I'm calling around for some sort of quotes to replace my failing circuit breaker box and so far I've only received one estimate.
The price they quoted was about $2500 bucks roughly or $91/hour for their work - including permit and inspection. No other electricians want to release their hourly rate nor provide estimates. I'm not bitter about it, just interested in how much money I'll have to secure to do this.
So if you had to guess, what would it cost to replace a non-grounded circuit breaker with a grounded circuit breaker IF I SUPPLIED THE BREAKERS AND THE PANEL.
$2500.00 sounds to me like they should be holding a gun to your head. Not knowing particulars I would ball park around 300 to 500 or less being your furnishing the materials.
That's kind of what I was thinking, that the quote was totally high. My presumption is that he didn't want my buisness or was just trying to make sure I knew what I was getting into. Again I'm not bitter about it, but this is one of those things I need to get done pretty quick, so I didn't want to go in blind and get taken.
I doubt very very much that job would take 27 hours of work. I am far from an expert, but based on electrical work that I have had done, I would think that "ballpark" time required would be 10 hours, or a bill of $910 at the quoted rate. Even going to 15 hours would be only $1,365, but that seems very high to me.
Now that I think of it, if they couldn't do the job in 10 hours or less, I would question their experience.
Of course, you know the best course of action now is to quickly get several more estimates.
Old electrician joke: How long does it take and how much will it cost for an electrician to change a breaker box?
Who cares? You got a problem with that?
Electricians are specialists, and you want to get the job done right. Your life depends on it.
That being said, what you want done is a royal PITA for an electrician who can just as easily be out installing the same panel in one quarter the time on a new install. You just need to get more estimates and take the best, or find a friend or family member who's qualified for the task and will give you a break.
I doubt if you could find anyone to do the job if you were providing materials. People like to use what they are used to using. Anything else is perceived as a PITA. Plus, there's liability problems, etc. etc.
Before you go ballistic, see what the price of the inspection is.
In my area, there's not an electrician that would touch a project with the H/O supplying the material.
A permit cost is $150, heck to pull a meter and remount (for siding), the permit is $75. In this area, I've heard to replace the service, the cost runs 900-1,200.
You would be doing yourself a favor and not mention you want to supply materials. As a former contractor, I wouldn't waste valuable time trying to chase down a penny pinching lead.
Well, I wouldn't expect them to either. If you got that $2500 over the phone, that's the electrician covering his ass for the "jackpot!" he's half-expecting. They can't tell what needs to be done over the phone, nor can we over the Internet. Eg: does the service entrance have to be redone, how much does he have to do to provide a code-approved mounting, etc.
Get them out to give you an estimate.
_If_ the existing installation is good enough that the job is nothing more than a basic panel swap, $2500 (not including panel/breakers) is _way_ too high.
But, if there's no ground, he's probably going to have to install a proper grounding electrode system, redo the service entrance, likely do some carpentry to make an acceptable mounting arrangement, and do some timeconsuming and awkward things to re-establish the circuits. $2500 may be reasonable for that.
My SIL's new (old ;-) house needed: the service entrance and cable replaced, a disconnect and splitter box removed, main shifted to what had been a subpanel, the panel moved a few inches out from the wall, a length of conduit secured to the wall properly, and a couple of outlets got their hot-neutral reversed (they were wired backwards). Took two guys two days. I believe it was around $2000 (the previous owner paid for it).
She had them back for another job (about a day and a half) while we were visiting. These guys were good, no wasted time, _excellent_ workmanship, and they didn't do things that didn't need to be done.
I'm pretty good with electrical work. But, I'd hire these guys in a flash.
Well I never said anything about penny pinching, I am fully prepared to pay
2500 bucks for the work, and I was going to get (that is I haven't actually bought) a Cutler-Hammer box based on the positive reviews it got from a couple of my friends.
