How much romex will it take?

[Benton]

I have to give an estimate for a potential customer today. He has a 2000 sq ft home that he wants wired. Not sure how much NM I would need for a house that size. I've wired a house before, but never gave an estimate for one. My experience is on the commercial industrial side. Like always, any help would be appreciated.

 

[defears]

Back when I was doing houses, and ordering material for a 40 man shop, that sound like 5000' 14-2, 1250' 12-2, and 750' 14-3. Bare minimum.

 

[fishin' electrician]

Might get away with 4-5000' total, then again 10,000' might not be enough.

Way too many variables to give an accurate answer.

 

[mgmelec]

i usually start with about a foot of 14-2 per ea. sq. foot. in a "to code" house.

2250.. 14-2
1000..12-2
750..14-3

 

[jmsbrush]

Defears, IMO I feel like your number is way off.
Benton, the best thing to do is, is and actual take off from your print.
If it's a paper print, buy a scale wheel to measure home-runs.
If its digital, buy software where you can do on line take offs.
Most assemblies have 15' of romex allowance. Count the devices and multiply.
Measure the distance for home-runs.
For dedicated circuits, Just measure from point a to point b and add for going up the panel and down the wall.
From some of the questions you ask, I recommend that you buy MH's estimating book and invest in some software or a couple of software's depending on the work you do.
I hope this helps.

 

[480sparky]

3500' 14/2
1250' 12-2
1000' 14/3
50' 10/2
50' 10/3
50' 8/3

Just guessing.

 

[ceb58]

i usually start with about a foot of 14-2 per ea. sq. foot. in a "to code" house.

2250.. 14-2
1000..12-2
750..14-3

This is the ball park I use and it come real close. It is hard to GUSSE the 10-3 and 6-3 due to panel location from appliance, HWH, and A/C units

 

[defears]

Just remember every house is diffrent. I am also used to 2 car garage,full basement,sump,alarm,vac, and jacuzzi. That is standard aroung here. Even now.

Would you rather estimate 5000' ft and use 4000, or 2250 and use 4000.

BTW, I am usually conservative with things that will never be perfect. Why screw yourself?

 

[Rockyd]

Just remember every house is diffrent. I am also used to 2 car garage,full basement,sump,alarm,vac, and jacuzzi. That is standard aroung here. Even now.

Would you rather estimate 5000' ft and use 4000, or 2250 and use 4000.

BTW, I am usually conservative with things that will never be perfect. Why screw yourself?

I like that! Where's my "thanks button?"

 

[rodneee]

i usually start with about a foot of 14-2 per ea. sq. foot. in a "to code" house.

2250.. 14-2
1000..12-2
750..14-3

you must be an old head like me because 14/2 usage at 1 foot per sq foot of house was one of the most basic "RAW" estimating theories i first learned in the late 70's...it worked like clockwork on the old style 2,000 to 2,500 sq ft 4 bed, 2 1/2 bath new england salt box colonial model type of home...in todays homes, most with open foyers,two story family rooms, 9 and 10 ceilings, additional smokes, and an assortment of other things, i am closer to using 1.5 feet of 14/2 per sq ft of house in my raw estimates...i am quite sure this will never be an exact science, who knows it might even be the best method for unscrupulos employees to pilfer...

 

[renosteinke]

Not quite on-topic, but ..... how long are your Romex coils?

I raise this issue because I just did a job where each of four wire runs was about 175ft. Using 250ft. coils, that's four coils + scrap. Using a 1000ft spool, that's a whole coil 'left over.'

 

[sameguy]

Renosteinke, or it is 700' with 50' left over.
You do need to "take off" the print with arch faults, smokes, etc. the old rules will come up short.

 

[hurk27]

Not quite on-topic, but ..... how long are your Romex coils?

I raise this issue because I just did a job where each of four wire runs was about 175ft. Using 250ft. coils, that's four coils + scrap. Using a 1000ft spool, that's a whole coil 'left over.'

And you don't have voltage drop issues?

In a 60'x35' house, and if the service is placed well, you shouldn't have runs over 100'

I do allot of spidering when I can, saves allot of drilling and wire, just use deep ceiling box's, today I would expect about 1500' to 2,500' 14/2, 500'-1,000' 14/3 and at least 500' 12/2 depending upon kitchen circuits.
here we can use more 14/3 for home runs because of no AFCI's but I still run seperate feeds for the future.

I buy 1k' reels for wiring houses, and 250' roles for service calls

 

[bluesmoke...oops]

Renosteinke, or it is 700' with 50' left over.

I think he was trying to avoid splices on the runs.

 

[sameguy]

well yes if the house was ~12'x175'=2100' I could see your point.

 

[renosteinke]

My apologies ... I admit that the example I gave was extreme .... Voltage drop was not an issue, as these particular runs were simply switch legs (the customer wanted additional switch locations, and various detours around the framing, ductwork, etc., served to increase the length of the run).

The point is still valid, though- one effective way to reduce waste is to buy your wire on a larger spool.

 

[brantmacga]

i usually start with about a foot of 14-2 per ea. sq. foot. in a "to code" house.

2250.. 14-2
1000..12-2
750..14-3

1' for sq ft is the best estimate.

w/ a few recessed lights thrown in i used 1.5' per sq ft.


how in the heck did someone come up w/ 5k' of romex? someone was hauling a lot of scrap away from your jobs.

 

[fireryan]

1' for sq ft is the best estimate.

w/ a few recessed lights thrown in i used 1.5' per sq ft.


how in the heck did someone come up w/ 5k' of romex? someone was hauling a lot of scrap away from your jobs.

What are you using to figure out your 12-2? Or are you using 14-2 for your outlets?

 

[G._S._Ohm]

The wire needed for a room is more nearly proportional to the room perimeter, 2 x (L+W) than the room area, LxW.

The other distances are for the wire to get from the load center to each room, which involves running the wire vertically [e.g., from a load center in an unfinished basement], then horizontally, then vertically, etc..

So for a 2000 SF house with 7 ea. 10 x 12 rooms, 4 ea. 16 x 16, 3 ea. 5 x 8 [I neglect closets] the room perimeters total to 3968' and the area to 1984 SF, call it 2000 SF.

For a two story house having a footprint of 25' north/south x 40' east/west and 10 CBs supplying these 14 rooms, imagine running wires up to each room. For a center room I can imagine going up 6', going east 20' and north 10' or so, for 36' length.

For a rough estimate use 14 x 36 = 504', and so 504 + 3968 = 4500'.
Otherwise mentally layout the wiring for each of the 14 rooms.

This seems high based on the other posts. Where are my faulty assumptions?

These sizes can go up or down depending on the size of the spools and of the relative penalties for getting too much or too little wire.

 

[G._S._Ohm]

Correction: the perimeters total to 642' because my first version of Excel had a mistake in the perimeter formula, so now I get an answer that is lower than the other posts. Ah, well. . .