# How is work going out there??



## BuzzKill (Oct 27, 2008)

Slow this week, save few service calls.
Gave a slew of estimates in Feb. and am just waiting on a call.


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## electricmanscott (Feb 11, 2010)

El Sucko


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## BuzzKill (Oct 27, 2008)

People are being cheap, afraid to open their wallets, trying to negotiate price, etc.


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## BDB (Jul 9, 2008)

We are busy, If I knew I could get the men, I could have even more work.


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## electricmanscott (Feb 11, 2010)

BuzzKill said:


> People are being cheap, afraid to open their wallets, trying to negotiate price, etc.


Put me into that group.

I just picked up a new car payment. Oh wait, it wasn't a car payment it was actually a $380.00 PER MONTH increase for my health insurance. 

Wallet's closed for the foreseeable future.


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## BuzzKill (Oct 27, 2008)

woah! For yourself, family or company?


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## sparks134 (Jan 30, 2009)

Very, very slow in Chicagoooooo!


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## electricmanscott (Feb 11, 2010)

BuzzKill said:


> woah! For yourself, family or company?


Family. Self employed. Up to $1586.00 per month. 

Work is dead. Asking around the supply house it's the same for everybody.

I have a couple of good jobs going but no fill in work for between the bigger stuff. I might check to see if my phone is working. It certainly is not ringing.


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## BuzzKill (Oct 27, 2008)

that is amazing, that's a house payment.


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

electricmanscott said:


> Put me into that group.
> 
> I just picked up a new car payment. Oh wait, it wasn't a car payment it was actually a $380.00 PER MONTH increase for my health insurance.
> 
> Wallet's closed for the foreseeable future.


The "Chosen One" and his group of merry men on the hill are going to do away with store bought health insurance. :whistling2:

They got some pair of balls raising the premium $380.00


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## PhatElvis (Jan 23, 2009)

4 years ago when I bid work if it was under 500K I might be bidding against 8 other contractors and I could tell you their names. If it were over a million it would be 4 other contractors and I knew them too. 

Today….well I have not bid a job under 500K with less than 30 other contractors and I don’t know any of them, and jobs over a million will have about 10-20 other contractors and I only know about half of them. On top of that the days of only bidding to the three top GCs in town are gone, there might be 20-30+ GCs bidding on one job, so not only do you have to worry about every Tom, ****, and Harry Electric contractor from Oklahoma but you also have to worry about all the GCs getting your number and if they are from Oklahoma too and if they are feeding your number out to the Tom, **** or Harry that followed them here.

Oh and it's not unusual for the same job to bid over and and over and over until you get tired of bidding the same job and just give up.


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## George Stolz (Jan 22, 2009)

electricmanscott said:


> El Sucko


That sums it up nicely, I was going to say it's moving along like a beached jellyfish with a stick in it.



> Family. Self employed. Up to $1586.00 per month.


Dude, that's a house payment and a half for me!


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## chenley (Feb 20, 2007)

Have three bids due this week, other than that just service calls since the beginning of the year. Have been stopping by previous jobs to see how everything has been going and to see if they need anything else done. 

The small industrial shop we do a lot of work for just laid off most of it's men due to sawmills laying people off. no wood, no work for them. They saw it coming and have stockpiled their product to sell though.


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## hiamp (Mar 14, 2010)

*Still slow in Puget Sound*

There are too many unskilled and unlicensed helpers advertising on craigslist. Consumers be careful


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## Charlie K (Aug 14, 2008)

We are busy. A few jobs in the area are finishing up with no place for the men to go. I have a very busy week coming up. We will be hiring in a couple of weeks.


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## miller_elex (Jan 25, 2008)

The contractor I work for is so swamped they offer $500 bonus for anybody I refer who is around after six months, then $1000 bonus for anybody who is still around after one year.

They also want to send people off to school for a week here and there, fully paid, with per diem, if they want to stay on with the contractor permanently.

The controls they pimp is one of the best on the market, no arguments from myself, I've installed several different vendors.

The problem is, it is specialty work, very unforgiving of mistakes, and bazillions of details. Very good work for someone with a navy tech background, esp nukes.

The need for manpower is so bad, he had a hard time turning away a convicted child molestor.

All said, its a great shop, they want more salts, just don't want to be signatory. The local doesn't want to do anything hostile either, just put some people to work and show the company its profitible.

Personally, I am all about the end justifies the means and underhanded organizing, but thats not how it rolls anymore, and I follow the command decisions, not act out alone.


