Need Help with a Ball Park Price for Residential House

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Amps

Electrical Contractor
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical, Security, Networks and Everything Else.
Thank you in advance for any help or advice you can offer me. This is in New Jersey. A real estate agent that I do occasional electrical work for asked me for an off the top of my head ball park price for a single family house that he is considering building for himself. He is a great guy and long time customer so I would like to be as much in the "price range" as I can. My problem is that I have not priced or wired a house in over 10 years. I have no problem with catching up on codes, or doing the job, my problem is with pricing it at today's prices. I don't want to just throw a number at him. There are no blueprints.
The description the house is:
2400 sq ft. Cape, 3 bedroom (one will be the master on first floor, other 2 on second floor), 3-1/2 bath, livin groom, dining room, kitchen, 3 car garage, full basement, gas appliances, 200AMP service, All by Code. No lighting other than Code required.
Is there anyone out there who has recently done something similar who would be willing to share the total price of the job? Or a per box price that I can use to guesstimate this? Thank you!
 
You're asking a lot with the price of materials these days. Also varies depending on your location. If you know any local contractors that would be willing to share, I would try them first. Or if you know someone who has just had one built, ask them (if they know) what it cost.
My prices here wouldn't help you much where you are.
 
Minimum Labor ... start to finish, 1/2 to1 hour per light, switch, receptacle, circuit, smoke detector on and on ..
 
I'm the kind that would still want to sit down with the client and discuss things room by room.

Like switching for lights/fans, kitchen work spaces, split-wiring receptacles, outside lighting, etc.

Then there is the low-voltage wiring for internet, phones, television, possibly the HVAC system.
 
I had the dock builder I was doing work with ask me if I wanted to price wiring the house he was building. I told him I haven't wired a house since the '70s and he would be much better off using the electrician the builder worked with. He was the source directly and indirectly for almost all of my work at that time, so I was a little apprehensive telling him no. It all worked out well. (I didn't do it).
 
petersonra said:
If you have not done residential in 10 years you will probably not be doing him or yourself any favors if you take this order.
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I work in residential all the time just not new houses these days. At one point I had 4 guys on the road and we did over 100 single family homes per year. Some standard and some custom. It was crazy. Also did an 80 town home development. When it all slowed down I had to let the guys go and work alone. The last small 15 house development I did by myself 11 years ago, the builder bought all the materials. I gave him a list and one of his guys would go get it and deliver it all to each house or stocked it in a barn on the property. I billed mostly labor. After that I got away from builders and only work for contractors that do small additions, mostly T&M. Also do security systems, another story.That is why today I can't give even a ball park price from recent whole house wiring experience. Thanks for your advice. I understand where you are coming from. I should have explained more in the post.
 
oldsparky52 said:
I had the dock builder I was doing work with ask me if I wanted to price wiring the house he was building. I told him I haven't wired a house since the '70s and he would be much better off using the electrician the builder worked with. He was the source directly and indirectly for almost all of my work at that time, so I was a little apprehensive telling him no. It all worked out well. (I didn't do it).
Click to expand...
Thank you. After reading all the replies here, it may just come to that !
 
Little Bill said:
You're asking a lot with the price of materials these days. Also varies depending on your location. If you know any local contractors that would be willing to share, I would try them first. Or if you know someone who has just had one built, ask them (if they know) what it cost.
My prices here wouldn't help you much where you are.
Click to expand...
You are right on about the material pricing. That is my biggest issue. It is a ballpark but from experience once someone gets a price in their mind it becomes permanent.
 
Amps said:
Thank you in advance for any help or advice you can offer me. This is in New Jersey. A real estate agent that I do occasional electrical work for asked me for an off the top of my head ball park price for a single family house that he is considering building for himself. He is a great guy and long time customer so I would like to be as much in the "price range" as I can. My problem is that I have not priced or wired a house in over 10 years. I have no problem with catching up on codes, or doing the job, my problem is with pricing it at today's prices. I don't want to just throw a number at him. There are no blueprints.
The description the house is:
2400 sq ft. Cape, 3 bedroom (one will be the master on first floor, other 2 on second floor), 3-1/2 bath, livin groom, dining room, kitchen, 3 car garage, full basement, gas appliances, 200AMP service, All by Code. No lighting other than Code required.
Is there anyone out there who has recently done something similar who would be willing to share the total price of the job? Or a per box price that I can use to guesstimate this? Thank you!
Click to expand...
This may be a cynical comment, but…

long time customer and great guy but you haven’t wired a house in 10 years…
You just did occasional work for him? Cheaply?
That may be what he is after.
A cheap price because he’s received an estimate he didn’t like..
 
Hv&Lv said:
This may be a cynical comment, but…

long time customer and great guy but you haven’t wired a house in 10 years…
You just did occasional work for him? Cheaply?
That may be what he is after.
A cheap price because he’s received an estimate he didn’t like..
Click to expand...
That's something to consider. I don't think my costs are cheap. But since the electrical contractors around here are so private and tight lipped who knows? I had my well serviced last year and the guy told me he charges $140 / hr. I'm around that range. For a wiring a whole house I would think that the hourly labor rate would go lower since it involves a lot of hours.
 
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