# Married to a house!!



## McClary’s Electrical (Feb 21, 2009)

rnr electric said:


> Has anybody ever felt married to a particular house?. I am on 2 jobs that i cannot seem to get finished up with, I have been going six days a week on both trying to wrap these two up and at every turn they wanna do something new.. It's driving me nuts. It's sucking up my manpower and putting me behind schedule elsewhere. Now it's getting to the point I don't want to leave the job until late every day. I have wired hundreds of homes (probably thousands) and never had two like these. Sorry guys.. Just venting a little


 

My longest was five years from the time I was hiired until the CO. Sometimes you just can't wait to be done quick enough. You're just ready to leave even though you're getting paid.


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

Anytime I get involved with something like that I just stay all kinds of crazy hours to get it behind me..

Other people will just have to wait.. I'm not going to beat myself up over something I can't control.. :no::no:

If the customer keeps adding jobs.. I tell them I will be back in a few weeks to take care of the additional work.. 

My main focus is the original job I was hired to do.. everything else can wait..


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## rnr electric (Jan 29, 2010)

mcclary's electrical said:


> My longest was five years from the time I was hiired until the CO. Sometimes you just can't wait to be done quick enough. You're just ready to leave even though you're getting paid.


Wow, five years is a long time to be on a job.. Any job. Did you (kinda) hate to see it finished?


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## rnr electric (Jan 29, 2010)

B4T said:


> Anytime I get involved with something like that I just stay all kinds of crazy hours to get it behind me..
> 
> Other people will just have to wait.. I'm not going to beat myself up over something I can't control.. :no::no:
> 
> ...


These are jobs for my two best customers. Or I would do exactly that!. The smaller of the two has a magazine photo shoot tomorrow and didn't deliver lights until 2:30 on Friday, furthermore they will not let me work there on Sunday and I have to be gone by 5:30 mon- sat. The bigger wants a C/O by the end of this week also, but I've had a little more time on this one. Been a crazy couple of weeks for sure.


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

rnr electric said:


> These are jobs for my two best customers. Or I would do exactly that!. The smaller of the two has a magazine photo shoot tomorrow and didn't deliver lights until 2:30 on Friday, furthermore they will not let me work there on Sunday and I have to be gone by 5:30 mon- sat. The bigger wants a C/O by the end of this week also, but I've had a little more time on this one. Been a crazy couple of weeks for sure.


Wow.. that is crazy.. but money talks.. good luck..


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## rnr electric (Jan 29, 2010)

B4T said:


> Wow.. that is crazy.. but money talks.. good luck..


Thanks.


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## captkirk (Nov 21, 2007)

your not banging them hard enough on extras and change orders...If the extras are keeping you there longer than you want to be to make money your not charging enough.. At that point you cant just flat rate prices off your origional estimate.. its actcually costing you more to stay there ..


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## rnr electric (Jan 29, 2010)

captkirk said:


> your not banging them hard enough on extras and change orders...If the extras are keeping you there longer than you want to be to make money your not charging enough.. At that point you cant just flat rate prices off your origional estimate.. its actcually costing you more to stay there ..


You are actually spot on here!


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

I been married to a house, but not near as married to an access control system at a major airport. 6 yrs on that job.


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## noarcflash (Sep 14, 2011)

How do you quote a 5 year job?


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

noarcflash said:


> How do you quote a 5 year job?


For resi, nobody does. It's just all the change orders that make things drag on. I'm sure he thought he'd have it knocked out in no time flat.


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## wcord (Jan 23, 2011)

Can feel your pain lol
Longest house job was just under 3 years.
The customer sucked our time like you wouldn't believe. It didn't help that he would take days to make decisions.
Payment was never a problem. Also, since he took so long to make chances, we usually only went back when it was convenient for us.
Still, its extremely frustrating to think that the end will never come .


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## rnr electric (Jan 29, 2010)

This weekends work.. Still married to this place, but the end is near!


