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Contact: Manuel
Correia/Owner/Electrician
Mobile telephone: 981 2315 anytime
NEED TO REWIRE YOUR HOME?
Check this blog (click on the URL below) about what people are saying or have experienced!
http://www.houseblogs.net/community/comments.php?DiscussionID=387
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May 3, 2011 - PLEASE NOTE: Any Rewiring estimates given out before April 27 and not yet accepted
will be
dealt with on or about November this year. I am sorry for any inconvenience.
NOTE: As of today August 20th 2010 - Due to a shortage of electricians in general and skilled residential electricians we, temporary, became a smaller contractor. Therefore, we will only do SELECTED REWIRING WORK Such decision will have to do with: The type of building construction, The square area of the building, how quickly it has to be completed, if it is occupied or vacant, If the owners will re-paint the whole home, how the customer may react to stress or their stress limitations, customer's refusal of accepting CITY BYLAWS when we talk about REQUIRED SMOKE ALARMS THROUGHOUT OR 3 WAY SWITCHES OR ARC FAULT CIRCUIT BREAKERS or even required EXISTING WIRING REPAIRS elsewhere in the home which such wiring was installed by AMATEURS and which should have been corrected "YESTERDAY" and any other negative impression I may get from a non compliant or non-cooperative customer.
August 20th, 2010: Please note - If we decide and will be involved in doing your rewiring work, it will be ALL BY THE HOUR at $70.00 per hour working in the premises + materials used up and permit expenses + taxes. This is the most fare way most legitimate contractors do it, unless, in a signed contract price, they would allow and add an extra 40% of the price for unseen problems - which may arise 90% of the time!
Further, the home owner/s have to be PRESENT AT ALL TIMES or most of the time to witness the labour time we spend there, the reason for having to open up holes in walls and ceilings and even having to make a mess all over. They can even help opening them up and clean up afterwards and save money by reducing the electrician's time! At the same time they can see that it is no HOLIDAY! and that we are not EXPLOITING THEM! - It has worked well for many home owners in the last few years. Choosing Saturdays and perhaps 2 or 3 other days during the week also may work better to reduce the customer`s stress. We have a lot to do elsewhere and will return according to a worked out schedule to fit both parties.
We use our own proven safe system of methodically replace the knob & tube while keeping very little power off if any anywhere in the home and also trying to minimize surface damages throughout. We patch any small openings necessary to fish cables.
Update January 27, 2011
Some operators (from another planet) are claiming that they treat your home as their own with "respect" of your property etc. etc. And have the latest technologies to fish cables etc. Sure! I may use a camera and a few other tricks of the trade to fish cables but I am not going on and on all about the bells and whisters! We talk about REAL WORK. Therefore, I have a few things to say about that!
Respecting my customers yes, respecting their home - well that depends how much and what we are doing. - I take my boots off, cover floors up if subjected to damage etc. be carefull moving around furniture, clean up after myself and so on. These are very basic normal things workers should do anyway. When it comes to "RSPECTING" wall or ceiling surfaces, when doing rewiring, there is a limit to it unless the customer wants to pay THEM 300 or 400 dollars per rewired plug, switch etc. If we were going around and tickle and feel your walls and ceiling all day and keep hoping for a miracle - that is rediculous!. That is fine for about 10-20 minutes. If no good results to fish a cable in such a time, The "respect" ends and we get a SKILL SAW OR WHATEVER IT TAKES AND START CUTTING where necessary so that the job gets done!
These operators promise quite a lot and it all seems "nothing to do about the work" but to sway you to call in and then charge you $100 to 140/hr Lets be a little real!
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The following is ONLY for those who like to read on and also would like to have their home rewired.
The following sugestions below may make it even more difficult to do a rewiring job where the actual rewiring alone is ALREADY VERY STRESSFULL without having added problems created attached to it! See some of THEM below.
There are likely over two dozens of scenarios when it comes to rewiring a home and I have not found anyone who magically can not cause the following problems or issues a home owner may face! By overlooking the following issues and others, parties may end up in court to resolve such matters! I have NEVER gone to court yet, however, I hear it as a common occurrence between unscrupolous contractors and home owners!
This type of work, when it is extensive and done by most contractors becomes very intrusive to the occupants. It interfers a lot with the owner's daily activities and even the privacy at their own home! It may last weeks or even months - It depends on how it is set up. We can be quite stealthy most of the time, however, some may not even appreciate that! We are very versatile in scheduling and acommodating our customers the best way possible chosen by them.
