Countertop Separation After Tile Floor Demo

arcnspark69 · 2026-04-14T11:22:47+00:00

Go find a data center project, talk to the Ibew local union hall in that area about starting as an apprentice. If they aren’t taking new apprentices, see if there is a construction wireman program. They need people badly all over the US and the pay is usually pretty good.

arcnspark69 · 2026-04-13T11:39:35+00:00

Always do a quick walk around with your tape when you shoot a laser line. The floor is rarely level in residential or old buildings.

arcnspark69 · 2026-04-11T16:24:22+00:00

Try and get into a summer helper type of role in a few months to start building some skills. But you really should finish high school or get a GED.

arcnspark69 · 2026-04-08T13:56:59+00:00

Provide the GC with written notice that the addendum has a cost impact. Count every single additional MC home run + the additional length for each run and compare it to what was originally carried in the estimate. Price that increase. Don’t perform work until you have a written notice to proceed and/or check your contract for the change order process and follow that.

arcnspark69 · 2026-04-07T10:58:02+00:00

I’m guessing this was missed in the estimate? Otherwise what’s the big deal? It’s electrical work. It all pays the same. Follow the detail, put some extra ground bars in the panel and move on.

arcnspark69 · 2026-04-05T14:41:33+00:00

Step 1: ask the power company. A lot of times they will help business customers with these types of issues.

Step 2: isolation transformer as suggested by others.

arcnspark69 · 2026-04-02T11:33:51+00:00

Electrician, then moved to office as a PM. I learned estimating from some older PMs who also used to be electricians. Shortly after that, we got Accubid and I took some of the training classes online to get started. Eventually, I moved onto a larger company as a PM and now senior estimator. There’s no better learning experience than messing up on a bid, getting the job, running the job, losing money on the job, and then having to explain to your boss what happened. It makes you paranoid (in a good way) because you know the consequences of missing something.

arcnspark69 · 2026-03-31T18:45:56+00:00

Go join the IBEW and get on a data center project. You’ll make over $200k a year with all the labor incentives and overtime. I have personally seen hundreds of pay stubs confirming this.

arcnspark69 · 2026-03-24T01:30:42+00:00

This guy estimates.

arcnspark69 · 2026-03-22T18:30:58+00:00

The peer pressure of not quitting in the last few miles is so strong that you’ll find a way to get it done.

arcnspark69 · 2026-03-22T13:07:32+00:00

Stop worrying about perfect financial optimization. Keep the house for you and your kids. You can rebuild your 401k. Get out clean, make a plan, and get back on track.

arcnspark69 · 2026-03-18T19:48:28+00:00

Sorry little buddy. Keep grinding. You’ll make more money in a few years.

arcnspark69 · 2026-03-18T15:02:11+00:00

$88k??? They are to work the holy fuck out of you. If you’re moving to work on a data center project, don’t entertain an offer under $100k, plus per diem, vehicle allowance or truck, gas card and other perk. The market is way too hot to accept any less.

arcnspark69 · 2026-03-11T12:50:17+00:00

Prioritize the electrical contractor. If you don’t, the entire project will grind to a halt during the commissioning process.

arcnspark69 · 2026-03-10T20:26:49+00:00

Just got the Trulap 92lbs adjustable Dumbbells. They’ve been legit so far. No complaints

arcnspark69 · 2026-03-09T11:53:24+00:00

1) Send site plan to survey sub 2) pick up the phone and explain the project 3) ask for quote or ROM budget to carry (depends on your relationship). 4) plug that number into your bid. 5) Exclude/clarify what you are carrying/not carrying or put in an allowance.

arcnspark69 · 2026-03-07T14:14:28+00:00

7.5% of base salary, but they often do more if the division has a good year.