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## Charlie K (Aug 14, 2008)

Miller, who's controls do they sell? Right now I am doing a few jobs right now with Micromod (ABB).

Charlie


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## slickvic277 (Feb 5, 2009)

electricmanscott said:


> Family. Self employed. Up to $1586.00 per month.
> 
> Work is dead. Asking around the supply house it's the same for everybody.
> 
> I have a couple of good jobs going but no fill in work for between the bigger stuff. I might check to see if my phone is working. It certainly is not ringing.



Health care is all fine and dandy,we don't need to change a thing


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## slickvic277 (Feb 5, 2009)

PhatElvis said:


> 4 years ago when I bid work if it was under 500K I might be bidding against 8 other contractors and I could tell you their names. If it were over a million it would be 4 other contractors and I knew them too.
> 
> Today….well I have not bid a job under 500K with less than 30 other contractors and I don’t know any of them, and jobs over a million will have about 10-20 other contractors and I only know about half of them. On top of that the days of only bidding to the three top GCs in town are gone, there might be 20-30+ GCs bidding on one job, so not only do you have to worry about every Tom, ****, and Harry Electric contractor from Oklahoma but you also have to worry about all the GCs getting your number and if they are from Oklahoma too and if they are feeding your number out to the Tom, **** or Harry that followed them here.
> 
> Oh and it's not unusual for the same job to bid over and and over and over until you get tired of bidding the same job and just give up.



This seems to be going on EVERYWHERE.


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## brother (Nov 25, 2008)

miller_elex said:


> The contractor I work for is so swamped they offer $500 bonus for anybody I refer who is around after six months, then $1000 bonus for anybody who is still around after one year.
> 
> They also want to send people off to school for a week here and there, fully paid, with per diem, if they want to stay on with the contractor permanently.
> 
> ...


 What company is that and type of 'control' work. Im not a child molester etc.. and no criminal history at all.  ok, maybe a speeding a ticket 5 years ago.


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## Shockdoc (Mar 4, 2010)

sparks134 said:


> Very, very slow in Chicagoooooo!


It's been slow.steady on LonG Island, gotta drop prices sometimes, gotta a deli to rough in, customer supplying MC cable. this is the second full week I've scheduled except for everything is based upon smaller scaled jobs. Good luck out there!


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## PhatElvis (Jan 23, 2009)

slickvic277 said:


> This seems to be going on EVERYWHERE.


The OP asked the question...I answered.

The problem we have here is the misconception that Texas has work. Our idiot Governor got on TV and bragged the we were not feeling the recession and had lots of work, all in an effort to make himself look good. Now we have jokers from all over the country coming here flooding what little market we had, and even the local has been telling their members that Texas has lots of work.

We don't have jack, and I cant even buy a job right now.


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## hiamp (Mar 14, 2010)

We have Governor problems in Wa. state too. Major taxes on small businesses are killing the already sad economy.


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## Charlie K (Aug 14, 2008)

PhatElvis said:


> The OP asked the question...I answered.
> 
> The problem we have here is the misconception that Texas has work. Our idiot Governor got on TV and bragged the we were not feeling the recession and had lots of work, all in an effort to make himself look good. Now we have jokers from all over the country coming here flooding what little market we had, and even the local has been telling their members that Texas has lots of work.
> 
> We don't have jack, and I cant even buy a job right now.


Glad to see you back Elvis. Now about the gov snatch him up and bitchslap him. I know what you mean about everybody and anybody coming to town to get work. We have a lot of BRAC work going on and its not unusual to see 20 generals and 25 electrical contractors bidding. 

Charlie


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## slickvic277 (Feb 5, 2009)

PhatElvis said:


> The OP asked the question...I answered.
> 
> The problem we have here is the misconception that Texas has work. Our idiot Governor got on TV and bragged the we were not feeling the recession and had lots of work, all in an effort to make himself look good. Now we have jokers from all over the country coming here flooding what little market we had, and even the local has been telling their members that Texas has lots of work.
> 
> We don't have jack, and I cant even buy a job right now.


I understand.I was agreeing with your previous post.The same thing is going on here in my neck of the woods.Small jobs less then a million dollars and you see 10,15,20 G.C.'s bidding on the work and they all have a gaggle of subs that want to bid also.Another thing is the majority of the work seems to be government work,Public projects and improvements.

We need more private construction projects for things to really turn around.I think things are going to get worse before they get better.


