Just did electrical walk-through

12 years ago

Holy moley. Just did the electrical walk-through this afternoon and feel completely and utterly overwhelmed. Of course, the fact that it was 90+ degrees and humid as all get-out doesn't help. Nor did it help that I pulled a muscle in my back yesterday and so was very very uncomfortable standing and walking around for 2 1/2 hours.

Meanwhile, for the most part, I was happy with what the electrician was doing (what was included), except for a couple of places. And I just now realized (6 hours later) that we COMPLETELY forgot about the pendants over the island. UGH.

One thing I'm really disappointed in is the recessed lights going in the kitchen. I think the electrician was expecting standard cans, and I hate the way those look. I'm waiting to find out what cans he says he's providing before I panic, though. And whether we should be paying extra money to get LED recessed lights in the kitchen. (Totally confused by this issue.)

Am I the only one? Did anyone else feel entirely overwhelmed after the electrical walk-through? I went in with color-coded maps, feeling very organized, and left with a complete mess on my papers! LOL

Meanwhile, it was clear that we were exhausted afterward because we failed to take even ONE picture of the HVAC and plumbing work that had been done since our visit over the weekend. Plus we didn't take any pictures of my parents' house, which is now in framing!

Tonight I will dream of switches and outlets, fixtures and flood lights...and little lines on the 2x4s "this is where an outlet will go, there is another outlet, and another..." ACK.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (6)

mskitchen
12 years ago
NO, you're not alone, took us 2 evenings (about 4 1/2 hrs in all) to do ours. And then I was in charge of writing down exactly what we needed for each room, closet, hallway, basement, exterior and whatever other place we needed to put a fixture. I created a spreadsheet for each room and then listed all our choices on it so when we went to the lighting store Saturday we were pretty much organized although, guess what, we're over the budget on that too since all the recessed lighting had to be figured in as well.
PRO
Epiarch Designs
12 years ago
Maybe I am just too used to producing drawings that are accurately bid prior to construction, but it just seems odd that you do walkthroughs during construction to determine outlet quantities, lighting types, etc. How do you know how much the electrical portion will cost prior to construction?

On that note, plan for everything possible. Think about even the tiny details, such as christmas decor. Do you use lights? place outlets on exterior columns. Place some outlets in the soffits, etc. Think about furniture arrangement and bed placements. Will you have end tables in the middle of the room where you want to place a lamp on? Consider a floor box. list goes on. it can be overwhelming for the new comer to electrical. A maze of yellow and white wires everywhere, boxes everywhere that could be anything. I find it quite fascinating to be honest. The artery and vein system of your house!
Related Discussions
Walk through with electrician - what to expect?
Q
Comments (20)
pinktoes for the security and a/v boxes, I used a very heavy/wide dark magic marker and drew an arrow on the floor pointing to an imaginary vertical line aligned with the wire or box. Then next to the arrow, I wrote down the number of inches up the item was. If they covered it, all i would need to do is go to that spot, measure up the appropriate distance, and then punch a small hole in the wall to start fishing for the wire or box. I used this technique when their was no consistent standard for the height of the items. for eletcrical outlets and switch boxes, these items are generally installed at a standard height - so you don't have to write down every vertical dimension. for these units, get a can of orange spray paint and put a dot on the floor to mark an outlet, a line on the floor for switch. you can use any symbol - whatver will make you remember what is what. just make sure the symbol is a few inches back from the studs and big/bright enough that you can see it with a film of drywall dust covering it. for celing speakers, lights and recessed cans - I used different colors of spray paint to draw a ring on the floor directly below the unit. The plumbing drains for your sinks are generally tucked into the wall cavity during the rough in , between the hot and cold supply lines which typically will protrude out past the studs. I did not mark these and of course they covered them up. We knew generally where they were becuase of the supply lines, but it was a hunt and peck exercise to find the drain pipes. They drywalled my entire house in 1 day. When I got to the house at 4pm that afternoon, i walked around and found at least a half dozen speaker boxes and as many recessed housings covered. Once I figured out how to communiate with the international crew (nobody spoke english), they used their dremmel tools to cut the holes. Over the next few days, I kept finding other items that were covered up. It's worth spending a little extra time to have this done. The drywall company should do this (or yout builder should) because it saves them from dealing with these issues after the entire house is trimmed and painted. Who wants to cut holes into your brand new walls to find missing boxes? However, since I installed the security system, audio/visual, and speaker boxes - I felt it was in my best interest to mark that stuff. I has also installed the recessed housings and as part of that process - i already had spray painted circles on the floor to spot the cans. I am very gald I did this. I hope this helps.
...See More
Preparing for the electrical walk-though
Q
Comments (3)
We decided where we wanted lighting for all the rooms except the great room which is vaulted and is open to kitchen/dining areas which also has vaulted areas. For this we went to the Internet to determine how many recessed lights and placement for our size area. Turned out the lighting amount and spacing was perfect. It took some time, but with the Internet sights on recessed lighting placement, it was a great help. We also included small eyeball lights for the fireplace, pendants over the island, a large hanging light over the dining table, a light on the ceiling fan, under cabinet lights and above cabinet lighting. All recessed lights are on dimmers and the great room, kitchen lights, dining and over sink light are all on separate switches. Yes, we had drawings for the recessed lighting. We knew how we were going to arrange the furniture in the bedrooms and great room and had outlets put accordingly. Be sure to have more outlets than you think you need in the kitchen. Depending on closet size some people have outlets in the walkins. If you have a utility closet put an outlet in there for charging electric brooms or vacuums and one in the pantry and of course the laundry room. Better to have too many outlets than not enough. We did not put any outlets in the greatroom hardwood floors. Don't forget the basement way if you have one and the garage lights and porch lights. Just an additional note. For the above cabinet lighting we had the electrician install an electrical outlet above the cabinets (just above so it can't be seen from the floor) at the end of the run and then just plugged in strings of white mini lights ( Christmas lights) and ran the strings along the top of the cabinets back towards the wall so they shine up our vaulted wall area. You can't see them of course and they give a nice even light along the wall instead of pockets of light from pucks etc. We had him put an on/off switch for it in the kitchen. Added a pic
...See More
Walk-in or walk-through pantry
Q
Comments (16)
Sometimes, but it's not far and it's so nice to have all the food in one area and organized. I love not having to reach into cabinets to find the food and it makes putting things away really easy. Having the counter in the pantry allows us to put all the grocery bags there from the store and empty at will without taking up kitchen counter space as well. It's probably one of the best decisions we made and I'm glad we did the walk through. Walking around the whole time would have been a real PITA. Good luck!
...See More
Closing vs Final walk through vs certificate of occupancy....HELP!
Q
Comments (9)
A Certificate of Occupancy is granted by the city when the builder has met all of their requirements. You will not be involved in that process. Definitely ask for a key if you want it but don't be surprised if the builder wants to be sure nothing gets scratched or a window or door doesn't get left open at this late date. Don't let anyone rush you; say you need more time if you feel rushed. They signed a contract saying they would deliver a completely finished and working house so make them meet that obligation. Turn everything on and look in every corner, check every switch, door & knob and sight along every wall with a strong LED flashlight. Bring someone along to take notes. I don't know how to schedule a private home inspector; you need to ask the builder about that. I'm an architect and a builder would expect me to have inspected the house every few weeks especially before things were covered up. At this stage all you can discover are poor finishes or things that don't work and your contractor should have already found them. Remember, signing off on the house does not in any way relieve the contractor of his responsibility for building to the requirements of the contract documents. Don't sign anything that says otherwise. A walk-through should only be a courtesy.
...See More
kymike
12 years ago
Lxerarc mentioned to take note of bed placements. This reminded me of a suggestion that someone gave to to place a light switch near the bed for the bedroom overhead lights.
chisue
12 years ago
I hate the cans over our bed. Never use them and have had nightmares about spiders. lol I regret being pressured to install a ton of cans. Never use most of them except in hallways, but there they ARE, holes in my ceilings!

