Re-wire rant!

[Paul.M]

Ok its a full house rewire, thing is the boss didn't listen to me when I did the home buyers report (just short of a PIR btw). I told him that it would be a barsteward of a job due to the lay out of the house but he still said "£XXXX amount and it will take two and a half weeks". The customer went off for a two week British holiday but have told us this afternoon that they are moving in this Wednesday coming! Don't get me wrong, we are no sluches when it comes to hard graft and we are well on target for the original timescale but this is taking the mick.

Paint a picture:- 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 reception rooms, large stainless steel kitchen, large dining room, a conservatory bigger than my living room, a cellar to kit out and an old house stables to run swa to and feed enough to power a one bedroom flat! Meter tails alone are 18 meters long and we are replacing them with 25mm 3 core swa.

House was built in 1895 and the front was a shop so the floors (cellar) are different levels and in concrete so no easy access to one half of the house, it has caused us to do some very imaginative 4ft 25mm drilling without doing damage to the original cornicing the skirting or the solid oak wide panel floorboards! (that was an effort of love taking them up and putting back down like they have never been moved, very proud of myself on that one ).

It's like rewiring the inside of an egg shell!

On top of all this I've had to look after a young lad working 3 days a week from the job center on work experience. Don't get me wrong, he's a good lad and works hard but he didn't even know what a scutch was before I put one in his hand! He can't even strip t+e without cutting through the copper and he's pasted his level 2? After work I sent him home with ten meters of cable and my spare side cutters to practice over the weekend.

Anyway I had planned on not working Saturday (leeds in rugby cup final) or bank holiday Monday (day off with the wife) but guess what? Because the new home owners want to move in on Wednesday (1 week early) I've not got a life over the next 5 days. Happy for the money but not happy for the plans I made but hay ho take it whilst you can. I just know how bloody hard its going to be these next 5 days and I know the boss won't pay that much of a bonus. Ok rant over.

 

[white armour]

Hi paul.m, with the weather forecast not looking too good don't think you will be missing too much anyway.

Feeling your anguish as i have had to do the old bank holiday lark before. Best of luck buddy.

Regards wa

 

[Paul.M]

Thanks White Armor its nice to know that there are others like me feeling like this. The work load for the time scale is beyond expectation + expectation! Bloody hell i/we work hard, fast, accurate, exact, cautious and by the time we leave they have already asked for loads of business cards from us to pass on to family and friends but this is turning out to be something off DIY SOS!

Anyway I'm having a beer (or six) and forgetting about it for a few hours.

 

[topquark]

Drat and you could have had me up there for 3 days a week, but then I don't know what a scutch is either

Sounds like a right old pain. He should at least pay you the extra (and time off in lieu), try setting the wife on him!

 

[pmac10]

could be worse mate, place i work gets TWO stat holidays a year, 12th July and Xmas day! not sucks, thankfully moving to pastures new next week but i've put up with that for 5 years

 

[Paul.M]

Drat and you could have had me up there for 3 days a week, but then I don't know what a scutch is either

Sounds like a right old pain. He should at least pay you the extra (and time off in lieu), try setting the wife on him!

If you want to come up FOC to do the 2nd fix on the last day but we do have 31 accessories just in the kitchen and dining room, its up to you? Then we've got the rest of the house with loads of down lights and 5 skts in each room + swa tails feed + swa to the horse house + fitting it out (which it will be left to me but I'm taking the radio with me ). It's an absolute ball ache and the customers don't understand what is involved, but then again what customers do?

 

[topquark]

I think I'll pass thanks mate I have a nice "simple" cooker circuit to have a look at on Tuesday morning. Hmmm, mind you, Theakston's Old P on tap might be an incentive. Haven't been up in your neck of the woods for years. Last time in Yorkshire was in a little place near bedale called Newton-le-Willows and that was somewhere around '94 I think. Lovely old barn conversion we stayed in.

 

[Des 56]

and the customers don't understand what is involved,

Your dead right of course
All they see are the accessories and little understanding of how the cable got there,if having cables enters their head even

 

[Paul.M]

I think I'll pass thanks mate I have a nice "simple" cooker circuit to have a look at on Tuesday morning. Hmmm, mind you, Theakston's Old P on tap might be an incentive. Haven't been up in your neck of the woods for years. Last time in Yorkshire was in a little place near bedale called Newton-le-Willows and that was somewhere around '94 I think. Lovely old barn conversion we stayed in.

Nice neck of the woods but the locals can be a bit strange, in breeding I think?

 

[Paul.M]

and the customers don't understand what is involved,

Your dead right of course
All they see are the accessories and little understanding of how the cable got there,if having cables enters their head even

Des as you know all the customers think that the cables just magically appear by the swoosh of our enchanted terminal driver? All they see is sockets and switches and not the hours of crawling through crap to get them there.