Replacing Chandeliers

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satcom

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We had a call from a customer wanting a price for replacing a 5 ft wide by 5 ft long Chandelier located 18 feet above a stairwell.

We told the custome we would have to look at the job to see the conditions and amount of dressing work, and working space, customer wanted a ball park, so I tried to explain it was just a guess, without seeing the job, he said he called other electricians, and they were way out of line, so when i asked what he thought out of line was, he said they said it could be anywhere from $700 up, when i agreed with their guess number, he said oh no no no, and hung up. The reason I agreed with the other EC's is we did these jobs in the past, and they all turned out to be more time then we allowed, just want to hear some comments on Chandelier jobs, my own thoughts are install a lift and be done with the problems.
 
I have posted this before but it is about 5' x 5' and i didn't charge $700 to hang it. We took it down from the owners old house and moved it to thier new home. This took 12 hours to hang and assemble as seen here. there is a lot of "lace" that goes on and for some reason we forgot our camera the day we put the "lace" on it took another 2 hours. Six hours to take down from the old house and box up. it was cleaned as we installed it. I charged $1500.00 for the job and the customer paid me a $250.00 tip. i should have charged more but when I looked at it I really didn't think it would take 14 hours to hang and assemble that monster. I would add that if it was a "regular size" chandalier I would normally charge $200.00-$300.00. we always use scaffolding for 18' ceilings and we can get the job done from show up to drive off in about 1 1/2 hrs.
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There was a time I was getting a whole string of chandelier jobs. Not so much lately. Maybe a few elaborate ones, but never anything like the one shown in bikeindy's pic above. I could normally get them done in about half a day including setting up & taking down the baker scaffold. A fancy one though, like the one shown above, would have bitten me in the keester. I did them too cheap. You're right on target sticking with the "$700 & up" range, considering you're quoting it without seeing it.
Another word of advice, that I just learned from my insurance agent and I'll be glad to pass along, is to make sure your insurance covers you in case you break it. If you drop the chandelier and you don't have a "care, custody & control" rider on your policy, you're gonna eat it. I just picked up this coverage yesterday.
<edit> Just to clarify, I mean if you're installing something that your customer provided, like a fancy chandelier, your general liability policy probably doesn't cover it.
 
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e57 said:
One word - 'teeandem' - plus equipment costs. (Scaffolding etc.)
Click to expand...

I find that most customers want a firm $ figure when they call about this work we change them all the time. I ask the weight of the fixture and the manufacture. I then have a good sence of how long it will take to do the job. two of us go out and we take the scaffold in and lay out a drop cloth. I assemble the scaffold while my helper brings in the tools and opens the new fixture, he begins to assemble while I take down the old fixture. I hand him the old fixture and come down and help him finish what ever assemly might be needed and then back up to install new hanging hardware and he hands me the new fixture, hang it finish assemble if needed and tear down the scaffolding, collect a check chat a few minutes with the homeowner as the tools are put back in the van by my helper. drive off. Easy money.
 
Two guys. One hour to put down dropcloths and build scaffolding. One hour to take down old chandelier and sore it away. Two hours to install/build new chandelier. One hour teardown and cleanup. That's a possible 10 man hours, plus anything you might charge for scaffolding use. I'd say that 700 is the bare minimum, get-me-in-the-door, ballpark price.
 
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Several years ago we agreed to remove, store and rehang a 10K chandelier when the new house was completed in a month. We did it T and M......something like 4 hours plus a hundred dolar insurance rider. We didn't undress it, just built a rack in the back of the box van and hung it on a rafter in our warehouse.


Customer (woman) didn't pay the invoice....30 days, 60, 90 etc. We start keeping a log of phone messages, invoices sent etc. We send her letters/emails stating storage charges etc......nothing.

6 months turns into a year and two and THREE.

She finally has a place to put it and wants US to install it. Heh heh....not gonna happen lady. She still hasn't paid the original invoice.

She shows up with movers and a moving van demanding her fixture. She is heavily medicated or undermedicated and starts raising hell. The police are summoned, they take a look at the documentation, shake their heads and tell her to pay us. She starts in on the cops and finally concedes. Then she wants to pay by CHECK? I don't think so. She has to run to the bank while paying the movers hourly, to get about 6 or 7 hundred dollars.

Good times.
 
I just did a chandelier job like a month ago, the chand looked exactly like bikeindys (if I could figure out how to post a pic I would), of course it was over the middle of the stairwell, and the customer had asked for an estimate of what this would cost. I threw $600 at him, which I later regretted. It took 3 of us to lift the chand, took forever constructing and taking apart the scaffold, real PITA.

Next chand I do over a stairwell is gonna be more in the $900-1000 range. Live and learn. But luckily the $600 was made up for the extra lights changed out throughout the house and such. So not a total wash.
 
I've spent nearly 3-4 hours just hanging a zillion-and-one crystals on chandeliers already. I've seen some gigantic one's in hotel lobbies that I'm glad I wasn't involved with. You'd need to surround the thing with scaffolding. I often thought that having a service to clean chandeliers would be a good "busy work" project to fill in between times. I doubt anyone would want to pay what it really costs.
 
I had a job a few years back hanging 9 chandeliers in mosoleums, a few weeks later I had a chandelier install above a spiral staircase, not an especially elaborate chandelier, but difficult location. I got my fill of chandeliers, I pass on them now.... and as far as customers wanting a ball park figgure because they are calling every electrician in town, screw them, they will probley be a difficult tight ass that wants extras for nothing and will argue about the final bill.....
 
Here are some of the stages of assembing this fixture. You can see it was winter and went from day to night. before completing. I don't really want to do another one of these put if called I will at a much higher price than the 1750.00 I was paid.

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all the ones ive installed were a one day affair. they were not that elaborate but just huge. each one required its own circuit. make sure you secure them to a framing member :grin:
 
I installed a chandelier last year in a house we had wired. The box was the size of a VW bug. We pulled the top off and my apprentice stood on a ladder and reached in through the peanuts to grab the fixture. The fixture was too heavy to lift by himself so he cut down the sides of the box. The garage door was open and when the wind hit the mound of peanuts that came out-it was ugly. Luckily the chandelier was easy to hang with the Alladin lift we had installed. Then we found the crystal installation guide and 100+ boxes of crfystals. To my relief the contractor told me a company was coming in from the city to hang the crystals- I didnt know there were companies that did that. BTW- I didnt have the heart to charge the GC for the hour it took my apprentice to clean the peanuts he had spilled
 
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