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91
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16
Votes
Ashton Astillero
  • Vendor
  • Hammond, IN
16
Votes |
91
Posts

Would you cut corners here?

Ashton Astillero
  • Vendor
  • Hammond, IN
Posted Jan 22 2015, 08:22

This is going to be a wall of text, but I think it's necessary to lay down proper context.

Not so recently, I took a job for the rehab of a house. I had to wait a little bit since I don't want to put anybody in the hot seat. For context, I've only put together an LLC to work as a contractor full time Less than 3 years ago. You could say I'm rather new to most things though I've paid my way through college as a subcontractor in a rehab crew or make ready's if you would.

In this particular project, the scope of work included upgrading the 16 space panel to a 24 space one. First thing that I got concerned with is that the investor rehabbing doesn't want to upgrade the panel. My electrician is adamant that the 16 space panel won't be able to accommodate the circuits if we were to wire the house properly. I went ahead and took some off of the profit that I was going to make and paid my electrician to do the upgrade. Since I'm trying to foster a relationship with this investor, I was willing to eat up that cost. 

As my electrician did the upgrade, we encountered Romex wires spliced with electric tape behind the walls and hidden in soffits. There were also wires that went through the return air vent. There were 2 receptacles hidden inside a bathroom wall, and one of the bedrooms had a receptacle on the CEILING right at the corner where the wall meets the ceiling. Think about that for a minute. 

Having seen it, I wanted to do a change work order to get them addressed. The investor and his project manager did not want to address it. I was instructed to leave things how they are and that if it worked before for the previous homeowner, it should be fine. 

The electrician and I decided that we can't leave those behind and went ahead to address everything that needs to be done. We ended up rewiring practically the entire house and adding two ground wires. The house is a 4/2 fully furnished basement 2500 sq ft. My electrician wasn't happy, but we do things how we're supposed to do it. I ended up earning less that $2k to GC a 5 week project not including the time to put the contracts and sub contractors together. And all that electrical work for under $3k(?!) including the materials. 

Question is a.) would you just leave the problems unaddressed? b.) how would you have handled the situation? 

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