3 months to run electrical for our house?

8 years ago

How long does it normally take? We have had one guy who has given every excuse in the book for why he is late/slow/can't show etc. He usually shows up 3 days a week and is here all day, then when he leaves we realize that he only ran one plug. I waited 3 weeks for my oven to be hooked up. We are talking about an oven in an old kitchen that was already there, not the new oven in my new kitchen.

We have had an entire house re-wired before and it took 3 guys 10 business days for a 3 story 2700 SF house with knob and tube wiring. This house is bigger, but doesn't need as much updating. He started working on it on June 11th.

What should we say to our GC? I've run out of patience.

Thanks in advance

Featured Answer

Ron Natalie

8 years ago

There is definitely a problem here. Your GC should be on top of this unless he, himself is the problem. Electrical contractors should be more productive and responsive than that. Suggest our GC find get the guy to commit to an immediate timeframe of find someone else.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (8)

transnationalq
8 years ago
Hi Carolyn,

Can I ask what the rewiring cost on the old house with K&T?

We just discovered it in the house we bought, 1900 Colonial and discovering we can't even change receptacles without upgrading/rewiring. The panel itself has been upgraded.

Looking from the basement, there seems to be only one junction box that's connected to the old K&T. One electrician who came in said it could be just one room or it could run quite far.

Did the rewiring involve bringing down any walls or ceilings?

The amount of work is really adding up now and we're trying y understand just what this rewiring/K&T removal would entail.

Thanks!
Related Discussions
Gas heater running = high electric bill?
Q
Comments (14)
Hmmm, what wwu123 said makes sense. Just seems kind of crazy that the furnace blower would suck up so much electricity. In regards to how old the furnace is, I have no clue. It was installed by the previous owner. Based on what I can find, I would guess it's at least 15 years old. I have not had the unit service or checked by an HVAC pro. (What do they do when they service it? Is it like a car where belts/wearable parts are replaced?) As part of an experiment, I did not turn on the heat at all yesterday. (was 52 degrees inside the house when I woke up this morning! I can do this since my wife is traveling for work and she won't complain to me about the lack of heat in the house.) I'm waiting for our "smart meter" to update PGE so I can check the energy usage for yesterday. If the usage stays flat, then it means the furnace/blower uses an obscene amount of power! If there is a spike, then someone is stealing power from me since there would be nothing turned on that wasn't already on during the day already) FYI: my peak usage of power was on Saturday 8-10pm at 2.23kWh. (can someone tell me what 1kWh is equivalent to?) Thanks!
...See More
New house, can our electricity be too strong?
Q
Comments (55)
"I am interested in Zero Surge because their products have had no failures and no fires since the company started in 1989. " I would bet that comes from an reliable unimpeachable source... like Zero Surge. The UL standard is so bad as to be ineffective. "people who work for the power company have dropped lines carrying more than 400 volts onto the lines that feed houses" 400 volt lines are nothing. The POCO considers that 'low voltage' in the same class as your 120/240 V service. The loest distribution voltage used in the US is generally up to 7.2 kV, 7,200 V. Some areas use even higher distribution, even in residential areas since the housing density is so high. Over 20,000 volts. You should see what happens when one of those drops onto the 7.2 kV or a low voltage line set. "ground wire contamination" is just BS. Pure and simple. ALL the wires must be held within a controlled voltage of each other.
...See More
Electric Bill, What do you pay each month?
Q
Comments (41)
During the summer months, my electrci bill runs between $50 to $90 per month. Its about $30 more when the air conditioner runs (whole house A/C). Before I got A/C, I ran a dehumidifier in the basement. It had a problem of freezing up. I found that was due to too much humidity coupled with the cooler basement air. The solution was to raise is a couple of feet off the floor. Since the basement can not be tightly sealed away from the rest of the house, it gets to be a loosing proposition because the humidity continues to be replenished from upstairs. Whole house A/C was the answer. It reduces the temperature difference between the basement and upper floor and effectively dries the air. Whats more, the A/C does not use much more electricity than a humidifier and fans in the upper floor. To a small degree, it reduces the load of the refrigerator and freezer since their ambient air temp is lowered. I've been lucky this summer. I used the A/C for two weeks in June and none since. However, August is coming and I can expect to start it again. Around here, the first 3 weeks of August can be like July.
...See More
How to "defeat" live electrical wire running from neighbor's house?
Q
Comments (25)
One solution to this would be to put in writing that on or after a certain date, you are planning to cut the line at the fence, and if it is not dead by that time, it is his responsibility. To me, that feels like giving the neighbour the smoking gun to use against you in court if something goes wrong. "See your honour, he knew exactly what he was doing and that it could potentially burn down my house. I was unable to act in the time frame that he demanded and he went ahead with his action anyways. I begged him to give me more time, but he wouldn't listen to me and now my poor dog Rover has perished in the resulting fire." If you do put anything in writing, make sure that it's from a lawyer and that the lawyer agrees with your actions. The cheapest route may be to just ask the neighbour if you could pay for an electrician to properly kill the line. Lawyers fees or electrician fees. Which one is cheaper?
...See More
Ron Natalie
8 years ago
Your electrician is right and until he disconnects that circuit and finds what is connected to it there's no way of knowing. If there is good access from the basement or crawl space, there's minimal damage and expense.
transnationalq
8 years ago
There is clear access from the basement but how will he go about tracing it in the rest of the house? Or does he just need to disconnect it and connect it to the panel some other way?
Vith
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Trans,

It could be as simple as seeing what wiring comes from the panel and what wiring is located at the switches/outlets. The big IF is if there is any hidden wiring that is different in between what is visible. You are better off running new wire since the knob and tube is a fire risk and you will also get a ground with the new wiring.

Doesnt require bringing down walls and ceilings, but there will be holes made depending on attic and crawlspace/basement ceiling access.

Carolyn,

Cut that contractor loose, he is unwilling to finish the job in a reasonable timeframe. If he tries to bill you and take it to legal, any judge will see his work and timeframe as unacceptable.
transnationalq
8 years ago
Vith,

Thank you for your response. The reason the K&T has become a major issue for us right now is that we need insulation done as currently there is none. MassSave/anyone will not do the work if there is active K&T in the external walls. :-/ Not sure if there is a norm/trend for it be running through the external walls. The sockets all checked to be grounded but it was something to do with the metal housing/box.

Do you have a rough idea of how much a rewiring job would cost? 1680 sqft over two floors, perhaps 3 or 4 receptacles per room other than the Kitchen.
Vith
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Estimates are hard online. Price varies due to location. Have to get multiple quotes from different electricians in your area.

It sounds like the grounding you have is to the metal box only. The center screw on the outlet grounds the outlet to the box. It is not a earth ground. Unless the wiring has metallic sheathing and is used as a ground all the way to the panel.
Ron Natalie
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
K&T doesn't have grounds which lead to either one of two things if a ground appears present:

1. The ground is connected to the grounded conductor (very bad).

2. The ground is connected to some other inadvertent ground like a water pipe (bad)

3. The ground is connected to some part of the building grounding system such as another circuit's ground or the building grounding system (acceptable but perhaps not desirable).

3 months to run electrical for our house?

Ron Natalie

Comments (8)

transnationalq

Related Discussions

Ron Natalie

transnationalq

Vith

transnationalq

Vith

Ron Natalie

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US