The following are some of the more important issues to consider when having a home rewired. It is based on hiring a legitimate contractor. If based on handymen doing your rewiring EXPECT problems 10 fold worst and costing about double - providing the home is still standing in the end.
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We try to minimize all problems mentioned below, however, MOST contractors may not!
1. (a) Has the home owner obtain OTHER ESTIMATES for EXACTLY the same work required? Usually, no one makes it clear and the price can be 1 1/2 times higher from one contractor to the next because one may be doing more work which you don't know about or stated clearly!
1. (b) Should already have at least 2 or 3 estimates and have made sure that such contractors offer and promise to have written out a detailed and signed QUOTATION before beginning the work OR have an agreement on time + materials method (recommended for at least the first two of days or so). Recommended because you may not like what is going on in your home - never imagine it could create such a disturbance! This way you can terminate the work any time - no strings attached. The electrical contractor can also do the same thing! It costs a lot of money to rewire a home. For a bungalow it can be 5, 8, 12 or even over $16,000.00 - no two rewiring jobs are alike! Add all plugs, lights, switches to be rewired and MULTIPLY BY $180.00 EACH in most situations - That may be a realistic cost for rewiring your home! Don't forget the upgrading of the service! - it has nothing to do with the cost of rewiring and can cost even over $2,000.00
1. (c) Should have insured that contractors are licensed, carry liability insurance and are insured with whom? Do they carry 'Work Worker's Compensation, do they take out their own permits or ask you to take it out yourself - (red flag!) or do they get another contractor to take out the permit? That is elegal! Do they damand payment before starting - they should not!. Payments (other than approximately 12% confirming a contract deposit) should only be made for work or part of it which "IS ALREADY COMPLETED" Will they hire sub contractors to do the work? Will they use certified trades people to do the job or helpers or unsupervised apprentices! Will they issue receipts when getting paid! A home owner should demand references of at least 2 or 3 similar jobs contractors have completed recently - and definitively check with the Better Business Bureau and Manitobe Courts records available on line at:
http://www.jus.gov.mb.ca/Domain/FileSearch/SearchByOtherInfo.aspx
1. (d) Will the home be occupied during working hours and can residents stand the noise dust, debris all over the home made by many contractors during working hours?
1. (d) Did the so called "home inspector" told you that you only have 10% knob % tube wiring. - Even if he told you you have 30% EXPECT it to be more likely 60 or 80% - and this is not the city of Chicago where you can pull out the old wiring and attaching the new to it and just pull! I had a home owner who told me that is what has to be done because his friend, an electrical engineer told him so!
*For your information, I think electrical engineers know diddley peanuts about what it takes to rewire a home with knob and tube!* I can prove that from one instance - I even have a copy of his evaluation of how much knob & tube was there and what needed to be done etc.. It was completely outragious with all kinds of inaccurate assumptions.
2. How much furniture do we have to keep moving around all day while trying to do the job? Moving a lot furniture around and extensive clean up or opening up holes in walls will cost a lot extra in time waisted! You should participate in helping the contractor doing non electrical work and save hundreds or thousands of dollars! He may even give you hundreds of $ credit for that if working on a contract basis. (We do)
3. (a) Will the home owner open up the walls and ceilings in order to run new cables? (Some like to do it some don't)
3. (b) Will the home owner require MINIMAL surface damages or MEDIUM damages or EXTENSIVE damages. It means needed openings all over in order to fish cables! There can be 3 or more 1 square foot openings for each item to be rewired! Sometimes channels have to be made in ceilings to reach the light fixtures. This decision of how much damadge is accepted is where the rewiring price can easily double or tripple to rewire a home! NORMALLY Some one storey homes cost $5,000 - $8,000, a 2 storey from 10,000.00 to over $14,000.00, a 3 storey can cost even around $18,000 or more and some others well over $30,000 to be rewired. Many 100 year old 2 and 3 storey homes along the Assinaboine river areas are typical examples of the difficulty and most expense to rewire. many have brick wall, not even enough room to install an outlet box in the outer walls!.
4. Who cleans up all dust in difficult hidden areas or on special equipment, on light fixtures - chandaliers, or who is going to protect delicate areas from dust? etc.
5. Who is going to rough patch all openings in walls and ceilings? Who will do the final sanding and final patching finish coats which takes 1 - 2 days to dry etc. Who pays for it, who is going to pay for patching materials and paint? Who is responsible to paint even the WHOLE home? We do the patching, customers do the painting or MATCH painting usually 6" around the devices, light fixtures etc..
