what is expected of you guys

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southernboys

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Hey guys just wondering how much sq footage you expect your employees to pull in a given day on a spec home. This would include boxing and drilling. How about on a trim out? What are the best ways to trim a house? Start with the service and panel and end up with the receps?
 
Re: what is expected of you guys

Hang the lights first. That way if there is any broken glass, missing trim parts, etc there is still time in the day to adresss those problems while you have them working on the other stuff.
 
Re: what is expected of you guys

I don't really pull any cable until the whole place is boxed out, so it's hard for me to answer the square footage question. Each of these tasks is different. First I mark out the whole house, then box out the whole house, then drill out the whole house, then pull home runs, then pull the rest of the circuits. I do the low voltage stuff when everything else is done, so that I can plan the runs to not run near any power. Lately I've been doing my end of day clean up (ruff only) with an electric leaf blower. Much faster and more thorough than a broom.

For trim out, I grab my material and lay the required pieces/parts/devices/smokes/etc underneath where they will be required to be used. A quick 10 minutes doing this in the beginning saves so much time and running around later. All the trash generated in each room is stuffed into the light fixture box(es) in the middle of each room each room.

I've never really calculated productivity on a square foot basis (because I think that this metric would yeild useless data). If I had a make a somewhat educated guess based on other data at hand, I'd say 750 sq ft per day per man for ruff, and 1000 sq ft per day per man for finish. It depends on a lot of other factors.
 
Re: what is expected of you guys

Start with the service and panel and end up with the receps?
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Not a chance. I breaker when the house is complete. No safety issues or fried tools that way.

Everybody loves to walk into a house and flip on all the breakers. It's a sport. :roll:
 
Re: what is expected of you guys

I notice your profiles says commercial electrician.Lets start with the men,are they residential guys or commercial? Is a big differance.Next a lot depends on the house.All wood frame one story low ceilings with residential journeymen that don't need watched should rough in a receptacle or switch in 15-20 minutes.A fan might take 30 minutes if they got to cut any wood to mount it.Average bedroom 4-5 recepts ,2 gang switch at door,ceiling fan ,closet light and switch should be done in 2 to 2 1/2 hours.I would judge them by the conditions.Ideally no other trades in house,no changes from print,house was empty and swept out before they arrive.If this is the same house and they did several before then exspect high results.Now add in the factor of its cold or too hot and this changes.As for the trim ,always start with fixtures.There is almost always going to be a problem.Wrong poles for fan,missing parts,get them out of way,then get service finished.Last thing to worry about is the receptacles and switches.They seldom bring surprises if it was roughed in right.As to time for trim i figure 10 devices an hour.Fans are anyones guess.Some can take over an hour others 15 minutes.All you can do is track the hours on a few and compare crews.

Here there would be no shock hazard as power only comes after the CO

[ November 24, 2005, 06:47 PM: Message edited by: jimwalker ]
 
Re: what is expected of you guys

George the service wouldnt be hot around here. we cant get a hot service untill we get a co. My profile was comercial at the time since I have been working as a residential and condo wireman. Jim are you guys hiring? We are expeected to rough a 1000 sq foot a man a day. thats boxing drilling pulling wire and cutting in
 
Re: what is expected of you guys

Actually yes we are hiring.Only commercial work.I worked a few months for a guy like that.2 of us were exspected to rough in small homes in one day.That was load truck with wire, panel ,boxes.Go to job get it started and i was allowed only one trip to get anything we didnt have.I got sick of that pace fast.Residential has turned ugly here.They pay low and want it done fast.Unless there paying high money i would go back to commercial fast.Now that i have been doing commercial i dont think i would ever go back to wiring track homes.
 
