take advantage of them.

Some people don't stop living just because they get old. Maybe she does have famous Superbowl parties. Maybe she has poker night every friday. :) Not everyone sits out on the front porch in a rocker watching the cars go by.

My grandparents moved into a new home when they were in their seventies. The first thing they did was have the basement finished which included a full kitchen. We had huge family parties down there during Thanksgiving and Christmas. There was a game room with a pool table where all the kids and grandkids could play. It was quite nice. There were spare bedrooms so relatives from out of town could stay there instead of a hotel.
 
But do you believe that people in their 70's "have no idea" that finishing a basement, doing construction, electrical, plumbing, HVAC work didn't require a permit?
 
LawnGuyLandSparky said:
But do you believe that people in their 70's "have no idea" that finishing a basement, doing construction, electrical, plumbing, HVAC work didn't require a permit?
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For some people yes. That's why they look someone up in the phone book and hire them. Because they don't have a clue as to how to even begin the process. They know nothing about construction. My wife didn't know I needed a permit to build a shed. She didn't know I needed a permit to put in a fence. She didn't know I needed a permit to finish our basement.

There are people out there that have never had to deal with any type of construction before. Her husband may have handled all this before he died. She may never have had a basement finished before. She may have lived in apartments or condo's all her life. This may be the first time she's ever had any construction work done. That's why she hired someone who is supposed to know what's required and does it legally. I'm sure he assured her he's been doing this type of work for years and he knows what he doing.

When a licensed contractor advertises that he finishes basements she probably assumes that he is doing everything correctly and legally. It's his responsabilty to pull the permit and hire licenesed sub contractors to do the work.
 
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aline said:
Would any of you guys wire 2 bedrooms and a bathroom for $500?
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When I finished my basement, that wouldn't have covered the material and the beer I used to pay the electrician (brother-in-law & master electrician).
Yes, there were both permits & inspections.
 
480sparky said:
3. Contact the AHJ.
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Some of my daughter's neighbors have become annoyed with her. We're renovating/restoring her old house (circa 1890), which has brought the inspector out several times. It turns out he is also the building code official in her small town and has taken an interest in some of the other major renovations on the street that have been going on without benefit of permit or inspection.

tsk, tsk
 
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