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Hello everyone. I am a licensed electrical contractor and have just started my business about 2 years ago. I am currently bidding on a 2000 square foot spec house. The house has 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. The only extras are thee recessed lights and a ceiling fan in the master bedroom. I came up with $7700 without the service. How does that compare to how you all calculate your jobs

A similar 3 bedroom 2.5 bath spec would bid at 4500.00 around here but with the down economy some are bidding even lower.Hard times drive down the price.

Do you get that number doing a square footage price or per opening?

history of past projects,man hours and material

Hayes:

Welcome to ECN!

Remember...labor factor for your location!

Members here are in a lot of locations on this planet, and all over the USA!

Hayes .,please do welcome to the fourms in here.

For the simauir size house in France it typical run about €5,200 but it will varies depending on the construction and the materals it will be used and the customer request if they want add something to the list.

Merci,Marc

In our area we have no license requirement and limited inspections so anyone who can afford the price of hand tools can wire a house which depresses the price.

Out my way prices are depressed by Residential Electricians crossing over into low-end Commercial Bidding.

After their first significant jobs they're broke.

The reverse is true: Commercial Electricians loose their shirts jumping into Residential Bidding.

They are really two separate worlds.

Assuming this is a one-of-a-kind house the REAL issue is the General Contractor. His skill and moxie, and honor, is critical for anyone making a 'tight' bid.

And just why is it NOW that this fella needs a NEW EC?

What happened to his established pals? Did he burn them? Is he in credit trouble? A SPEC house -- in today's market? Are you kidding? Who's his banker? Are they in trouble with the FDIC?

Do your research. This is the WORST time in the market cycle to take on risk; so naturally every contractor is cutting prices to the bone so that they can lose money while in the rain instead of losing money staying at home.

I have seen more residential electricians come and go over the years that one can imagine. They jump in residential as the easy market, cut prices, make a fair living, then go bankrupt. The GC does not care bottom line low prices.

I have a 3700 sq ft living area in Florida. My GC's residential electrician did it turnkey for $6500 last year.
I did furnish all my light fixtures.

Alot of out ocf work sparkys are turning to house wiring to get buy

Your bid is high. Thats like a $4000 job and will probably get bid at <$3600 including the service, builder supplies the fixtures & bulbs.

36 man hrs, & less than $2k materials.

Its cut throat around here, seriously $1.70 sq ft bids are common.

Ya gotta be kidding ?? 1.70 USD per sqfoot just for basic set up ?? if that the case I will just bolted from that low price.

Unforetally it not only affect in USA but Europe as well we do feel the effect as well.

The last resdentail house I done in USA it ran 3.12 USD per sq foot { 90% of my time I never use the sq foot price at all }

Merci, Marc

does that include the service?

Includes an underground service.

I don't us a sq ft price either besides something to check my estimate against.

I don't bid on any new constructions homes because of these prices. We'll I do bid on some but I rarely get them.

36 hours is not alot of time to do a neat job.

Here is a little gee whiz info from a friend in a big national builder. This is a typical 2000 sq/ft house in SW Fla.

http://gfretwell.com/electrical/A%20typical%202000%20house%20in%20SW%20Florida.xls

I cant by a fan/light for 22 dollars let alone install it.

Greg:
Just a question...is that an AFCI job?

I imagine this has to be an AFCI job since we are on the 2008. A am not sure about the fan deal. The builder may be buying the fan.

tamper proof recepts should bump the cost also

I talked to my wife about the bathroom fan. She says the HVAC contractor sets and pipes in the fan. The electrician only wires it, hence the $20.

does the HVAC contractor take care of trim out?

Do you mean snapping the fan motor in the can and putting the grill on? I will ask. I know that is one of the last things they do and the job super may have the trim parts so they don't get lost. This was mass building and everyone gets the same fan. I suspect Peter got Paul's parts, and on down the line. I am not sure what they are doing now but when my wife was closing 2 houses a week there was just a constant flow of parts. There was always a stack of disposals, fans, luminaires and other trim out stuff in the construction trailer.

wiring the fan is one trip and putting the mtor and trim is another trip all for 20 bucks

I assume that is going to be part of the total trim out, not just going there to install a fan.

Tract builders do operate with pretty sharp pencils.

my cost book shows 1.5 hours for a fan install

1.5 hours to install a 'basic' $10 bath exhaust fan in new work???

Old work with P/U of materials, I may buy 1.5 hrs.

Bear in mind you are not actually hanging and piping in the fan.

staging, mobilization,demobilization and cleanup. All these must be factored in on every task.Installation of the fan is included it the time for this task.

where i work, the tin bashers will install everything for the fan, i just run power to it and wire it