Wire new construction bidding

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People who charge per square foot are good at knowing what inspectors want to see and what they never look for, and many are counting on not getting caught. That's on top of bare minimum lighting

Home run too short? Make a flying splice and hide it above the ductwork

13-foot wall space? Put one receptacle instead of two

No service receptacle for AC

No disconnects for water electric heaters

No receptacles in a foyer that might require three

No boxes for outside lights, just stub a wire

No arc fault breakers except bedrooms

I've seen all the above and more
 
I just did an upgrade and need to chase a thing or 2 down. 3 conductor going to a water heater with a 12 on a 30,,, no box connectors. This done by a guy sposed to have a lic in his pocket. I see a lot of talk so to speak about the un lic and pricing. Inspectors are better than they used to be. I am one knows EXACTLY what they look for and line item, detail it. My neighbor holds every paper there is, says he knows a hundred guys in this trade and I am one he would let wire his own house. It aint cause of brilliance but he knows I wont be the guy hiding the flying splice.
I used to bid work on what I thought it would take, my secretary put an end to that and works on the competitive rates,,, this is hypothetical of course but just got 1 where we were hi bidder. They already had some experience with some others and this had a LOT of details and was kind of a mess.
 
Sberry said:
I understand that but I dont do it. Doesnt matter if its hard or not.
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In general I prefer if people follow the code, even in cases like this where it doesn't really matter much. But if they don't it is not something I plan to worry about all that much. There are much worse things that are done on a regular basis to worry about.
 
I've never priced per square foot and I've done new residential for decades. Every item has a unit price. I do a take off room by room and item by item for appliances, heating system, service, etc. I recently did a 3K square foot house with an underground service (~200' from pole) and a 500 square foot finished basement room with electric baseboard for almost exactly $30K. It had about 35 recessed wafers, under cabinet lighting, and a few more extras. Use that if it helps, but I'd never price per square foot, unless I was ballparking on the high side. And the unit prices for custom houses get a % added to the builder prices based primarily on an experienced assessment of how much extra material and time each item will take vs. a builders 3k square foot spec.
 
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