Remember Me, Mr. Sticker Shock and I Asked For Help

[Modifieddriver]

Remember Me, I Asked For Help? Price Quoted, I'm In Sticker Shock

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My previous thread was getting real long and topic was drifting. So, here I am again. I have selected an electrician, #4 from previous thread. Here we go on what I hope will be a productive journey into the world of electrons.



Well, electrician #4 came today.

As I mentioned before, we're going to do this job steps at a time.

Step #1:

Mount new meter base and install breaker panel in shop #1 with an electrical outlet. DONE

I called for an inspection today and hope to get that done Wednesday. DONE

After that we'll have the power company hook up to the meter.

So, we're starting the process.

I'll start hanging the lights in Shop #2 after the inspector leaves us alone.

 

[Modifieddriver]

Inspection for final electrical completed today.

Duke Energy Co. is now authorized to hook up power to Shop #1.

 

[Zeke]

Well, thanks for an update and glad things are going well. 12K did seems outrages for your first bid.

But what I really wanted to say is that I'm sorry you bailed on the original thread. Yes, it drifted and I was a part of that. It's called entertainment. You asked a few questions and got a few answers. There isn't a lot to read concerning your 2 buildings and the wiring. Especially with no pics.

So, the commentary begins about how contractors work and how one or 2 wanted to go to work on you. I thought (and think) the other thread was good.

Now, I've gone and posted OT on this one. I guess you'll forgive me.

 

[Modifieddriver]

Well, thanks for an update and glad things are going well. 12K did seems outrages for your first bid.

But what I really wanted to say is that I'm sorry you bailed on the original thread. Yes, it drifted and I was a part of that. It's called entertainment. You asked a few questions and got a few answers. There isn't a lot to read concerning your 2 buildings and the wiring. Especially with no pics.

So, the commentary begins about how contractors work and how one or 2 wanted to go to work on you. I thought (and think) the other thread was good.

Now, I've gone and posted OT on this one. I guess you'll forgive me.

Zeke,

Looking back, initially the topic didn't drift too far away from my sticker shock. But it was getting way long and became a discussion of contractor billing and small business.

I have some progress pics here that I'll post later. AND that's the main ingredient, progress.

 

[Modifieddriver]

Here we go, a project update.

I'll have to take some pics of the meter base and Shop #1 breaker panel, but that's been installed and signed of by the inspector.

Duke Energy engineer came by Thursday afternoon. Said they'll be out here within a week to hook power to the meter base.

Meanwhile, I captured a helper and we installed 24 light fixtures Friday. All these but one, are Lithonia IBZ 654 high bay with 54HO 4100 bulbs and dual ballasts.

We made a drilling template for mounting hole location on the truss connectors. Pilot drilled the 2 x 6. Each fixture is held with three rubber washered 2" long wood/metal siding screws.

My helper stayed on the roll around scaffolding and I passed him the fixtures.

I unboxed each fixture. All of them already had the bulbs installed. Then I removed the ballast cover, taped the bulbs in place and installed the mounting screws to make sure the screws didn't touch any wires.

I passed the fixture to my helper, he indexed the installed screws to the pre-drilled holes and then tightened them in place.

I pushed the scaffold, with him on it, to the next work location.

We lost two bulbs in the first three fixture installations. The masking tape cured that problem.

We put up 18 fixtures in my 2,400 sq. ft. shop section. One fixture has four bulbs, the other 17 are six. I didn't see a need for a six bulb fixture where the bathroom enclosure is.

Then we removed the top of the scaffold and moved it into 800 sq. ft. building section. Put it back together and installed six more six bulb fixtures.

Once we established a procedure, we had this all done in about 4 1/2 hours, including a couple of breaks. I paid my helper for six hours work.

Pics of installation and stack of empty boxes means progress.

The $12,200 quote, with me supplying everything you see here, is in the rear view mirror. How do you say? They can get bent!!

 

[Modifieddriver]

Here's the pics of the new meter base on Shop #1 and the breaker panel inside.

Power company said I had to uncover anything near where the power would run to the building. So, I did what they told me to do.

The row of flags is where they'll place the cable.

If I knew I had to do this, I never would've filled the plumbing trench in.