My guess would be the power company(s) are busier than a one armed paper hanger after all the rains you had recently.

Sometimes it's not all about you, but circumstance.

Believe me I understand circumstances. We were told 6-8 weeks because of all the new growth and the rain has not had much of an effect on new service, or at least they told us that.

I just got off the phone though, looks like our work order was "misplaced" and a new work order had to put in hence another 4 weeks.

Can you try to ask for a supervisor and then ask if you can be "bumped up" because someone messed up and misplaced your work order? Might be worth a shot?! Good luck!

Back in the framing days,the power company would come out to hook up temporary power services so that generators didn't need to be used.It was probably a one hour job at best, but there they sat with the trucks idling, a.c. on, reading there newspaper for most of the day. We'd be out humping it in triple digit temps.This use to fry me until i realized when ma nature rears her ugly head with hurricanes,tornadoes, floods,etc., these people are out there in it around the clock doing what they have to do to get things up and running.So being older, i have changed my attitude towards that ordeal , but still cringe when having to call customer service and get the run around such as your self.Sorry for your delay, but it's an unfortunate part of the building process that is unexpected and hard to have the foresight to see coming.You count on what you are told initially and is disapointing when it gets delayed.Three weeks into 6-8 weeks is significant, but you'll get there.

We had a service dude from the phone co come up and in a threatning tone of attitude state that if we didn't move our phone conduit up 18" from grade, we wouldn't get a phone.Sometimes i feel the power trip utility co's have as evidenced by the phone service guy is way too unnecessary.It took all of about 5 minutes to move the conduit up, but it pissed me off the way this guy portrayed himself.Oh well.

Kelly: This just su--uh, stinks! Maybe the best rule is to believe it when you see it. LOL! If it doesn't make you any madder to talk a little more about it, would you explain how the delay affects your house getting built? Don't they already have some sort of temporary service for the crews? Or are they working off generators?

What exactly do they need the electricity for? (DUH, me; I know.)

Would it be possible for you to get a temporary pole/meter for your lot. Thats we had and that is what all of the framers and other subs used for the entire build. We didn't get our final electric until the very end about 7-10 days before closing.

What did your framers use for electricity?

Is this for your temporary power? Or your permanent power?

When we needed to have our permanent power put in, they trenched, then called the elec co to come out and hook up the meter. The elec co didn't come for 2 weeks, and by that time, the trench was full of water (from rain). They red tagged it saying the trench needed to be pumped (but did not call me). The red tag blew off and no one knew why they didn't show up. Finally I called them and got a new date. They red tagged the second visit as well. All in all it took us a month AFTER the trench was dug to get the meter connected.

In the meantime, the floor installer stopped installing the wood floors - too cold without the furnace running. Of course, by the time we did have power, the floor installer was on another job.....

I understand your frustration very well. There isn't a great deal you can do about it unfortunately.

It was for permanent power. The framers used generators. The GC can put in a loop meter I think it is called. Only problem is it is expensive and he really did not want to do that because of theft issues. The GC knows one of the sheriffs in our county and has talked to him about this. The last house that was built in this subdivision, about a year or so ago, had theirs stolen and also had the site broken into twice. The temp meter would pretty much just be laying out there for anyone to take so that is why we were trying to just get the permanent power in. We have been holding off on the electrical wiring because of the copper theft going on around here with the electrical wire. The goal was to get it wired and then drywalled as soon as we could. So that is why it has held up work for the last few weeks. To wait another 4 weeks is just crazy. I have not talked to the GC yet but he was going to call and see if there was anything he could do to get this moved up. I was told I wouldn't have to pay the $1100.00 hook up fee until we received electricity but I did receive a bill in the mail that the fee had to be paid by August 25 so I paid it on the 23rd of August. I wished I hadn't paid it because I would have told this lady on the phone they are going to have to wait another 4 weeks for the money then! LOL!

I guess we will have to talk about what the next step will be if we are not getting it for another month. I am certainly not going to just let the house sit for a month with no work on it I know that. We will just have to hope they will be able to get to it faster or pray that the meter loop does not get stolen! LOL!

