The $28,000.00 Quote

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Last Month when the Shop building was up, we started looking around for an Eletrical Contractor to put power to the shop. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to have a shop without any power.

While we didn't get three quotes as we would have done if I didn't have the skills to do the job, we did get one quote.

They quoted us a price of $20,000 to dig the trench and run the power wire from the new meter to the shop. I was amazed and dismayed that they wanted this much for a job that seemed simple to me.

Another 8K to wire the shop itself.

My response....Yeah right.

I priced out the materials and planned the job myself. Now, a month later the conduit is on the house and routed across the lawn(under it actually). The rough inspection has occurred and the main power wiring is in place. Still not turned on until the final inspection but I expect this to happen next week.

I have the meter box installed and the Electrical panel installed, all of the circuits are where we want them and are to specification to meet code.

No job can go off without a hitch.

When digging the trench, I hit a water line. It wasn't supposed to be there but there it was. So, in the midst of working on a trench, I had to get out the plumbing supplies and repair the water line. (The water line was undocumented and no where near what is required by code but it wasn't my work so I repaired it as needed to keep the water on).

So, as of tomorrow I will have saved over $25,000. The materials actually ran about $3000 and of course my labor was uncompensated so I guess I'm worth a whole lot more than I thought.

When I look at building a business on a shoestring, there are ways that you can save money but it does come at a cost. When I'm building websites, I write all of the material myself. It seems that I could job this out but this comes at a cost as well. I will still need to edit the content and adjust it to make it my own or I need to spend time with the writer of the content to get it close to what I would want were I to do it myself.

In this case, I had a perfect reason to do it myself. I just wasn't willing to pay someone else to do something that I was able to do myself at a much lower cost. Money outlay turned out to be the motivator here. It did/does come at the cost of my time and time lost setting up the shop and actually getting to the point of building products.

I am enjoying the challenge though. I had never pulled 4/0, 4/0, 2/0 cable (That is 3 wires each about a 1/2 inch in diameter) for 160 feet through 2 inch conduit. I had never run a Ditch Witch (Mechanical Trencher). I have also never wired an entire building. Keep in mind though that I'm not a novice at this. I did spend 30 years as an Electrical Engineer designing Factory Automation. I understand the codes required and used to specify and design electrical installations and supervise the Electricians I just never had the opportunity to work at this level.

Kyle recently posted an article about How to turn a Weakness into a Strength. While I didn't have actual experience with some of the things I needed to do on this job, I stepped a bit outside my comfort zone and got the job done. I don't know that my lack of experience was a weakness but I know I certainly got the opportunity to stretch my capabilities.

He posed the question: " What are some of the things you feel you are not good at or could be better at?"

I'd love to know what you have done recently that get you to step outside your comfort zone? What have you done to reach down deep inside and be successful?

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Recent Comments

47

Well done Craig.

Derek

Thanks

That is sooooo awesome! Well done

Thanks

Congrats on a job well done. I'm facing a similar situation in wiring a home addition. We're adding about 1300 sq ft and I dread seeing what the electrical contractor will want. I may end up pulling the permit myself and doing it to stay within budget. If I really wanted to step out of my comfort zone, I could do the plumbing :/

Cheers,

Michael

Good luck with your project.

Labman
i am a civil eng. also .
Yes , sometimes doing the work yourself would be not only money saving , but a save of time , and what is more importantly , a save of headache that would come from dealing with stupids who just want to rip your money.
The problem that we face in today's world , especially in developing countries , is that everything has become a trade.
Trust me on this , if you try to discuss the unbelievable illogical cost that they offered in their quote , they will try to find silly reasons to convince you that ripping you is their right .
We are facing such people every day in our life.
An other thing is the quality , if you accepted their quote , i am sure they would not do the job with the same quality as you did it yourself .

It is very true. I got exactly what I wanted, where I wanted it. So, there is no one to blame but myself if it doesn't work out.

Impressive!

Actually, you have hit an exact dichotomy that I always encounter: When is it best to do something myself and save money, and when is it best to pay someone, so as to (A) free up time or (B) have someone experienced doing the job.

In this case, sounds like you went the right way.

I wasn't really left with a lot of choices. But, I'm making the best of it.

That's the thing that we often times enjoy with all the thrill and see our work is worthy.

I do love it when a plan comes together.

Congratulations !
How did the light come on?

Extension cord.

I was wondering too if they really wanted to do the job. Well, nevertheless, that was a sure fire way to get out of doing it. Sometimes you cannot do it all so next time get your 3 quotes and remember if your killing yourself doing everything then how will you enjoy anything.
Jackie

I do enjoy the process. So, I'm ahead of the game.

Good for you. Just want it to be me right now.

Keep focused, you will get there. Patience is a virtue.

Yes you got that right.

That's crazy how much they wanted to do the job. Good thing you were able to do it yourself.

More than the entire building.

Labman, thank you for sharing that information you the very best you know about these things it helps a great deal congrats.

It's people like that who give the trades a bad name. I would have never charged that amount for that project!

I don't think they wanted to do the job so they gave me an exorbitant price.

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