Wow! That seems high. I'm not in the south, but I thought things were less expensive there. I'm in the northwest.
Our electrical spec was 5782 - that included $1500 for a lighting allowance. We went over by about $1250 on the electrical and about 1200 for lighting. So our total was less than $9,000. Our house is just over 3200 sq ft.

Disclosure: hubby did all the low voltage wiring (phone, satellite TV, whole house audio, alarm, ethernet) so that saved us quite a bit. I think he spent in the neighborhood of about $500 for all the cabling.

On average, our electrical bids came in at around $12k for our 3,325 sq ft house. I do not believe this included anything in our unfinished basement, except for maybe a few overhead lights. We live in MI. We are not doing any of the electrical and this does not include the fixture allowance.

I'm in Central TX.

3500sf - $12.5k w/ $3k fixture allowance

Toronto, Canada

3,100 sf + finished basement.

The basic Code with a few extras: $6,730

But OH, the extras: pots, $55 for non-insulated, $90 for insulated, $110 for exteriors; tel. jacks $35 per, TV jacks $45 per, internet, $45 per; Smart Home wiring $750 per 10 zone; siting main panel 40 ft. from disconnect and backup generator wiring--time and materials.

I figure close to C$20K by the time it's finished.

Our first electrical bid was $15,000 for a 3200 sq ft home + 1139 finished square foot in the basement. In addition, there a was an allowance of $3500 for fixtures. Low voltage electrical (stereo, cable, phone and security) was a separate $9000 allowance. We aren't planning on finishing all the square footage initially, so I'm not sure how this will reduce our cost. We are in the Midwest. Still waiting on other bids to see how this compares.

ideamom,

I am in the process of going through this myself. Learned the hardway that sq footage is not the way electricians bid their jobs (at least in my area). My guy charges $25 per outlet, $50 per switch, $100 per recessed can, $400 per sub-panel, $80 per chandelier or fan. These prices include material, labor, and finishing.

If you have an electircal plan for the house, make a list of outlets, switches, lights, recessed lights etc. Then use the figures I gave you to get a rough estimate.

I wound up doing a lot of the wiring myself because the cost was very high to add the things I wanted. I found that the recessed lights were a major part of the cost - there is no economies inlcuded if you have 5 recessed lights all close - it is still $100 per can. I have 87 recessed lights in my house - ouch! So I did them myself.

When I got done with my job, I realized that the prices my electrician had were reasonable - given the amount of time it took me to do it.

Hope this helps.

Sniffdog is exactly right. All the electricians that bid on my house charged per number of openings (and each type of opening usually has a different price). For example, my 3100sqft house originally had 292 openings. I can't remember exactly what my sparky said the average number was for a house my size (maybe 180-200?). I have a bunch of 3-ways. I didn't go crazy with the can lights, but did with the switched outlets and telephone and cable drops. It's amazing how things add up so quickly.

We were supposed to pay about $14k for a 3800 sf house. We received several bids in this ballpark. I say "supposed to" because we had to fire the electrician and it cost a lot more to complete the job because so much had to be ripped out. That was 2 years ago, and the price of wire has gone way up, so imagine it would be more today. That price included outlets, switches, etc. But the regular type, not Decora. It also included 4 cans (we supplied the 11 in the kitchen). It didn't include the other fixtures.

Ours is around $29k. High? Yes, but not considering what we've done with it--Around 80 cans (20 sloped), 400amp service, generator hook up, RV, hot tub, and welding outlets, multiple sconces in addition to regular overhead lights, 3 furnaces, 2 a/c units, HRV, 2 h20 heaters, steam generator for shower, multiple 3 and 4-ways, and a partridge in a pear tree! 6000sf heated house. No fixtures.
Your bid may not be that high depending on what you are putting into your place. If you've gone pretty basic, then yeah, I would worry about the bid.

Clarification - that price included from the wall in only. It didn't include the underground line from the tranformer to the house. We did that ourselves because they wanted around $9k for it.

our electrician charged our builder $3 per sq. ft. for general wiring of the house. not including any fixtures.

Ideamom- I am trying to get in touch with you. We are building the same house in Kentucky and I just came across yours on this site. I'd love to chat about what you changed and find out where you are in the building process. We will build within the next year pending the sell of our home. Can't wait to hear from you!

10 year old post Lenny,