$10,250. 4288 SF living space. Nothing fancy and no fixtures.

237 outlets
4 flood lights
4 outside outlets
3 HVAC units
1 220 dryer
1 220 range
2 water heaters
1 300 amp service with disconnects
1 doorbell system
4 AFCI breakers
6 GFI outlets
1 spa tub

We're also getting some extra items for an additional $755

3 50 CFM bath fans
1 110 CFM bath fan
8 recessed lights
15 phone & cable jacks
undercabinet lighting

Grand total $$11,005.

Forgot to mention that the bid above was higher than a couple of the others that we received, but we are most comfortable with having him do the electrical on our house.

We had a bid for $1.75 PSF.

Thanks so much for the info. If you don't mind my asking, what part of the country are you. We're in NO.California (Bay Area), so I know prices on most everything tend to be higher here but......... our lighting is somewhere in the ball park of 45,000 for rough in only. The estimate is another 16,000 for finish electrical and installation of fixtures. We feel like this is way too high. Again, we're not doing anything fancy.

YOWZA!!! That is unreal! The price that I listed above is for rough in and finish (including installation).

We are in suburbs of Augusta, GA. The costs here are really low compared to other places in the country. Believe it or not, the locals complain all the time because the prices in this county are so much higher than the surrounding areas. LOL

$45,000/$75 hr = 600hrs/40hrs in week = 15 weeks. One week short of 4 months for one person to rough in a house. Of course materials are involved as well but even so. I think you could fly out the entire crew from Georgia, pay for a hotel and still have enough left over for all of the fixtures and have some left over.

"$45,000/$75 hr = 600hrs/40hrs in week = 15 weeks."

The actual work is probably done by an apprentice or a helper who makes some $10/hour.....

$45k for wiring a 4300 sqft home. LOL!!! Are you sure the bid wasn't in error and had an additional 0 ?

I am also in the Bay Area. We are building a 2500 sq ft house and our electrical bid was $37K. Your house is A LOT bigger than our, so unfortunatly $45K sounds on par for the area. However, we found an electrician my friend used for a remodel and he is doing it for $16K. Those that we have talked to about the huge difference in price say that $16K sounds to good to be true and that we should be leary of that kind of bid. Well, they have just finished the rough electrical and so far, so good.

Email me if you want our electricians info.

ehoops

welcome to my world. i just went through this with my build and if I had the electrician do eveything I wanted - it would have been about 40K for rough in and finish work. The builder had 20K in the budget to wire the house to code (which I am still fuming about)and there were about 20K of up charges for things I wanted becuase I think that just wiring to code on a custom home is BS.

I cut the bill down to 28K (20 K builder budget + 8K upcharges) by doing a lot of the wiring myself. I wired the second floor, basement, and installed all of the recessed cans (87 total). It's a 5000+ sq ft home in N. Va.

I would get a detailed breakout of the electrical costs so you can see where the big ticket items are. I noticed right away that alomost 9K of the 20K upcharges were for cans - they charge 100 per can around here (that is to spot the can, wire it, and put the trim on - and it included the hardware too but they tend to use mid grade cans). Seems like a lot of money until you do it - it was a lot of work.

I worked out a deal with the electrician so that he ran the switch legs for the cans and I installed them - and I used really good hardware. That was just one example way I cut down the costs.

On the second floor I had them install a sub panel and I wired eveything to that panel. This way we could easily demarc who did what work.

The other thing I did was all the A/V and security wiring in my house. Talk about a racket - had I used a sub for that the wiring costs would have been astronomical. I learned very fast that you can install conduit now and pull wire later - if you want more detail on that let me know.

I saved money but boy did I work my buns off. In the end I ran over 7000 feet of wire by myself in the span of about 4 weeks - working mostlly weekends.

I think you either have to pay the piper or do some work yourself. I also would not go with low bidder on this item - it is way to critical for yours and your families safety. You don't want bozos wiring your house.

