"what if I supply the material"

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bpk said:
I have done a few jobs like this and with not haveing the right material and a higher hourly rate to take the place of markup the jobs ended up costing them more, but they were still happy because they thought they saved money. Sometimes trying to be cheap will cost you more in the end, and there are people that will never figure that out.
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I've always said, "The stingiest person spends the most!"
 
one of the things thats overlooked is the warranty. you cannot warrant material you did not provide and markup, sometimes this is good such as a small job like motionlights. I always tell the customer to pick out and provide their own motion or flood light so I dont have to warrant a call back because of blown bulbs or bad sensor. however for loadcenters and other things its really silly for a customer to want to provide when they realize you cant warrant. if the breaker goes out any part he provides fails, he then is gonna have to pay you the hourly to fix. just tell him T&M but no warranty on material. make sure he understands why you cant warrant. (basically part of your markup is to cover warranty)
 
T&M or no job. Customers never get the right material so you have to either supply it your self or wait on them to get it.
 
steelersman said:
Home Sleepo now has contractor packs of 6 inch halo cans that come with the trim and of course the joist hangers already installed. 6 pack or them for $58. Basically $10 per light minus the bulb. Slammin deal!
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Lowes had the 12 pack of Halo 6" cans a while back on clearance for $25 a box....I bought every box they had! Thank goodness Ihave acess to free warehouse storage :grin:

c2500
 
c2500 said:
Lowes had the 12 pack of Halo 6" cans a while back on clearance for $25 a box....I bought every box they had! Thank goodness Ihave acess to free warehouse storage :grin:

c2500
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yeah but i bet theirs didn't have the trims with them, which means that home depot's a better deal on that particular item.
 
I would do it for a friend or relative if I had the time.


Funny story. I was in the Depot one day and overheard the HD guy telling the HO someting incorrect so instead of minding my own business, I butted in with my 2 cents. I KNOW you guys do this too.....

Anyway, the HO is picking up materials for a 200A 3 phase all in one panel and is checking items off a list.

I glanced at the list and see.........MY LETTERHEAD! What the...........?


Turns out that the HO is the father in law of my business partners neighbor and my partner gave him the list and said we'd do it labor only. I didn't have any problem with it as he quoted the labor pretty high we still made good money.
 
220/221 said:
I would do it for a friend or relative if I had the time.


Funny story. I was in the Depot one day and overheard the HD guy telling the HO someting incorrect so instead of minding my own business, I butted in with my 2 cents. I KNOW you guys do this too.....

Anyway, the HO is picking up materials for a 200A 3 phase all in one panel and is checking items off a list.

I glanced at the list and see.........MY LETTERHEAD! What the...........?


Turns out that the HO is the father in law of my business partners neighbor and my partner gave him the list and said we'd do it labor only. I didn't have any problem with it as he quoted the labor pretty high we still made good money.
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HO has a 3 phase service?
 
Yeah to run his chillers
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Actually...yes....kind of. The chiller system was used on high end custom houses back in the 50',60's. There are none in operation but many times the AC guys will use the existin 3 ph circuit to power a new unit.

It is not uncommon here in AZ in the older neighborhoods (50's, early 60's)

I am guessing that the only AC available back then was designed for commercial use. They would run a delta 3 phase to the house and use the high leg for the AC only.

As the houses age and upgrade the AC's, the 3 phase becomes obsolete and we ALWAYS recommend losing it in favor of a new 1 phase service.

Some customers believe it's a more efficient system and refuse to change. It adds about 2K to the job so that usually convinces them.
 
I think the question should be "HD has 3-phase stuff?"
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HD's here have a limited supply of 3ph but this particular store was a HD but was evolving into HD Supply which now is electrical supply resource. They had a better selection of stuff than the standard HD.

I think the HD's only have a few 3ph discos and breakers. It's been a while so I'm not sure.
 
220/221 said:
Anyway, the HO is picking up materials for a 200A 3 phase all in one panel and is checking items off a list.
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HD carries 3-phase anything? :-? Not in my neighborhood!
 
petersonra said:
No. But they understand that HD is selling to them at about the same price the supply house is selling to you.

They look at you as a conduit from the supply house. They don't see that you acting as middleman brings a whole lot of added value to the picture.
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People who expect me to be a free pickup and delivery service are greatly misinformed.

This is where salesmanship and educating the customer come into play.
 
My favorite GC called me up 3 months ago and asked me to come look at a remodel job he was doing. Well I showed up ready to take notes, I should have known something was up when the GC is standing there with this unbelievable grin. Well long story short the homeowner was there to help explain what he wanted out of the remodel and that he wanted no electrical permit pulled because he wanted me to use his "stuff" which ended up being a box full of junk he had recycled out of a house that was torn down!!
Come to find out he had tried the same thing with the GC with 2X4's.
For some reason I was just too busy to do that job.
 
As a general answer to these responses I could tell from the guy's demeanor on the phone that he was looking to get the job cheaped out. He mumbled something about not wanting to have to pay $1100-1200 dollars for something when most of that cost was material. If he had sounded like a reasonable human being and it was a straight forward job I might have considered finding a way to work with him but he was obviously not in the neighborhood of reasonableness.

Though for future reference the idea of figuring in the material sale price and then backing out the cost is intriguing. The idea of warranty is also something to keep in mind. For a job of this scope I don't think I would be interested in drawing up a detailed contract delineating what was and was not included. It has been my experiece that when people tighten the screws on you for price they wind up expecting more. Years ago I worked at a theater and would help out in concessions as needed. Invariably the worst tips came when there was some function that had drinks provided for free. I don't understand the mentality but for a lot of people the less they spend the more they expect.
 
I have had a contractor's license for a couple years now but have continued to work for a large manufacturer. I have never worked for a contractor. Up until now, I have only done jobs (all permitted) for friends, co-workers, neighbors for what I consider chump change. I am going to continue my regular job but would like to start advertising for some small jobs but I am having trouble trying to figure out where to start as far as pricing. I guess the easiest way to do this would be to throw out a couple of recent things that I have done and see what others would charge.

1) Ceiling fan. Customer supplied fan, I had to change out the box in the attic to a fan hanger, remove wall switch install variable speed switch and install fan. 15 minute drive

2) Disconnect old electric water heater in a local resteraunt and go back later in the day to connect the new one. 10 minute drive

There seems to be a big demand for this kind of thing as construction is still going strong in our area and there is a shortage of electricians to do this sort of small job. Poulation is about 250,000
 
sii said:
1) Ceiling fan. Customer supplied fan, I had to change out the box in the attic to a fan hanger, remove wall switch install variable speed switch and install fan. 15 minute drive
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seems like a 2 hour job including drive time. $200 labor and $60 parts.

sii said:
2) Disconnect old electric water heater in a local resteraunt and go back later in the day to connect the new one. 10 minute drive
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$150. you have almost an hour of drive time in the job.
 
i cant stand it when customers ask to supply there own materials. would you bring eggs and sasauge to the diner down the road and ask them to cook it for you for breakfast to save money?

i had a job where i had to change out a 100 fuse panel to a 100 circuit breaker panel and wire an air compressor for air tools. i also had to fix a few things and i gave him a price at around 1000 dollars for it. he told me i was too high and he would call me back. its been around 5 months now and i have yet to hear from him again :D

he kept telling me he knows how much the panel costs at home depot and he would even supply the ground rods. i didnt even need ground rods.

people actually call supply houses to find out what the contractor paid for material and call the electrician and complain about the price. i dont get it.
 
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