Damaged Cables during New Construction

[mull982]

I am on a new industrial construction project. There have been several cases that when pulling 480V cables the contractor has damaged the cable somehow and when the cables are megged they give readings that show the cables are shorted to ground.

Most of the time the contractor says that he is going to find the bad spot on the cable and either patch it or cut it our and re-pull the cable. This is how we have handled most of the cases up until now with the contractor either patching or splicing the cable in a pull box or fitting.

I am begining to wonder now if I should let the contractor get away with this solution everytime or if I should insist that he pull a brand new cable. If we are paying for a new cable, why should we have to deal with any problems that a splice should lead to down the road?

I'm just curious how others have handled this situation when they come acrosss it. Is it common to let the contractor splice, or to make them re-pull?

 

[hillbilly]

If I'm in charge of that project and representing the customer, the cable would be pulled in without damage.

The contractor is apparently not doing something right or he would not be having this problem repeatedly.

The NEC is very specific about conduit and splice/pull box sizes.
If the contractor is following these guidelines, there should be no damage to the cables during a pull.

Of course, sometimes things happen, and a cable may be damaged.
This should be the rare exception and not the rule.

My opinion is......If I'm paying for new cable, I want new cable.
This doesn't mean cable that's damaged or excessively spliced.

He would have to re-pull it.

Just my opinion

steve

 

[zog]

I am with hillbilly, you pay for new cable you should get new cable. Seems you need to find a new contractor that knows how to pull cable, this should not be a common occurence.

 

[bobsherwood]

I agree with Steve! If they are causing damage to the cables, they are doing something wrong! They need to start with repairing conduits and then install new cable.

 

[roger]

I also agree with the others. If it were a one time occurance and the repair could be made in a junction box I could live with it but, since this seems to be an ongoing problem, I would have the conductors replaced, better now than later.

Roger

 

[GUNNING]

Get a new foreman out there.

Get a new foreman out there.

If its low bidder you get what you pay for. I agree with the rest, new cable is the way to go. I feel for the pullee though. Maybe they should have a steeper learning curve. Ive been on runs where the nail on the wooden spool rips the jacket, or the spool falls off the reels and snags on the lip or the run is just too darn long for the wire and turns the tugger into the letter "C". Never have I knowingly left a bad piece of wire in a pipe. Time to find a crew with better technique and less attitude.

 

[khixxx]

When a cable was bad we pulled all the cables out. Depending on the application.

I am thinking a lot of other variables might come into play. What if the contractor wanted new conduit but the client told them to just use the existing conduit? Without seeing the contract or job scope it's really hard to give a recommendation. I have seen some companies eat contractors for lunch on legal issues.

 

[Cow]

Repull 'em.

Like Gunning said, sometimes circumstances are out of your control and a spool snags etc. But these guys must not be using good technique to damage that many cables, which isn't your problem, it's theirs. Make them fix it right, splice kits and j-boxes aren't my idea of "right."