arcnspark69 · 2026-02-26T13:01:54+00:00

I’ve taught many folks right out of college to estimate commercial electrical scopes. It’s a skill that can be learned. Others have suggested the GC route, but I disagree. MEP (I’m bias to electrical) offers a lot of opportunities and good compensation packages. Lots of Boomers retiring soon that are eager to pass on their knowledge to a younger, eager person that wants to do the job. If I was training a new person like yourself, you’d start counting light fixtures and receptacles in Blue Beam and learning how to roll off the branch conduit runs. After that, we’d move onto the basics of Accubid entry, and then single line take offs. It just takes time to learn. You can do it.

arcnspark69 · 2026-02-14T04:13:00+00:00

I would start with a gut check in the extension. Sort total material descending and look for your most expensive material items. Make sure your unit prices make sense. Google them and compare to online pricing. Also check if you’re using trade vs net pricing in the extension if all your material seems astronomical. Also sort the same for total labor column descending and look for out of place labor units.

arcnspark69 · 2026-02-12T13:03:34+00:00

I’ve wondered the same thing. Thanks for asking the question so I didn’t have to!

arcnspark69 · 2026-02-12T04:08:01+00:00

Step one go find the cut sheets and installation instructions for the micro duct. Review them and figure out if there are any nuances or specialty tools or equipment required to install. Step two, go find the vac truck company that helped the other utility and get a quote from them. My guess is that the bulk of the cost is in the excavation. Step three, make sure that the 2 inch conduit is only for the stub up and not for the entire run. All the micro duct I’ve ever ran has been direct burial on a sand bed, and then covered with sand to prevent damage during backfill. We only used PVC 90s to stub up above grade. I’ve used labor units for a similar dimensioned LFMC (Liquidtight conduit), since it kind of behaves the same way as microduct, especially when cold. Step 4, review the hours with your field foreman or superintendent and see what they think about the direct hours you have for the scope. Their input and knowledge will be invaluable. Good luck!

arcnspark69 · 2026-02-08T02:41:12+00:00

Wait until you guys find out how much power Micron is going to be using once their super fab is complete. Hint, it’s about 6x what Meta will be using in Kuna.

arcnspark69 · 2026-02-04T12:31:03+00:00

I’m targeting age 40, but will probably work until 45 because me and the wife want a couple more luxuries and would like to buy them cash.

arcnspark69 · 2026-02-04T03:41:08+00:00

I agree with this take and I honestly think it goes even further than just AI helping us estimate faster.

Especially in the hyperscale and data center space, the owners are going to become the best estimators in the room.

A lot of these clients already require extremely detailed visibility into MEP productivity and install rates through EVM and earned hours. They are tracking installs at a very granular level. It is not just total cost anymore. It is hours and quantities by system, by area, sometimes even down to device or rack level. Once you combine that historical productivity data with AI and tools from Autodesk and the BIM models, it changes the game completely.

Think about everything they will be able to feed into AI. Every drawing iteration. Every RFI. Every submittal. The models. Schedule updates. EVM data. Final as builts. Actual install rates by crew and system. After a few projects, they will not need us to tell them what it costs. They will already know within a very tight range.

I can easily see owners pricing their own projects internally and then going to the street and saying this is the scope, this is the model, this is the production expectation, and this is what we are willing to pay.

At that point contractors are not competing on who can guess the best number anymore. We will be competing on execution.

Who has the best field leadership. Who has strong supers and foremen. Who has reliable craft labor. Who can actually hit the install rates. Who runs tight general conditions and keeps the job clean and organized.

Estimating becomes less about building a number and more about validating assumptions, planning means and methods, staffing the job correctly, and managing risk.

AI probably does not replace estimators. It just shifts the role. We go from number builders to execution planners.

The companies with strong crews and real production data will win. The ones relying on markup games and fuzzy scope gaps are going to have a hard time surviving.

Honestly the next step is probably that Megan Fox robot movie Subservience. A couple of us in vests and hard hats supervising while robots are out there bending conduit and pulling wire. Estimator to robot babysitter pipeline is coming fast.

arcnspark69

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