Ball park cost for breaker box replacement

[bowgus]

200 Amp panel, $600 cdn ... with breakers.

[Tom Horne, Electrician]

It is obvious from the tone of your inquiry that you believe you are entitled to have an electrical contractor do the job at his/her labor cost alone. That means he/she is supposed to absorb all of the overhead cost of supplying the labor to do your job. Any business that accedes to such demands will fail. Are you aware that people invest in a business in the expectation that they will make a profit?

No qualified person is going to want to work with parts he/she did not obtain themselves.

If the difference between the price "to the trade" and the retail price is part of the contractors margin and you get them to forgo it he/she has to make it up somewhere else. If it is not part of that particular firms margin you will be raising the cost of your job.

Far more importantly neither I or any other electrician I've ever heard of will be willing to warranty parts for which I/we do not hold the purchase receipt. I would not be willing to warranty parts that may have come from a salvage dealer or a retailer that is going out of business even if the parts are in sealed boxes. I know the supply houses I deal with will take back defective parts no questions asked. I know they will not sell me used parts the installation of which is a code violation in some jurisdictions.

That having been said the cost of a service equipment upgrade for a single family residence varies from $1000 in rural West Virginia up to $3000 for an underground service in Washington, DC. Quit trying to pick apart the contractors price and get three estimates. Check the histories and references of the contractors and select the bid in which you then have the most confidence.

[Tom Horne, Electrician]

So I give you an estimate over the phone of fifty dollars to install your replacement kitchen fixture. I arrive and you present me with a ceiling fan that you expect to have installed for the aforementioned fifty dollars. The existing, sixty year old, three and one half inch, round, ear less, box offers no way to support a new lighting fixture, let alone a ceiling fan but you expect me to replace the box with one listed for fan support, do all my own cut patch and clean up, assemble and install a ceiling fan, all for fifty dollars. If I gave telephone estimates; which I do not; I would tell you that it is a time and materials job not to exceed five hundred dollars excluding the cost of any new wiring needed in your home. You would call me a name and hang up.

I recently gave a family an estimate of $2000 for a heavy up from 150 to

400 amperes specifically at the existing service location. I excluded compliance with any unpublished portion of the utilities tariffs. The power company would not supply service to the existing meter location after the county electrical inspector had signed off on the completed work. Would you expect me to extend the service entry conductors, provide and install main lug kits and main breaker enclosures, and provide temporary service disconnect for the existing supply without any additional compensation? Just what are my kids supposed to eat that week?

[Tom Horne, Electrician]

Yes it is perfectly acceptable to specify particular equipment. That is a normal practice in the building trades.

[grappletech]

Yeah, there's a lot of overhead -- taxes, FICA, Social Security, Workman's Comp, medical/retirement benefits for employees, truck or van cost (plus gas), tools, materials (including the fuse box itself), training, advertising, permits, might be a small office staff to pay (receptionist/bookkeeper), etc..

[Mark Lloyd]

As a customer, I would consider it unreasonable to get a phone estimate for one thing, then expect additional work for the same amount.

I had a plumber out recently to fix a leak. He was already here when I asked him to install an additional shutoff valve (not related to the leak). I would expect to be charged extra for that.

[MLD]

[Steve B]

I think I did good. We're friends, and although he gives me a break, I try to take care of him.

Steve

[Steve B]

I had a new metal roof put on my cabin this summer. It was $5500. The only other guy that showed up wanted $10,500. I figured he didn't need or want the work, and bid it so that if he had to do it, he would make out like a bandit.

Steve

[Eigenvector]

It doesn't seem unreasonable to get a base estimate ahead of time to me. We aren't talking about a $100 job, we're talking a potentially multi-thousand dollar task. People don't have that kind of money floating around. As the person paying, I fully feel entitled to know that ahead of time - otherwise how do you know I'll be able to pay you? There's nothing wrong with asking over the phone for an estimate of the costs.

You don't go to a car dealership, take a test drive, have the salesman show you the works, get to sign the paperwork, then look at the price and walk away - "sorry I can't afford this." You need to have a reasonable idea of what it costs first. How do is that accomplished you ask????? TV ads, sticker in the window, website, etc.