6. Who provides floor surface protection if and when required? We provide protection.
7. Is the basement ceiling covered or finished with drywall or unremovable hard to match tiles? Is there an attic or crawl sapce in the basement? Is the attic packed with insulation and/or including even DANGEROUS "Zonolite" Are there other obstractions? Is there a crawl space? is it packed full - no easy access? What can be done about removed and broken or cut out hard to match basement ceiling tiles or panel boards in walls etc.? These have to be removed or cut out! Will you remove them? or will you say nothing, waite and then sue the contractor?
8. Can some light fixtures be re-installed on a wall instead of on the ceiling? Much easier to do. Can switches be slightly lower than the existing ones? (iliminates removing the old switch boxes which adds over 1/2 hour to patch etc - all this reduces costs!
9. The existing lights, outlets etc. are being rewired, however, how many extra items are there to be installed which were not there before? - meaning other than the new REQUIREMENT 3 way switches, combination smoke alarms, GFCI protected circuits and ARC FAULT protected circuits and proper lighting at entrances etc.? We are not just replacing what was there - we are bringing all wiring to code which includes a lot of extra costly items. The home owner has no say about these required EXTRA items. It is the local bylaws. The home is being rewired to accomodate the next owner - not necessary the present owner! Threfore, the general public can not do everything their way or want in their own homes! The safety of the NEXT owner is also at stake!
10. (a) If required, who supplies the new light fixtures or fans or other equipment etc.? Will the estimate include the cost to re install light fixtures including those old existing ones which don't fit in modern outlet boxes and which have to be modified and may take well over one hour each to do so?
10. (b) If working by the hour - will the home owner also pay for all materials & equipment and $170.00 + taxes for permit expenses - (includes time to travel there two ways, waite, and apply for it? it can take well over 2 1/2 hours to get a permit and PAY for it!
11. How is the premises accessed anytime during the day? Will the electricians have a key or other arrangements will be made? Who will pay the electrician while waiting, if for a long time, for someone to arrive to open the door?
12. (a) Can the work be continuous or stopped for some days and continued later? Is there a deadline to meet as per insurance? We are very versitile in this process. We may work 2 or 3 days and stop for 2 or 3 etc. if you like.
12. (b) Does the home owner/s know that when working by the hour + materials any party is free to terminate the work ANYTIME without notice due to any unsolved ongoing disagreements, desputes if any etc.! This is good for the home owners after they find out that the nightmare is only starting and can not indure the stress for a long time such as the lenth of time if by a set price contract. We help and are versitile and sensitive in this area. Most times we work at time + materials + permit expenses + taxes.
13. Will the home owner pay for part of the work (or time used up already on work) ALREADY COMPLETED - called progress payments - including permits expenses, materials and the 12% taxes? The number of payments depend on the size of the job. Remember that some homes may take one electrician well over 3 weeks to even two months to rewire and others even 4 - 6 months IF AT A REDUCED working week! We will schedule the work according to your schedule. A break once in a while for a few days from the job is usually good for both parties. We know this from experience. Insurance co. usually will extend the time limit.
14. In case of a set price contract arrangement, can the home owner accept a trial run of about 1 or 2 days or so before an EXACT estimate is given? This will be done rewiring items with medium difficulty at $70.00/hr (Action Electric) + materials + taxes + permit expenses (may apply) so that the rest of the work can be estimated properly and he/she may benifit more by whatever method is chosen rather than accepting a BLIND estimate and likely pay thousands too much? NO TWO REWIRING JOBS ARE ALIKE. We mostly never estimate a rewiring job without an hourly paid trial run of some time! It is the most fair way to both parties. The customer has nothing to loose - in contrary "a lot of valuable information to gain"! Some low life contractors ABANDON the work after 2 days because they find out they are loosing their shirts! - I lost a lot of money in the early years, but never did such a thing as abondon a job!
15. Has the customer decided a good scheduled time period to rewire and then double it - just in case unpredicted problems arise? Rewiring is very unpredictable on how long it will take! We will not rush the work when the customer is getting inpatient and nervous - we do it right and it takes 2 or 3 times longer to do it right and safe! - it is the customer's responsibility to deal with this very STRESSFULL situation which we warned him/her about before we started or as mentioned above! The best way is discuss it and we will re schedule the work in a different way.
16. Or the customer would like a big NAME FLASHY CONTRACTOR to show up in a new flashy vehicle, sweet talk to you, then quote big numbers, makes the owners look more impressive in the neighbourhood, get 4 wall and ceiling butchers and do the rewiring quickly, get paid, ignore you complaints, get out and then, in many cases, get their big lawyers to handle your complaints such as the many issues I have mention above?
