6 ms·
> $40-60k for an electrician to wire the house. Think I'm in the wrong profession, what on earth does a Californian electrician make per year? At that rate I'd
by virtualwhys 5y ago
> $40-60k for an electrician to wire the house.
Think I'm in the wrong profession, what on earth does a Californian electrician make per year? At that rate I'd guess 500K+
- giantg2 5y agoMany of the trades can make good money. Especially in areas that forbid owners to work on their own homes, even to replace an existing water heater (like NYC).
- vasco 5y agoHow would they know?
- tehlike 5y agoThey don't, but the moment you need real permits or need to refi etc they might ask for and enforce permits.
- gorbachev 5y agoTry buying or selling a house with unlicensed "modifications". It's an interesting exercise.
- giantg2 5y agoVery true. Depending on the modifications (like electrical), insurance could deny claims if they find unapproved/unpermitted work, even if it wasn't the cause, or the cause was unknown (depends on the policy).
- sokoloff 5y agoAround here, if you don’t want to buy a house with un-permitted work, it’s no problem; there’s another buyer standing right behind you (often literally) who will.
- tehlike 5y agoThis is true but like i said when you need real permit etc this becomes tricky.
- giantg2 5y agoWell, I think NYC made it law that hardware stores can only sell hot water heaters to licensed contractors. Not sure what other restrictions there are.
- hedora 5y agoIt takes an absurd number of hours to wire a house in California because the code is insane. That multiplies with high labor costs. Wiring a simple / small home, it takes well over four electrician months, minimum. Also, they have to pay licensing fees to the state, insurance premiums, etc, etc. Of course, the $40-60K also includes materials, which are a small percentage of the cost, but non-zero.
- catmanjan 5y agoThis is very surprising, in Australia I understand we have strict codes and I have never heard of it taking this long What exactly does the electrician spend all that time doing in California?
- antattack 5y agoSome state codes require use of galvanized steel piping (called EMT) for electrical conduit.
- Schroedingersat 5y agoOn an unclad, sanely sized house that's still like two days for the apprentice to install and pull cable, tops. $200 for the poor sod doing the work, $80p for his boss, and $2k for the company is still nowhere near 2 electrician months of labour.
- CapitalistCartr 5y agoEvery state requires pipe in many places, industrial, most commercial, large multi-unit buldings. The only place in the USA that I know requires pipe in resi is Chicago.
- pkaye 5y agoPersonally I think they are exaggerating how long the actual work takes. However trades are in high demand due to significant remodels and commercial construction so it might long time to find someone.
- 5y ago
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- spaetzleesser 5y agoNot the electrician. The company owner.
- sgc 5y agoAround here they make about $150 an hour if they are contractors and work for themselves. So I would guess 80-100 for an electrician with 5+ years experience. About the same as most other semi-specialized trades.
- icelancer 5y ago$150/hour for a reliable and qualified electrician is a hell of a deal.