Tenant improvement electrical contractor for Puget Sound commercial spaces

What a tenant-improvement electrical bid actually includes

A tenant improvement bid is not “wire the space”. It is a list you read line by line, and the bid missing lines is the one that returns as a change order.

• Demolition of abandoned circuits, fixtures and dead conduit left by the previous tenant
• Panel work: a new distribution panel, or a feeder and subpanel off the house panel, sized from the load calculation
• Branch circuits built from the equipment schedule, one line per piece of equipment
• Lighting: fixture hookup plus the occupancy, daylight and time-switch controls WSEC C405 requires
• Life-safety interfaces: hood shunt trip, fire-alarm relays, exit signs and egress lighting
• Low-voltage rough-in for POS, data, cameras and music where it is in scope
• Temporary power during construction
• The electrical permit, the rough-in inspection and the final inspection
• A legible panel directory and labelled devices at closeout

That last line is not decoration. The next inspector, the next tenant and the next electrician all read the panel directory. On the Federal Way job below it is still handwritten on the wall, photographed mid rough-in with the work open.

Who pays for what: read the work letter, not the drawings

The work letter attached to the lease sets the split, and it usually says less than people assume. Three of its clauses cause most of the arguments.

“Existing panel to remain.” Fine, until the equipment schedule needs twenty circuits and the panel has six spare spaces with no room for a subpanel feeder. Count the spaces and run the load calculation before the lease is signed, not after demolition.

“Landlord’s designated electrical contractor.” Some buildings require it for anything touching the house panel or the fire-alarm system. That is a real limit on who can bid, and it belongs on the first call rather than in week three.

After-hours work. In an occupied building the shutdown to tie into house distribution often has to happen at night or on a Sunday. That is schedule and cost, and it rarely appears on the drawings.

Exposed EMT or MC cable, and when each is used

The Federal Way restaurant used both, for different reasons.

Overhead, the ceiling is dark-painted exposed structure — beams, spiral duct, a red sprinkler line. Nothing hides a cable up there, so the raceway is part of the finish. That work is surface EMT: straight runs, consistent support spacing, offsets that line up, feeding a track rail and round downlights, then painted out with the ceiling. Exposed MC in that position reads as a mistake and damages easily.

Down in the new framed walls, the rough-in is MC cable landing in four-square boxes, each one marked with its circuit before drywall closes it. MC is faster through studs and nobody sees it afterwards. EMT still wins inside a wall where a circuit may need re-pulling later, in damp or wet locations, and anywhere the run is exposed to physical damage.

Neither is a preference. It follows ceiling type, wall construction and what the jurisdiction expects, and it is worth settling before bids go out.

Restaurant and bar: the circuit schedule is the bid

This is the schedule that came off the Federal Way panel — a real kitchen and bar package.

Circuit	Rating	Note
Bar coffee, two circuits	30 A each	Espresso equipment is the load nobody budgets for
Bar dishwasher	20 A
Kitchen dishwasher	240 V	Sized from the nameplate; a booster heater pushes it up
Hood and refrigeration control	120 V
Convection oven	Dedicated
Combi oven	40 A	Usually the largest single cooking load
Cooktop	Dedicated
Microwave	20 A
Water heater	30 A
Pump	20 A
Air conditioning	30 A and 40 A	Two units on this job
Refrigeration	Dedicated
General lighting	120 V	Track and downlights on the exposed ceiling

Every line came off the equipment schedule before anything was pulled. A kitchen is not a square-foot number; it is a list of nameplates.

One item slips between the hood bid and the electrical bid, because each side assumes the other has it: the Type I hood shunt-trip interlock. It is coordinated with the hood and suppression installers, but it lands on the electrical permit and the electrical inspection, so it belongs in the electrical scope from the first bid.

Med spa and salon

Capability, not portfolio — there is no photographed med spa or salon on file yet.

Laser and IPL platforms want dedicated 208–240 V circuits sized from the nameplate on the cut sheet, not from the brochure. Pedicure stations need GFCI protection, with no more than two chairs on a 20 A circuit. A 240 V spa tub typically wants 40–60 A with GFCI protection. Get the equipment list before the walls close; retrofitting a laser circuit through finished millwork costs several times what it costs during rough-in.

Dental and medical suites

Also capability rather than portfolio. Nothing dental or medical has been photographed here.

The pattern is consistent across operatories: two to three dedicated 20 A circuits each, isolated-ground receptacles where the equipment vendor asks for them, and a CBCT imaging unit that typically wants its own 220 V, 30 A circuit. The compressor and vacuum in the mechanical room are commonly three-phase, which decides whether the existing service works or the suite needs a new one.

Office, retail and warehouse

Second-generation office space is mostly lighting, controls and power distribution. WSEC C405 sets lighting power density limits and requires occupancy, daylight and time-switch controls; that control scope is priced into every bid, not sold as an upgrade. Retail adds display and track lighting, a signage circuit, and POS and data rough-in that has to land where the millwork ends up. Warehouse work is the cheapest per square foot and the most sensitive to mounting height.

Who issues the permit, and what the fees look like

The permit is the electrical contractor’s to buy, not the tenant’s and not the builder’s, and WAC 296-46B-901 wants it in hand before anyone starts. The issuing office is decided by the address — Seattle SDCI, Washington L&I, the city itself, or Tacoma Power in Tacoma. The FAQ below names which one applies where.

Where L&I is the authority, its fee schedule effective 2026-07-01 gives the anchors: $100.50 for the first panel of up to five circuits, $8.20 for each additional circuit, $157.60 for a new commercial service of 101–200 A and $303.60 for 201–400 A, and $59.50 for the first sign or outline lighting. Cities and SDCI set their own fees separately. Where a plan review is required, the review queue — not the wiring — sets the start date, so file early.

How long a tenant improvement takes

Stage	Typical duration
Permit, and plan review where required	Days where the permit is issued over the counter; one to three weeks with a review
Demolition, temporary power, panel and feeder	Three to five days
Rough-in: branch circuits, boxes, EMT and MC	One to three weeks on a 2,000–3,000 sq ft space
Rough-in inspection and cover	Set by the inspector’s calendar
Trim: fixtures, devices, controls, panel directory	One to two weeks
Equipment hookup, shunt-trip test, final inspection	Two to five days, once equipment is on site

Equipment delivery and inspection slots move this schedule, and neither is an electrician’s decision.

What is photographed here, and what is not

The gallery is one job: the Federal Way restaurant and bar tenant improvement, May 2026. It is the strongest commercial proof on file, and the only vertical this page can show.

There is no photographed med spa, salon, dental or medical fit-out. Those sections describe work inside the General (01) licence scope, priced by the same equipment-schedule method, but they are capability rather than portfolio.