Charging for wire

Status
Not open for further replies.

Loffgren

Senior Member
Location
CA
When doing work do you commonly charge by the foot for wire or for the total length, in regards to adding markup?
 

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
When doing work do you commonly charge by the foot for wire or for the total length, in regards to adding markup?

With NM cable I usually charge by the foot however if I use 7/8 of the roll I might charge for the whole roll. Same with reels of wire- if I have a 500 foot reel and use 150 then I charge for 150 foot but if I use 400' then I would probably charge for the reel. Larger wire sizes I always charge by the foot. Problem is you get stuck with a lot of small scraps so you need to charge for some of the waste.
 

Loffgren

Senior Member
Location
CA
re

re

Thanks, I have a job where we used 800' of 4/0 was trying to figure if i should charge by the foot or for total lump. I.e my multiplier is way lower for the larger amout. lets say by the foot the total cost will be 8k and by the total abount 6k

thoughts?
 

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
Thanks, I have a job where we used 800' of 4/0 was trying to figure if i should charge by the foot or for total lump. I.e my multiplier is way lower for the larger amout. lets say by the foot the total cost will be 8k and by the total abount 6k

thoughts?

If that was a 1000' roll of 4/0 I would have a hard time charging for the entire run. If the wire was a special size and I could only order 1000' then perhaps I would charge for it but not 4/0. Not sure what others would do.
 

Loffgren

Senior Member
Location
CA
re

re

sorry i did not explain well.

lets say by the foot my price is 4.50 my multiplier would be 2.6 total 9,600
lets say the lump sum prices was 2500. my mulitplier would be 1.4 total 3500
 

Joethemechanic

Senior Member
Location
Hazleton Pa
Occupation
Electro-Mechanical Technician. Industrial machinery
If it's something I would normally have like MTW, it's by the foot.

If it's something special that I have to buy for your job, whatever I have to buy is what you're getting billed for, and I'm not guesstimating short, buying a cut, and ending up having to eat it.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
sorry i did not explain well.

lets say by the foot my price is 4.50 my multiplier would be 2.6 total 9,600
lets say the lump sum prices was 2500. my mulitplier would be 1.4 total 3500

Perhaps you still did not explain that well.

Does it matter if it is itemized or lump sum?

Aren't they getting the same thing either way?

Don't you want a similar profit no matter which way you do it?
 

PetrosA

Senior Member
For common, small gauge wire/cable I use a per foot method most of the time since I'm cutting off of a stocked coil. If I know I'll need the majority of a standard sized roll of a size I don't keep on my truck (ex. 125' 6/3 NM) I'll take the highest price I find and add my standard materials mark-up to it.

For 800' of 4/0 I'd take into consideration whether I had guys delivering it vs. the supplier, whether it was pre-cut pieces or my guys were cutting the runs on site for T&M, etc. The less work I'm giving my guys at the site, the higher I'd raise my markup on the wire as a "convenience" charge, plus, you'll most likely be paying a higher price for cut pieces delivered, too. For 800' I'd still probably price it based on the highest available price plus mark-up. I would also take into consideration the ratio of the mark-up to the total job price. If your 8k number is 10% or 40% or 80% of the overall job price how will it make a difference in what you achieve over the long term with that customer?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top