HELP: electrician wanted (hang my Chandelier)
 

I just bought a chandelier for our apartment with concrete ceiling.

for some reason were having a hard time looking for a electrician who is willing to do it for a DECENT price.
we have a quote for $180-$300 (REALLY?) to install the Chandelier.

Installation consist of just pulling the wire from our existing light to our dining table which is about 3-4ft away. Hanging it on the concrete ceiling.

The best quote we got was $100 but the electrician failed to show up yesterday.

Anybody know where I can get a good electrician who can do the work for good price? in RICHMOND?

Thanks

That really doesn't seem expensive to me. I'd charge a minimum of $250 + HST to walk in the door and do some work with no materials included. There probably thinking the same thing, minimum 4 hours as they have to pay someone to drive there, do the work and drive to another job.

The more work that is involved the cheaper it is overall but when you're talking about one little item people have to charge a lot for it because of the time involved of going there and then going to another job after. My guys don't work for free and I have to pay them if not all day at least half a day even if it's 10 minutes work.

If you can find someone who will do it cash under the table you might be able to get a deal but just keep in mind you get what you pay for. That isn't to say you won't find a quality person to do it under the table either but just be cautious. If it's something like small I might actually just call one of our guys and ask him if he wants to do it under the table and give him the persons number and they can work something out on the side. Anyway good luck hope you find someone.

i would think most electricians that would take it on as a side job would have a 2hr min. plus materials. So that would be $120-140ish plus material.

gotta keep in mind after an 8hr work day it's pretty hard to get a guy to drive 30-60min to do 1hr worth of work and then drive another 30-60min to go home. that's almost working for free.

i had a plumber do me a solid by charging me only $100 to fix a 2 min problem.

if the junction boxes are already in place and a box is there for the purpose of a chandelier, are you able to turn off the breaker for that circuit and do the wiring yourself? i'm assuming your 'chandelier' is a dining room one to hang about your dining room for your condo?

ya I was gonna say id do it for you for about 150,

but your in richmond so forget it, not worth my time to drive an hour back and forth

What's charred and crispy and hangs from the ceiling?
Cheap electrician.
:troll:

A shoddy electric job can cost you dearly, get it done right. :)

So what you want is:

-Remove old lighting fixture from junction box
-Install new chandelier onto existing junction box
-Drill hook into concrete ceiling to hang the chandelier over your dining table

Is this correct?

Those prices seem about right. Make sure they do a good job as no want wants a chandelier falling off and swinging about.
If you really want to save money, maybe meet an electrician and make friends with them or marry one. :troll:

i'm thinking if the jb is already in the area and it's a re & re that box would have a notch/hook to support/hang a fixture from it no?

so how much you looking to pay lol

The prices you were quoted don't seem out of the ordinary. Post a wanted ad on Craigslist. There are some certified electricians out there who do work on the side.

be less cheap! a shit job could burn your house down and kill you just so you know.

I had the exact same thing happen with a client of mine..."can you chnage the light in the dining room?"

Then proceeds to haul out some Debbie travis labeled chandelier mofo thing that involved drilling into the concrete ceiling and then sorting out the crystals that went on the thing.

No one ever understands what can go into doing these types of things.

I would say retail price is 300+tax and if you get a price of 200-300, you are in discount land, and anything less than 200, you are in "this guy is learning electrical on the job" land.

My electrician told me that he'd charge 250-300 for the light we put in.

Bingo!

But they always seem to tell you how simple it is.

The sparky probably no showed after he realized he'd barely break doing this for $100.

can you post a pic of the chandelier that you want installed?

also post a picture of where the chandelier is supposed to be installed.

theoretically speaking if box is already in the ceiling and its not something complicated like one of these:

http://www.trendir.com/archives/zumt...chandelier.jpg

and is instead something simple like a one piece chandelier that doesnt require hanging/arranging all the crystals it shouldnt be too bad of a job.


locate the breaker panel in your home and look for the one labelled for the room in which the chandelier is located.

turn the light on for your existing chandelier and have someone stand in the room. shut off the circuit breaker and confirm that the chandelier is not getting any power/electricity (this will be evident when the light goes out in the chandelier even though the light switch is in the "on" position).

put the switch for the chandelier to the "off" position and climb on up with a ladder. the chandelier is "usually" held in with two screws although without seeing any pictures i cant say for certain. sometimes there is a central screw and hook that holds a chain for the chandelier i believe.

remove the screws for the existing chandelier.

there will usually be 3 wires. there is a black wire which is hot, white which is neutral/return and a copper wire connected to a green ground screw.

the wires are usually twisted together and connected using something called a "marette". it will be screwed on so turn the marette counter clock wise to remove it (lefty loosey).

once removed carefully pull the wires apart and remove the chandelier.

inspect the wiring. the wiring coming from the breaker panel will be solid while the wire from the chandelier is usually stranded.

take the new chandelier and connect the wires. the chandeliers will usually come with matching colors. the wires from the chandelier should come with about a 1/4" pre-stripped so twist the stranded wire together until its solid. twist the matching colored wires together (so black to black and white to white, copper wire to green ground screw). twist on a marette clock rise (righty tighty) onto the black (hot) wires and onto the white (neutral/return) wires and then tuck them into the junction box.


attach the chandelier to the junction box with the included hardware.


make sure the light switch is in the "off" position still and go back to your breaker panel and turn the circuit breaker back to on.


head back to the room with the chandelier and turn the light switch for the chandelier to the "on" position.

if you have done everything correctly the chandelier should light up. if you run into any problems refer to the instructions that came with the chandelier (which you should read through before starting this) and check to see if you missed something.






I have to stress that electrical work CAN be dangerous. If you dont feel confident doing it I suggest forking over whatever an electrician charges. Since matlock's an electrician and an RS member maybe you can get him to do it and help support the RS community. :fullofwin:

good explanation but OP needs to run power over from another light, and hang the fixture into a concrete roof. It'd be pretty straight forward if there was already an existing chandelier that he could just replace and use the pre-existing switch.

Or you could just do it ghetto style and have the two lights turn on/off with the same switch lol:fullofwin:

from his OP it seemed like he already had a chandelier and just wanted to replace it with a new one. that is re/re not new install?

edit: nvm.

totally mis-read that.

OP go hire an electrician and get it done right. otherwise you'll have to go get lengths of 14-2 and maybe 14-3 if you wanna do a 3 way switch setup. as well as fish tape to pull wire, etc etc.

not worth the headache of doing it yourself especially if you havent dont it before.

the prices you were quoted seem reasonable now that i realize whats going on.

please, tell us which magic fishtape you use to 'fish' 14/2 though a concrete slab ceiling from a concrete encased slab box to an arbitrary location above OP's dining table. i'd like to get one


jk, i think what op needs is to do is extend the wiring of the chandelier so that he can mount his fixture above the dining table, suspended with something like an S hook and chain or similar....I don't see any other better way of doing this on the cheap.


or OP could just move his god damn table 3-4 feet over....lol

was talkin about for pulling the wire behind the drywall :D