Kelly,
It's August. Why can't they wire and drywall? Do you have temp power for the subs? Or can someone supply a generator? If it were winter, you'd need heat for drywall, but our drywall went up in March and they brought in propane heaters to dry it out.

I'm not understanding why the elec holdup is holding up wiring/drywall???

zone - they could wire and dry wall if we put in temp power. We were trying to avoid having to put in the temp meter and loop. We are most likely going to have to do that. They used 3 generators when they framed and roofed.

I wasn't understanding why we were waiting for power also until the GC explained why he didn't want to have to put in the loop. LOL! Craziness!

Drywallers generally use zip saws theses days and insulators pnematic staplers, all needing power.The last thing you need is cranky subs at this point, so generators are your only alternative.Your neighbors are too far away to ask for a tie into theirs, paying that months bill for them.Maybe offer to pay for the gas for the generators.

Out here the service panel is put in its permanent location along the form boards on a slab foundation using steel studs for support before the pour with the conduit and grounds in place. After the pour the power co ties into the service that has the main breaker and an exterior receptacle for power.The same was done for our crawlspace foundation after i framed the floor.It took an inspection by the county, an inspection by the power co, a crew to run the line from the tie in at the street to our service, then another to do the hook up, so it can be quite a circus even when they do show up as scheduled.

kelntx

I feel your pain. I started the whole power thing in Feb of this year - power was turned on second week in JUNE!!!

I also got to use my splicing skills as the back hoe driver cut into all of my low voltage wire runs from the house to the front of the drive. You know things are bad when a scruffy looking guy with 1 tooth comes into the house holding a bundle of ripped wire and he says "dis ur stuuff?" Oh - he also cut the phone line too. Touch down and the extra point is good!

Oh - same back hoe driver hits a boulder while digging the trench. He calls me and says they need to bring in a ram hoe at a cost of 200 dollars - an HOUR! I race to the site - look at the trench - and say "Leon, can't you just trench around the boulder." No ram hoe required.

What a nightmare - just love the power company . The good news is that all of the trades can bring their own power sources - but my trim carpenter tells me they prefer clean power when they operate the trim saws. I cannot recall where you are in the build - but if you haven't got to the trim stage yet you have some time to work getting power.

Keep calling them, treat them nice, and you will get power.

sniffdog that is a long time to wait for your power! My gosh! I just tried to call DH because I am getting confused. I see the GC's point on the temp power but do we NEED to have power right now to wire and drywall? I have been sitting here thinking about it. Surely we do not. The only thing I can see why we would need it is for the subs?! I mean do they need to hook up the wiring to the main power right now before they can drywall it in? So why are we waiting?!?!? LOL! It all sounded so right when the GC talked to us the other day but now I am thinking What The Heck?!?!

As my 7 year old would say...."I'm soooo confused by it all!"

I am learning something about myself through all of this. I freak out way to much. I need to learn to take a step back, take it in a day or so and then deal with it :-)

generators are definetly hard on power tools!

I need to learn to take a step back, take it in a day or so and then deal with it :-)

Yep, you definitely need to learn to take a deep breath. For most, it's one issue after another, so don't sweat the small stuff.

Hopefully this will be the worst issue you have to deal with.

Kelly, I kept a journal during our build. I wrote all of my thoughts, happy and sad, down. I've looked back at it and actually laughed at some of my "freak out" days. I frequently wrote in there "this too shall pass". That journal and this board are the two things that helped me survive.

Hang in there, you'll make it!

Kelly,
Find someone who knows someone who knows someone (you get the point) who works for the power company. I got temporary power hooked up in less than 48 hours by bugging the heck out of people and calling anyone at the company I could find that would listen to me. The squeaky wheel...

Kelly,
Do squeak away. It won't hurt and it might help.

All the best.

My POCO is a co-op. Service time is about the same as the investor-owned utility in the same area. Sounds like Larry, Moe and Curly are managing the situation for the original post. Pike Electric is a contractor that the POCOS in about 18 States use for work loads above what their crews can handle. The truck they use for poles is called a Digger-Derrick- not the brand name, but the style name. It can haul a couple of poles, dig the hole, set the new pole, and pull out an old pole and haul it away. In addition, it has a bucket attachment for linemen to use if necessary. One truck does it all. For my house, they set six poles, ran about 1/2 mile of line, pulled out three old poles, set the transformer. One bucket truck with pole trailer in addition to the D-D. 4 Men. Did the job in one day. I had cleared all the area for the lines in advance.

