Bidding Romex VS. Condiut Houses

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JOHNEO99

JOHNEO99

Senior Member
Location
Northern Illinois
Hello All

I am an electrical contractor in the chicagoland area where 90% of homes are done in conduit. Recently I moved towards the Illinois/Wisconsin border and want to expand my work into wisconcin. Most homes in wisconsin are done in romex.

My question is how much cheaper is romex than conduit?
I guess 10% but when bidding them I dont get as many contracts as I do when bidding them for conduit in Illinois.

How do I get more competitive?

Thanks in advance

John
 
JOHNEO99 said:
How do I get more competitive?
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Have you done any jobs yet in Romex? You need to keep track of your times, and develop these numbers for your own operation. If I said, "yeah, it's 30% less than conduit.", that would only be my numbers. Keep careful track for yourself and see. Naturally, your first bids in an unfamaliar wiring method will be conservatively high. Make hay while the sun shines, and keep careful track of time on these first jobs you win.

Sorry, if it seems like I'm repeating myself.
 
What kind of conduit are we talking about? If you have to put everything in EMT, I can see how that would cost significantly more than NM. Flex would cost more, too, but not quite as much. I don't use conduit all that often, but I have found it to be a much more time-consuming method than NM. I don't think the difference is 10%, so your NM bids are probably too high.

Tomorrow I'm going to install a new circuit/receptacle for an electric dryer in an unfinished basement. Most of the run will be NM, but I'll protect it with EMT where it drops down to the receptacle box. If the HO wanted all hard conduit throughout, I'd probably bid the job at double what I bid it for. EMT requires careful measuring and bending, and that takes far more time than pulling NM and stapling it. EMT and the associated fittings cost a lot more, too.
 
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