I can't believe a GC would cut corners like this to save a few bucks!

[hockeyoligist2]

A recent upgrade, about a year and 1/2.

This morning a hundred + foot underground, covered with asphalt, run shorted and burned all four of the wires in two, 480v. We pulled them out and tried to push a tape through, no go.

Another one inch conduit with four #12's went box to box, so we tried to pull another set of #12's using the green. Green broke, so we tried pulling all of the wires together with a tape attached to the other end, no go!


Finally, we got one of the mechanics to pull it with his truck mounted crane and got it out.

It had four butt splices on all of the wires! So much tape on them that they sounded like a wine cork when they popped out of the conduit!

We have ran in to many problems with this GC over the years and they always are the low-ball bidder and the company keeps hiring them!

Sorry, just venting.............. I need to go throw my soggy, sweat and slick-em coated, clothes in the washing machine before sweet thang gets home......

 

[acrwc10]

I'm not surprised at all. What does amaze me is, you got the mess out of the pipe.:grin:

 

[cowboyjwc]

I'm not surprised at all. What does amaze me is, you got the mess out of the pipe.:grin:

I agree, it could have been worse.

 

[Jim W in Tampa]

It could have turned out far worse. Hand them a bill that matches the extra hours and sweat. They only learn by dollars.

 

[ceb58]

We have ran in to many problems with this GC over the years and they always are the low-ball bidder and the company keeps hiring them!

This is where you need to document all the shoddy work, violations and cost to correct the problems. Then ask to have them disqualified as a bidder on upcoming work.

 

[Jim W in Tampa]

This is where you need to document all the shoddy work, violations and cost to correct the problems. Then ask to have them disqualified as a bidder on upcoming work.

I would be careful about doing that. You just might be stepping on someones uncle or friend and cut yourself out of the picture.

 

[LarryFine]

How is this on the GC, and not the EC?

It had four butt splices on all of the wires!

Holy guacamole! :roll:

 

[growler]

It had four butt splices on all of the wires! So much tape on them that they sounded like a wine cork when they popped out of the conduit!

We have ran in to many problems with this GC over the years and they always are the low-ball bidder and the company keeps hiring them!

It's very doubtfull that either the GC or the EC ever saw that butt splices were being used.

Someone had to make the decision to use the butt splices and it was probably the guys pulling the wire. Why would they do this? Who knows. Lazy, lack of training or just didn't care.

The problem is lack of supervision and quality control and many companies are guilty of this.

A couple of years ago I talked to a young kid with only two years of experience running a job with a 10 man crew. If the guy running the job only has two years of experience can you imagine how little experience the rest of the crew had.

To keep cost down some companies will send out a whole crew of helpers to do a job and you do get what you pay for.

I think of it as job security, sooner or later all this crap work will need repaired. I hate to see crap work but if I didn't see it I might not see any work. In many ways I'm glad there are so many idiots out there doing electrical work.

 

[ceb58]

I would be careful about doing that. You just might be stepping on someones uncle or friend and cut yourself out of the picture.

If I am not mistaken Oligist2 is an employee of the city/county with the waste water treatment plants. In a noble attempt to save the taxpayers money it is his responsibility to bring shoddy work to some ones attention.

 

[hockeyoligist2]

If I am not mistaken Oligist2 is an employee of the city/county with the waste water treatment plants. In a noble attempt to save the taxpayers money it is his responsibility to bring shoddy work to some ones attention.

Yes ceb58, I am an employee of the state, with waste water treatment plants. I don't like having to go back and rework other peoples shoddy work, sometimes in the middle of the night.

And the more we have to spend out of our budget for the screw ups hits the maintenance crew hard. We can't get replacement tools and/or better tools to do our job because we had to spend all of our budget on wire, conduit, ETC. to fix the GC's screw ups.

I have a full schedule doing my regular PM's and normal repairs. I'm getting old and all of that tugging and straining hurts for days!

After we got the wire out, I called the engineer responsible for that plant. She came out and took pictures, documented everything. She has a pretty big folder on the screw ups this GC has made on this project. We have had buried wires shorting left and right every since they finished the project. The same contractor is doing another upgrade at a different plant right now! By the way we do not have an electrical engineer and all of our electricians are too busy to watch over the upgrade projects!

@Larry "How is this on the GC, and not the EC?"

They are one and the same. It is a really big GC ($10,000,000 + projects) with basically one or two licensed electricians overseeing God only knows how many "helpers". I will probably get censored or scolded for this but 99% of the helpers do not speak English..... And like Larry said "Holy guacamole!"

 

[c2500]

I would bet they had a performance bond on the project...why not go after that? I have an HVAC buddy that is cleaning up a major mess at a government facility right now. Over 2 years and the equipment never worked. They are going after the bond of the original installer.

Can you give a hint as to the GC? I am in Greenville.

c2500

 

[hockeyoligist2]

Can you give a hint as to the GC? I am in Greenville.

c2500

Since this is a public forum I would be afraid to give too big of a hint. I don't want any problems...

It isn't a local contractor, unless you consider the NC offices as local. They are world wide, earning over $3 billion a year, according to their website.

 

[ceb58]

Since this is a public forum I would be afraid to give too big of a hint. I don't want any problems...

It isn't a local contractor, unless you consider the NC offices as local. They are world wide, earning over $3 billion a year, according to their website.

I wonder if it starts with a W:roll:

 

[wawireguy]

Since this is a public forum I would be afraid to give too big of a hint. I don't want any problems...

It isn't a local contractor, unless you consider the NC offices as local. They are world wide, earning over $3 billion a year, according to their website.

That means they have more money to pony up! What kinda problems?

 

[hockeyoligist2]

I wonder if it starts with a W:roll:

starts with a B.

 

[hockeyoligist2]

That means they have more money to pony up! What kinda problems?

Lawsuit maybe?

 

[Cow]

What a hack!

I only buttsplice when the run is more than 200'+........:roll:

 

[stevenje]

Many years back we pulled out some old feeder wires for a service upgrade project. As we pulled it out, (using a come-a-long), we saw a few 3/8 hex nuts that where stuck to the wire with the old yellow 77 puling soap. After we got the wire out of the conduit we cleaned out the conduit with the Jet-line tank. We had more old 3/8 nuts flying out of the conduit moving at about mach 3! If you are going to use the panel to store your parts be sure you tape off your conduits during construction. At least there where no butt splices in this run.

 

[cadpoint]

Was the work done in the evening or at night?

This really reminds me of two teacher's stories. One from the physics teacher that said they buried a cast that didn't take and they buried it in a sand area of the building but still had an unpaved area; and only found it when they needed space and started digging a footer for the next machine. Oh, about the size of a small car ~.

The Second is; in a manufacturing environment a large circuit set of conductors either failed or was failing through routine meg'n. Well it was a long run, so they pulled it out and it had twenty feet of copper on both ends and aluminum in between.

Both were accredited to the night side... :roll: