Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire who needs college, got a quote from an electrician

I use two different electricians depending on the job. On T&M jobs One is $145 and the other is $150 an hour. They are licensed and insured. That’s what it is in NW Montana.

And probably end up working for near minimum wages

I sure am fortunate to have one of my high school best buds as a journeyman wireman. A general contr now. If I need something, I throw some burgers on make some sweet tea.

The wife makes him and his latest haint or bride a wedding cake and he fixes our electrical meltdowns.

I try not to bother him over micky mouse type chit.

I’m getting ready to nuke him with a whole-house generator transfer switch.

That’s probably going to cost me a pork shoulder and some fried green tomatoes.

That's more than a two hour job in any case, but I would be surprised if he gets away with not placing a disconnect at the meter location or using a Meter Main device. Mounting that alone will be around 2 hours if he does it right... then he has to ground it, separate the grounds and neutrals at the panel because it becomes a subpanel when the meter main goes in, and a couple ground rods at the new location or use the existing and install a new ground wire to the new meter location. And don't listen to this aluminum wire nonsense from non-electricians. Aluminum wiring got a bad rap way back when they tried to use it for branch circuits in houses for heaters, receptacles, practically everything.. the ends would break when tightened with a wire nut and leave a loose wire arcing in the wire nut, or the nick from stripping would create a high resistance point that would get hot. It was outlawed for branch circuits soon after that. However, aluminum wire for service conductors and for large branch circuits is still perfectly legal and safe if installed correctly.... and somewhat cheaper than copper most of the time. At the moment there isn't a huge difference between aluminum and copper price-wise....

All in all I would say it is a fair price IMO... and I was an electrician for 40 years before I retired last year. Contractor for 20 of those years...

Absolutely, that sounds very high.

Well you're in the wrong place at least. I had a local electrician install a new weatherhead and breaker box with new line running from the wetherhead to the breaker box and then from the breaker box to the house and the total bill was 1200.00. That was just last year.

Aluminum wire for the main runs is standard procedure. I had the local power company do my new house from the power pole inside to the breaker box. All aluminum. Now the small outlet and such is where aluminum is a no no. Can’t speculate on your bid but there is other electricians to call. Edk

Union journeymen up here are close to 100k per year on the new contract. Pretty good money plus the union pays for most of the schooling and apprenticeship costs. 30 year career worth over 3 million not counting promotion or overtime. Not a bad gig.

Osky

I was referring to the college grads

I think the country needs more youth going into trade schools to learn real skills rather than reading a bunch of books then expecting to get paid good wages .

I didn't know you could still buy aluminum wiring, I thought it was outlawed for residential wiring (it should be).

I can't imagine a worse electrical job than moving the meter box at my house and the power company would have to be involved.

JFC

And this kind of stuff is in part why Big Stick goes off on folks

Electricians, plumbers, automotive mechanics, and HVAC can all find jobs and make good money. Trade school or journeyman is a good start for the average kid out of high school.

Back when Obama was in office, half of the college grads couldn't find jobs. The half that couldn't were liberal arts majors. Engineers, lawyers, business degrees, aquaculture, forestry, teachers, computer programming, could all find jobs. Teaching was the only "liberal arts" degree that could find jobs. In other words, people who actually designed or built things or produced things got jobs. Psycology, and other specialty degrees in liberals arts are useless as far as getting a job and making money.

Most people work in the trade skills anyway, not college graduates. Only 20% of Americans have college degrees. Probably 40% work in the trade industries.

im a journeymen electrician, had a 80% ride for track to university of indiana that i turned down at 18. Worked in a supply house and as a truck driver till 22 when i got in the apprenticeship program. I hate the politics, but im smart enough to make 85/hr total package (20/hr in my retirement with time and a half and double time paid) Im 36, have over 600K in my retirement already and the last few year have been doing 30+%. If you're not gonna get some sort of doctorate or advanced degree, 9/10 people are better off getting into the trades.

You guys who think that aluminum is bad for a main don't know what you're talking about, in typical campfire fashion.

BIL has a drain issue. Plumber walked in. Looked around a bit and quoted $5800 without even getting out a tape measure or putting a camera in the floor. Gave him a story about codes having to be brought up and blah blah blah. I've been a plumber in a past life and its about a 1-2 hour job to fix what he needs. Greed is the order of the day now. Mechanic, electrician, plumber. No one is F ucking honest anymore. If you don't know what your looking at they all take you for a ride

Crook

Gave a bid today to take up 700 sft of ceramic tile and prep floor so their guy can put epoxy down, 1750 dollars. two days work.