Troubadour Electric

Luke & I talked by phone & he hired Troubadour Electric to install a dedicated 120v, 20 amp circuit from the panel to the tread mill location. During this conversation he never asked what we charge or brought up money at all.

When we arrived at his home I noticed it was a very nice & architecturally busy with different ceiling heights & steep hipped roof. The electric panel is located in the garage on the outside wall. We opened the panel & there were no chases provided to the attic. We tried for a while to find a way to push a fish tape up to the attic from the panel but it was no use. I went & got Holly to show her what we were dealing with. I explained in front of my helper that we were not able to fish a wire up into the attic from the panel because there is no chase. But, I recommended that we cut a pop in box above the panel giving us access inside the wall so we can fish the wire into the attic & save time. Then you set the pop in box & trim it with a white plastic plate matching the other devices. Later if you want to add more you have a chase because you simply remove the plate & the box & you have your chase. She liked the idea & agreed for us to proceed. I marked the box outline on the wall above the panel & used my cordless with a 1" paddle bit to drill the corners out so I could insert my hand held sheetrock saw & finish trimming the sheetrock so the box would fit. However, when I drilled the fist hole, the bit went through the sheetrock & hit wood. When that happened the wall opened up with a 10" crack. We hit a wall patch from the last owner that wanted to add electric & cut the sheetrock to do so, then patched it.

I went and got Holly & showed her the wall. She saw what had happened & said she would let her husband know. We did install the box & plate a little higher to give them a future chase to the attic. We fished the wire through the attic to the wall for the machine. We dropped wire down the wall, cut in a receptacle box just like the one we installed above the panel & trimmed it with a duplex receptacle & plate.

We cleaned up the area & closed the electrical panel & I walk the job to see if anything is not complete. I noticed some marks on the wall that did not get covered by the receptacle plate at the tread mill. I asked Holly if I could show her one more thing & showed her the marks. She said whoever fixed the garage wall would touch that up. Home owners usually have touch up paint & I could have done it then.

My helper finished cleaning up & I went to the truck & wrote up the invoice #XXXXXX $332.50 ( 3.5 hrs. 2 men @ $95.00/hr ) + $124.50 = $457.00. I gave the invoice to Holly. She said she needed to call her husband & did. After a while she brought the phone to me & said her husband wanted to talk to me. I took the phone & greeted him. He then told me that Home Advisor told him this would not cost more than $175.00. I said I'm sorry but we have worked hard for 3.5 hours & with material that is what it came to. Reluctantly he had his wife write us a check & we left.

A few days later he sent me some pictures of the receptacle we installed for the tread mill & pics of the garage wall above the panel. Then I got a call from him. He said that we had not installed the receptacle to code & we had caused a fire in his wall. By the pics he sent me, there was a small flash mark on the wall next to the plate that I saw that is caused by a grd wire getting to close to the hot wire when it is being made up & pushed back into the wall & trimmed. It did not trip the breaker because it was not a direct short. I asked him what would be a good day & time to come back & correct all that is wrong. He said, " I don't want you in my house " & hung up the phone.

Thanks,
Allan ***
Troubadour Electric, LLC
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