where can I find a web site that lists current romex prices for differant lacations thruout the u.s.?

2 days ago 12/2 was 262 a thousand at Home Depot and 268 at my supply house in Bangor Maine

...Yesterday, 5/4/06, in New Jersey,..I bought 6000'of 14/2rx @ $190.00/1000' or $47.50/250'
...6000'of 12/2rx @ $490.00/1000' ..$61.25/250'
...1500' of 12/3rx @ $460.00/1000'..$115.00/250'
...1500'of 14/3rx @ $255.00/1000' ..$63.75/250'
...and 500' of 12/2UF@ $90.00/250'
For a Grand total of $5652.45..including sales tax...
My supply house said that today is the last day at those prices,..it's only gonna climb from there, so, I stocked up... anyone need any wire???
...I'm definetly gonna have to raise my prices..this is out of control..
Russ
...Guess I'll have to sell my blood again...
maybe an organ or two as well,...

My local supply house was at $3750.00 per thousand for 12-2 yesterday but you could still buy it at HD and Lowes for $295.00 per thou.

I find that DD/Lowes always seem to lag the supply house on price spikes. I remember a couple months ago it was PVC pipe.

I don't know the RX $$$ but....
600Kcmil THHN/THWN Cu. was $12.00 a foot yesterday.

636' equates out to $ 8089.92, cost with sales tax.

John

Hey Walrus, who do you use? I use GE Supply and Gilmans.

Frank
That was Wesco's price

How long before aluminum NM hits the market?
Don

was at an Alcan road show that had me thinking the same thing. They brought samples of the old 1350 alloy and the 88xx stuff, lugs, charts and studies, trying to show folks <mostly inspectors> it was OK.
I can agree it is harder to break the new alloy. The bad reputation will be harder to break.

From what I have been told, Aluminum is not bad, as long as it is kept up. Our Instructor at school told us the company he used to work for has the contract to keep up Turner Field here in Atlanta. Apparently all the wiring was "donated" and it is all aluminum.

They get to go in and do routine maintenance on it and they rarely have problems with it.

Good luck trying to convince the public. I have a pretty hard time just with electricians, let alone Joe Avarage Homeowner. And then there is those websites where they cook a purple wirenut with a blow torch in order to scare everybody........

I am in the minority opinion but I think all the aluminum wired houses that were going to burn down, already did. Virtually every horror story you see or read is 30 years old in spite of the fact that there are still millions of aluminum homes out there since 1970. This appears to be as much a workmanship problem as a materials problem. Aluminum is a lot less forgiving than copper and screwing with it seems to increase the danger. One question I would like to see answered is how many of these problems were caused by "Harry Homeowner" in there?
Certainly the owners of an aluminum house should be more vigilent, keep fresh batteries in the smoke detectors and should call an electrician at the first sign of trouble but they shouldn't be shivvering in fear.
The Alcan guys make a pretty good case that those 1970s problems were fixed with the new alloy, different metals in the binding screws and the fact that most lugs are aluminum in the first place. They have tests that say aluminum wire in an aluminum lug is actually better than copper wire. They weren't actually selling us 12-10 ga stuff (although the samples looked like uninsulated 10) but they were certainly saying 8 and up was a fine material.
I also reminded myself these guys are aluminum salesmen. What did we expect them to say. The Carlon guy puts on a good show too, when he is selling Smurf tube.

[This message has been edited by gfretwell (edited 05-06-2006).]

"And then there is those websites where they cook a purple wirenut with a blow torch in order to scare everybody........"

Oh, that is intresting , might be, we can add the purple nuts we found, on dishwashers, and attic fans, to the pic's file, some were cooked so bad you could just about identify it, we have a large amount of al wired homes in this area, the problems usually are, where they add circuits, or connect the al to the copper, the al installations, if left alone, would not have many problems, but over the years, they have added circuit extensions, changed recept's and switches, also light fixtures, homeowners love to remove that piece of fiber glass, so the wiring can cook.
The al was used the last time copper prices took off, if your not in an area where you have a large number of homes wired with al, then you may not see the hazzards it creates.

[This message has been edited by LK (edited 05-06-2006).]