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## RIVETER (Sep 26, 2009)

rnr electric said:


> Has anybody ever felt married to a particular house?. I am on 2 jobs that i cannot seem to get finished up with, I have been going six days a week on both trying to wrap these two up and at every turn they wanna do something new.. It's driving me nuts. It's sucking up my manpower and putting me behind schedule elsewhere. Now it's getting to the point I don't want to leave the job until late every day. I have wired hundreds of homes (probably thousands) and never had two like these. Sorry guys.. Just venting a little


If you are making money, you have no complaint. If it is taxing your manpower you are working too cheap.


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## rnr electric (Jan 29, 2010)

RIVETER said:


> If you are making money, you have no complaint. If it is taxing your manpower you are working too cheap.


Yes, but not what I should be for sure, this is a contract job (the wine rack led's are extra though), I am currently trying to figure out how to implement a clause in my contract that any specialty fixture will be extra also. All I see on plans is a light in the stairway at the time of bid, then they custom make this light and it took a complete day to hang it. I worry that if I try to invoice for it the GC might argue that I should not invoice for it.


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## captkirk (Nov 21, 2007)

on big homes you really need to be clear on foyer lights and such... 
Been there done that when i worked for other EC's..... i had one lady proudly tell me how cheap this massive light she bought on the internet was. when i opened the box, i basically had to build the whole thing myself... im talking light sockets, wire them together, hang crystals... took about a full day.... Before i started i called the boss and explained it to him..... He called the HO and had a little chat and told me to do it after their talk... 
Did another one that was really modern looking and consisted of a bunch of sticks that went off in different directions and stuff, it was a real pain in the ass to hang and the designer made it even worse.... that boss was really mad at me because it took so long...

when your doing a big custom home you gotta look at all the little details... ask tons of questions to the GC or architect.... 

Sometimes im like " really this 6000 square foot home has no sump...?" 
and they get back to me "oh yea there are two in the back corners and one up front. 

Is the stove electric, gas, both..... Oh yea its half electric half gas...

What kind of trim are you putting on the doors..? ugh, its 8 inch custom trim....... Ahh no kidding... that would have been a bitch to find out later..

Sometimes they neglect to give you the full set of prints and your left with tons of questions...

The more you do the big homes the better you get at finding potential problems down the road... 

Also, if they keep comming at you with extras, and change orders you might not be charging enough..


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## captkirk (Nov 21, 2007)

That wine rack looks really cool, but any wine snob will tell you that good wines should be stored in the dark...


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## rnr electric (Jan 29, 2010)

wcord said:


> Can feel your pain lol
> Longest house job was just under 3 years.
> The customer sucked our time like you wouldn't believe. It didn't help that he would take days to make decisions.
> Payment was never a problem. Also, since he took so long to make chances, we usually only went back when it was convenient for us.
> Still, its extremely frustrating to think that the end will never come .


Also,it affects scheduling in a. Big way. Which can affect a lot down the line


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## captkirk (Nov 21, 2007)

rnr electric said:


> Also,it affects scheduling in a. Big way. Which can affect a lot down the line


stop showing up if there isnt a full days work and that too will stop...

Customer...."Ugh when do you plan on comming back" 
You....... when you decide what you want...so i can have full work days for my men... im not sending them there to half wire your kitchen, house or what ever...


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## rnr electric (Jan 29, 2010)

captkirk said:


> That wine rack looks really cool, but any wine snob will tell you that good wines should be stored in the dark...


He has a room for wine that has its own temp control and wanted just a pull chain light.. He seen this wine rack somewhere in Texas and asked if we could replicate from a picture. I used single diode LED to light each rack,kinda a bad picture but if you look close enough the backing is all aged looking copper.


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## captkirk (Nov 21, 2007)

rnr electric said:


> He has a room for wine that has its own temp control and wanted just a pull chain light.. He seen this wine rack somewhere in Texas and asked if we could replicate from a picture. I used single diode LED to light each rack,kinda a bad picture but if you look close enough the backing is all aged looking copper.