I do see what you mean about guarenteeing someone else's equipment, but they have to buy the box anyway so I might as well get one that I prefer as opposed to them bringing an el-cheapo model. Can I ask them/request them to use a particular model or quality?
I meant, in your original post, you stated you wanted to supply material. If you're telling electricians this, you come off as a penny pincher. You don't have to say "I'm a penny pincher". I fully understand you may want to use certain brands, you should state that, without mentioning you want to supply them.
Contractors love to be asked questions. If they don't agree with you, they will let it be known, and why. Most every contractor with an ounce of dignity, wants to use quality materials on R&R work.
Thank you that puts the costs into perspective and makes it seem more reasonable.
I've seen the $2500 dollar guys work, at my office, their work is within reason (I had to escort them in sensitive areas) and I know a few of them that work for this outfit (although not well enough to hit up for side work). I think I'll give them a call on Monday and set something up - the independents who wouldn't even give me their hourly rates will just have to miss out.
I paid just over $200 (I think it was $220) for a new service, breaker box, breakers, 3 way switch added to a basement light, and a new outside light and switch, an additional receptacle right on the panel. .
I just had some work done by an electrician friend of mine at my cabin. He put in eight exterior four plug receptacles, four switches with runs to exterior lights, mounted the conduit and boxes for two motion halogen lights, and put a light and switch in the under the stairs closet.
I had to buy the Romex. He brought all the conduit and boxes and weatherproof covers and various stuff from his work for all the rest. I had to buy the two $50 halogen motion lights. I had to buy him two cases of beer, and let him stay in the cabin for three days.
Do you think I got taken?
Oh, I also bought him a Remington 870 synthetic stock 12 ga. shotgun.
I've been doing repair and install work for several years. Both for my own company, and working for someone else. It's OK to say you prefer some brand or other of parts, but it's not OK to supply your own parts.
People who supply their own parts tend to be:
1) overcontrolling. This is the guy who will watch every thing you do, ask too many questions, and tell you how to do your work. This is a total PIA that contractors hate.
2) Buying the wrong parts. Most of the time, customers by the cheapest parts they can find, which end up not fitting, or need a lot of extra time to make them work. It's hard to get them to understand that the cheap part is far more labor than the good part that I woulda installed.
3) Trying to keep the price down, by cutting out the contractor's normal and expected markup on the parts. This is the guy who buys the cheap part on Ebay, or at the local home center, and expects the contractor to enjoy installing cheap junk for discounted labor rates.
My suggestion is to skip the "if I supply the parts" and just call em out for estimates.
I had this done on 1/2 of a duplex about five years ago. 200A service, $800.
Recently, the other half of the duplex needed the same treatment. The same company was now charging $1100.
I bought the panel/breakers/etc at HD and did the work myself, with my son helping. We started at 10:00am and were finished around 5:00. Out-of-pocket cost: ~$280.00. Then we had a beer.
In my jurisdiction (Houston) no permit is required nor is there a fee for removing/resetting the meter. (Houston also has no zoning laws - eat your heart out.)
So flush with the thrill of a job well done, we repeated the process a couple of weeks later at his house.
I wrote up the project for this newsgroup. Check the archives.
Are you hiring them as employees? Do you plan on covering their workmen's comp, and employer side SSI contribution? These are retorical questions, I'm trying to explain you are paying for a job, not for new employees so do your job as a consumer and get specs and estimates.
Now for the price, I have to say that is 'ball park' for a differcult job. Depending on permit requirements, inspections, licensing requirements, materials and the distance from weather head to the panel, $2500 could be very fair.
So get three estimates, proof of insurance (GL and if there are employees, workman's comp), follow up with insurance phone call to see if policy is current, get detailed specs, and get some patience. You are getting something installed that if done right, should outlast your home. :)
Now back to your post, what is a 'failing circuit breaker box'?
Disclaimer: Not your electrician, most likely not licensed in your area, so this isn't a how-to, but a friendly suggestion on how as a home owner I would proceed.
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