a lot depends on what you want and what you are willing to pay for. Do you have a detailed electrical plan for the house and was that part of the contract? or did the builder bid to the minimum electrical code and then have an upcharge clause?

The thing to be prepared for is that if they bid the house to minimum code for the electrical - there probably won't be enough regular & switched outlets, there won't be enough 3 way and 4 way switches, and the base price usually does not include recessed lights or any special lighting - unless they were on your plan and in your contract when the builder bid it.

I don't know what your needs are, but I found that the minimum code for electrical was way too short of what could have accepted.

I almost fainted when I got the upcharge price for the extra outlets, recesssed lights and some other special things I had in my design. I don't think I went crazy either - and my designer reduced the light count I originally had in the plan.

My electrician (who is reasonably priced for my area) charges $100 per recessed can, $50 per switch, $35 per outlet, $80 per heavy chandelier that was above an beyond what minimum code would dictate for the house. These prices are for the hardware and the labor to install and finish.

If you do not have a lighting plan, you might want to have one drawn up after your meeting next week. Have that plan reviewed by a lighting designer if that is possible. Adding stuff now is relatively easy prior to drywall. After that it will cost a lot more and be a mess to cut in new lights and outlets.

I do not have a detailed plan. I know that the estimate that I received included 20 "canned lights." But outside of that, it does not specifically state a certain number of outlets or switches. I definately will be asking him which things are considered upgrades and what is included in the bid.

that is good news that they included some recessed lights, now you just have to decide where you want them which can be covered in the walk through.

here are a few things you might want to think about

- how many switched outlets are in each bedroom. if you don't like lot's of extension cords, put one half hot outlet on each side of the bed (one plug is always hot, the other plug controlled by a wall switch).

- this might be over the top - but in the master suite I actually have a 3 way switch at the entrance and at the bed location so that I can turn lights on and off from the entrance or the bed.

- in any room where there are multiple entrances & exits - use 3 way or 4 way switches so that no matter where you enter or exit you can operate the lights. Nithing like coming into a dark house and having to trip over things to get to the wall switch.

- in the master bathroom (or others) make sure there are outlets near every working space. I also like to have an outlet inside the cabinets for charging toothbrushes and razors.

- do yuo want under or over cabinet lighting in the kitchen?

- where do you want dedicated circuits? I put one in the garage (for a second refrig), and in my study for computer equipment.

- if you do holiday lighting, put in a few extra outdoor outlets (on their own dedciated circuit) and make them half hots. Have a switch in the garage that you can put on a timer.

- I wired all bedrooms to have a celing light so that you can illuninate the room without table lamps. Each of these lights was pre-wired so that I could hang a fan/light in the future.

- any heavy chanedliers or lights? make sure they put in a reinforced box to hold the weight.

hope this helps

I just finished my walkthrough with our electrician. It basically included going through each and every room and placing can lights, outlets, fans, etc. It also included determining what kind of fixture for rooms such as chandeliers, sconces, etc. How high they are going to be etc. Also placement and type of lights in bathrooms ie. lightbars vs sconces. Also think about lighting for the kitchen. Any undercabinet lighting? How do you want your plugs to go horizontal or vertical. Any special wiring such as an outlet in a drawer for hairdryers or for charging cell phones? We also talked about placement of telephone and cable outlets for each room.

Here's my estimate.....make sure they include low voltage cat 5 phone and rg6 (cable). One of our bidders indicated that's an extra charge. Think in advance about where things are going.....areas in the kitchen (hand appliances, prep areas, undercabinet and cove lighting above). Look at where your tv's, lamps, special electronic equipment, etc is going to go.....the last thing you want to do is realize you forgot to specify cable outlets for your 61" plasma and have a skinny black snake running up the wall of your family room.

The other great thing about our guy is he offerred us some flexibility.....he advised rough in cost only as I worked as an electrician in college and my pastor is a licensed journeyman.....we may trim it ourselves.

Date: 02-26-2007 Attn:
Customer: Todd Henry Job Name Riverwalk Plantation (North Lake Wylie)
Street: Street: xxxxPlantation xxxx
City/State/Zip: City/State/Zip: Charlotte, NC
Work # 704-383-xxxx

xxxxElectric hereby submits the following specifications:
- Supply and install 23 Lightolier 7" recess fixtures (housing, trims, and bulbs) locations per electrical drawings
- Supply and install a new 400amp Siemens ITE electrical service.
- Run Telephone (cat 5) and Cable (rg6) to 6 locations thru-out the home. (per electrical drawings)
- Wire and install new under cabinet lighting per electrical drawings.
- Wire and install Smoke Detectors per the NEC (National Electric Code).
- Wire and install new switches and outlets per electrical drawings and the NEC.

