I'd say around half the luminaires I've installed are wired with nothing but aluminum.
Install copper pigtails to aluminum
- Thread starter staticcontrol
- Start date
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I'd say around half the luminaires I've installed are wired with nothing but aluminum.
Electron_Sam78
Senior Member
- Location
- Palm Bay, FL
What book? Is there a book that tells you how fast a job should take you?
Go by the times in a time and motion estimate, and your on your way to learniing how to not estimate work.
jeremysterling
Senior Member
- Location
- Austin, TX
I have a "book" that has numbers like:
100' of 3/4" EMT mounted on threaded rod from concrete takes one man 6.787 hours
also:
12/2 MC copper w/ steel armor takes one man .012hour/foot
I am not an estimator, so do not ask me how to apply these numbers to a bid.
LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
If you're referring to the fixture wires, they're probably tinned or plated copper, and not aluminum.
Then every strand is plated.
LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
Absolutely.
iMuse97
Senior Member
- Location
- Chicagoland
you'll find it, I don't doubt. and just for the OP: Hope you get the job, but don't go too low, the stuff takes a long time, and we all know the problems with opening up old work, much less, to deal with the AL factor. Just did three 36 unit APT buildings in the last year. Not a great job, but a job, nevertheless.
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Fulthrotl
~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
- Occupation
- E
depends on a number of things.
how are you going to make the connections? ul approval for copper
retrofits is limited.
and expensive.
your liability in the event of a fire isn't.
it's expensiver.
you've got copalum fittiings with the swaging tool as the repair of choice.
getting the cert for that retrofit is about $2k out of pocket, when i checked.
and the tool is $300 a month to lease, and the crimps are a buck each.
and new devices.
and a minimum of $2m liability, with errors and omissions, and latent
defects coverage.
i was looking at this as a viable business model, and would not do a 3 br
house for less than about $4,500.
i've got one now that wants me to do a retrofit, and truth be told,
even with work slow, i don't want the liability.
hurk27
Senior Member
- Location
- Portage, Indiana NEC: 2008
We have one neighborhood here that almost all the houses (about 800) are in Au.
and over time they have been calling on failing circuits, we have priced several of these houses on pigging to copper, and others on rewires (both not cheep, but the only ones we got were ones forced by insurance and loan companies, the rest we just use as a cash cow and keep repairing circuits as they fail. we use the Ideal Twister wire nuts made for connection of AL to CU, but AL can be a pain, as if the conductor was nicked when originally installed it will break right off at the RC connector.
Some of our bids to pig tail out a whole house with the Ideal system, went as high as $5500, but interest does spark up after a fire in that neighborhood (no pun intended)
Also we use a disclaimer in out contract that when we do a repair then we are only liable for the repair the owner authorized us to do, and any other failures in the electrical system are beyond our responsibility.
Not sure how that would work in other states but here it's good to go.
and over time they have been calling on failing circuits, we have priced several of these houses on pigging to copper, and others on rewires (both not cheep, but the only ones we got were ones forced by insurance and loan companies, the rest we just use as a cash cow and keep repairing circuits as they fail. we use the Ideal Twister wire nuts made for connection of AL to CU, but AL can be a pain, as if the conductor was nicked when originally installed it will break right off at the RC connector.
Some of our bids to pig tail out a whole house with the Ideal system, went as high as $5500, but interest does spark up after a fire in that neighborhood (no pun intended)
Also we use a disclaimer in out contract that when we do a repair then we are only liable for the repair the owner authorized us to do, and any other failures in the electrical system are beyond our responsibility.
Not sure how that would work in other states but here it's good to go.
LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
quogueelectric
Senior Member
- Location
- new york
Yes there is if you cant install a duplex recepticle in 12 minutes or less you had better find a new profession.
bradleyelectric
Senior Member
- Location
- forest hill, md
does it say how long to allow to get the the outlet? carry it to the location? unpackage it?, or do you just do these things for free and only concern yourself with getting paid to actually turn screws?
hurk27
Senior Member
- Location
- Portage, Indiana NEC: 2008
Gold??? That's expensive cable!
Or did you mean Al?
LOL, missed that one.
If these houses were wired in gold, I would rewire them for free lol as long as I could keep the old (gold) wire
quogueelectric
Senior Member
- Location
- new york
I added an extra 3 min for my estimate so you have 15 min per device. I could still make money on this if I got every device out of my truck bins unlocked locked install and bring the garbage back to the truck each time. I still dont like the liability involved with al however liability hinges upon someone proving that you made a mistake which caused the problem. As long as you are being code compliant you cannot be held liable for people having a poor wiring install in thier house. Based on past performance I will estimate that it will average 6 min per device. All day long.
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