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Original thread:
Post 6,671 made on Monday March 5, 2012 at 10:46
SB Smarthomes
Super Member
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July 2007
2,634
On March 5, 2012 at 06:37, Mario said...
Paul, you need few more boxes.
I feel for you brother; hopefully the extra work you have to do due to conduit issues are change orders and you're getting compensated for it.

On a semi-different note, do you find the pre-wire stage profitable? In other words, do you bill your regular rate for pre-wire? I've had people cinch at my quotes when I figured in labor at my normal rate. Guess the thinking is that a wire monkey can pull wire, and monkeys don't charge CI standard labor rates.

Hi Mario,

Yeah, There are even more boxes (6-8) of wire down in the Cabana and this picture is towards the end of the pre-wire so I've already burned through a bunch.  I counted 15 different types of wire at this job with multiple boxes/spools of each.

The electrician showed up with a box of RG6, two boxes of CAT5 and a box of 16/2 and was bent out of shape when he found out I was on the job and would be wiring for the low volt.  Most electricians think it's easy (and it is for very simple jobs), but quickly change their tune when they see what's involved for bigger jobs.

I do charge my regular rate ($95hr) for pre-wires, but will also sometimes partner with the electrician on the job to get things done faster.  I also have a few electrical companies that I use as subs.  I don't sub out the work, but bring in extra hands to help me get the job done.

In this area, an apprentice electrician gets billed out at around $45-$65hr and a journeyman around $75-$100hr.  On this job I had about 12hrs help from one of the electricians and also leveraged some of the carpenters and laborers to cut in speakers and trench for conduit.

This job is T&M for the wiring so it's been easy to sort out the billing and I've been paid for all my time.  I collected a $12K deposit for the pre-wire that I'm billing against.

This job happened with no notice and little planning/design so it's been changing daily.  Because of this, it would have been impossible to create a low-volt wiring schedule and have unskilled installers pull the wire.  I've just been figuring it out as I go.

Scope of the job is also changing daily.  One day it might be adding a TV or two, next day it's adding a few more music zones, next day it's adding surveillance cameras.  Walls are starting to go up in some areas this week, so the pre-wire will start to wind down.  I've got 2-3 more days there unless more changes.
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Santa Barbara Smarthomes


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