Other trades:- Give us sparkies a break

[littlespark]

I was asked over the phone to come and move an outlet as it was in the way of a new kitchen cabinet. A couple of inches to the left to miss the unit.
"Sure", I said "I'm not busy today. Give me half an hour to get there"
By the time I got there... within the half hour, the kitchen fitter had given up for the day.
This is what I found. Screwed to the wall, and screwed to the unit on the other side. At least the worktop wasn't in place.

Oh... and I did replace this flex outlet with a socket. There is a DP switch above, i'm not cutting moulded plugtops off a brand new dishwasher... Yes, dishwasher. There's still pipes to run BEHIND this cabinet.

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

Still not as bad as a plasterer once deciding to trim the cables that were coming out of the wall for wall lights in a pub! as in his words they were a bit long and preventing him from getting a good smooth finish... dopey ---- cut them back so just about reached the backbox... thankfully we had used conduit and could run new ones by pulling through.

 

[sparkdog]

Qualifications for kitchen fitter: Must not have more than one brain cell and be able to work illogically on own initiative. No knowledge of any regulations electrical or otherwise is required.

 

[Deleted member 9648]

I always dread the call from anywhere saying ' I need a point moved, only a few inches'.
People don't realise that sometimes a few inches may as well be a few metres what with cables too short and keeping to safe zones.

 

[littlespark]

This was just a few inches, up and to the left.
Brick wall, so took some time to cut in a box.
Had to add time for removing the unit though

 

[suffolkspark]

presuming cable came in top left then or its not wired in safe zone anymore?

 

[telectrix]

presuming cable came in top left then or its not wired in safe zone anymore?

kitchen fitter will drill it anyway. safe zone or not.

 

[Fox]

Electrics aside, the cut on the top of that tongue/grooved effect MDF panel is bloody terrible, I've seen straighter winding country lanes

 

[ChrisElectrical88]

Plasterers cutting cables too short they can not be used are top level scum. When I was apprentice the boss used to tell us to take pictures, he provided a camera just for this kind of thing. He would then tell us to just chase it all back out again as messy as we could get away with then absolutely nail the tw@t for the costs. Even if they cut the labelled lighting cables short we would have a before and after pic and nail them.

 

[RWJ]

I've got a backbox with a cables in somewhere on my landing, the plaster decided to fill in a plaster over it!!
Luckily I could access the cables feeding it to remove it from the RM.
Every now and then the missus forgets and tells me it would be handy to have a socket on the landing.

 

[Delboybully]

Plasterers can be right ----s. I get so fed up with them that I liven up cables where I can. They hate it but they are very very careful when they know it's live. If they hit a live cable it ruins their trowels. There is one plasterer who is terrible for mucking about with cables, I have been known to put wagos on the end and tell him they are live even when it's dead. He doesn't muck about with my cables.

 

[Risteard]

No knowledge of any regulations electrical or otherwise is permitted.

How do you like my modified version?

 

[sparkdog]

Very fitting.

 

[Baker1988]

i have had that sort of stuff from the plaster boarders. pulled cables in for about 10 circuits few rings, lights stuff like that all back to consumer unit and went home for the weekend as it was a Friday. came back on the Monday to find not only had he boarded and skimmed the wall but had also cut the cables to make them shorter as he said they was too long to get them through the hole in the board without damaging the board.

he had cut all the writing off the cables to identify the circuits and ends of each ring, he had also forgot to bring 2 of the circuits through the board, he was adement that they was the only cables there and all was through the hole.

 

[Deleted member 9648]

Plasterers can be right ****s. I get so fed up with them that I liven up cables where I can. They hate it but they are very very careful when they know it's live. If they hit a live cable it ruins their trowels. There is one plasterer who is terrible for mucking about with cables, I have been known to put wagos on the end and tell him they are live even when it's dead. He doesn't muck about with my cables.

Tempting as it may be leaving unsafe cables when you know a plasterer will follow will likely land you in the dock should a spread get fried.
Don't try this on site kids.

 

[Wilko]

Tempting as it may be leaving unsafe cables when you know a plasterer will follow will likely land you in the dock should a spread get fried.
Don't try this on site kids.

Agreed !
But I do like the idea of sticking on a 3 terminal Wago

 

[telectrix]

Tempting as it may be leaving unsafe cables when you know a plasterer will follow will likely land you in the dock should a spread get fried.
Don't try this on site kids.

be one less to make a mess though.

 

[Octopus]

At least we sparks don't make the Top 5

Citizens Advice reveals top five botched building jobs - BBC News - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41048170?postid=127912497#comment_127912497

 

[Marti]

First two weeks of my apprenticeship were spent chasing out 47mm boxes on a couple of £1.1m new builds. Dopy dry wall installers applied the dot and dabbed with 40, yep forty millimetres of adhesive. Loads of space for cables but trying to screw back the socket on to tabs so far away they were in a different time zone. Gotta empathise with a boss who paid two weeks wages for nothing even if it was useful experience for me.

 

[JK-Electrical]

Pete the plasterer is my sworn enemy. Willie wetpants, Kevin kitchen-fitter and Dave decorator are not too far behind in my death-list though.

How long does it take to run the edge of a trowel along the inside of a back-box to remove excess skim? All of 10 seconds at the most. So why do I continually find myself wasting precious time trimming hardened plaster skim from dozens of back-boxes all because some lazy b****** plasterer couldn't be bothered to tidy-up his own mess? What is wrong with these selfish, inconsiderate imbeciles? Is being incredibly stupid a trade requirement for a plasterer?

And what about the idiots who plaster round sockets and switches thus ensuring that the accessory becomes permanently bonded to the adjacent wall thus guaranteeing that the surrounding plaster-work will be damaged should the switch or socket need to be removed.