 No it definatly looks really cool, and totally usable for younger wines that are ment to be drank sooner than later... nice job on the lighting.. I love custom work..


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## rnr electric (Jan 29, 2010)

captkirk said:


> No it definatly looks really cool, and totally usable for younger wines that are ment to be drank sooner than later... nice job on the lighting.. I love custom work..


Thanks, I like it too but when it's all you do it kinda gets old and turns into a job , like anything I guess.


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## magneticpersona (Apr 28, 2012)

well doesnt that mean you make more money? i love those customers that always want to add more things in! Sometimes i have to tell them that i had prior commitments and will have to re-schedule them later on during the week or next week. Try that.


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## denny3992 (Jul 12, 2010)

I was on a job for 3 yrs once.... it's called a 100 mw power plant.... geez I never heard of being on a resi job so long?


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## rnr electric (Jan 29, 2010)

denny3992 said:


> I was on a job for 3 yrs once.... it's called a 100 mw power plant.... geez I never heard of being on a resi job so long?


I did a home a couple years back, started off as a "spec" home in a high end neighborhood and was sold before it was finished.
We were there (almost every day) for another six months, changing this and that. We called it the perpetual re-model. The very same job I paid 2 men to be there for 5 days for the decorators, when they needed a plug moved or a light lowered or dimmer added they were there on site. Some days they did nothing at all. Total waste of manpower but the decorators were from NYC and we only going to be here for 5days and we couldn't let them get behind in schedule.


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## blueheels2 (Apr 22, 2009)

My first year as an apprentice and 2nd year in the trade I got to help finish a house that had been going for years. Owner bought 3 seperate houses that were 100-150 years old. Each one was taken apart piece by piece and reassembled on new foundation joining the three. Had a mudroom put in that had massive slabs of granite he got from a closed prison. Built a nice post and beam garage with guest house as well. House hsd everything and really impressed. That was and still is some of my favorite work. Guy I was helping got a 2500 tip when completed. Good times but you got to make them pay.


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## rnr electric (Jan 29, 2010)




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## rnr electric (Jan 29, 2010)

Theatre seats at this same home, before and after.. Lit cup holders,(fiber optic), LEDs underneath.


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## Theriot (Aug 27, 2011)

Sweet I'm doing a theater now. I'm going to show this to him. Might have to look you up for products.


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## rnr electric (Jan 29, 2010)

Theriot said:


> Sweet I'm doing a theater now. I'm going to show this to him. Might have to look you up for products.


Absolutely. This theatre has 8 wall sconce,16 mini disk led,auto blackout shades,a 12' projector screen with a awesome projector,9 trays all lit with leds in the ceiling,all done with control4 system, and a sound system that ROCKS!!!. You can watch apple tv,regular tv and,or even satellite, and control recliners all at the touch of the remote. All I did was lighting the a/v guys did all the tv and sound


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## rnr electric (Jan 29, 2010)

These were them. Paper shades here BTW, not the auto Blackout..


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## Tiger (Jan 3, 2008)

rnr electric said:


> Yes, but not what I should be for sure, this is a contract job (the wine rack led's are extra though), I am currently trying to figure out how to implement a clause in my contract that any specialty fixture will be extra also. All I see on plans is a light in the stairway at the time of bid, then they custom make this light and it took a complete day to hang it. I worry that if I try to invoice for it the GC might argue that I should not invoice for it.


In itemizing what is to be installed use the word basic, i.e. 35 basic surface light fixtures, 20 recessed lights with basic white open trims. This protects you from including all-day chandeliers and brass trims.


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## rnr electric (Jan 29, 2010)

Tiger said:


> In itemizing what is to be installed use the word basic, i.e. 35 basic surface light fixtures, 20 recessed lights with basic white open trims. This protects you from including all-day chandeliers and brass trims.


Good point, I never thought of that. I have implemented the word "standard" in the same way but I think "basic" nails it!. Thanks


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