Seeking help on choosing an electrician to rewire house

We got two very conflicting estimates to rewire two floors, about 700 square feet each, in a house we just bought and I’m hoping someone can give me some insight as I’m afraid I’m missing something about the lower estimate. Both are from licensed electricians who would run new BX cable up from the basement and rewire each floor with a new box, and install a sufficient number of outlets, switches, and fixtures. The first estimate was about $7,500 and the second one, from a guy working with my GC, was about $13k. All the walls and ceilings are being taken out and redone after, so there’s no demolition or plastering involved here. Can anyone suggest a reason why one is so much lower, or tell me anything I should ask that could explain the difference?

57spring

in Electricians 13 years and 5 months ago

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radgirl | 12 years and 4 months ago

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hey 57spring would you email me the electrician you ended up going with?  I guess you got this work done about 9 months ago, so do you recommend their work?  If yes, please email me their info, i’m in the market for some electrical work, similar to what you needed. thanks! radgirlyu@gmail.com

57spring | 13 years and 2 months ago

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Hi, a very belated thanks for all the suggestions. We did hire someone and ended up taking the middle estimate. We haven’t had our inspection yet, but all seems copacetic.

theklahy | 13 years and 3 months ago

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I don’t know if you’ve found someone yet, but I would recommend the electrician we used to rewire our brownstone. He charged $17K for the work, when most quoted around 35 and the top quote I got was $45K. He was thorough and worked with us when we changed our project, and didn’t even charge us more for extra outlets and things like that! He also came back after we had the inspection to help rewire a light. I’m recommending him here again because we actually are having problems with our boiler now and trust him more than we trust our plumbers (he used to do boiler installation before he became an electrician) and he is coming over without even charging us! He’s amazing!!!! His name is Sal at LB Electrical 917-627-9903

callalily | 13 years and 5 months ago

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Just make sure whoever you hire is experienced, licensed, and comes recommended from people you know. We used WCK in Bed Stuy, found them terrific, and they were the low bidder. Not that low though.

ejalbk | 13 years and 5 months ago

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Second the above, but $7500 with no demolition or plastering involved sounds reasonable while 13K sounds high.

shahnandersen

in Electricians 13 years and 5 months ago

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Do you have a complete electrical plan with locations of all switches, outlets and fixtures?  Or are they just promising to work to code?  Are the fixtures included in the price?  If so fixture cost can vary greatly.  Also switch and outlet quality can affect costs.  Is the quality (contractor or heavy-duty) of the switches and outlets specified.  Is filing with the buildings department and getting the inspections included in both prices? In the end, it could simply be that one electrician really wants this work, while the other finds a job of this size a PITA and won’t do it without you paying a premium.  Also I would find out what contingencies they are pricing into the work and what extras they would charge you for unforeseen conditions.   If you are still not comfortable, get a third bid.  And one other issue, is the cheaper guy willing to work n your GC’s timetable?