Ok LK, thats fair as long as I get to submit pictures of cooked other types of wirenuts I have found on copper connections. I am not endorsing aluminum wire made before the alloy, I just don't buy into all that websites stuff. If you do thats fine also. One bad thing I will say for aluminum is get some salt spray on it and it won't last very long, alloy or no alloy. So near the ocean I use no-alox.(the non burning kind).

[Message edited by Webmaster for Political content]
....

As for using aluminum instead of copper for common branch circuits: forget it. They ARE abused -- count on it.

Aluminum is a hands down winner when ever it is assured that ONLY able and careful will touch it -- or extend its loads.

Otherwise, it has been shown that the average man will burn himself down. Only copper is so forgiving as to suffer homeowner DIY and leave anything standing.

The fantastic forgiveness of copper is assumed by all laymen to extend to aluminum. It is NOT so.

Even at todays prices, copper is still a bargain for homeowners and more. It's premium price offsets the idiocy factor of 'self-help' making it still the only way to go.

BTW, there is no shortage of copper: just cheap copper from old mines.

It is the maddening leaps in price that are driving contractors nuts. This will settle down pretty soon. It's down right amazing how demand fades when prices tripple.



[This message has been edited by Webmaster (edited 05-07-2006).]

Tesla how about some facts or references for the electrical portions of your opinion?

Bob

"Ok LK, thats fair as long as I get to submit pictures of cooked other types of wirenuts I have found on copper connections."

Your right, it's the connecton be it copper or Al, both have problems, what we have found is the purple nut, just dosem't cut it, so far i have not seen many cu to al connections made up with a 3m connector fail, My thought is the connection was not made up correct on these failures.

Even with copper prices rising, I doubt there will be any cost savings with aluminum considering the increased costs of ALR and CO/ALR receptacles, switches, and even wire nuts.

I too believe aluminum wire fears are way overblown, though I have to admit it would ALL be ripped out if it were in *my* house. If the service entrance conductors were aluminum, something normally I wouldn't have any choice over, I'd be lobbying the POCO until that stuff was gone too.

Joe

292 a thousand this morning for 12/2

don't forget oil prices are also shoving wire prices up. Cross linked polyethelene and pvc's and synthetic rubbers.

319 a thousand this morning

$65.90 for 250' of 12-2 at an Orange Box in Northern NJ today...

well guys belive that it's not going to stop.the big blue box store $89 for 250'of 12-2 w/g. $359 per 1000. local ace $80 for 250.$320 for a 1000. like someone else said as soon as demand stops prices will come down , i hope.someone said that our asian neignbors are behind this, the paticular china!btw this is in s.c.supply houses are even buying from the big box stores. but one roll at a time!OUCH !!!

Guys:
I thought that $11.00 +/- a foot for 600Kcmil THHN Cu was crazy......

I got two calls today.......
12:15 PM....$ 13.65'
3:45 PM $ 16.25'

That was from two different supply houses in No/Central NJ

Totally insane!!!!

John

PS: A public (this forum) Thank You to Dnk for the lead earlier this week

600 Mcm Thhn south jersey today $12.10 per ft ordered it for Monday delivery.

4 - 80' legs $4,104.32 including NJ 6% sales tax.

O my .. I hope for the bosses sake this is a T & M job

Kencr:
Hey; welcome to another "Jersey Guy", from a Jersey Guy.

Dnk & Redsey are down in your 'southern' section. LK, me, Shock, Harold are central/north; There's a few others around.

BTW, Dnk had a really good 'referral' for me for 600MCM. Picked it up 5/10/06. $7.18 ft.

John

... Attic Rat,...Northeastern NJ,..Bergen Co.

...and prices are NO better,..I hope a pint of blood is still worth something..

[This message has been edited by Attic Rat (edited 05-14-2006).]

Supply house had a 40% increase again this AM. 12-2 w/g is currently $580.00 per thou. Big box stores in neighboring town are at $412.00 per thou and they don't even have any 12-3 in stock. 10-2 was $668.00 per thou last Friday. My GC bought the last 6000' of 12-2 his lumberyard had this AM for $376.00 and will supply the 12-2 for the next 2 houses I'm wiring for him. His lumberyard told him he had to take delivery before noon today or the price would be $507.00 per thou as of 12:00 noon EST. There are a lot of houses that were bid with 12-2 at $180.00 per thou 4 months ago that are just now coming up on the schedules. I though I was playing it safe in February when I figured $250.00 per thou on some of my quotes. I still included a disclaimer that my quotes were only good for 30 days, thank God.

