... Okay,...it's dopey question time,..
When looking over plans for pricing out wiring a new house/addition,..etc,..when the builder/GC says for me to "allow for $5,000.00 for fixtures"..what exactly does that mean?? He says "give them(the H.O.) a certain allowance".. Do I include that into the price?? I'm lost with this terminology..How does it effect me as the installer..
Russ



[This message has been edited by Attic Rat (edited 10-31-2005).]

I don't do new homes for GCs, Russ, but my understanding of it is that you work up your bid as usual, then add $5,000.00 for the lighting allowance. I suspect that they would have to pick fixtures from a catalog you provide so you'd have your usual markup/profit. If they go over $5,000.00, they pay more. I don't know if there's a rebate for going under the allowance.

Dave

That allowance is for everyone to be able to work with a generalized price for fixtures that are unspecifified, or TBD on the current plans.

Once the fixtures are specified, it is that $5k that gets changed out. (+/-) Generaly kept as a seperate line item on your bid/est.

e57, I was going to say that

What about labor for those fixtures? Could be brutal.
Sam

Sam, the allowance could be a turnkey figure including the labor. If this is the case, an hourly rate or unit figure would be written in to the allowance.

On the otherhand, it could be that the labor was included in the base bid
for a set amount of x type fixtures, x amount for chandeliers, x amount for ceiling fans etc..., any deviation from these set numbers would be a +/- change order.

Roger

[This message has been edited by Roger (edited 11-01-2005).]

Including unknows as an "allowance" gives the future home owner a realistic figure to take to the bank to get a construction loan. If you leave out things that aren't decided yet, like fixtures, the bank won't know to add the expected price into the cost of the whole house.

Typically the contract reads that an "allowance" of $XX has been included for fixtures and then when the actual costs are determined later, they pay for fixture installation on T&M but they're predicting it will be around $5K.

When it's all said and done, either they'll owe you a little if they spent more than 5K of fixtures (including labor) or you'll get a little less than the contract price if it was under 5K.