Been having some issues with our contractor - very long delays with no work being done. Now after several weeks of no work they started working again but now there’s another week delay because they say they are waiting to get materials to do the electrical upgrade in the house.
There’s nothing special about the electrical upgrade in this house. We’re not asking for anything unusual or weird. Just replacing the existing knob and tube wiring with up to code stuff. This is something that was in the contract since day 1.
For a typical job, can’t you get most supplies from home depot or lowes or other hardware supply stores? I find it hard to believe it’s taking them a week to get supplies. I’m just trying to figure out if they are lying to me or incompetent.
Hell, i looked on amazon and it looks like you can order electrical panels and what not on there with next day shipping.
Rough in material for a residential electrical project are readily available from a number of suppliers. If there is nothing out of the ordinary involved with your project, there shouldn’t be material delays. Typically the delays come when ready to trim because of special order light fixtures, ceiling fans or devices such as receptacles with a special order color or trim plate.
There are circumstances in which materials can be backordered or instances where a specific job requires a part that can be hard to come by, let’s say you had a meter main combo with a Zinsco breaker and you are replacing a panel inside the house and upgrading to a 200 amp main breaker, a Zinsco breaker can be difficult to find and could take time. However, if there is not a particular reason like this, I feel he may be borrowing from peter to pay paul. If you like I can advise you more thoroughly on your specific situation, feel free to give me a call or shoot us an email. [email protected]
Good luck!
You are correct, everything for basic wiring is readily available at multiple locations. Some contractors delay due having labor allocated to other jobs or waiting for money to purchase materials. Either way, unless there is some unusually odd part (still would only take a week at most) they are most likely stalling for some other reason. sorry for the bad news
The supplies are easiest part of every rewire job. getting into exterior walls very difficult with finished walls remaining, and near impossible if home on concrete foundation and not on gable-end roof line. several other options besides re-wiring to get modern technolgy injected into electrical system via arc fault over-current protection to make all involved sleep worry free after compeletion. note: several other features also to be done to satisfy national code and most all other governing bodies whom hold licensed contractors to high workmanship and ensure safety of public we serve.
All basic lighting supplies are normally in stock at one distributor or another.
We actually have close to 250 vendors we use over the course of any given year.
We have our Prime vendors with whom we spend a lot with every year and then the rest are specialty vendors.
If they can’t get basic materials they may be cut off with their vendors and can’t purchase materials.
With smaller companies this can be an issue and some smaller companies have no accounts at any suppliers!
