redsy, you are 1/2 right. but we don't charge $200 or $300/hr, we charge enough to make $800-$1200 for the day. Since, in all fairness, we only charge our customers for the actual time we are working, and we are only on the actual job about 5 hrs a day. We bill $200 to $300 per billable hour. We just tell them up front what the cost will be.
Kiwi, I tend to agree with Tiger. We've done a whole mess of these projects in the past (used to do some work for a GC who specialized in taking over jobs- he charged the customer a boatload, we charged him a boatload)
but like tiger said, give him a set price to do a thorough inspection. It'll take 2-3 days, but it can be done. You'll find everything but maybe a buried junction box and/or a potential arc fault condition from a staple that's too tight.
in that time, you will learn all the wiring and how the previous ec circuited the house. You'll find missing wires (if any) shorts, broken wires, etc. At that point you can determine what needs to be done and how to do it.
Going in T&M, you need to account for down time (travel to and from the job, etc) Also, what happens when you take longer than he thought? Even with a deposit and only working to that limit, you still defeat the purpose.
the goal is to make money on the job, while making the customer happy. Go in with a blank T&M and see how unhappy the customer is when you request 2-3 $5000 deposits and your still not done because of all the work that the previous guy screwed up.
Good luck. But it can be done flat rate, we've done it probably 2 dozen times over the years with good results. Money in our pocket and happy customers.
