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Energy-Miser

Energy-Miser

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Maryland
Hello all,
Speaking of new residential wiring, what has been the largest $/sq. ft. and the smallest $/sq. ft. you have ever done? Please indicate your state or region of the country. Thanks, I am hoping this will bring out some of the regional differences as far as pricing is concerned. All contributions are appreciated. e/m
 
I don't price work that way, but sometimes I do figure backward to get a square foot price out of sheer curiosity. I stay steady in the 6 dollar range for most new homes (specs, mild customs), but it's been over 30 on a couple that I did the math on that I knew were going to be high. I don't do much new residential construction. Let other guys sword fight over that dollar.
 
mdshunk said:
I don't price work that way, but sometimes I do figure backward to get a square foot price out of sheer curiosity. I stay steady in the 6 dollar range for most new homes (specs, mild customs), but it's been over 30 on a couple that I did the math on that I knew were going to be high. I don't do much new residential construction. Let other guys sword fight over that dollar.
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Thanks Marc for your reply. I sure did not mean to say that they should be priced that way, but was curious, because once you have done the job, it is easy enough to do the math and get a figure for a ball park. I just had a GC tell me that his other electrician was bidding his new house (around $3000 sq. ft), for under $10,000. I figured he was just saying that to get me to come down on my bid. I had given him a proposal for $15,500 for the same job which he did not accept. At any rate that got me thinking, $3 / sq. ft, $5 / sq. ft ? Where does it fall? e/m
 
Energy-Miser said:
I just had a GC tell me that his other electrician was bidding his new house (around 3000 sq. ft), for under $10,000. I figured he was just saying that to get me to come down on my bid. I had given him a proposal for $15,500 for the same job which he did not accept.
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The sad thing is he may have gotten a bid for under 10K for the house.

It happens. :smile:
 
growler said:
The sad thing is he may have gotten a bid for under 10K for the house.

It happens. :smile:
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I've heard rumblings of $2 a foot code-minimum houses enough places over the last couple years that I believe that could be true.
 
You need to figure out how long it's going to take to do this house, and how much you think the material's going to cost and then see if anyone could make a decent amount at under $10,000. This GC may be just blowing smoke, and it's better to pass up a job than spend time there when you could be making money elsewhere. New houses are tough right now. I've found that once you do a couple jobs for a builder as long as you keep him smiling they are willing to pay a little more and not shop around so much.
 
What are the other electricians including in their bids? Are there plans showing each outlet to be installed or is it to be wired to code minimums?
Is the electrician to include a fixture allowance? Are the appliances electric or gas? What sort of heating system is to be installed?
In short are they making a fair comparison or just looking at a number. I used to be in the car business. I would have customers come in and tell me that one of my competitors had "beat my price" usually by a margin that was impossible because they would be buying the car at well below dealer cost. They would show me a number written on the back of a business card. Just a price, no other information. I would point out to them that I had given them my price on a sales contract, all they had to do was sign it and the deal would be binding on both of us. The competition has written a number on a business card, not a sales contract. I would tell them to come back and see me if the other salesman tried to change the price when they actually went to buy the car. They often did. The other salesman would come up with some lame excuse such as the price did not include taxes, freight, or some other stuff.
Make sure your GC is comparing true figures that include all the variables.
 
I have seen as low as $1 sq/ft to $3 sq/ft on bids the dollar guys are one man shows working out of thier garage with almost no overhead who bank on extras, the three dollar guys are usually doing custom homes.The range in this area is 2-2.50 sq/ft no phone,no CATV,no fixtures,cans lights are extras,meters supplied by POCO for $100.00 for 200A.average 2500sq/ft house is 100-120 hours material runs around 3 grand total cost around 5400.00 At 2.25sq/ft thatis 5625.00
 
Tract homes are currently $2.25 to $2.85

20 years ago I was wiring tract homes at $1 a foot.

I wired a 20,000 square foot house a few years ago for $7 a foot.

Last year I drove by a new house in the framing stage, it was obviously being built in slow motion by the owner him self. I stopped, ran up to him and said I'd wire his house for $3 a foot, got the job and started wiring a few minutes later.

It's good to know what you would charge for by the square foot and exactly what you will deliver for that price.

