Construction, maintainance, residential Electrician

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I know this may draw some fire, but in my experience, Ive done mostly construction, both commercial/industrial and residential. Ive done some 'maintenance too. From what Ive seen and im not saying all of them are like this, but it appears that most 'construction'(if they started their first) guys can pick up maintenance/residential quickly but most 'maintenance'(if they started their first) guys cant do construction.

In fact I was looking at some ads online/paper for electricians and the ad stated' NO MAINTENANCE' electricians. I guess some havent had much conduit bending expeirience.
What do you think??
 
Plainly put, any guy that's been a maintenance electrician for too long is ruined for construction work. He's spoiled, you might say. A maintenance electrician does make a find candidate to run a service truck, though.
 
Maintenance guys usually are use to a slower pace and not likely to go fast enough for construction. They are really 2 differant worlds. I do understand them saying no.
 
What in the World ! X your spot !!

What in the World ! X your spot !!

commercial/industrial = X world
residential = X world
maintance = X world

I will always want to work to the craftsmanship that this vocation allows me to employ.

To me it doesn't matter which side of the equation I'M on!

Where in a vocation where no potentional is desired, our end result is a safe application and should be nothing but null to a potentional user!

Sorry, I just like my Work, I guess Im off thread ......
 
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commercial/industrial = X world
residential = X world
maintance = X world

I will always want to work to the craftsmanship that this vocation allows me to employ.

To me it doesn't matter which side of the equation your on!

Where in a vocation where no potentional is desired, our end result is a safe application and should be nothing but null to a potentional user!
I'm going to have to break out the thesaurus for this one. Null to a potential user? Is that a VFD setting?
 
commercial/industrial = x world
residential = x world
maintance = x world

i will always want to work to the craftsmanship that this vocation allows me to employ.

To me it doesn't matter which side of the equation i'm on!

Where in a vocation where no potentional is desired, our end result is a safe application and should be nothing but null to a potentional user!

Sorry, i just like my work, i guess im off thread ......

what???!!!
 
I have had to troubleshoot alot of wire slinger's work. Dont take that statement in the wrong way though, I do see your point. I come from a small company in a big town so I pretty much do it all, mainly resi.

I can get a wire to a place you would think would be impossible unless you either ran conduit or removed sheetrock. I can almost always walk into a trouble call, ask a few questions, check the layout of the dwelling and then just point to the recept that is causing the problem. I have been able to bend conduit to fit perfectly without even using a tape measure.

The point is,, it's all in the person. There are alot in this work who even after alot of years ,still dont know what they are doing.

My dad did electrical along with his cousins and also my cousin does electrical as well as my grandfather. Seems to be a family thing with me, I just didn't know it until 15 yrs after moving away from my family and going through other lines of work.

The concept, I understand, the understanding of code though is something I need to work on.

I have done alot of trouble calls to apartments. Maint. person cant figure out whats wrong so they call me.

Bulb is bad = they never tested the bulb/socket
Disposal dont work = they never tested the fuse/breaker
Outside lights dont work = they never checked the breaker or even looked for the house panel.

I could go on. I finally showed one manager the testers I use and told her, if she wanted to pay me to change bulbs or reset breakers/replace fuses then Im fine with it.

Maint personell from what I have seen dont have the troubleshooting knowledge and I guess those who need someone to run wire on new work dont want these type of people even though they have some type of electrical experiance under their belt.
 
aftershock said:
Maint personell from what I have seen dont have the troubleshooting knowledge

Interesting point of view. I used to be a maintenance electrician and I currently work with both maintenance and construction electricians. From my experience, seasoned maintenance electricians are usually better troubleshooters. On the other hand, I don't even think of having maintenance electricians do installs. Back when I was a maintenance electrician I COULD run pipe, but it took me five times longer and looked five times crappier then what a good construction electrician could do. I still marvel at the artwork some guys are capable of producing.
 
I think a good maintenance electrician would miss the lunch room, working tools, bathrooms and all of the other perks of a nice facility.

I don't think the dust, dirt, outdoor weather and those stinking outhouses would appeal to someone that knows better.

Maybe thats why we gave all of the new work away:roll:
 
Property-management maintenance may need more of a jack-of-all trades, master of none.

Industrial maintenance need specialists, spawning masters of specific equipment. They may take more time, and perhaps take LOTO, PPE, and Fall Protection more seriously than the construction trade's historic exploit of personnel safety during crashed schedules.

For those industrial-maintenance people accustomed to safety protocol, it's more likely they are quicker to recognize the negligent absence of LOTO and PPE, neither stocked nor requisitioned.

Where merit-shop practice or working-agreement policy requires stewards to violate safety for production, and making a living clearly requires participating in such incompetence, perhaps as with me and NECA contractors, its not even worthwhile as a hobby; see ya!
 
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