Question for contractors.

[Chazno]

My wife and I are looking into building a home. Its been a long standing dream of mine to have a house completely wired for audio, video, internet, security, and home automation. The builder we are interested in working with has a rule of not allowing this because of insurance (as told by the subdivision agent). I'm guessing this means contractors insurance..?

I helped my cousin wire his house for A/V last year and know of at least one other house that I could do this year. I'm trying to find out what contractors insurance would run and if it would be worth wile to pick it up for a short period of time. OR if there is any other way around this situation. I haven't signed a contract yet so I can always ask him to change his mind, but I'd like to know my options before that meeting. All advice greatly appreciated.

[Bugeater]

I'm not sure what you're asking, is this because you're wanting to do the wiring on your own instead of having one of his subs doing it?

I'm a contractor and I don't have a problem with clients who want to do part of the work but yes, there are insurance ramifications. You should be willing to have papers drawn up for the exclusions and hold harmless agreements. You should cover the costs of having those papers drawn up. Then you should also be willing to pay any expenses incurred by him to have those papers reviewed by his attorney and reasonable expenses for his own time. You should also be willing to pay for any delays in construction which are caused by your projects.

Bottom line... you may be better off just paying him to do the wiring for you.

[WV]

I just ran all the wires (A/V, Ethernet, Security) on my time before the drywall was installed with no questions asked.

[Chazno]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

I'm not sure what you're asking, is this because you're wanting to do the wiring on your own instead of having one of his subs doing it?

I want to do it myself. The amount of wire I want to put in the place, they would probably charge me 10k. I could do it for a 1/3 of that.

[Demonpenz]

Another Sob story about a guy that can't do his wiring.

[Chazno]

Originally Posted by Phobia

I'm a contractor and I don't have a problem with clients who want to do part of the work but yes, there are insurance ramifications. You should be willing to have papers drawn up for the exclusions and hold harmless agreements. You should cover the costs of having those papers drawn up. Then you should also be willing to pay any expenses incurred by him to have those papers reviewed by his attorney and reasonable expenses for his own time. You should also be willing to pay for any delays in construction which are caused by your projects.

Bottom line... you may be better off just paying him to do the wiring for you.

I have no problem paying for any problems I create or signing an exclusion. Outside the money, my biggest worry is that the wiring would be done by an electrician instead of someone specialized in A/V and networking.

So if I picked up contractors insurance and essentially became a subcontractor, couldn't I get around this that way? This would of course depend on the cost of the insurance. If i could pick up a few more houses, Id love to wire houses as a side job.

[WV]

Here's my question......do you even need to be licensed to install A/V, ethernet, or security system wiring? I'm honestly not sure what type of codes there would be for this type of thing and can't imagine what would need to be inspected if your not tying into the panel box in any way.

I mean when you have a security system installed or A/V equiptment installed there's no inspection or approval, it's just installed.

Originally Posted by Chazno

I have no problem paying for any problems I create or signing an exclusion. Outside the money, my biggest worry is that the wiring would be done by an electrician instead of someone specialized in A/V and networking.

So if I picked up contractors insurance and essentially became a subcontractor, couldn't I get around this that way? This would of course depend on the cost of the insurance. If i could pick up a few more houses, Id love to wire houses as a side job.

You would have to ask him. Your insurance shouldn't be very much at all. Most everything leads to money, dude. He makes money on his sub-contractors which might be the bottom line on the proposed project. You may need to be very direct about how much money he would need to make in order for you to have his blessing to do the wiring yourself.

[WV]

Step 1: check local regulations and figure out if you need to be low voltage licensed to install the stuff you want and if there are existing codes to follow.
If yes then follow your contractors advice.
If no and he still won't let you install it yourself, find a new contractor. Remember he's your contractor, not the other way around.

Originally Posted by WVChiefFan

If no and he still won't let you install it yourself, find a new contractor. Remember he's your contractor, not the other way around.

Sounds like its his neighborhood though. If you're building in a development sometimes contractors have exclusivity.

[WV]

Originally Posted by Phobia

Sounds like its his neighborhood though. If you're building in a development sometimes contractors have exclusivity.

That's true so he could be screwed either way. More than likely you were right with the $ comment.

[Chazno]

Originally Posted by Phobia

Sounds like its his neighborhood though. If you're building in a development sometimes contractors have exclusivity.

Subdivision has approved builders, but you can also bring you're own in for approval. This builder has two of the best model we've seen. We could pick any plan off the internet, but would rather build something a builder has experience building so there would be less surprises.

I figure I have a fair amount of leverage as this would make or break the deal, but I wouldn't mind jumping thru a couple hoops to get it done.