17. Would the customer rather choose a contractor giving him/her a FREE estimate taken out up from the "sky" and get all designed project information etc. and soon after hire the "jack of all trades" handyman to follow it and do the rewiring? I have grown up quite a bit in the last 40 years, therefore, I charge for estimates, estimate payment is made in advance "on line" especially for this type of work. The service/panel upgrades estimates we ado are free of charge.
IMPORTANT: I tried to use everyday language or expressions so many can understand better what I have been talking about, as above!
A lot of my frustration and deciding to write as I see it, as above, is the result of the many stories customers tell me about how they were fooled and lost hundreds and thousands of dollars to handymen and to wanna be electricians and the work has to be fully repaired or redone.
All of the above is not really the USUAL bla bla you hear from some smooth talking motor mouths out there or I get responses from likely unscroupolous contractors or handymen (with no return email or any ID) saying that it is not professional - of couse - it affects their gravy train. It may not seem professional but here I am talking reality and trnsparency and it is the only way I know and still get dozens of calls for work more than I can ever handle!.
To be continued........
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NOTE: Assessing or choosing to do or not to do a rewiring job also depends on many other factors which are not mentioned above. These are found by intuition or just by talking to home owners. Most important, type of personality matters the most. Also if a home owner keeps downgrading our best honest economical opinion or assessement of the work, or keeps diminishing the work bylaw requirements (the whole job could even disappear!) - for example: puts on a debate about requiring or not requiring" say - a smoke alarm or a required 3 way switch or why an ARC FAULT circuit breaker is needed, why smoke alarms all over etc." or even starts to suggest how to run cables or has some other opinion given by some unscroupolous handyman or friend or even from an ENGINEER or someone else from another planet, then, he or she is dropped out by me emmediately even before an estimate has began!
Therefore, as a reader by now you may already have discovered, we don't dwell on promising you the world or the stars or that we do "big or small jobs, or do it at cheap prices" or anything else the likes which goes with that sort of chatter bla bla many motor mouths many offer.
There are motor mouths car trunk slammers who are stuck in the 70's with their prices at $12.00 - $18.00 (some at $35.00 and even $45.00) per hour and ask you to take out the wiring permit and start to butcher your home. Just make sure that their own home is paid for and worth more than your own and you and your family are still around if such a loss was a fire!
We offer you a lot of REAL information on real consequenses which may occur and REAL risks to be aware of and REAL costs you may face to have a propper job completed, inspected and certified and such work should last over 100 years and not 100 days as usually by the hundreds of handy/people in this city and even many more pretending to be electricians from out of town including other provinces! .
I put a lot of effort and time in preparing estimates or explaining everything to you all for your protection and benifit. You can compare it to what others have to offer. I may not be chosen because of the cost etc. For this type of work, we are accepted only 3 times out of 5. However, your lack of response either way after a reasonable time has passed would be considered extremely rude. At least write back a note saying "thank you for your time" for doing the estimate!
To be continued.........................................
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The following is some advice for new electrical contractors starting out.
A seperate webpage topic for this subject will be created here very soon.
Beware! There is NOW a very small percentage of customers out there who like to exploit contractors. Usually the worst are getto landlords. They come up with a lot of tricks to fool you. You could play dumb - it helps a lot because then they get to go `on and on` and you learn a lot more about them! Just be a good listner. I met another contractor who said to me "When I hear or notice some hint as being that type of customer, I just say I have to go to the van for a moment - and just take off!"
Some will start with some of us who advertize in newspapers and smaller FREE medias, because they expect extremely CHEAP prices and are hoping you are desperate for the job! But then they are smart enough to realize that you may be just a handy/man or something. They under estimate you quite a bit. They will do a lot of "cross examining" (as if I don't notice it myself!). A lot of times their intention is even to "deny paying you" when the work is done or trying to make a DEAL when you are finished or they will mention paying by cash or saying that they will have a lot of other work soon or they may play the work down so you fall in a trap (one being not having a signed contract) which you will soon realize you are loosing your shirt and NO LEGAL PAPERWORK to fall on! Others will ask exactly how you are going to do this and that - they want to know all details so they can learn more to do the work themselves or hire a hack!
Important! Don't do anything elegal such as get paid by cash without receipts or not taking a permit out for that small amount of work - later they will demand a permit at your own expense! Don't be a "good Samaritan" and start fixing other staff around the home because you feel it is not safe - You will not get paid for it unless you do the propper SIGNED CHANGE ORDER etc. Remember, the inspector may find things that need repairs (which you overlooked in those few minutes when doing an estimate). He may say all he likes until getting blue in the face but "you only do what is WRITTEN on the permit. He will have no choice but start to write out a "Violation Notice" to the home owner and NOT TO YOU! Your responsibility ENDS when you notify the home owner/s of any deficiendies you found.
