Alwayslearningelec
Senior Member
- Location
- NJ
- Occupation
- Estimator
How many actually order day to material( boxes, wire, conduit etc.) based of what was carried in the estimate?
Ordering From Estimate
- Thread starter Alwayslearningelec
- Start date
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Journeyman Electrician
From a practical standpoint for the most part you cannot do it. You'll end up with an excess of some material and a shortage of other material. Fixtures, receptacles, plates, panels, transformers are a different story.
Alwayslearningelec
Senior Member
- Location
- NJ
- Occupation
- Estimator
So what are you referring to exactly ...conduit, cable and wire can't be ordered from estimate? Why not? Routings know at bid time different then after coordination in field is what I'm thinking .
Alwayslearningelec
Senior Member
- Location
- NJ
- Occupation
- Estimator
I'm not following you.
Packages (Fixtures, Gear, Generators, etc...) were purchased per the estimate. Conduit, boxes, wire, miscellaneous.... I would start off buying in the neighborhood of 80% of what the estimate showed, this would allow me to put out quantities large enough to get good prices but not over buy as Rob points out.
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Journeyman Electrician
Because the amounts are never correct. Some things are under estimated other are over estimated. Left over material usually goes in the dumpster at the end of the job. If you ordered 85% upfront that might work out with little waste. You don't want to over order $20,000 worth of wire because that will go to the scrap yard.
Alwayslearningelec
Senior Member
- Location
- NJ
- Occupation
- Estimator
Got it.
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Journeyman Electrician
On the last big project that I worked was a new building 62 stories loads of 750 kcmil feeders. This was the first time in my career that I saw the wire pull reels ordered from the estimate. Normally we pull in a True tape which measures the length of the run. Seems that the home office was worried that the foreman on some jobs were padding the wire orders. 20 extra feet on hundreds of runs and he's buying a winter house in the Boca. So anyway they decided that the PM's would order all of the large wire. Well in came the wire and when many of the pulls were done there was 75', 80', 100' extra due to field conditions. Some ended up being short. Didn't work out the way they planned.
I have actually purchased large feeder/service wire by copper weight when we knew a copper price surge was coming. I put the wire estimated weight numbers (once again about 80% of the estimate) out for bid early in the project and told my suppliers that the actual order (sizes and accurate lengths) would be forth coming, this way the wire manufacturer that won the bid could purchase the copper now.