Charging for Wire

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Jimmy7

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Boston, MA
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Electrician
How do you charge for this? I need 150' of #10 THWN (Black and Green), the smallest quantity I can buy is 500' for about $180. Do you charge just for the amount used?
 
Jimmy7 said:
How do you charge for this? I need 150' of #10 THWN (Black and Green), the smallest quantity I can buy is 500' for about $180. Do you charge just for the amount used?
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I presume that means you are purchasing 500 feet of black and 500 feet of green. But don't know if you running 150 feet multiple times or have a total of 150 feet yet had to purchase 1000 minimum.

I myself charge for however many feet were installed, maybe some rounding up but certainly not itemizing as 1000 feet unless I left them whatever remained. But small conductors like that I purchase full reels as they will still be available for use on another project sometime. 10 AWG is common enough it likely isn't too long before I will need it either.

If you in situation where you not likely to need it and don't want to be stuck with the leftover, maybe purchase it at a big box store where they often do have shorter lengths available. Many still won't cut this small of a conductor. Chances are price per foot is higher, so take that into consideration, but also is likely higher per foot at any place that does cut to length as well.
 
I charged for the full 500' spool, unless I had smaller spools on my shelf that were already bought and paid for, then I would charge by the foot using the big box store prices with a 28% markup. It's just business. We need our breaks when we can get them, because every now and then we get a job that eats our lunch! If the customer requests to keep the leftover on the spool, I give it to them. Most of the time they do not.
 
The only time I charged full-reel price (where the job didn't warrant it) was for a large house the customer wanted CAT-6 used, which I don't normally use. I charged for the whole spool, which I kept, but I offered and he agreed that he was covered for future installations, which did occur.
 
Jimmy7 said:
How do you charge for this? I need 150' of #10 THWN (Black and Green), the smallest quantity I can buy is 500' for about $180. Do you charge just for the amount used?
Click to expand...
there is not a lot of difference in price between #12 and #10. I would be inclined to charge them the difference between #12 and #10 for the excess and just use it instead of #12 the next job.
 
I give them a price for the job and don't itemize. If it's wire I won't use somewhere else I roll it into the cost. If it's a lot of wire and a huge cost I would explain to them and give them the option to keep the remainder .
 
It depends on the customer/ job.
Sometimes I charge for the full reel and other times I charge for what was used plus 40 percent mark up.
I don't know why I chose 40 percent I just have throughout my business career
 
Knuckle Dragger said:
That works 😁
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For sure, it does.
Look at 12/2 Romex at $1.91 per foot
Doubled to $3.82 per foot.

Imagine using 80 feet, which is about ⅓ of a roll.
Your cost, if you buy 250ft rolls, is about $65.00

Your price to customer is about $305.00

That goes a long way toward paying for vehicle, gas, tools, etc or covering warranty issues, or free trips for estimatesScreenshot_20220715-201215_Chrome.jpg
 
James L said:
For sure, it does.
Look at 12/2 Romex at $1.91 per foot
Doubled to $3.82 per foot.

Imagine using 80 feet, which is about ⅓ of a roll.
Your cost, if you buy 250ft rolls, is about $65.00

Your price to customer is about $305.00

That goes a long way toward paying for vehicle, gas, tools, etc or covering warranty issues, or free trips for estimatesView attachment 2561380
Click to expand...
Where are you finding 12-2 NM for $65.00? Haven't seen that price in a couple of years at least.
 
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