ironspider
Member
Greetings all,
The wife and I just bought a new house and during the electrical inspection the inspector noticed that something was not correct in the way the barn (detached about 75 feet from subpanel to main service panel) was wired. I think he said they had used 3 wire instead of 4 wire and there are no grounding rods at the barn. The current wiring is fed through conduit buried in the ground.
So, after the inspection, we had a couple of local electricians come by and do their estimates on fixes. We had some other fixes in this as well such as an A/C disconnect and a service upgrade to 200AMPS from 100AMPS. Both electricians had that line item (replacing the wiring to the barn and doing the ground rods) at around ~$850. That seems like a lot to me.
So, my question is whether or not I can do this myself. Now I know that any time someone asks a question like that, pros are going to have visions of exploding houses and DIYers running around with flames on their backs but I have done a lot of electrical before in our current house (by a lot I mean that I've run several new circuits and understand the process [not that I am a master electrician or anythign like that!]). Am I missing something here? This is what I *believe* would need to happen:
Purchase materials: (60 AMP sub panel and breaker in main box and conduit already exist) so 75x4 (2 hots, neutral, and ground) = 300ft of #6 THWN @ $0.60ft = $180. 2 grounding rods = $30. Grounding clamps = $6 total ~$215.
Labor: obviously free since I'd be doing it. I know this might be a lot of work but it's still free if I do it myself.
Permits/Inspections: Now I have no idea about this part of it. I assume the township wants to inspect work like this to make sure you aren't going to blow your house/barn up but does that usually cost money? And does obtaining a permit usually cost money? Is a permit even needed, or just an inspection?
I don't know if I'm missing anything there but that seems like my elbow grease could save me around $600.
Am I missing somethign here? Are those higher numbers from the electricians because of the labor to pull that wire and some padding in case they need to dig anything up?
Thanks!
The wife and I just bought a new house and during the electrical inspection the inspector noticed that something was not correct in the way the barn (detached about 75 feet from subpanel to main service panel) was wired. I think he said they had used 3 wire instead of 4 wire and there are no grounding rods at the barn. The current wiring is fed through conduit buried in the ground.
So, after the inspection, we had a couple of local electricians come by and do their estimates on fixes. We had some other fixes in this as well such as an A/C disconnect and a service upgrade to 200AMPS from 100AMPS. Both electricians had that line item (replacing the wiring to the barn and doing the ground rods) at around ~$850. That seems like a lot to me.
So, my question is whether or not I can do this myself. Now I know that any time someone asks a question like that, pros are going to have visions of exploding houses and DIYers running around with flames on their backs but I have done a lot of electrical before in our current house (by a lot I mean that I've run several new circuits and understand the process [not that I am a master electrician or anythign like that!]). Am I missing something here? This is what I *believe* would need to happen:
Purchase materials: (60 AMP sub panel and breaker in main box and conduit already exist) so 75x4 (2 hots, neutral, and ground) = 300ft of #6 THWN @ $0.60ft = $180. 2 grounding rods = $30. Grounding clamps = $6 total ~$215.
Labor: obviously free since I'd be doing it. I know this might be a lot of work but it's still free if I do it myself.
Permits/Inspections: Now I have no idea about this part of it. I assume the township wants to inspect work like this to make sure you aren't going to blow your house/barn up but does that usually cost money? And does obtaining a permit usually cost money? Is a permit even needed, or just an inspection?
I don't know if I'm missing anything there but that seems like my elbow grease could save me around $600.
Am I missing somethign here? Are those higher numbers from the electricians because of the labor to pull that wire and some padding in case they need to dig anything up?
Thanks!