no business,how bout you?

[tonyi]

He showed me a bid of less than 2 dollars a foot if they were doing the service for free.

Now we know where all the stolen wire is going :lol:

 

[77401]

He showed me a bid of less than 2 dollars a foot if they were doing the service for free. The electrician that bid the job was from out in the country ( sticks ).

We need to put thing in perspective. lets say "Bubba" works for the man & makes $20 per hour, 2000hours/year...Bubba, makes $40K before taxes.

Now Bubba wires houses .... And can wire a complete 1300sqft in a week & nets $1000 for his effort. He just got a 25% raise & deductions out the wazo, if he can keep this up. Now Bubba can afford a new Mayco paint job for his truck and some new vinyl skirts for his trailer.

Down here I see many builders, GC's, offering jobs like this.....
They call me up & say... "I have a job for you. If you can do it at this price you can have it." Well the the job is worth a lot more, but there is always anothe EC wanting it, thinking, they can cut this & this, or get cheap labor, or put in cheap devices and fixtures, and they can make some money on it. Let em learn!

 

[hardworkingstiff]

Let em learn!

I agree, and it works great as long as there is other work to do. It gets frustrating if you have to sit home in order to teach the other guy how to bid.

 

[willybud]

Hi Scott,
Bill from August Electric here. Haven't seen you in a while which begs the question, are you as slow as the rest of us? we are holding our own but just barely. All the advertising helps and referrals but it's still not as it should be. It's obvious with all of us finding the time to sign on here that it's not as busy as it should be.
Heck, we've even taken up solar panel installation to supplement the work. I guess it's kind of electric related.
I just lost a bid to wire a above ground pool with a light located 65 feet from the panel. I estimated the job at $950 some other EC estimated the job at $485. Guess who got the job. It's getting tough out there.

 

[larryl]

485 for a pool,,,is'nt the stock 450.00ish,,??
i also get 950.00,,no digging

 

[jeff43222]

Maybe the "other EC" isn't really an EC. Any handyman can wire up the pool at that price if he just uses some scrap 14-2 NM he has in his truck.

 

[willybud]

No the other is another EC who uses all subs for their work. I saw their estimate on their letter head. They give this estimate then send a sub out to do the job and collect 50% of the job for themselves minus materials.

 

[77401]

Subs?
Texas won't allow subs for electrical.
It's OK for plumbers & HVAC to sub out.

 

[hbiss]

send a sub out to do the job and collect 50% of the job for themselves minus materials

Geeze, what's the poor sub making???

-Hal

 

[jeff43222]

I haven't really encountered electrical subbing. Both would have to be licensed ECs, and I don't see how one would want to sub from another. The first one only finds the work and takes a cut. Seems to me the sub would prefer to cut out the middleman and find his own jobs.

 

[77401]

the way the Subs work here...Texas... Plumbers & HVAC that is...
Contractors bid the work, get the job & sub out new installations, rough in only, for residential. The installers actually have licenses but work by the job not the hour. magnetic signs on the subs trucks for that job only, they can bust a butt & make more per hour per person than working for the contractor. Then the contractors bring in the trouble shooters to do the finals.
Just like the roofers do!


You can do anything you set your mind to when you have vision, determination, and an endless supply of expendable labor.