Mistake to mount cans in the slopes of a cathedral. Should have had up-lights to 'wash' the slopes.

Somehow the under-cabinet kitchen lights got left off our plans after some other revisions. Big hassle to re-fit that later.

I wish I'd had an outlet near the stairs so that I could decorate there at Christmas.

Do you have security lights? Want to turn them on from your MBR?
ImaCurvyGrrl
Original Author
12 years ago
Mskitchen, I have a spreadsheet, too. I used the spreadsheet to make the maps of lighting on my floor plans (plus assistance from a lighting designer). I can't imagine having to go back a 2nd day to do more!

Lzerarc, we're working with allowances for the fixtures. But the electrician went through the house before we got there and marked what was included in our contract for the wiring. And he was showing us where standard/code outlets were going in case we needed to add more. It was much easier to see it in real life than on paper. So we did have everything included in the bid as per code, basically.

We did consider furniture placement (had that mapped out when we did the house plans!) and decorating.

Kymike1, that's a good idea to have a switch for the overhead lights! However, in our bedrooms we'll have ceiling fans (with or without light kits) that have remote controls. We can then mount the remote in a cradle near the bed for both fan and light control!

Chisue, we completely forgot pendants and electrical outlet discussions on our island. I think that was one of the last areas we were looking at and we were so hot and tired we were rushing. I've gone back to the builder and asked about both of those things. And yes, we have security lights and the electrician did suggest putting a light switch in our MBR, which we thought was a brilliant idea!!

Thanks for the support, everyone. :)
mskitchen
12 years ago
Lzerarc, we also have an allowance for the lighting fixtures. I have to agree with imacurvygirl, easier to see in real life than on the plans such as the recessed lighting which was indicated on the plans and meant nothing to me. Most of the the outlets had already been installed but we had the option of moving whatever we wanted placed elsewhere. And I did bring up the fact of the floor in the great room and was told that we could do that at a later date.

Just did electrical walk-through

Comments (6)

mskitchen

Epiarch Designs

Related Discussions

kymike

chisue

ImaCurvyGrrl
Original Author

mskitchen

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Just did electrical walk-through

Comments (6)

mskitchen

Epiarch Designs

Related Discussions

kymike

chisue

ImaCurvyGrrlOriginal Author

mskitchen

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

ImaCurvyGrrl
Original Author