What are your thoughts on people wanting to be ultra neat when wiring inside boards?

[James]

If their are faults with the wiring or speciation of the wiring, they should be picked up when inspected.
a neat job is not always a good job
also,
a good job is not always a neat job.

 

[marconi]

Neatness and logical routing of conductors can help their identification and tracing and thus purpose which in turn may reduce errors at the time of wiring and later when say inspecting and testing. Neatness also suggests care and pride in a job well done and not rushed to complete.

 

[Dustydazzler]

For me I have always viewed doing a consumer unit as the one chance to really show your skills at doing a neat tidy job.
It doesn't have to be perfect but cores cut to a nice length and dressed in neatly , the correct sized sleeving used , tails neatly dressed in etc all make it easier for the next person to work on the board and hopefully keep it neat.
If you start with a rats nest and people add to the rats nests you just end up with a bigger rats nest and eventually your work ends up on here being called a complete rats nest

 

[Vortigern]

I find that RCBO present a problem in being neat due to the connection to the N bus-bar. While not OCD I do like to make sure that visually the cabling in a consumer unit is presented in a way that is crystal clear to anyone following and doing additions or alterations. Being orderly and careful, matching terminal numbers on each circuit et. allows checking on your own work being made much easier. Besides which when EICR comes around and seeing a well wired box inspires (potentially!) the feeling that the installation has been in the hands of someone competent.
Then there is the element of taking a pride in your work, which I think the devil is in the detail. When initially starting out wiring fifty years ago the only test we used to do is megger the installation. Don't tell anyone, we also used to use an incandescent element lamp to test earth by placing L + N then L + E, if the bulb was brighter with the L + E, jobs a goodun! Sorry but that was how it was that long ago. The point being, with such poor testing compared to todays requirements, there was a stong emphasis on terminating and neatnes and being sure that your installation techniques were very studiously executed to obviate a poor megger reading, or any other problems associated with poor connections.

 

[cliffed]

View attachment 109245
So would you be happy to test this rats nest that was done a couple of months ago?
And has some obvious faults without looking properly, the original installer wouldn't sign it off and then wouldn't answer the customer's emails calls or texts, mm wonder why!

I was going to attach a picture of one I did a week or so ago for a comparison but it will not have it!

Personally I will always do a neat job of everything I do, it's why I get so much repeat business.
Take pride in your work, do it once and do it properly!
Sy

To be fair that DB/CU looks tight as hell

 

[7029 dave]

Neatness shows pride and good workmanship in your work. Fault finding a rats nest is a pain in the arse especially on RFC okay the lives are easy but trying to find the legs on N and E when you cant even see the buts of the cable and nothing follows consiquecaly

 

[SparkySy]

To be fair that DB/CU looks tight as hell

It was very tight and too small! I have quoted to go back and rip it out put a bigger all RCBO board in!

 

[ipf]

They should make 'untidy' a C2.....that'd teach 'em.

Takes me back to wiping a perfectly good armoured, lead multicore as an apprentice and being patted on the head and told to do it again.

 

[rewireIT]

Neatness shows pride and good workmanship in your work. Fault finding a rats nest is a pain in the arse especially on RFC okay the lives are easy but trying to find the legs on N and E when you cant even see the buts of the cable and nothing follows consiquecaly

I'm on about being ultra neat though - is there any real difference between 'generally pretty tidy' and 'every single wire is the exact same length and curvature into the termination, i've cable tied all the earths and neutrals together (a hindrance imo)' ?

Is one 'better' than the other? Because i see people slagging work that is completely fine it just doesn't look as pretty.

 

[ferg]

Think how you feel when you take the cover off a board and it's lovely and neat inside.
Compare that to how you feel when it's a rats nest.

I don't really have the time, inclination or ability to make every board look like it belongs on Instagram but I like to think I make a bit of an effort.

I think as long as it's neat and tidy and I've done the best with what I have then it's good enough.

Like it or not the next person in the board will judge your ability based on what they see.