Service Upgrades and Disconnects

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ElectricianJeff

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Location
Southern Illinois
I did a 200 amp. upgrade last week on a 100+ year old home. My general SOP on upgrades is to remove any non-required disconnects and replace with a junction box and new conductor to the panel. In this particular home there were about 6 unfused switched disconnects mounted in the floor joists with-in 10-15' from where I installed the new panel.

Do to some 'issues' I was running over on the time I had allotted to this udgrade. I had not included their removal in the scope of work I provided the HO. I replaced a couple of them since the conductors were to short to reach the new panel location. After checking the conductors and connections in the others I left them as is.

This got to wondering what others do on upgrades. Do leave them them or replace them as I generally do?

Just curious.

Jeff
 
ElectricianJeff said:
This got to wondering what others do on upgrades. Do leave them them or replace them as I generally do?
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I clean up everything around the new panel. 15' away up in the joists is out of my "automatic undo" range, unless it's a fused tap or unless it's already specified in the bid as an extra.
 
These people are plopping down a few grand, so I clean up everything around the panel. In many people's minds, a service upgrade is "getting rid of the fuses", and that's all they know. You leave an old fused disconnect that feeds the dryer, well pump, water heater or whatever, even if it's fed by a CB in your new panel, and they'll not think much of that. The right thing to do is to clean up the whole works, in my opinion.
 
I agree with the others and would have cleand up anything near the breaker panel. However, if these disconnects were remote from the panel and unless the HO pointed them out, I would not have included them in the upgrade cost or scope of work. On the other hand, if you knew they were within sight and didn't include changing them out in your price - well - I guess you'll have to live with your mistake. If I had made that mistake I would go back on another day and remove them and take the hit if necessary.
 
tonyou812 said:
i agree for that much money on something that they wont really see ill throw in a few free bees too. You would be surprised on what some people notice.
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Thanks for the all the input and I will take your suggestions and clean these up when I go back to re-wire their garage.

Two lessons learned:

1. Look around better when bidding especially outside the 10' envelope around where the service is so that I can include these in my original proposal.

2. Get some help. I am a one man operation and this was an overhead service on a 2 story brick home. I hate to admit that I might being getting to old to do these by myself but this one really kicked my rear end and I'm guilty of getting lazy.

Thanks again for the insight.

Jeff
 
Would be a good chance to upsell a bit and asked if they wanted to get rid of them for a couple hunderd bucks while you were there.
Ask yourself, "what would a plumber do"?
They seem to get paid for their work and we try to find ways to get out of doing something extra.
 
I would clean them up also. If I miss something when I bid the job that is my fault not HO. But if its hidden behind some junk then I tell HO that it has to be fixed and charge them. I tend to treat the job like its my own home and fix what should be fixed. I will straight-out water pipes, gas pipe whatever there is to make the job look neat and professional. I have yet lose any money on any job, but I am small potatos to the big EC.
 
guschash said:
I would clean them up also. If I miss something when I bid the job that is my fault not HO. But if its hidden behind some junk then I tell HO that it has to be fixed and charge them. I tend to treat the job like its my own home and fix what should be fixed. I will straight-out water pipes, gas pipe whatever there is to make the job look neat and professional. I have yet lose any money on any job, but I am small potatos to the big EC.
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If you "missed" something on a quote, that means it was not included in the quote. Seems like an honest person would want to pay you for your work, not try to play gotcha, you missed one, now its free.
 
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