Quote w/ floor plan only?

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360Youth

360Youth

Senior Member
Location
Newport, NC
Here is the situation: Our normal GC has asked for a "ballpark" figure on a new house. I have 2 problems. One, the only set of plans so far are floor plans, no electrical (the engineer still working on them, I think). This is not normally a problem, as I have had to do this before on smaller houses, but my second problem is that this house is nearly 10,000 sq.ft heated. That is a huge ballpark. He asked me to price everyhting high-end (halogen recessed lighting, landscape and dock wiring, pool, closet door switches, chandelier lifts, decor devices and control dimmers, etc.) Not too mention a whole generator and ATS. (We do that one every day, so that is the least of the problems). We usually bid a basic sqft price plus extras, but I have no clue how to evaluate extras. I have no idea how many lights of any kind; outdoor, stair, kitchen, cabinet, flood, halls, not to mention no HVAC or motor specs. Any help? One of these days I am going to have to invest in estimating software, and I think that day may be now.:)
 
We have done houses like this and the electrical can run from $100,000 on up. Ballpark it at $120,000 and see what the plans bring.
 
Not for nothing, but wouldn't your "regular GC" be familiar enough with your pricing to aready have a "ballpark figure?" Suppose you figure 3x a 3300 sq ft price plus the upgrades.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
We have done houses like this and the electrical can run from $100,000 on up. Ballpark it at $120,000 and see what the plans bring.
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Yes. Our initial reaction was 90 grand.


LawnGuyLandSparky said:
Not for nothing, but wouldn't your "regular GC" be familiar enough with your pricing to aready have a "ballpark figure?" Suppose you figure 3x a 3300 sq ft price plus the upgrades.
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He has done this in the past, but I think he wants to make sure nothing is overlooked, which, as a GC, he would not normally think of. As I said, and most of us have seen, this house is LOADED :D . Since there is no electrical so far, my favorite feature to this point is the 19' skylight that opens to the 2nd floor. (3-story house).
 
360Youth said:
One of these days I am going to have to invest in estimating software, and I think that day may be now.:)
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Better wait until tom'row.
Why?
You have no counts on ANYTHING... and a house of this size, numbers are more important than a smaller house you've done 100x and can "guess-timate' a sq. ft. price that's in the ballpark(Little League sized)....you're looking at Yankee Stadium and that's a big ballpark to be wandering about in.
 
I have a 9 page excel spread sheet set up to bid commercial projects, but you can edit the sheets for anything you want to do with it. If you are interested I can e/mail it to you.
 
GLSun said:
my bad.. typo.. too many 00's:smile:
$10-15/sqft..
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Yeah, but if we could sell a few jobs like that it would be nice. ;)

Welcome to the forum.

Roger
 
Talking out of my league here (since I don't do electrical contracting), but what about going in the opposite direction: rather than wait for plans, or guessing on the job without plans, quote the GC some significant number ($1-2K) for sitting down with the customer and _creating_ the plans.

The number should be based upon a significant amount of time spent both writing plans and with the customer, using your normal T+M hourly rate.

-Jon
 
winnie said:
Talking out of my league here (since I don't do electrical contracting), but what about going in the opposite direction: rather than wait for plans, or guessing on the job without plans, quote the GC some significant number ($1-2K) for sitting down with the customer and _creating_ the plans.

The number should be based upon a significant amount of time spent both writing plans and with the customer, using your normal T+M hourly rate.

-Jon
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Electrical plans are coming. I think the GC wants some sort of price to get his final contracts taken care and get started w/o having to wait for all sub-plans to come in. Apparently the engineer is dragging his feet.

bradleyelectric said:
Why not just make a copy of the plan and draw your own electrical based on knowledge of the NEC including input from the general on it and give him a price based your scope?
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I can give a code price no problem, and even beyond that, knowing what most are going to want based on previous homes. This house does not fall into the category of most previous homes. Not in this area, anyway. Too much guess work and fine detail to come up with my own "plans."
 
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