Garwood, NJ

Price of 250' of 12/2 NM-B on Friday: $65.00

Price of 250' of 12/2 NM-B on Monday: $103.00

Holy smokes!

And for the record, $188.00 for 250' of 10-2.

Hey Shock:

Are you "SHOCKED" yet?? At the copper $$$$

John

Al wire already mentioned, duh..

[This message has been edited by wa2ise (edited 05-17-2006).]

# 12 XHHW was $239.00 m and # 12 THHN was $136.00 m at 2:30PM today and only guaranteed to 5:00PM

Roger

Good news. I heard on the radio that the commodity price of copper fell today. I wonder if we'll see the affect any time soon.

Peter

1000' 12/2 NM $408.00 At Home Depot today. I do not believe we will see any relief any time soon.

Al

The price of the copper isn't the only contributor, though. The insulation and outer jacket are made from something else that is kinda pricy these days, too.

Quote:

"I heard on the radio that the commodity price of copper fell today. I wonder if we'll see the affect any time soon."

It seems like with gasoline, the price of a barrel of crude goes up today and the price at the pump goes up tomorrow... The price of crude goes down today, the price at the pump takes weeks to come down.

The thing that will really drive the cost of Romex down will be a train load sitting on a siding without a buyer. As long as building is going full speed Romex will just be ONE of those things that are "too expensive". Concrete and lumber is out of sight and you can't get roof tiles or pavers. Silly stuff like lacquer thinner and mineral spirits is double what it was last year.

Hey John, yes, I am shocked at the price of copper these days. Buy you don't have to call me Shock, you can call me Ron or Shock. Doesn't matter.

I believe the high price is the result of an expanding economy. I believe everything is relative and dictated by the free market. I also believe my hourly pay will soon be increased too.

I just wish could get some of the newer guys in the biz to stop wasting so much wire when they pull homeruns or whatever. It's like some of these kids DO NOT CARE about wasting material. It was never like that when I was coming up.

While I agree with you to a point, rest assured that at today's prices, none of that scrap wire is ending up in landfills.

Peter

Old timer used to tell me...."it's cheaper to cut a little off, then to have to re-pull it"

Old habits are hard to break; especially if you are NOT the one paying the bills.

HiHo, off to the scrap yard we go!

John

I was always told "it's better to be a mile too long than an inch too short (but not two miles)."

A lot comes down to the cost of labor vs the cost of wire and how fast you want to go.
I do notice less wire in the dumpsters these days. I used to "dive" for wire and came home with a bunch everytime I went looking. It always amazed me what I came up with.
One day I came up with about 400 feet of "flooded" phone cable that looked like it came off a broken spool. I admit it was a pain untangling and rolling that rat's nest but it really only took about an hour. That was pretty pricy stuff the last time I bought some, now I have a lifetime supply.
Same withalarm cable, CAT 5 and RG-6 quad shield.
I don't know how many pieces of Romex I have picked up that were 15 or 20' long but I will look through the pile before I cut a piece from a new roll. I try to roll them so one wrap is 3' to make them easier to sort through.
The FPL contractor is always throwing 20-30' pieces of 4/0 al triplex away. They seem to guess wrong a lot on the service laterals. I can't find a good use for it either.

One roll(500ft) of #12 THWN cost me 107 dollars on thursday . I called my customer right up to tell them not to be shocked when he sees the bill. .

Damn, that really is way too much for a roll of #12 THHN/ THWN. Last time I check the pricing of that was 2 weeks ago and it was up to $71 compared to $42 two weeks before that! I paid $158.00 for 250' of 12.2 MC this morning.

#12 THWN $106.11 dollars on friday, one of the supply houses was telling me they have 10 guys cut off, that is the bad news, the good news is, they are the low ballers, guess they never kept up, with the increases.

lk - which house is that?

we've been running a ton of 10 thhn lately. it's jumped from $136 to $240 per 1000

I just got back from the Depot (building some shelves tomorrow) and checked the price of #12 THHN there. It was still $71 and change. $109 for the same amount of #10 THHN. The rise in copper prices is more outrageous than the rise in oil prices, for sure.

Same price at Monarch, and Miller, HD was $11 cheaper, but not worth getting truck riped into, while in store.