Estimating electrical project

[tomito]

How do you estimate a complete electrical project? It is a percentage of the total electrical work (materials + labor)? total number of blueprints?

Thanks
Tom

 

[justin13me]

How do you estimate a complete electrical project? It is a percentage of the total electrical work (materials + labor)? total number of blueprints?

Thanks
Tom

Material labour markup overhead profit.. and price for real scenarios, not worst case but closer to that than best case. I find I have often underestimated time required, difficulty of tasks, employees (or even my own) competency/ skill levels/ dependability not to mention the number of trips, parking fees etc.
Now I try to capture everything as real as possible and get firm prices and add enough markup for the small things you'll inevitably have to scramble around for that may not have been counted... That's me anyways. I also use accubid and square footage calculations based on type of occupancy, the latter just for reference though

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[justin13me]

Markup on small (er) items not 'pre-packaged' should be quite high (2 - 300%) & 5-10% OH and 10-20 profit.. As even then it's not always easy to make good $$ with late payments, the admin and paperwork....

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[tomito]

Thanks for you answer, but perhaps I didn't explain myself, i'm not talking about electrical labour here, i'm talking for the electrical design of some building, it is a percentage of the total electrical job? (labour+materials) 2-3% perhaps? how do you estimate the design part?

Thanks
Tom

 

[kwired]

Thanks for you answer, but perhaps I didn't explain myself, i'm not talking about electrical labour here, i'm talking for the electrical design of some building, it is a percentage of the total electrical job? (labour+materials) 2-3% perhaps? how do you estimate the design part?

Thanks
Tom

You asking what to charge for designing a project?

 

[justin13me]

I haven't engineered myself enough times but I'd say it's time consuming and their rates are quite high and then there's liability issues which can translate to 'over specifying' which inadvertently can drive up construction costs.. I know some designers and architects and they work with electrical /mechanical engineers and all of them make (very) high hourly rates. Therefore if you're also 'designing', calculating etc /work that an engineer would do I'd say say charge a lot. I digress a little but it'd better for the contracting industry to not be in such a hurry to 'race to the bottom' with pricing..

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[tomito]

You asking what to charge for designing a project?

Something like that , I just want to know how the designing/calculating work is generally charged.

I haven't engineered myself enough times but I'd say it's time consuming and their rates are quite high and then there's liability issues which can translate to 'over specifying' which inadvertently can drive up construction costs.. I know some designers and architects and they work with electrical /mechanical engineers and all of them make (very) high hourly rates. Therefore if you're also 'designing', calculating etc /work that an engineer would do I'd say say charge a lot. I digress a little but it'd better for the contracting industry to not be in such a hurry to 'race to the bottom' with pricing..

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I know it's not cheap, but perhaps most of the engineers here know a way, somebody told me that regularly it's a 2-5% (depending of the work) of the whole electrical installation (labour+materials) but I don't know if this is true.

Tom

 

[kwired]

Something like that , I just want to know how the designing/calculating work is generally charged.



I know it's not cheap, but perhaps most of the engineers here know a way, somebody told me that regularly it's a 2-5% (depending of the work) of the whole electrical installation (labour+materials) but I don't know if this is true.

Tom

First thing are you allowed to do this? Requirements may be different in different places. On a lesser level many installers are designing as they build, but I am guessing you are more after what to charge to draw up a set of plans and specifications .

As with any business you need to charge what ever is necessary to cover your overhead expenses and add whatever is necessary for desired profit.

You may take a somewhat different approach as well as have differeces in overhead costs if you are only going to design one project here and there - especially if you are also the builder then if you are primarily in the business of designing.

I just gave an estimate to a customer for wiring a new home. Pretty much all my design when it comes to electrical installation. Was a fairly crude estimate as there wasn't much specific details, but at this point I think customer is after some financing figures and not really on a specific final house plan either. I may end up modifying estimate depending on customer finance situations, probably will never draw up a formal plan that shows actual installation in any detail. Will likely throw in at least a couple hours of my usual labor rate on billing documents if I do the project though, it won't be itemized as designing though.

 

[Fnewman]

First determine the number of each type of drawing (elementary diagram, loop sheet, plan views, panel schedules, etc.) needed based on the process or architect's drawings you have, then guesstimate the number manhours per drawing for each. Apply your labor rate and mark-ups for overhead and profit. To that add costs for site visits, travel, meetings, etc.