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Rewire a 3 bedroom home

7K views 54 replies 24 participants last post by  Jason Harper 
#1 ·
I have recently had a customer contact me to rewire his home. It has 3 bedrooms, bath, kitchen and attached garage. Plus install smokes throughout the house. Plus he wants me to change his service. I don't normally estimate jobs of this size so I was wondering what would be an average cost to do a job of this size. Thank you for your help.
 
#7 ·
1. You need to look at the job and make a task list and figure how many man hours will each task take.

2. You need to have a stock list for each task so you will know how much it will cost you to do each task.

3. He want's to change his service so add about $3,000 if it is overhead.

4. you need to ad up all of your costs for the year and ad your desired salary.

5. Give them a grand total price only and make sure it's high enough.
 
#10 ·
So when you say estimate do you mean walking it through with the homeowner then researching prices and coming up with a plan or are you thinking that an estimate is just a wild ass guess? The bigger the job the better plan you need to come up with. A customer isn't going to want to part with a large chunk of money on a guess.
 
#27 ·
Usually customers have little to no idea of a rewire cost


Any 'fish job' usually takes 3X's an open install , so if it's to be brought up to code standard .... find or provide a similar dwelling new wire cost and use that multiplier.

We've found introducing this as perspective efficient, with less contract sticker shock pricings round filed.....

~CS~
 
#37 ·
Well you're just trying to get a handle on the going rate Joe

This is something i've found friendly competition can provide demographically correct, as opposed to this forum.
:smartass:
As you've alluded, the larger/smaller co's may have their P/E ratio's tuned to their overhead ;)

Of course, there's the national maintenance whores who love to pimp us out at what they believe or better construe as all encompassing benchmark(s). The public does price shop with them enough to the point where it's an EC consideration :rolleyes:

Then there's the software folks, who believe a computer will do everything for them w/o acknowledging it takes a real live person programming in real live numbers from real live situations.....:whistling2:

~CS~
 
#41 ·
We're in the midst of a remodel/rewire, subpanel where old panel was, new 200 amp overhead, smokes, gutted kitchen, gutted master bath, gutted second full bath, some fixtures provided. Halfway through rough, all T&M. 8K and we have ways to go with rough. None of that includes finish. Probably be close to 18k by the time we're done, maybe higher.
 
#49 ·
it arbitrary nrp, but here's another major factor.....>

x4 if the residence is occupied, and operational

Case in point, we did a 6 unit last winter, spent most our time moving furniture, making sure the cat didn't get out, waiting for people to get the 'eff outta bed, set up/ break down / clean up & of course having to complete any one mission to the point of re-energizing it at the days end.


This winter we're looking at a larger office building, 8 biz suits , 3 full time rentals. We've told the owner the most cost effective method is to rotate all rentals in/out of the one unoccupied suit, allowing one reno at a time to occur

Usually, if we put this in $$$, they understand it better. :whistling2:

~CS~
 
#45 ·
I like the idea of doubling your materials cost and I am aware that it is a standard practice however I find it difficult to justify on big ticket items. I normally do double my little things, and little jobs, but it's not as easy to do on a really big job with thousands in material.

What do you do on jobs that are mostly labor? I have one right now that will be about 6 hours for 2 guys but less than $100 in materials, just some romex and devices/boxes. A lot of fishing in existing construction. I already figured 8 hours labor because even if it only takes us 6 there won't be time left for another job that day.
 
#46 ·
Avoid hourly rates whenever possible.

It takes close to $100 an hour just to keep us from losing money. 90% of the time there are two guys in a truck. That is about a dollar a minute, hard costs.

I find it difficult to justify on big ticket items. I normally do double my little things, and little jobs but it's not as easy to do on a really big job with thousands in material.
.
1) Justify to who? You are the one who determines your prices. You should be marking small materials up 500%. You can't sell a 50 cent switch or fitting for $1. It costs more than a dollar to write it up and account for it.

2) It's just as easy to do on big items as small ones. Use a calculator :) When you get to items that cost $500 and up, you can reduce the mark up and still make good money. Remember, you have to purchase, stock and warranty the stuff you install so you spread those costs over everything you install.

On your labor jobs try to bring in $1000 per day per truck. Half of that should be gross profit.

The sooner you get past the mental block of "justifying" your prices, the sooner you will start making better money. Sit down and figure out what you will have to charge in order to reach your financial goals.

You want personal justification?

In 5 years, you want a piece of real estate for your office, warehouse and 4 more trucks. It will cost $X.00 You want a decent salary of $X.00. You want people to help you in the administrative end as well as in the field. That will also cost $X.00.

You have 1300 working days to meet these goals. Do the math and figure out how much you need to bring in daily to do so.
 
#47 ·
Avoid hourly rates whenever possible.

It takes close to $100 an hour just to keep us from losing money. 90% of the time there are two guys in a truck. That is about a dollar a minute, hard costs.



1) Justify to who? You are the one who determines your prices. You should be marking small materials up 500%. You can't sell a 50 cent switch or fitting for $1. It costs more than a dollar to write it up and account for it.

2) It's just as easy to do on big items as small ones. Use a calculator :) When you get to items that cost $500 and up, you can reduce the mark up and still make good money. Remember, you have to purchase, stock and warranty the stuff you install so you spread those costs over everything you install.

On your labor jobs try to bring in $1000 per day per truck. Half of that should be gross profit.

The sooner you get past the mental block of "justifying" your prices, the sooner you will start making better money. Sit down and figure out what you will have to charge in order to reach your financial goals.

You want personal justification?

In 5 years, you want a piece of real estate for your office, warehouse and 4 more trucks. It will cost $X.00 You want a decent salary of $X.00. You want people to help you in the administrative end as well as in the field. That will also cost $X.00.

You have 1300 working days to meet these goals. Do the math and figure out how much you need to bring in daily to do so.
kWhat benefits do you pay your guys...other than salary?
 
#48 ·
My new rewire formula- Ten per cent of the last sale price of the home with a 200,000 discount for the bare land subtracted. So lets see- houses avg around a million in my work area,(teeny 3 bed 2.5 bath) subtract 2 hundred k- end up 800,000 / ten and you get $80,000 sounds good, plus we have a 4.5 per cent excise tax to be added on so- total is $83,776. Sign right here at the dotted line and we can get started first thing in the morning..
 
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