Here's why drywallers should be licensed

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Coppersmith

Senior Member
Location
Tampa, FL, USA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
A client purchased a house with Chinese drywall. All of the electrical devices had corrosion on the terminal screws and bare parts of the wires. He ripped out all the drywall and hired us to remove all the devices, trim back the wires to shiny copper, and re-install new devices. After the new drywall was installed we trimmed out the house.

It's been a couple of months and he's getting ready to move in and noticed there's no power in several parts of the house. (My guy should have tested everything before he said he was done, but that's another story.) So I go over and start troubleshooting and discover the drywall guys covered up four receptacle boxes and of course they did not get made up and so everything past them was dead.

I'm charging him extra for the troubleshooting and uncovering of hidden boxes and I'll suggest he back-charge the drywall contractor which probably won't happen.

Luckily for me, I have experienced this problem so many times before that I take pictures of the entire house before the drywall goes up so I can find hidden boxes. It's a nightmare without pictures or x-ray vision. The poor quality of drywall crews is mind boggling.
 

480sparky

Senior Member
Location
Iowegia
Even licensed drywallers would have installed lead-laden drywall.

Just like licensed electricians have installed counterfeit breakers.
 

K8MHZ

Senior Member
Location
Michigan. It's a beautiful peninsula, I've looked
Occupation
Electrician
You missed my point.

So let me spell it out for you: What about a drywall license would have prevented the installation of Chinese drywall that caused the issue?

How would a license have prevented that? Years of installation had passed before there was even a suspicion of out gassing.

I would rather see a license that made illegal the covering of electrical outlet boxes with a huge fine for each box buried.
 

Ponchik

Senior Member
Location
CA
Occupation
Electronologist
Clients tell me all the time "... but he was a licensed contractor and everything was inspected" and I say " licensed and was inspected does not mean ANYTHING"

In CA licensed means "You are allowed to do work that is worth more than $750" and inspected means "an inspector looked at your work"

Now we all know we have inspectors that are lazy, do not have knowledge in this particular trade or the work was done when the inspector left.
 

ActionDave

Chief Moderator
Staff member
Location
Durango, CO, 10 h 20 min from the winged horses.
Occupation
Licensed Electrician
You missed my point.

So let me spell it out for you: What about a drywall license would have prevented the installation of Chinese drywall that caused the issue?

:slaphead:He's not talking about the old chinese drywall that was ripped out, he's talking about the new drywall and the crew that buried his electrical boxes.
 

norcal

Senior Member
A license for drywallers? Regular drug testing might work, 'cept there might not be any warm bodies to hang & finish the drywall after the test results came in.
 

JFletcher

Senior Member
Location
Williamsburg, VA
10 years ago we had a commercial drywall crew RotoZip an entire floor of our boxes on the inside... They ate it.

9 years ago we had a drywall crew cover quite a few boxes of ours. They ate it. Two words contract language.

spell it out in your contract that any boxes covered by drywall or woodworking guys are on them not you. If they want you to find it, tell him you'll be right back with a 9 Pound sledge hammer. If they hold up your inspection, well it's going to cost them extra money in time, not you. of course you better make sure your guys didn't miss the box.

I don't think I had been on the job a month before I realized that drywall guys were the bane of electricians.


this is also a reason to make up all of your Hots and neutals at rough-in with Wagos, then just have to pop in your devices with pigtails later. Circuit continuity uninterrupted, covered boxes not a problem for you electrically....
 

Ponchik

Senior Member
Location
CA
Occupation
Electronologist
I mark the floor with bright orange paint. It is easier to see where my boxes are/were after sheetrock.
 

Little Bill

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Tennessee NEC:2017
Occupation
Semi-Retired Electrician
I mark the floor with bright orange paint. It is easier to see where my boxes are/were after sheetrock.

That's fine if you can get there before the flooring goes down. A lot of times I never see the place again until called for trim. I sometimes take pictures if it is more than code minimum devices. It would be good to use the paint and also take pictures right after you finish the rough.
 
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