How Much to fix?

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Like the above poster mentioned, time and materials, and any rental cost for lifts, bucket trucks, trenchers, line boring equipment, etc.

We have one commercial customer that every 6 months or so loses a street light due to a failure in the UF cable feeding it. repairs run into the low to mid four figure mark every time. They don't bat an eye at it.
 
Jerseydaze said:
I get asked this a lot with outdoor lighting.How do you price a repair that can take 2 hours or 2 days ?
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Hourly. Troubleshooting is usually the only kind of work for which I give an hourly rate as the estimate, as opposed to a flat price.

When asked "What about your free estimates?" I explain that, unlike a quote for work, troubleshooting requires that work be done to find the problem. Usually, finding the problem and fixing it happens at the same time; if not, I can then price the repair.

Now, if they can tell me exactly what the problem is (which they can't, of course), I can give them the repair cost. They say they have no idea, to which I respond "You live here and don't know, so how can I know?" Then I explain what I said above.
 
Jerseydaze said:
I get asked this a lot with outdoor lighting.How do you price a repair that can take 2 hours or 2 days ?
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Outdoor lighting as in parking lot or area lighting? If HID lighting many try a new lamp and if it doesn't work check input voltage - if that is fine they just replace everything ( lamp, ballast, capacitor, ignitor) so they have all new components and less chance of being called back in short time because some other component failed.
 
kwired said:
Outdoor lighting as in parking lot or area lighting? If HID lighting many try a new lamp and if it doesn't work check input voltage - if that is fine they just replace everything ( lamp, ballast, capacitor, ignitor) so they have all new components and less chance of being called back in short time because some other component failed.
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Probably a residential customer. Sometimes it's as simple as a blown light bulb it takes 5 minutes to install. On the other end of the spectrum, 900 ft of trenching and laying in new wiring.

A service call should be able to determine if it's going to be a quick repair or a two-day type.

I agree with you that when an internal component fails with HID lighting, it's best to replace it all in one trip
 
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LarryFine said:
When asked "What about your free estimates?" I explain that, unlike a quote for work, troubleshooting requires that work be done to find the problem. Usually, finding the problem and fixing it happens at the same time; if not, I can then price the repair....
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And usually the fix is easy, it's finding the problem that's the hard part.
 
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