Re: what is expected of you guys

It is hard to set a time on how fast one could do a job, There will be those who can snap right into it and knock out a house fast with out much thinking about what their doing, but there also will be those who are for ever slow and seem to have to think each circuit out and while they get the job done it take longer then most. I have found that as long as I don't push them to try to be too fast there are allot less mistakes made and less repair time on QC's We have one crew of three guys who can knock out a 2000sq ft house in less then a day but they have learned a very good production way of doing it, each has a set job he does and since they repeat the same job at each house they can get it done faster, and without the mistakes. Now trying to get the whole shop to do that is another story. :roll:
 
Re: what is expected of you guys

Why even mess with a house ? Plenty of commercial work and you don't need to swing from the trusses to get it done in time.Some companies will tell the men how many man hours they have to do the job in.They simply tell them a number they know they cant do it in.But it drives them to work faster.
 
Re: what is expected of you guys

Actually its not uncommon for most of our two man crews to have a 1600 sq ft house done in 5 hours or less. I actually prefer this type of work then commercial. Never could get a hold on bending conduit fast enough for me. Monys not bad since the boss lets us work as much as we want. Plus down the road having this pace established in me will help me move up on the condo crews where its a lot slower paced. What really surprises me is that even at this fast of a pace our qc stays high. With more boxes covered by sheetrockers then missed by us
 
Re: what is expected of you guys

Actually its not uncommon for most of our two man crews to have a 1600 sq ft house done in 5 hours or less.
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I take it these are bare bones to code, no cans, no frills, no A/C, no basement, no extras, 100 amp service, etc etc? Or am I that slow?

Sounds as though we should be getting the tips from you!

With more boxes covered by sheetrockers then missed by us
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You miss boxes, B? In a typical house I have three boxes buried, give or take. If I were to forget to put in an outlet every third house, I would be kicking myself.
 
Re: what is expected of you guys

I'm in a piecework company and can't fathom that kind of speed, unless there's nothing extra, the same three plans in rotation, and about half a pound of cocaine per house. :eek:
 
Re: what is expected of you guys

I went out on an inspection in the morning where only the boxes and service was installed. The lead man of the two-man crew asked if I could swing back in the afternoon when at that time he assured me the job would be 100%. I advised him that would probably be in his best interest for him to cancell the inspection and call it in for the next day.

Sure enough only about 5 hours later, not only was the job done, but all penetrations were air stopped and the place was sweeped clean with no site of the crew.

I know of several crews now that complete 1? roughs a day and average about 8-10 a week (6 days). Many do a pretty good job considering that rate.
 
Re: what is expected of you guys

Man are my guys going to get a motivational speech Monday morning. That is what you call it when you tell them how sorry they are, and how little they get done compared to real electricians. Hey; that sounds like the, work or get fired, speech that I always use. What does motivate guys to do more while being safe and enjoying what they do??????? Dangeling that carrot thing seems to promote sloppy and haphazard work, with a quicker finish, but quality and pride go out the window. Or is this just me?
 
Re: what is expected of you guys

Originally posted by stars13bars2:
What does motivate guys to do more while being safe and enjoying what they do??????? Dangeling that carrot thing seems to promote sloppy and haphazard work, with a quicker finish, but quality and pride go out the window. Or is this just me?
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Nothing motivates a man more than seeing his boss putting in a hard day's work.
 
Re: what is expected of you guys

Originally posted by mdshunk:
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Nothing motivates a man more than seeing his boss putting in a hard day's work. [/QB][/QUOTE]

I'd like nothing more than putting in more hard days work. I prefer it to running around and doing paper work, figuring up bids, trying to get money out of people. But if I'm spending my time with tools in hands, I'm not lining up work. If I'm not lining up work, but on the job overseeing, I'm concerned about running the guys on the job out of work. I do work with tools at times and at times it is after the guys start cleaning up and I tell them good job and I'm going to do this or that so they don't have to worry about it in the morning.

Steve
 
Re: what is expected of you guys

Originally posted by mdshunk: Nothing motivates a man more than seeing his boss putting in a hard day's work.
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You should copyright that aphorism and sell it to some publisher. I am sure someone will want to write a motivational textbook around that theme. :)
 
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