Best of luck

Wow, thanks for the replyÂs everyone. I hate to say it but I am happy to hear that our bid was not THAT crazy for this part of the world. It is sad as Bungalowsteve said, that we could fly a crew out from Georgia and still save money. Our original bid was based on the architectÂs electrical plan which was not good. We did a walk through with the electricians and in the end the "extras" cost an additional 16,000, thankfully I was also able to take 6,000 off by eliminating a number of things that were not needed. So in the end our total is 10,000 over the original bid amount, but we did add a fair number of switches and cans that were not in the original plan. My husband and I are frustrated that our GC didn't notice that the lighting plan was soooo inefficient prior to the original bid. We were very unprepared and felt under pressure to make walk through decisions that had we taken more time and been more informed, we could have been more cost conscious. One of these day's I'll have to bore everyone with the headaches were dealing with regarding our contractor. The lighting issues are a very small part.

"$10,250. 4288 SF living space. Nothing fancy and no fixtures.". This quote from an earlier post, this price would not today cover the wholesale cost of the materials required to install the system described. I am not in a position to question the accuracy of that post, but I am confident of my remark above.

Tis true, bus driver! We got the estimate a week ago. I'd be happy to email a copy if you would like to see it. :-)

Our bids ranged in price up to $11,500. Guess we're just lucky enough to live in an area where the prices are low.

Here ya go.....

And here's the electrical layout....nothing fancy. :-)

Persnickety, is that labor and materials? Or just labor? I'm going to guess it's just labor. If it is both, that is an almost unbelievable price....I'm going to agree with bus-driver that the materials alone will be close to the bid you have.

Fans can be often a pain to install...I didn't see a line specifically for them in the quote.....electricians will charge extra vs. a regular light fixture.

It's labor and materials. The fans aren't included in the bid because I'll be installing those. I actually enjoy it. LOL

Persnickety got such a great deal because the lighting plan is so simplistic. There are only 8 cans in the whole house, 5 in the kitchen and 3 in the master bath. The rest of the house is being done with junction boxes for sconces, ceiling lights, and fans. Persnickety will save on the electical bid, but have to buy a lot of lighting fixtures for the house. Also, I don't see any of her/his wall plugs switched.

Persnickety, you may want to make some of the wall plugs where you intend to put lamps, switched. Like in your family room. It is a large room for only one ceiling light. By making the floor plugs switched, you will be able to turn on your table lamps as you walk into the room.

I think it is all in the location, I have a written estimate for my new home. Labor and materials for everything except the fixtures and cans which I will provide. 3500 heated square foot, 4664 feet under roof, which includes wiring to code, ceiling fan boxes in 9 areas, electric water heater, 200 amp service, and 33 CANS! $10, 800 just outsite of charlotte NC. I work in the construction industry, and the average cost here for labor and materials for rough electrical and trim out (not fixtures) is around $2.50 sq ft.

Persnickety got a great deal ??

He pays $5925 for 37 outlets. You know how easy it is to install an outlet?
And how cheap the material is?
In a room like the small rectangular one in the front/middle, there are 4 outlets, probably daisy-chained. Maybe 40 ft of Romex (some $20) and 4 outlets, each 50 cents or so.

$5925 / 37 = $160/outlet or $640 for what is a 3 hour job at the most.

Am I glad that the city of Dallas lets me install my own electrical... Good to be owner-builder (and an electrical engineer).

disregard above, if it is actually 237 outlets...

Just completed a 3,100 sf. two-storey with semi-finished basement in Toronto. Basic electrical quote (to Code) was C$6,850 +GST. (CDN$ is appprox. US95¢)

After all the owner's add-ons, the final price was $17,000. That included many pots at $55 (non-insulated) & $90 (insulated), TV, cable & internet wiring, standby-generator wiring, installing all light fixtures, locating main panel to interior basement from service entrance etc., etc.

Mel...great idea about the wall switch for the floor plugs. We definitely need to do that. Thanks for the advice.

kjboggs...glad to hear the prices are great in your area too. You've got a ton of cans!