DH is talking to the GC right now so we will see how far he got!!

We had to have a temporary pole before we even poured concrete. The subs don't like to use the generators with their expensive tools. The GC should take care of this and I would think it's much cheaper than running the generators all day. I also think your GC dropped the ball by not following up instead of you. Call and ask to get moved up since it's the power company's mistake.

I have dealt with the power company not the GC. We did it this way because if the GC put it in his name it was going to cost more to transfer it over to us. When I got the call this morning I called the GC and he said he would call to see what he could do so no, he did not drop the ball. Power company will not bend and it is 4 weeks out. Not a big deal but the GC did say the subs really do not like to rely on the generators but oh well, they are going to have to. :-)

you don't need utility company power to get through the wiring and drywall stage. When they are running wires they need to drill through studs. They can use portable gen sets or battery operted drills for that. I ran all the wire for the second story and basement and never used a plug in electric drill - all done with battery tools. My electrician used a gen set to not only run their drills but also to run their microwave to heat up lunch - how civilized is that!

For the drywall - they need to run screw guns to secure the drywall and dremmel tools to make the cuts around boxes and recessed lights. We did have utility power for that stage - but I can't see why they could not run the power gen set to run those - or use battery operated tools.

You will need power to run the well pump if you have one. If you need water then you will either need to truck in the water or wait for the power.

If the electrical is not in yet, then waiting 4 weeks for the power is probably ok. You still have to run the wires, get the electrical inspection, get the building and close in inspection, install the insulation, hang the drywall, tape and finish the drywall. In our case - this was a lot more than 4 weeks of work.

Ugh, that sounds way too familiar!

We dealt with something similar in recent weeks. The power co gave us a list of how things would progress and we did our part - easement, paid our contribution, dug the holes. Then I called for the poles to be installed and was told they would be up in 5-10 days. 11 days later when I called to find out what had happened they said they were unable to give me any information! In the end I'm pretty sure we were never scheduled. I made a big deal of it and they sent a crew out the next week. The crew was extremely cranky and that wasn't helped by the fact that the holes were filled with water level with the ground. It had rained a lot in those days following when they promised to be there. They had to pump each hole out which kind of made me grin a little.

Earlier there was a comment about portable generator power being not good for portable tools. I do not see how this possibly can be true. The motor types used in such tools are among the most "tolerant" of poor power quality of any electrical motors. Many portable electrically-powered tools have an operating life expectancy of about 200 hours. I suspect that time just ran out for some of those being used on the generator. Drywallers frequently tape down the trigger on their screwguns so that it runs continuously when it is plugged in. They figure on wearing it out on one job and buying a new one for each new job.

Hi bus driver, I made the statement due to experiences of when we worked in the county,(boonies), we had to use generators. In neighborhoods the builder would often make a deal with the neighbors to tie in with their service and pay their monthly bill. We seemed to wear out skil saws and drills more rapidly when working off of generators, but as you stated,it could have coincided with the tool being at it's life's end.I dont have a problem running skil saws,sawzalls,drills,etc off my generator, but there is no way im going to run my table saws,cut off saws,joiner/planers off of it. Generators are great when you need them, but are inconsistent in their power delivery vs clean power of a service.

We had basically the same problem. We were looking to just get temporary electric, but we were also told they lost our request. But somehow or other, someone gave me the name of their supervisor. Well, I called him and afterwards things would get done. I had to call him several times, and each time he would have his crew come out very quickly. In fact, after my first call to him, within a few days, we not only had one truck come out but three just to hook our widdle temporary electrical poll up.

Joan

The electric company called me this morning and left a message. I guess the GC asked them to call ahead of time so the meter loop could be installed, well they called this morning said they would be "in our area" for an emergency and they would be putting in our service. So the GC scrambled to get the electrician out and so far...at 4:30 the electric company has not shown up! LOL!!

so... you're surprised that a company without competition is not very good? Bring on socialized healthcare and turn your power problem into your heart problem, same result!

I'm not surprised at anything anymore!