Weddings WWYD???

Most definitely YES!

They did you a solid and even cleaned up. You should offer and if they decline, at least buy them dinner. With two guys, I'd say they gave at least $1000 worth of electrician time.

If that's the case, you may need to let them know you'll need to know their date ASAP.
Otherwise, it would stink if you are already booked on their date.
Like for me, my March & April Saturdays are pretty well booked solid.

If they give you a date, I'd still use signed contracts to "lock the date in".

What Hank said

Sounds like the right thing to do to me also.

I would have done the electrical myself.

Oh, that wasn't the question.

JK

Tim - Good deal and you KNOW the right thing to do! I know they'll be as happy with your work as you and Mary Ann are with theirs!

Ok I'm going to be the "bad guy" here.

Say your house were to catch fire and burn down because of the work the retired electrical engineer did, Do you think his insurance is going to cover it?

Was his work inspected?

Sorry I value my home and family far to much to allow an unlicensed, unbonded, uninsured contractor to work on my biggest investment.

Paul

A Good Trade

Its time for time so thats the best Trade.

DJ PAUL said:

Ok I'm going to be the "bad guy" here.

Say your house were to catch fire and burn down because of the work the retired electrical engineer did, Do you think his insurance is going to cover it?

Was his work inspected?

Sorry I value my home and family far to much to allow an unlicensed, unbonded, uninsured contractor to work on my biggest investment.

Paul

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I love the money I'm saving from asigurare malpraxis down here yorofl:yorofl:yorofl:yorofl:yorofl:

AlbanyAMS said:

Was his work inspected??? By whom, the Electrical police? Seriously? We trust this family 1000%...Paul, he's an Electrical engineer. It's not like he came here one day and said "I only do this part time and for fun" :tribiggrin:

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Well... I had a pool installed 3 years ago. I was supposed to get a licensed contractor to do the work, but as usual, I couldn't find anybody to do the work. My township is supposed to check the work when done. When I couldn't find anybody willing to do the job, I was thrilled when I got a flier in my mailbox from a start up electrician. He had been an electrician for the army for 6 years.

Anyway, he did the work.... and the township never showed up to check the work...until 4 weeks ago, or so... They wanted to know who did the work. I actually did not remember who did it. So the guy who came from my township's code enforcement board gave me a list of 20 companies, and said I MUST have it inspected by one of these companies.

So far, I have called 6 of them. Not one of them has returned a call. I am guessing this is because the zoning guy said that these companies "only" charge $125 to inspect and verify the work quality.

So I called the township guy back. He was PISSED that none of these companies called me back. So, he asked me to tell him which companies I called, so that he could call them, and make sure that one of them comes out.... That was last week.

I still have not heard back from the zoning board guy.... but, in fact, I kindof would call them the "electrical police."

BTW, I think you are doing the right thing. Nice barter.

Here in MN, you can only have licensed electricians do the work or you can do the work yourself. If you hire someone else who isn't licensed you either don't call to have it inspected or you do and say you did it yourself.

My brother is an electrician, he does not have his masters so he cannot do work on his own. He works for other companies or within the elec union.

He helped me upgrade the elec on our old house and when the inspector came, I told him I did it myself. I did help but my brother did the majority. No problem.

After my basement flooded, my wife and I did a total remodel and we did all the work ourselves but didn't have it inspected. I have learned enough working with my brother that I knew what I was doing.

I think giving it to them free is a good idea. However, I would put the normal price on there, and then a credit, so they know how much they are getting for free.

Jeff Romard said:

And Barter is tax free :triwink:

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No it isn't! Sales Tax is still due your City/State. I used to belong to a couple local and National Barter Organizations. You also have to declare it as income.
The Good thing about Bartering is that you can charge Full Price without discounting!

AlbanyAMS said:

My game plan is if they come over for their consultation and we go over things, and they "think" they are paying for it. I'll put a $0$ next to their Total price...

Good??

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I don't know if I would go that route. I might tell them upfront that you want to offer your services. Otherwise it might start off on the wrong foot, they may think "we just did this work for him and now he wants to pitch us his services for our wedding". They may even turn down the consultation.