**Notes**
- All new wiring will comply with the electrical drawings, as well as Local and National Electrical Codes.
- xxxxxElectric will supply all Labor and Materials (wiring, boxes, electrical panels, breakers, 23 recessed lights, and smoke detectors w/ battery back-up) to complete your project.
- Owner will supply all electrical switches, outlets, covers, and all lighting fixtures. These items will be installed by xxxxxx Electric

Project cost based on total square footage 4031sq.ft. @ $2.18 /sq.ft. ($8787.58)

**Rough wiring portion only - 4031sq.ft @ $1.70 /sq.ft. ($6852.70)**
- xxxxxxElectric will supply wire, boxes, TV/Telephone cable, 23 recess kits

***NOTE***
XX Electric has a One Warranty on all Labor and Materials.
Estimates from our Competitors will be Matched up to $150.00

As stated above the specification we propose to furnish material and labor for the sum of: Eight Thousand Seven Eighty Seven and Fifty Eight Dollars ($8787.58).

Yes there is much more! Here is a link from another thread here that includes several detailed lists of what others did in their houses. Some things were extra, some were good low cost ideas and plans for future needs. I read all of these and wrote down my "have tos" and "want tos". The walk thru with the electrician was then easier-he was impressed that I was organized so I think more tolerant of my "have tos". Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: electric plans

We had our electrician walk thru three weeks ago and even though we had a plan and light list it took a couple of hours. The electric but not the light fixtures are included in the house contract price. Lights are on an allotment with the cans at $55 each. The choices you make during this walk thru are every bit as important as other more glamorous choices as appliances. Like sniffdog we went with 3 way lights in the master which will make life easier for very little cost. We won't have any free standing or table lamps so we had to work that into our plan. Do you have hobbies that will require dedicated circuits or 220v? We want the master bedroom ceiling fan to operate by remote but installed a switch in case we change fans in the future. Do you plan on having a generator and how do you want that to be wired in? Will there be motion sensor lights? The choices go on and on and the electrician will expect you to have some rough plan. If you go with electrical to code you will be unhappy. This is your chance to design and meet the needs of how you live. Tom

All good advice. Be sure that outside walls, which have insulation in them, are especially looked at with a critical eye because it's nigh on to impossible to put addition outlets in after the build. The engineer who finalized my house plans refused to draw the electical with all the outlets I defined. So when I did the walkthru with the electrican, I put them all back in AND MORE.

Be sure to think about esthetics too. For example, if you want a small table in a corner with a lamp on it,etc. Or a dedicated outlet for a nightlight. Be sure to think about the exterior for low voltage lighting, hedge pruners,etc. And maybe the porch area if you have xmas decorations to plug in there. And the garage or any exterior building. I even have outlets between garage doors. Really comes in handy.

Be sure to have extra outlets in computer room--computer plus lamps, for example.

If you have doubts about extra outlets somewhere, error on the side of too many rather than too few.

when your electrical is done, make sure that someone marks the location of every box and recessed can on the floor. mark the location of plumbing drains in the wall. I put in a lot of security, A/V and whole house audio stuff and marked those. recessed cans should be marked with paint on the floor. take a lot of pictures so you can find things later.

when the tornado of drywallers get into your house, they drywall over everything very quickly. they covered over a lot of my stuff - thank goodness I had it marked on the floor and could find it. one thing i did not mark was the location of low voltage wires that have no box - and they covered over some. lucky i had some pictures and could locate these. take pictures of every wall and ceiling in every room if you can.

best of luck with the walk through

When we built our home last year, this was one area that I was not totally prepared for. I didn't realize the electrician was going to ask me specifically where we wanted switches, outlets, etc. and he was marking them on the wall as I spoke. It did feel a bit rushed and that early in the build (just after framing) I hadn't really finalized where and what kind of lights I wanted. In hindsight, we should have done a walkthrough ourselves a few days prior and taken the time to think about where we wanted those items without the pressure of the electrician and his Sharpie marker!

Think about each room separately and decide where furniture might be placed. As stated above, put more outlets along the wall where your computer will be as well as your TVs. Think about how and where you want light switches. You will also need to know which rooms have undercabinet or overcabinet lighting as well as ceiling fans, because these things all need their own switches. We also had "scene" lighting and I had to know which items would be on the scene setters and which would not.

I would also err on the side of caution and put a few more wall outlets than code. We also took pictures of every wall after the electrical rough-in (before drywall) in case the drywallers covered up our outlets.

sniffdog: Please help this old dog. Where exactly on the floor do you put the markings? How do you indicate what's a wall switch and what's a receptacle? And what's a plumbing drain? Are there some sort of symbols you use? Draw arrows?
Totally ignorant here but sounds like a must-do idea. For all of us.

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.

sniffdog: I feel like you have the building instincts of a bloodhound! Sniffing out your hidden wiring.

Seriously, very impressive. I'm making copies of all your great info. Do I understand that you did the marking for the wall light switches and regular receptacles, too--even though you didn't install them?

