Nate’s longterm tiny shop build

[N-Smooth]

Story time: the two apple pie in the sky estimates from general contractors had the stucco line item at $6600 and $6750 (shockingly close, I know) but obviously I didn’t go with them. I reached out to the highest one- because they’re literally an exterior company- to see if they’re interested in doing just the stucco and if their quote holds up. They replied back and said they’d sub out a job this small so I’m on my own. Cooool. The other one hasn’t replied.

So I posted on FB to have local friends refer me to someone for it. A dude that competes at DCRC replied and said that’s what he does and to text him. So I did and he came out with another guy yesterday to give me an estimate. I got kind of a weird vibe from him, as he said he “runs a stucco crew” but then the guy he was here with was clearly in charge. I also can’t help feeling like I’m a “mark” for people to try and take advantage of because I’m nice and love chatting with people. I also say this at the risk of sounding like a real tool but our house is nice, our yard is really coming along, we drive newer vehicles etc so I feel like to some we might seem wealthy. Please don’t judge me. Anyhow, he sent it to me today and it’s $10,180.50!!!! So something seems off.

Another friend referred me to a guy and he’s coming to give me an estimate today or tomorrow. At this rate I’ll get a bunch of them if I can because it’s frustrating. I need your sympathy, guys 🤣

 

[N-Smooth]

But wait, there’s more! A good, long-time friend of mine mentioned that his FIL and BIL are sparkies and just did the electrical for his new shop. So I told him to hook me up. They came the other day and we talked over all my requirements. I told them I’d love to just have them do from the house to the shop and install the box and they said I’d be hard-pressed to find a sparky that’ll agree to that. Maybe that’s true, maybe they’re blowing smoke…? Anyways, it ended up being a bunch of thick wire runs for 220 stuff and like 20something outlets. He said he’d send me the details and a number. So the FIL called me today and said $4700. I said oh cool, are you guys going to send me a written estimate? Cause I’d love that. He seemed a little shocked at that which bugs me. It’s just better for both of us to have it in writing and have expectations set. I also have no idea if that’s a good price. It seems spendy but I’ll be damned if everything for this shop isn’t expensive at this point. The part that bugs me is I’m normally a “most people are generally good” kind of guy but lately it’s hard to not feel like people are trying to take advantage of me, like I mentioned in the reply above.

Again, gimme that good sympathy…

 

[jeeper]

I’m sorry you are going through such a hard time. You’ll get through this. We support you.




I think 10 bids is better than 2. I always get at least 5.

 

[1969honda]

Buy this book, wire it yourself.

Amazon.com

I upgraded my house main panel and created a couple 100 AMP breakers to feed the existing 100 Amp in the basement for the house and a new 100 AMP subpanel in the garage. I then applied the tables and ran additional outlets for a welder, compresser and extras to be more portable in the garage. It was fairly simple work, just took time. I don't even want to know what a sparky would have charged.

 

[N-Smooth]

I’m sorry you are going through such a hard time. You’ll get through this. We support you.




I think 10 bids is better than 2. I always get at least 5.

I knew I could count on you! Really though, it’s weird for me to be doing this stuff and the counsel of the wise members of RME is valuable!

 

[N-Smooth]

Buy this book, wire it yourself.

Amazon.com

I upgraded my house main panel and created a couple 100 AMP breakers to feed the existing 100 Amp in the basement for the house and a new 100 AMP subpanel in the garage. I then applied the tables and ran additional outlets for a welder, compresser and extras to be more portable in the garage. It was fairly simple work, just took time. I don't even want to know what a sparky would have charged.

It’s been tempting. The hard part is that if I want the whole project to get done, everything is waiting on something else. I wasn’t sure what to expect cost-wise and need to bounce it off a couple sparky acquaintances I have.

 

[jeeper]

@glockman has a sparky. I’ve got a bil that’s a sparky. There are plenty out there. Don’t accept being bothered by one.


Truth is, for $4,700, I’ll come wire it.

 

[nnnnnate]

There is no way I’d pay $4700 to put electrical in a garage.

