I’m about to start a 3 month reno, and am in the middle of getting the contract signed. The owner would like me to use an electrician that they know. I already have an electrician that has done some prelimary pricing for me and I was planning to go with. I told them to give me his name and number and I would talk to him. I was sort of caught of gaurd and didn’t know what else to say.
What are some ways that you guys handle when an owner wants you to use one of their subs?
Replies
Assigned subs
Exclude all electrical work from your bid/price. Let owner pick electrical Sub and you just mark up electrical price with your cost to run job.
Exclude the price from the bid...........sounds easy.
The key to most successful remodels is that all runs smoothly to completion. Those of us succeeding and gaining a good reputation set ourselves apart from the rest by not having down time due to delays caused by material or subcontractor delays.
Good subs you can count on are partners in a profitable operation. Whose going to guarantee this homowner supplied pc.?
I've done it when requested a few times and for the most part, it worked out well. I just couldn't rest easy about it until that portion of work was completed.
I should note that it is a time and materials contract
You should also note that their electrician is likely a personal friend of theirs and they're likely afraid that he'll feel affronted if they don't use him.
Apparently, they don't know him personally, but was highly recommended to them by several friends. Not that that makes any differenence.
Look the owner in the eye and say
I've got an excellent electrician, and he's the guy I want to use.
That'll probably be the end of it.
So, if they get to use their choice of electrician, who's a personal friend, and it doesn't go so well or goes way slow, how do you plan to put the squeeze on him? Might be hard to do and would look bad on you in the clients' eyes.
stand by your man
j
Don't do it!
We had a turnkey project for a school. Designed the system, the controls, contracted the controls labor and provided the equipment. We had planned to bid the mechanical work to contractors we know and trust. However, the owner had a service contractor they prefered to be the HVAC system installer. While we paid the bills, the contractor worked for the owners benefit and not ours (as in voluntarily expanding the scope of the project by constantly telling them, oh, we'll take care of that too...) and expected us to just pay them for the "adders". Ultimately it worked out well for the contrator and the owner, we got screwed and looked like money grubbing a-holes (because I demanded the scope stay as bid, or the owner pay for the expanded scope of work. MY (unchosen) subcontractor, acting for his own future interests, took sides against ME with MY customer. It was ugly.