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## milehiwire (Feb 21, 2010)

slickvic277 said:


> I understand.I was agreeing with your previous post.The same thing is going on here in my neck of the woods.Small jobs less then a million dollars and you see 10,15,20 G.C.'s bidding on the work and they all have a gaggle of subs that want to bid also.Another thing is the majority of the work seems to be government work,Public projects and improvements.
> 
> We need more private construction projects for things to really turn around.I think things are going to get worse before they get better.



Exactly I mean exactly the same way here. Another problem are on-line bid invites. In the "old" days a GC needed to distribute paper plans and now it is just a click of a mouse to post plans on-line and invite all the subs they want to bid. It has added to our overhead cost as well because we need to either buy or print plans at our office.


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## miller_elex (Jan 25, 2008)

hiamp said:


> We have Governor problems in Wa. state too. Major taxes on small businesses are killing the already sad economy.


Are you incorporated or a sole proprietorship?


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## slickvic277 (Feb 5, 2009)

milehiwire said:


> Exactly I mean exactly the same way here. Another problem are on-line bid invites. In the "old" days a GC needed to distribute paper plans and now it is just a click of a mouse to post plans on-line and invite all the subs they want to bid. It has added to our overhead cost as well because we need to either buy or print plans at our office.



Another thing is the amount of major projects that have been deferred or canceled all together.There's jobs that already had money dumped into them plus the time invested too.I keep hearing that things are getting ready to turn around.I don't see it.Banks aren't lending.People don't want to invest and the states are short on tax dollars.Eventually public projects will dry up,then what?Somethings gotta give.I don't think we've seen the bottom yet.


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## miller_elex (Jan 25, 2008)

P.Elvis ( the pelvis?)

How is your manpower doing?


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## milehiwire (Feb 21, 2010)

slickvic277 said:


> Another thing is the amount of major projects that have been deferred or canceled all together.There's jobs that already had money dumped into them plus the time invested too.I keep hearing that things are getting ready to turn around.I don't see it.Banks aren't lending.People don't want to invest and the states are short on tax dollars.Eventually public projects will dry up,then what?Somethings gotta give.I don't think we've seen the bottom yet.


I drove a couple hours today to walk a job for an internal building demolition. They want to open it up for a better sale opportunity for the building. I was talking to the business owner and building owner. He once had 600 employees and now has less than 20. The taxes are killing him.


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## slickvic277 (Feb 5, 2009)

milehiwire said:


> I drove a couple hours today to walk a job for an internal building demolition. They want to open it up for a better sale opportunity for the building. I was talking to the business owner and building owner. He once had 600 employees and now has less than 20. The taxes are killing him.



A year ago this month we finished a one million square foot office building and it's still empty today.Not one single tenant.Nothing,Nada.

The owners were banking on a tax exemption from the township to get tenants in there.Half the building was already being considered before it was finished.Well the tax exemption fell through and all the potential tenants walked away.I really can't believe the township wouldn't try to get some business in there.But there it sits a brand spanking new multi-million dollar building 100% empty.Crazy.


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## nitro71 (Sep 17, 2009)

hiamp said:


> We have Governor problems in Wa. state too. Major taxes on small businesses are killing the already sad economy.


 
WA has a sales tax and no income tax. Not sure how the governor is killing small business..


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## PhatElvis (Jan 23, 2009)

milehiwire said:


> Exactly I mean exactly the same way here. Another problem are on-line bid invites. In the "old" days a GC needed to distribute paper plans and now it is just a click of a mouse to post plans on-line and invite all the subs they want to bid. It has added to our overhead cost as well because we need to either buy or print plans at our office.


Well I hate to tell you this, but that trend has been going on for 10 years now, only we see lots less of the few paper plans we used to get. My plotter runs almost all day…every day. Even when the market picks back up, you will still be saddled with this.


miller_elex said:


> P.Elvis ( the pelvis?)
> 
> How is your manpower doing?


I am hanging on to about 50 right now, but as things wind down I will thin that out a bit to the core guys. There is a LOT of drama, and BS and other crap I would really rather not to be dealing with right now but I have had to make some really hard choices, like take away extra pay, take away trucks, and bust some guys back down to journeyman, add to that the local is stirring them up too and it’s a bomb waiting to go off.


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## N2wires (Aug 27, 2008)

*Thanx!!*

Hey guys, 
Thanx for all the input I really appreciate it. I was down at the hall today... they sent out about 30 apprentices in about a week so I jumped up about 20 spots since last week. Things may be slowly but surely picking up!:thumbsup:


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