My problem is I see these 2 trades constantly rip off homeowners. Sure you run into issues, but I bid my best guess on issues with conditions. A homeowner would rather pay more if a legit issue came up than pay a guy a ton of money to walk in and work 3 hours and leave and say, that was easier than I planned.
A homeowner might but most are going to feel like you're trying to screw them by asking for more later. Mind you that most homeowners don't even know what romex is, so GL trying to communicate to them why a bid is no longer valid. Also bear in mind that if he goes through a GC here then the electricians aren't going to be talking to the homeowner (shouldn't be, at any rate) about their costs and how much more time/$ a job is going to take. But then if we keep debating this we'll just end up in an endless loop of fingerpointing.
3 ways to 2 single gains and to a light? He already has demo going on at the switch.
What demo? Which switch? All I saw talked about was the dividing wall, I didn't see anything else about demo except some drywall near the floor. Also wtf is a "single gain"?
So you only need 3way to the other switch and existing to light assuming his power is at that switch.
Assuming...remember what I was saying earlier about unforeseen bullshit and electricians being expected to satisfy GC guarantees that are made w/o really knowing WTF is going on because the GC isn't an electrician?
Chaining can lights? he already has a fuck ton of drywall work going on in that basement including having that ceiling patched in spots already.
Unless the GC specifically states that he's ok with the electricians chopping into drywall, then it's better to assume that he isn't and patching the ceiling means fuck all for purposes of access unless the electricians are given the green light to get out the jabsaws/razor knives/sawzalls. I mean you say that you've wired houses but as someone who has done a fuckton of remodels I can tell you that it isn't uncommon to have GCs tell you to figure out how to work around what is currently cut out because they want to hope that the electricians can work some magic so they don't have to go talk to the drywallers about having to fix what the electricians just tore out.
Do you really think adding a couple RL's to a existing switch constitutes 900 damn dollars in labor? Now in the past one would say that many RL's is going to need to be on a new circuit and 900 may be justified. With the LED that is no longer the case.
I just told you a number of reasons why people bid high to cover their ass but you don't seem to want to listen. Fine, whatever.
Another example, last year homeowner called me said HVAC guy found a ton of water under house, appeared to come from sink drain. I was out of town so she called a plumber. She is still pissed to this day about the guy. He found galvanized drain pipe had rusted out, he cut it out and put in a rubber adapter between the 2 sections. Charged her $530 and was gone in less than 2 hours. I mean really.
Bro, you mean to tell me that there are people in this world that scam and cheat? Please, tell me more.
We could throw anecdotes at each other all day and the only thing it would confirm is that there are those kinds of people in every trade, everywhere. I could throw out horror stories for every trade in existence. I could take some pics of some woodworking my mother had done that was a ripoff and done poorly and that they charged far too much for (which pissed me off because she didn't ask me if I knew anyone and I know people who would have treated her fairly). IIRC she still has stain splattered on an interior wall because they replaced a door that a dog had scratched so they put the replacement door on the hinges AND STAINED IT RIGHT THERE. And then charged her a fuckton for it all and they didn't do anything about the stain, they just left it and told her to talk to a painter. So now because I've run into so many woodworkers who overcharge for easy shit that someone could do myself, I'm fully of the mind that all woodworkers rip off homeworkers...wait, no I don't!
I mean, weren't you even telling a story about how you were some sort of a hero by going out of your way to give a homeowner a bunch of extra trim and shit? Well I hate to tell you this but a lot of guys in the same situation would have just bought the cheapest shit they could and screwed that homeowner over without a second thought. THEY WOULD HAVE BID AS HIGH AS POSSIBLE AND DUPED THAT GUY JUST LIKE YOU THINK THAT ALL PLUMBERS AND ELECTRICIANS DO. It isn't trade specific.
I honestly wonder if you only fixate on plumbers and electricians because you don't need to shell out money for anything else as often because you can cover those bases yourself. In that case I could see why you might think that if you're forced to pay them because of licensure while you can lowball everything else. Because if you didn't then maybe you'd see that this isn't unique to plumbers/electricians.
I have wired many homes and been dealing with electricians all my life. I know how it works. Thus why I am mad at those 2 professions( and not you ). I understand what you are saying and I know you have to back up your work and inspectors are anal about it more so than other trades, but really, can you defend them over charging a asston just in case something goes bad wrong vrs saying most of the times I've done this over the past x years it took x long and will cost x much.
You're basing your opinion on your own skewed view, which is from that of an outsider who uses the extreme best-case scenario as a basis for what you think a trade should charge while ignoring the common issues inherent in bidding work. And sure, a bid isn't a contract but you should know with your background that people still try to hold to bids if they're able and lowballing bids and then having to come back later, hat in hand, to beg for more money because something went wrong is something people try to avoid. And sure, you can do it for much cheaper I'm sure...but the entire point of requiring licensing/bonding/insuring is because of issues with non-electricians actually doing it for cheaper and then having houses burn down or homeowners being left in the lurch when the faucet you replaced for $10 bursts and the homeowner is left with a $50k cleanup bill.
And mind you that I'm not even trying to pin down a literal "good cost" because I have no idea what his local labor is priced at. I even said exactly this earlier, and I even pointed out that GCs like to pad bids...but that doesn't mean it's necessarily all profit. Yet you still went on some anti-electrician/plumber derail anyways. I mean I get it, electricians and plumbers are all overcharging assholes. Thanks for setting us straight bro!