Does the city require anything for their inspection? Like an electrical license? I’d do it for $1000 plus material but I’d don’t actually know what I’m doing. The city will inspect it anyway though so it’d be cool.

 

[N-Smooth]

@glockman has a sparky. I’ve got a bil that’s a sparky. There are plenty out there. Don’t accept being bothered by one.


Truth is, for $4,700, I’ll come wire it.

Yeah he’s on my list if I decide to pursue more estimates. I just texted an old high school friend sparky that was not interested when I last asked him. He said we could do it for less than half that, easily and sounds interested now. So we’ll see.

There is no way I’d pay $4700 to put electrical in a garage.

Does the city require anything for their inspection? Like an electrical license? I’d do it for $1000 plus material but I’d don’t actually know what I’m doing. The city will inspect it anyway though so it’d be cool.

Yeah it’s too much cheddar for sure. All I know is they have a separate inspection for electrical but I don’t know how granular they get with it. I do know that all the inspectors do all of the different inspections, which I found interesting. I asked the guy that did my framing inspection that because he also did one of the foundation/footing inspections. I really should call them and ask if they require a licensed sparky for any of it, like hooking up to the house service.

 

[Herzog]

I had a guy out over a year ago to give me a quote on running a wood stove vent up the side of my house, you know the duravent double wall stuff. He wanted nearly $6k for the job... I waited until off season (spring) to buy the parts and had it done in a weekend once I got everything figured out. I spent roughly $600. Ridiculous.

 

[N-Smooth]

I had a guy out over a year ago to give me a quote on running a wood stove vent up the side of my house, you know the duravent double wall stuff. He wanted nearly $6k for the job... I waited until off season (spring) to buy the parts and had it done in a weekend once I got everything figured out. I spent roughly $600. Ridiculous.

Yeah man, I was just discussing it with my neighbor buddy. On one hand I want to support small businesses- especially hard working people. On the other hand they sometimes, especially lately seem to have too much of a “whatever someone is willing to pay, that’s a fair price” attitude. The line between its just business and taking advantage of people is getting blurred.

 

[I Lean]

My shop was wired by me, with a lot of help/advice from @gijohn40. The inspection went mostly fine, they just made me switch all the 120v circuits to GFCI.

So, what I'm saying is that I don't think you're required to have a licensed electrician. 🙂

 

[N-Smooth]

My shop was wired by me, with a lot of help/advice from @gijohn40. The inspection went mostly fine, they just made me switch all the 120v circuits to GFCI.

So, what I'm saying is that I don't think you're required to have a licensed electrician. 🙂

Thanks for the input, Carlos. That’s good to hear. That’s interesting, making you change all the outlets to GFCI- I would think that’s just exterior…?

 

[Tonkaman]

Roofer showed up this evening and banged out half the roof. I didn’t get any pics cause I was dealing with other stuff.
I got both of the ground rods hammered in. I was going to rent the driver for it and be done in a few minutes but my 54 year old uncle said he did his with a sledge so I felt like a girl. My arms are tired but my pride is intact… I guess.View attachment 171158
Then I started messing with light placement because you know, that’s important and stuff. These lights @Herzog recommended are brighter than my future.
View attachment 171159
I’m thinking I’ll put all 6 in there anyways, no shadows allowed. Maybe 4 in a box pattern (like the first one) and then 1 back middle and 1 front middle. We shall see.

I like to leave my garage door open so I can enjoy the fresh air, and watch my kid run around the yard. Because I keep the door open so often, I hung a couple more lights beneath my garage door. Best idea ever

 

[glockman]

Thanks for the input, Carlos. That’s good to hear. That’s interesting, making you change all the outlets to GFCI- I would think that’s just exterior…?