Although I may also advertize in such smaller medias as you may do, I can detect such customers in about exactly 2 minutes of talking to them! They can even be even extremely rude such as I had a few years ago (an older couple - husband and wife - likely lawyers in their past career ) in a very affluent neighbourhood - half a million dollars home do just that after I spent numerous hours on an estimate including guiding them on safety issues, approved short cuts to save money etc.. ( I sort of felt sorry for them having their insurance cancelled unless the knob & Tube was removed). I Never heard from them again - no communication whatsoever. That home would have been one of the most difficult homes to be rewired. It was on Academy rd. They had a drawing from some electrical engineer indicating the circuits etc. I never seen such a mess and misleading information! They were thinking that there was only 2 circuits of knob & tube to be rewired (trying to downsize the work as if I would fall for a CHEAP CONTRACT) however, there were at least 8 circuits to be rewired. - Some reasons of difficulty were that the home is built like a tank! has brick perimeter walls, very old light fixtures to re-install back, plaster ceilings even plaster in the basement ceiling and all over, miles of obstractions - heating pipes all over the basement etc., tons of furnature and books all over, could not manage (OR AFFORD) to have the OLD FUSE PANELS changed or a new service installed long overdue!. Later, I found out, they obtained a HOME OWNER'S WIRING PERMIT and very likely hired a hack to do the rewiring and likely using some of my best suggestions! However, when I happen to drive by I just look to see if the place is still standing! I predict in 2 years something will give! I will keep you informed of any more relevant information.
Another couple (the husband was a former Judge) wanted just the very "rough in" wiring - then the wife - probably about 75 years old, said to me that after I finish the rough in wiring she would install light fixtures, receptacles etc. Later I found out they hired the usual handyman who even installed receptacles outside at exactly GROUND LEVEL HIGHT AND EVEN HANG A LIGHT FIXTURE SCREWED TO A LIVE TREE!!! AND I GOT PICTURES TO PROVE IT!!!
Such attitudes of such folks caused me, from now on, to charge $80.00 for a rewiring estimate or any simple esstimate on site! - something I have NEVER done in 30 years.
- VERY IMPORTANT - GET A DIGITAL CAMERA AND FOTOGRAPH YOUR WORK BEFORE AND AFTER.
Therefore, be very carefull you will meet all types of people trying to take advantage of you.
Another trick (sometimes) is to act a bit stupid yourself and see their "behaviour" about suggestions relating to cash payments with no receipts, no permits, we will pay at the end, we will help with the work etc.
Also make sure that customers don,t take time off their work in order to be around - if your work is delayed, they may charge you for their own extra time loss. Always allow for delays, many are not your fault - which are very common in construction work.
One final note: Most people are quite honest and are fantastic to work for and usually you can tell very quickly - just stay awake!.
I hope you, as a contractor, learned something from what I mentioned above.
Quite a bit more or very extensive information on this subject to come later and will be ALL on a new web page.
September 2010 - Charge enough, don't undrsold! After realizing you have been OPERATING in a HOLE for (usually takes 3 years to know that!) you will be loosing some calls but will make it up by a 3rd just by KEEPING charging enough for your services. You will also gain more respect from clients! Charging enough means - usually twice (TWO TIMES) the wages for you and your workers if you were ALL working for wages for another contractor! THIS FIGURE IS UNIVERSAL - it cover costs you never dreamed of including OVERHEAD - It may also take you years to realize that! Also figure out a decent mark up for your materials. Start at 10 % and can be up to 25% - 40% depends on the type of materials used.
Beware of some outfits trying to hire you! First of all, find out WHY, in perhaps they may have been more than 20 years in business, they don't know a couple of reliable electricians ALREADY? or is it that such dozens of their past electricans dropped them becauase they don't pay or KEEP CHEATING them in the END? I made the mistake of working for such a company run by a few IDIOTS (doing foundations, renovations and such - the name skips me - starts with an "S" I think) but also kept deceitfully overcharging customers for renovations. I was 54 years old and they figure I was too old and consider having to pay me less, and the cheating, the payment delays etc.! The two of the idiots who I worked more directly actually dropped me because I would not go along with all the misrepresentation bull shit they would want me to lie to the customers as for costs etc. They even never got along with one another either! Guess what! Aftet they dropped me I started making $16,000 more per year and surpassing it today!
TO BE CONTINUED.........