And let me ask my same dumb question here, hopefully to benefit others here: shouldn't you develop an entire electrical plan before the framers start, or at least finish? So that the framers will put framing where you want your wiring devices? Otherwise, you get them placed where there's a stud for them. Right?

Ex--if we want to designate a certain placement for a light switch and it doesn't fall on a stud, then the framers need to at least cut a 2 x 4 and run it between the 2 closest studs at the height we want the switch. Right?

Or is everybody just taking pot luck?

pinktoes

I marked everything i installed. The drywall company marked eveything else except where they could not get to the floor (because they did not mark prior to the drywall being delivered - and some of the stacks got in the way). That is wher ethe pictures came in handy becuase wouldn't ya know it - the spots the did not mark was where they covered over stuff.

I did have a very detailed electrical plan done prior to the start of the framing. However - the framers don't frame based on the electrical plan :) They just put studs where the studs need to go and let the poor electricians (and I was one of them ) deal with the consequencues.

There were a few places where I had to take a stud out - or move a brace, or add a stud - to get a switch or fixture box in the right location.

So definately have an electrical plan - but do not expect that the framers and eletcricians will talk or follow each others plan. Once the framers are done, you need to walk the house with the eletcrician and mark where stuff will go. If the framers goofed, make them fix it before the wiring starts. Since I did some of the wiring, I fixed the framing in those areas.

Especially important since you don't have an electrical plan is not to feel overwhelmed and frustrated. It is not an easy thing to walk through what will be your home, now it's just a maze of framing everywhere, and visualize where each piece of furniture will go. Do mock ups for yourself if you can. It was helpful to me to have my own tape measure as we went room by room and made decision about things such as outlets on the wall up high for art lights, etc. Another important thing if you are doing a central vacuum system make sure you have an electrical outlet at each hose vent. Our guys missed one so we had to add it after closing. The electricians weren't too happy about having to fish the wire, but did it anyway. If you are doing a lot of outdoor lighting try to think of where you'll likely need to access it from. We have floodlights on the ends of our home, but didn't put a switch to turn them on/off in the middle, so we have to go the furthest rooms to access them.

Good luck!

sniffdog: AHA! How foolish of me to think one trade would be concerned with the work of the next one. I think I've got a grip on things now. Thanks again. I bow to you (sorry for another dog reference--and the 'bow' was one).

chanesworth: Reading all this I'm thinking you ought to take a room-by-room listing of all the fixtures, appliances, items requiring a dedicated circuit (anything that will run continuously longer than 3 hours, like computers and TVs), lighting, and any other special needs for that room. Then as you walk through the spaces, you'll have a checklist to work from.
Let us know how it turns out.

Pinktoes - I definately will do a checklist.

We have about 3 weeks until the electrical goes in, so I have been following this thread. So much great info here. Printed the last electrical thread and will be printing this one as well!

We have about 2 weeks until our electrical goes in. They did not mention a walkthru yet. Geesh... we obviously need one. Glad I caught this thread....... I'll mention it to dh.

Great ideas/advice on this thread. Marking things..... great advice. Thanks!

one other idea I will pass on. I believe this might fall into the category of over the top - but it helped me.

the placement of recessed lights can be very tricky - and a lot depends on the type of floor trusses you have. we have webbed trusses at 12 inch centers which is great structurally - but a pain in the rump when trying to space a cluster of recessed lights.

i made a jig out of a 10 foot length of 4" pvc pipe and a PVC toilet flange turned upside down. I cut the 4" PVC pipe to the height of the ceiling minus a few inches. Then I placed the pipe onto the toilet flange so that it would stand staight up by itself. I then used round cardboard cut outs and placed them on the floor where i wanted the center of the lighbeams from the cans to shine. once I positioned the cluster of lights - i used the jig to see if the recessed housing would fit between the joists. most of the time - there were one or two housings that had an issue - so i had to move things around on the floor and re-check. once i had the all of the cans spotted, i used spray paint to mark the spots on the floor. a few days later - i used the same jig, placed it on each spot and installed the housing. didn't have a single glitch. all of the spotting i did required no ladder -- all done from the floor. so it goes very quickly.

this sounds like a pain but when the electricians go to install the cans they will put them kinda sorta where you want them. but if joists get in the way, you get what you get based on the joist position - and that might not be the best place from a lighting perspective.

since DW is very symetrical and likes things spaced just so - the few hours it took me to spot the cans will save me years of grief.

you don't to go crazy here - just bring a long stick or pvc pipe with you on the walk through. when you are ready to spot a can - just put the pipe or stick up to see where the housing would have to be mounted. if you have a lot of cans - particularly clusters - bring some 6" or 4" circular cutouts so you can work the positioning on the floor and then do the joist check.

best of luck with the walk throughs.