I got an A in college in wiring and code😜 You have to have GFCIs in a garage. You can use a GFCI for the first outlet on a circuit and the rest of the circuit is protected. It's cheaper than using GFCI breakers.
You have to have a license to connect to the meter or the main disconnect. Anything else you can do yourself. My dad and I wired his entire house when he built it and he paid a journeyman to connect to the main service.
My kid makes good money doing side work which might seem like soaking people but it takes 8k hours to get your journeymans license on top of the schooling. How many people with bachelors degrees work for $25 an hour?
FYI, I told him to not to give you the rich guy in a nice neighborhood price, just the guy with a sugar momma and two buggies price.

 

[1969honda]

I did everything myself and just RMP do the connect and disconnect at the meter base? This was a few years before I started working for them as a mechanic. The inspector only cared to see appropriate wire gauge from the main panel to each sub panel (existing 100 amp and garage 100 amp), correct grounding of the main panel, and that the garage had a GFCI outlet first in any outlet circuits. Worst part of the whole thing was crawling around in the attic in May/June time frame to get everything prepped for the power company. I had them come Friday morning to disconnect, inspector appointment for noon and RMP set to return around 4PM that afternoon so I wasn't out of power all weekend. The only references I used was an older version of the book I linked , that @jpndave shared with me, and blowing up his phone with questions before hand.

It's time consuming for sure, but it's not rocket science if you work thru it one circuit at a time. By no means am I discrediting journeyman electricians, 3 and 4 way switches are voodoo magic to install to code and work properly. only wanting to imply anyone can do anything once....

 

[N-Smooth]

I like to leave my garage door open so I can enjoy the fresh air, and watch my kid run around the yard. Because I keep the door open so often, I hung a couple more lights beneath my garage door. Best idea ever

I love that idea because I always have my door open too. In fact that’s what is making me doubt if I want to build in provisions for a mini-split. I’d have to adapt to a door closed kind of guy to make that work. Either way it makes sense to be prepped for one, I guess.

 

[anderson750]

I’m glad I have a SIL who is a journeyman and my son is finishing his 2nd year of his apprenticeship. They work for a good friend who is a master electrician. The electrical on my garage has been the cheap part.

I have experienced contractors who have given me outrageous bids. I think one of the biggest problems with contractors is that they have more than enough business to keep busy and figure it is not a big deal if they don’t get a small job they are over charging for.

 

[N-Smooth]

I got an A in college in wiring and code😜 You have to have GFCIs in a garage. You can use a GFCI for the first outlet on a circuit and the rest of the circuit is protected. It's cheaper than using GFCI breakers.
You have to have a license to connect to the meter or the main disconnect. Anything else you can do yourself. My dad and I wired his entire house when he built it and he paid a journeyman to connect to the main service.
My kid makes good money doing side work which might seem like soaking people but it takes 8k hours to get your journeymans license on top of the schooling. How many people with bachelors degrees work for $25 an hour?
FYI, I told him to not to give you the rich guy in a nice neighborhood price, just the guy with a sugar momma and two buggies price.

Good to know. My attached 3-car garage legitimately came with 3 outlets in it and yeah, one of them is a GFCI so that makes sense.

The dude that is at least currently interested in helping me works for RMP and said he has another sparky buddy that owes him one that he could get to come help. So we should be able to get it connected with no trouble- I would think.

I definitely have no issue with paying, as mentioned and I really do appreciate skilled trades. I don’t want to come across as the guy who’s like “why do mechanics charge so much for X when it’s such an easy job?” because I understand… but this one seems a little extreme. I guess we’ll see though, if I end up having my buddy help and that works out I’ll keep track of all the costs.

I knew somebody was going to make me pay for the very vulnerable “I look like I’m rich” comment. The sugar mama comment checks out but a ‘93 XJ buggy thing with a Dana 30 and 1/2 of a buggy… kind of a weak basis 🤣🤣🤣

 

[N-Smooth]

I have experienced contractors who have given me outrageous bids. I think one of the biggest problems with contractors is that they have more than enough business to keep busy and figure it is not a big deal if they don’t get a small job they are over charging for.

Good timing for this comment. I just got an estimate back from another stucco referral. The dude came around 6 and checked it out, took some measurements etc.

$10,250. So he’s higher than the one from yesterday. I should’ve been a freakin’ stucco guy.