As to your question, I would expect to pay you for the work you did, irregardless of what you quoted me. I think you get the impression I'm penny pinching or trying to cheat someone here - not at all. But even if I was, what do you care - you're gonna charge what you're gonna charge regardless of whether or not I'm wheelin' and dealin'. Isn't it in your best interest to be forthright with your rates and estimates ahead of time, if only because it wards off the skinflints?

Doesn't matter to me now, I already have a contractor picked out and am going to set something up with him on Thursday. Why did I pick him, I know his company from previous work they did for my employer AND BECAUSE HE GAVE ME A ROUGH ESTIMATE OVER THE PHONE. He politely understood why I was asking.

[HeyBub]

Two years ago I had a Chevrolet dealership repair the AC in my pickup. *I* provided the parts, THEY provided the labor. I saved about $400 on the price of the compressor alone.

Of course at an auto dealership, the service department profit bucket is not connected to the parts department profit bucket. Evidently, there is only one bucket at an electrical contractor - but that is not true of all businesses.

And, oh, yeah. Two hot seasons on, everything continues to work swell.

Not always. See above.

[Bawana]

Keep checking around and save yourself over a $1,000.

I guess they don't want/need the business. What's the big secret?

Anything more than a thousand and you've been f***ed.

It ain't brain surgery.

[Thomas D. Horne, FF EMT]

I know that this may seem quarrelsome but I do not see how any estimate for electrical work given over the phone will not either under price the job or raise false expectations for what is included. I simply cannot imagine giving a price on a job sight unseen.

[Thomas D. Horne, FF EMT]

Qualified person is a "term of art" in the regulated building trades. It means a person that is actually qualified to perform the work in accordance with the applicable codes and standards. An automotive mechanics work is not state or local government regulated for quality of work in most places.

[Steve B]

"Thomas D. Horne, FF EMT" wrote

And, if you work at Jiffy Lube, the term "mechanic" means absolutely nothing.

Steve

[stevew]

If you want to put a breaker box in a ball park, you need lots of money. You will probably need a 10,000 amp service panel. Thats assuming you mean a baseball stadium. You might mean a place where gay guys park their cars to play with other guys balls. Nowadays one never knows........

Steve W.

[Bawana]

When I was in the electrical business I gave estimates over the phone everyday. It qualified my buyers. It saved me time. I never had a problem.

That's because you simply have NO imagination.

[Chris Lewis]

According to Mark Lloyd :

Me neither.

However, the question is what is that "one thing"?

You get an over the phone estimate for $50 to hang a new fixture. The electrician arrives, and discovers that the support point has rotted out, the wire's insulation is falling off and is half melted, and it'll require routing a new circuit, with wall teardown and fishing thru a muddy crawlspace.

"You said you'd do it for $50". Well, he can't, because that "one thing" was a lot more work than anticipated.

Watch Mike Holmes sometime, and see how a "bit of water leaking through a windowsill" can turn into a full roof tearoff, and gutting several rooms.

[Mark Lloyd]

I would know that that $50 is an ESTIMATE (certainly not a guaranteed amount) that couldn't possibly include unknowns.

[Chris Lewis]

According to Mark Lloyd :

_You_ would, but not everyone is that reasonable.

Furthermore, that's not how the courts interpret "estimates", and the trades are compelled to treat them the same way.

As guaranteed amounts. Think "car repair estimates" most jurisdictions consider those to be _firm_ upper limits.

I'd also suggest that in renovations (rather than new construction), "ballpark estimates" (where you tell the tradesperson UP FRONT that you're only using the number for budgetary purposes, and would get them to give you a more accurate estimate on inspection) often vary so wildly as to be _useless_. Because of the infamous "jackpot!" problem.

Case in point: watched what was supposed to be a dirt simple fixture swap turn into the electrician fighting for three hours with too-short K&T, a non-existant box, too small hole, etc. The alternative (new wire) would have taken over a day.