Existing Walls and Roughing In

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mstrlucky74

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If installing receptacles and cable in existing wall I wouldsuspect this is more time consuming than having open wall with studs, correct.Any insight into what’s involved would be great. Obviously have to open up wallto cut in box. Snaking cable through closed wall horizontally to next recept onsame circuit must be tough? Can you do that? What about studs? Thanks.
 

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Depends entirely on the wall, and access above/below. Metal stud or wood? Insulated or not? Crossbraced? Height of wall? Can the new receptacles be jumped off the old, or is it a new circuit? Crawlspace/basement/attic access? Wall finish: tile and wood take a lot more time than drywall. Plasterboard/skimcoat or plaster and lathe. agree with Hal tho, it's usually easier to go up/down to an accessible space and over and back down than drilling blindly thru studs and risk hitting existing plumbing or electrical. Too many variables for a blanket price; T&M.

eta: if by cable you mean CATV, I like to run all lines back to the demarc or in home box (OnQ and the like) rather than leaving a splitter in a place it will never be found. Splicing off an existing CATV line is a great way to have potential signal problems.
 
Occupied, or not?

Full of owner's possessions or not?

Kids and dogs running around while you are trying to work?

Are the walls all nice and hollow?

There are so many variables, T&M becomes a very good choice. From my experience, the bills for T&M in existing structures after all is done and all the surprises have been dealt with, is usually about 3X what the customer thinks should be the top dollar.
 
mstrlucky74 said:
If installing receptacles and cable in existing wall I wouldsuspect this is more time consuming than having open wall with studs, correct.Any insight into what’s involved would be great. Obviously have to open up wallto cut in box. Snaking cable through closed wall horizontally to next recept onsame circuit must be tough? Can you do that? What about studs? Thanks.
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Surface mount EMT and boxes or use Wiremold.
 
K8MHZ said:
Occupied, or not?

Full of owner's possessions or not?

Kids and dogs running around while you are trying to work?

Are the walls all nice and hollow?

There are so many variables, T&M becomes a very good choice. From my experience, the bills for T&M in existing structures after all is done and all the surprises have been dealt with, is usually about 3X what the customer thinks should be the top dollar.
Click to expand...

Heh, I totally forgot about the human element. I dont know why, because every single HO has dogs or cats that like to run around my head while I'm working. Last was a Boston Terrier that got wind of some former rodent where I was working, and tried to bore (not bite or scratch, like PUSH) thru me to get to it. I'm pretty pet friendly, but even I have limits.

Murphy's Law says there will be a waterbed or safe on the wall you need to access.
 
OP's drawing sure looks like office space, given the kind of projects he typically asks about, I'd guess this is a rennovation of some sort and hopefully no furnishings will be in the space, or at least the space will be temporarily out of use and will not be too difficult to move things around if needed.
 
mstrlucky74 said:
If installing receptacles and cable in existing wall I wouldsuspect this is more time consuming than having open wall with studs, correct.Any insight into what’s involved would be great. Obviously have to open up wallto cut in box. Snaking cable through closed wall horizontally to next recept onsame circuit must be tough? Can you do that? What about studs? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Do you think the electrician is going to wire this anything like what you are imagining? They will do it whatever way is easiest given the site conditions at the time. They will waste cable to get it done faster.

The level of detail you want to get into for estimating blows my mind. Use the estimating programs numbers and move on.
 
iwire said:
Do you think the electrician is going to wire this anything like what you are imagining? They will do it whatever way is easiest given the site conditions at the time. They will waste cable to get it done faster.

The level of detail you want to get into for estimating blows my mind. Use the estimating programs numbers and move on.
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Time is money. Unless you are being paid to estimate a project, it is overhead. Believe in the numbers that your estimating program spits out and spend your time on something else you can bill out for.
 
Sometimes depends on who is going to pay to repair the existing wall covering!
 
iwire said:
Do you think the electrician is going to wire this anything like what you are imagining? They will do it whatever way is easiest given the site conditions at the time. They will waste cable to get it done faster.

The level of detail you want to get into for estimating blows my mind. Use the estimating programs numbers and move on.
Click to expand...

stevenje said:
Time is money. Unless you are being paid to estimate a project, it is overhead. Believe in the numbers that your estimating program spits out and spend your time on something else you can bill out for.
Click to expand...

Mark, Use this as an opportunity to get out of the office & visit your job site. iwire's post is spot on
 
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