I had this company quote doing electrical in my home. I detailed what I wanted done and they continued to answer that it would be better and more cost efficient to 'do it all at once' ...even though there were rooms that did not need upgrading and extra outlets that did not need to be added. They did not answer any questions directly, told us all the small additions they recommended were 'nominal' costs..and then gave us a quote for almost $20,000! I had the work done by another company at a third of the price and the job was perfectly done.
- Company Response
Hi Folks, We have been rewiring century old homes for years now, it has been about 80% of our business. Quoting these projects has been a time consuming task, it is based on an educated guess for how many hours of labour would be needed plus material and permit, there is no such thing as a mathamatical formula to work out a quote since each home is unique. therefore an accurate quote must come from a company that has a vast amount of experience in retrofit wiring. Apples to Apples is what we need to compare, as a company we automaticaly add receptacles as needed the reason for this is quite simple, as an electrical contactor we are only requeried to replace and re wire what is existing, such as a bedroom that only has one or two receptacles, no plug in hallways kitchen counter with one receptacle. rewire only what is existing will pass our permit, YET once you live in the home and use EXTENTION CORDS for eg. your clock radio and lamp or for your coffee maker and toaster, You are in direct vioation of electical code. There are many companies that will rewire existing only. WE WILL NOT. does this make us more expensive NO. NOT when you compare that we provide WSIB for our employess (NO SUB contactor)$2,000,000. Liability insurace (because accidents Do happen) company benifits such as boots/ medication/ eye wear/ dental/ for our well groomed staff (happy employees and it shows). We at Solutions Electrical do not beleive in MAKE WORK projects. Taking the extra steps and doing it right does pay off, such as of June 2003 we have been installing hard wire for you smoke and C/O detectors interconnected between all floors, needless to say not ONE of our customers have called since legislation of smoke detectors, why whould they they are still ahead of the code. RECAP pay an electrican to rewire, pay a drywall/plaster person then pay a painter, only to find out that you may need to run extention cords in order to make your house a HOME OH!! and you're now in violation of code and could be facing fines of up to $50,000.00 if not rectified.............I am sorry that we care so much in trying to educate our customers, to the point that we are willing not to win all projects.