Then there are the f***wits who consider the cables you have left protruding from the ceiling to supply the rows of LED battens that you will be installing on your second-fix to be getting in the way and decide to just push them up into the ceiling void so they can skim the ceiling quicker. Screw the poor electrician who wasted his time crawling around inside a ceiling void installing the cables and measuring the ceiling so to determine exactly where holes need to be drilled so to maintain equidistance between fittings, and who will have even more of his time wasted having to do f***ing do it all over again. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

 

[sparkdog]

Well said Sir!

 

[Leader]

Yep, I had plasterers decide that they would swap my cables around because the lengths were better that way. Never mind they were all labelled up and now we're incorrect. ****heads.

 

[Deleted member 9648]

I've put a disagree on post 20 because you cant expect a spread to skim a ceiling to a high standard when there's bunches of cables hanging out every couple of feet. Where downlights are to be used all that is required is an accurate plan of installed wiring positions and the hole can be drilled and cables pulled through after skimming. That's what I do.
Try skimming a ceiling yourself with a forest of hanging cables and then see who's the f***wit.
Other than that bit I agree entirely with your post!

 

[Octopus]

I've put a disagree on post 20 because you cant expect a spread to skim a ceiling to a high standard when there's bunches of cables hanging out every couple of feet. Where downlights are to be used all that is required is an accurate plan of installed wiring positions and the hole can be drilled and cables pulled through after skimming. That's what I do.
Try skimming a ceiling yourself with a forest of hanging cables and then see who's the f***wit.
Other than that bit I agree entirely with your post!

On the basis you have drilled the downlights holes , why would you leave the cables dangling? That's asking for trouble imho

 

[Deleted member 9648]

On the basis you have drilled the downlights holes , why would you leave the cables dangling? That's asking for trouble imho

I don't drill the downlight holes until after the ceiling is skimmed, it's also difficult to skim a ceiling full of holes, just as it is to skim around hanging cables. As long as an accurate plan of cable positions is made there's no problem and the plasterer can do his job.
I have done a fair bit of plastering, including ceilings, it's only when you have a go yourself you find out what other trades are up against. To skim a ceiling to a high standard you need a flat uninterrupted surface,not full of holes with cables everywhere, and the sparkies will be the first to slag off a poor finish.

 

[telectrix]

i do the same. it's the boarders who are the worst, trapping cables under joists and/or screwing them.

 

[Rpa07]

i do the same. it's the boarders who are the worst, trapping cables under joists and/or screwing them.

They're too busy cussin' to be paying attention!

 

[Phil Thompson]

I've put a disagree on post 20 because you cant expect a spread to skim a ceiling to a high standard when there's bunches of cables hanging out every couple of feet. Where downlights are to be used all that is required is an accurate plan of installed wiring positions and the hole can be drilled and cables pulled through after skimming. That's what I do.
Try skimming a ceiling yourself with a forest of hanging cables and then see who's the f***wit.
Other than that bit I agree entirely with your post!

Yeah but the post you disagree with is about batten fittings, not downlights lol

 

[ED17]

We had a job where the kitchen fitter drilled and screwed through three separate drops to fix his wall cupboards even though the cables were in newly plastered chases.

His reason was "that's the only place for my brackets "

 

[GlenTavener]

Still not as bad as a plasterer once deciding to trim the cables that were coming out of the wall for wall lights in a pub! as in his words they were a bit long and preventing him from getting a good smooth finish... dopey **** cut them back so just about reached the backbox... thankfully we had used conduit and could run new ones by pulling through.

Had this very problem some years ago. The young electricians I had working for me came back from a site saying plasterers were cutting our cables short had told them they left them long enough a refurbishment job. My instructions were that they must inform the plasterers if they did that again they, on my order, would rip the cables right out of the walls so that they could route replacement ones that were long enough. A plumber friend once told me the problem really is that we more technically minded people have to work with those who only work with sticks and bricks and obviously there will be limitations on their part. To be fair though have usually found other trades more than helpful, if there is going to be an awkward bunch it usually is the plasterers. Loud bad language scarcely drowned out by very loud radios.

 

[Deleted member 9648]

Yeah but the post you disagree with is about batten fittings, not downlights lol

Whether a cable hanging out of a ceiling is for a downlight or a batten it still gets in the way of skimming, while it may be more difficult to arrange for battens wiring to be out of the spreads way a little more understanding of the problems WE cause other trades is required....not just labelling them f***wits.
Some of them probably are, but there's plenty of electricians with no regard for other trades as well.

 

[Deleted member 9648]

Yeah but the post you disagree with is about batten fittings, not downlights lol

Whether a cable hanging out of a ceiling is for a downlight or a batten it still gets in the way of skimming, while it may be more difficult to arrange for battens wiring to be out of the spreads way a little more understanding of the problems WE cause other trades is required....not just labelling them f***wits.
Some of them probably are, but there's plenty of electricians with no regards for other trades as well.

 

[Deleted member 9648]

It's double posted again.

 

[Deleted member 9648]

Its double posted again
(couldn't resist that)

 

[sparkdog]

And moronic singing usually.

 

[Phil Thompson]

Spoken like a typical plasterer.

1 rule for them and another for everyone else lol

 

[brianmoooore]

Tempting as it may be leaving unsafe cables when you know a plasterer will follow will likely land you in the dock should a spread get fried.
Don't try this on site kids.

Connect up the neutral and earth only at the DB, and demonstrate the RCD flipping off a couple of times as you short them, when the 'other trades' are looking. a few times. No danger, but it gets the respect for your cables that you're looking for.