I keep basically 3 levels of pricing handy: Good. Better. Best.

When you're a small time operator like me, you sometimes don't have time to do takeoffs and create elaborate proposals. It's sometimes (not always) a good idea to confidently shoot the customer a number and close the deal and start working asap.

Electrical Contractors only make money when tool belts are being worn. All other activities cost money.

Sorry for the long answer, but I'm a believer that, under the right circumstances it is OK to generate a quote in less than 5 seconds if you know what you are doing.
 
Fire Alarm said:
When you're a small time operator like me, you sometimes don't have time to do takeoffs and create elaborate proposals.
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I found this website ([FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica][/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]www.standardratebook.com[/FONT][/FONT]) to be of great value....I wonder why it went down?
 
Fire Alarm said:
I should put it back up. That was a lot of fun.
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It would certainly answer a lot of questions....one of which might actually be the correct answer :D
 
Fire Alarm said:
I stopped, ran up to him and said I'd wire his house for $3 a foot, got the job and started wiring a few minutes later.
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I think that I would have stopped, walked up and started talking about what he was planning to do with the house. If it's being built by an owner it's custom from the get go.

If you could have talked him into four dollars a foot you could have made an extra few grand before ever twisting the first wire nut.

The guy that sells vinyl siding normaly makes more than the contractor that does the installation. Can anyone guess why? :-?
 
Fire Alarm said:
Yeah, it would be fun to fire that up again, but I'm so busy these days I don't have time to mess with websites. :)
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Ya...that's been painfully obvious this past month :grin:
 
Rewire said:
I have seen as low as $1 sq/ft to $3 sq/ft on bids the dollar guys are one man shows working out of thier garage with almost no overhead who bank on extras, the three dollar guys are usually doing custom homes.The range in this area is 2-2.50 sq/ft no phone,no CATV,no fixtures,cans lights are extras,meters supplied by POCO for $100.00 for 200A.average 2500sq/ft house is 100-120 hours material runs around 3 grand total cost around 5400.00 At 2.25sq/ft thatis 5625.00
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Ok, let me see if I understand your figures. Are you saying that the electrician charges $5625 and buys $3000 worth of material for the job? Because, then he is only earning $2626 for the 100-120 hours put in the job, which comes to between $26.26 / hr, and $21.88 an hour. You can make that in salary working for somone else + all the benefits. Maybe I am missing something. If the owner provided all the material (including the Romex), then it comes to high 40's to mid 50's dollars per hour, which is more reasonable. e/m
 
fisherelectric said:
You need to figure out how long it's going to take to do this house, and how much you think the material's going to cost and then see if anyone could make a decent amount at under $10,000. This GC may be just blowing smoke, and it's better to pass up a job than spend time there when you could be making money elsewhere. New houses are tough right now. I've found that once you do a couple jobs for a builder as long as you keep him smiling they are willing to pay a little more and not shop around so much.
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I agree, it is best to continue working with someone you have been working with before, then pricing is not so cut throat. Just today (and dealing with a brand new GC / Home owner), I was turned down, bidding a nearly 5000 sq. ft. home (three floors + an unfinished basemet). 200 amp service, first floor gas, the two upper floors on two heat pumps, electric oven, two washers, two dryers, several recessed cans, blah, blah, blah. I thought I was being very reasonable. When this house is done, it will probably bring in $800,000 around here, if not more. They want it wired for free pretty much. Yuk. e/m
 
I start at $3.20/sq ft code min. but after all add ons it comes into the $5.00-$6.00 range for the what I call the custom speck. house I have been doing. I am doing a true custom now and it looks like it will come in around $9.50
 
Energy-Miser said:
Ok, let me see if I understand your figures. Are you saying that the electrician charges $5625 and buys $3000 worth of material for the job? Because, then he is only earning $2626 for the 100-120 hours put in the job, which comes to between $26.26 / hr, and $21.88 an hour. You can make that in salary working for somone else + all the benefits. Maybe I am missing something. If the owner provided all the material (including the Romex), then it comes to high 40's to mid 50's dollars per hour, which is more reasonable. e/m
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You can not make that wage here ,average wage for residential wireman is between 12-17 /hr with little or no bennies the majority pay around 12 and some get box nailers for 10/hr or less
 
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