Daughters house has one set of plugs in the front, insufficient for todays use of electrical items. two car garage standard size, electric panel in front of garage, easy access to open area above garage. IE nothing difficult about the install.

They have a golf cart that needs to be charged we used Angi List to get an electrician to quote putting in a drop. Initial idea was two drops each side, 4 plugs each drop.

The main panel is at the front of the garage, they want $2400 to run two 20 circuits, one each side ($1200 a drop, one set of dual plug outlet each side, and $370 each for the second outlet on each side.

If we opt for one 20 install and one single outlet on one side, then chain it to the other on the same 20 with a single outlet, $1800.

Yeah no, so, this is probably something I can run myself, buy the wires, conduit, boxes and plugs at Home Desperate or Lowes. I installed the 220 connection for the generator to feed my panel.

We did this in our 3 and 1/2 garage a few years back and it was around $500 to $600 installed for 2 four plug drops with separate 20 circuits each.

That seems insanely high.

Either they have a lot of joists to drill through or some other obstacles to overcome or this is the “fuck off“ price and they don’t want to be bothered with this job.

This is why many folks (average folks, that is) will be surprised after they buy that shiny plug-in electric car and discover they have a 100-amp completely full panel and will need to upgrade the entire kit and kabootle to a 200 amp with 30 or 40 slots to allow a 220 line to their garage.

Seems high to me as well. I won't go into the details job costs I've had only to say they where substantially lower than your quotes. Licensed electrician, working for a reputable company which did workman job with good clean up and attention to detail.

I'd venture a guess and say thats about 3 times a fair price

quote:

Originally posted by Rinehart:
This is why many folks (average folks, that is) will be surprised after they buy that shiny plug-in electric car and discover they have a 100-amp completely full panel and will need to upgrade the entire kit and kabootle to a 200 amp with 30 or 40 slots to allow a 220 line to their garage.

Agree, however this panel has plenty of room and we're talking 110. This was a Mr. Sparky referred off Angi.

Lucky the guy next door is remodeling a rental to sell, he gave us his card and said he'd be much less expensive, probably take him up on it.

For Mr. Sparky money I can fly my nephew who has a electricians company, his wife down, do the work, buy the bits and feed him wings beer, pizza and a day at disney for less..

I was just about to say that price sounds like a Mr. Sparky price. They’ve been ripping people off for years. They wanted to charge a customer of mine $7500 for a panel changeout about 10 years ago. I did it for a fraction of that.

Mary wanted to update her 30 y.o. master bath.

She got 7 estimates at a cost of $175.00.

She ended up choosing the correct fella.

He took five days longer than the others because he worked alone.
He came in under the quoted cost.
He was not the least expensive,
But he was $4,600.00 less than the most expensive.

She liked his work so much she had him do another $3,500 worth of improvments

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
She got 7 estimates at a cost of $175.00.

I'm no expert, but I've been around or directly involved in a decent amount of the usual homeowner contracting for repairs/remodels, including stuff like electrical, plumbing, painting, landscaping, tiling, roofing, flooring, custom cabinets, etc.

But I've never dealt with or even heard of a contractor who would require payment for an estimate, and I suspect most clients these days would not be willing to fork over any money for just an estimate.

Perhaps some unscrupulous contractors decided they could fleece little old Mary out of a bit of extra cash by insisting she pay for estimates?

Sounds like that estimate for the electrical work was way overcharge with everybody in the contact chain getting their cut of the money... as for someone doing the work should be certified/bonded/licsened/insured/etc due to fact that if something happens due to improper work that the insurance company denial of coverage........... drill sgt.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
The main panel is at the front of the garage, they want $2400 to run two 20 circuits, one each side ($1200 a drop, one set of dual plug outlet each side, and $370 each for the second outlet on each side.

Damn, I really ripped myself off. I installed a 20 amp breaker and run from the back of a friend's garage (where the panel was), up through the attic to one side of the front of the garage where I installed a two gang box and two receptacles. All for the grand total of $400. If people are getting $1,800 for that type of work, I need to re-think what I'm spending my spare time doing.

Another friend had an electrician out to install a ~25 foot run of 220v to a new oven/microwave combo unit she bought. Double pole breaker was already in the main box so no need to add anything there. Electrician charged her $1,100 for that install.

I think all of this is due to all the new Florida homeowners, and electricians (and other trades) having way too much work right now.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
we used Angi List to get an electrician to quote putting in a drop. Initial idea was two drops each side, 4 plugs each drop.

The main panel is at the front of the garage, they want $2400 to run two 20 circuits

Yeah, I'd want to get another estimate before jumping on this...

It does sound high...
We try to get at least 3 estimates for any job. Sometimes that's harder than it sounds, especially these days.
We had to remove some Ash tree's - 4 total with one very close to the house. We got three bids, first guy wanted 10k, second guy wanted $3200, third guy wanted $1750 which included stump grinding.
The guy who bid 10K had a really nice jacked up F-250 and appeared to have no problem bidding that amount. So it seems like he has no trouble getting people to pay that much.

Mary's a widow now but early on she and her husband built two dozen homes ,here in tiny town.

The people that charged for estimates were coming from 45 miles away.

The locals here are booked 13 months out , and her little ole bathroom was way low on their list

When I bought my house I discovered there was only one outlet in the garage. I went down to the hardware store and bought some conduit, wire, plugs and boxes. About $100 and an afternoon's work and I had six outlets.

The local market is critical as far as price. You would pay at least that much here, but all the tradesmen are booked solid and actually trying to shed work because they can't find staff.

Get another quote.
Never base on a single quote.
Talk to them and ask them to justify the price.

Does the electrician pull any requisite permits with city and county (as required)?

I recently had to replace my meter main. I was expecting 1500.00 It came to 3000.00. I paid it. Wasn't happy about it but it was my fault for hiring a friend without getting a formal bid. Lesson learned.

Does that include permits?

I would get more quotes. How busy are electrical contractors in your area?

This guy might not want the job and figured he would bid it high so he didn’t get it and if he did great.

He might also just be trying to get as much as he can.

Get more quotes and go from there. Ask about permits. Also just because he gave you a price doesn’t mean there is no room to negotiate. Some contractors don’t but with a price so high he may expect it.