gotta love maintenance men

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grich

grich

Senior Member
Location
MP89.5, Mason City Subdivision
Occupation
Broadcast Engineer
A buddy of mine is a maintenance supervisor at an apartment complex. He sent me these cell-phone pics of a receptacle he had to replace. He had a little trouble removing it from the box...

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It's hard to see, but the bottom and side of the box are gone, including the bottom screw boss. Whoever installed this receptacle horsed a toggle bolt under the box to secure the receptacle.

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The last photo shows a little old-school (building built in 1993)...jumpers were soldered and taped. The tape is removed from the grounded conductor. The solder joints were tight, but there was a single barely-overlapped layer of white tape covering the splices.

View attachment 1203
 
Wait.... I'm confused. :confused:

I see a white and a black wire. Is the black wire hot, and the white neutral?

Or is the white wire hot because it's turned black, and the black wire neutral because it's covered with white paint and tape....??? :-? :-? :-?
 
stickboy1375 said:
Why is that? because some un-mechanically inclined person stripped the screw hole? ;)
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Ahhh....I see...you like Allied boxes. Shame on you. :D

I just never liked them because despite best intentions they always seem to break or strip out. Some people swear by them, and others like myself can't stand them. And I hate the P&S ones too.
 
peter d said:
Ahhh....I see...you like Allied boxes. Shame on you. :D

I just never liked them because despite best intentions they always seem to break or strip out. Some people swear by them, and others like myself can't stand them. And I hate the P&S ones too.
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Whats your flavor of choice? I was brought up with allied, so its just what I use...
 
stickboy1375 said:
Why is that? because some un-mechanically inclined person stripped the screw hole? ;)
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Ya some are done with a power driver gimzo and strip the fiberglass screw out and i did see some manatinice guys actally use #8 or larger drywall screw and jam them in.

Normally something like this pretty good damaged i will useally replace it with new box something from the SmartBox set up and be done with it :cool:

Merci, Marc
 
stickboy1375 said:
Whats your flavor of choice? I was brought up with allied, so its just what I use...
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Around here we use ones similar to Allied, they are made by Union and are brown bakelite rather than fiberglass. They are much stronger than the Allied and don't strip out as easily. I was raised on those myself so I like them.

My other choices are the Carlon, T&B and Raco plastic ones.
 
....brown bakelite rather than fiberglass. They are much stronger than the Allied
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Unless you hit em with a hammer?

Everybody here has been using Carlon since the mid 80's. They are very flexible and there is no stripping of the holes. They accept a drywall...er, bugle head device mounting screw nicely too.
 
220/221 said:
Unless you hit em with a hammer?
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They are susceptible to breakage too, but they will take more abuse than Allied.

Actually, the main reason we use Union boxes here is because most of our homes are done with plaster board (blue board) and a skim coat of plaster, rather than the mud and tape method. The Union boxes have the screw holes that are slightly molded over with a thin layer of bakelite that prevent them from getting filled with plaster.
 
Yikes

Yikes

TwinCitySparky said:
:confused: Oh man - That is beautiful! Truely talented guys those maintanance dudes are... :grin:
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What's the ampacity of a piece of wire from a coat hanger? Saw that when I pulled one out of abox the other day.
 
480sparky said:
Wait.... I'm confused. :confused:

I see a white and a black wire. Is the black wire hot, and the white neutral?

Or is the white wire hot because it's turned black, and the black wire neutral because it's covered with white paint and tape....??? :-? :-? :-?
Click to expand...

Part of that white white is black because the insulation is charred...the sparky used a torch for soldering. I'm told there's a shiny new Carlon box in there now.
 
grich said:
A buddy of mine is a maintenance supervisor at an apartment complex.
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From what I have seen most apartment maintenance people don't have much electrical experience because that is not what apartment management looks for. In this area to work apartment maintenance they want some HVAC or plumbing experience because those are their biggest concerns.

I don't think I have even seen a real electrician working for an aparment complex. I think it's cheaper for them to call a service company when they have major problems. So you get a plumber( plumbers helper) or HVAC tech. doing minor electrical repairs.
 
growler said:
From what I have seen most apartment maintenance people don't have much electrical experience because that is not what apartment management looks for. In this area to work apartment maintenance they want some HVAC or plumbing experience because those are their biggest concerns.
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Sounds like most apartment managers.... got their priorities all screwed up.

AC doesn't work? No problem.... tenanet can just sweat for a while.
No heat? No problem.... we call it 'volunteer heat' from the surrounding units.
Plumbing leaks? No problem.... a dripping faucet never killed anyone.
But give 'em a serious electrical problem.... and Joe Sixpack comes to fix it.....



Go figure.:cool:
 
220/221 said:
Unless you hit em with a hammer?

Everybody here has been using Carlon since the mid 80's. They are very flexible and there is no stripping of the holes. They accept a drywall...er, bugle head device mounting screw nicely too.
Click to expand...

The bakelite boxes are GREAT when you have to remove one!!
 
peter d said:
They are susceptible to breakage too, but they will take more abuse than Allied.

Actually, the main reason we use Union boxes here is because most of our homes are done with plaster board (blue board) and a skim coat of plaster, rather than the mud and tape method. The Union boxes have the screw holes that are slightly molded over with a thin layer of bakelite that prevent them from getting filled with plaster.
Click to expand...


I use to tap out the screw holes, found that too time consuming, I found just using a 1/8 drill bit and the holes are perfect again...
 
480sparky said:
Sounds like most apartment managers.... got their priorities all screwed up.

AC doesn't work? No problem.... tenanet can just sweat for a while.
No heat? No problem.... we call it 'volunteer heat' from the surrounding units.
Plumbing leaks? No problem.... a dripping faucet never killed anyone.
But give 'em a serious electrical problem.... and Joe Sixpack comes to fix it.....



Go figure.:cool:
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The previous maintenance super was...ahem...chemically impaired, and the toggle-bolt thing was right up his alley. The current super is good about calling in pros...he's found it's easier to call in a sparky with a bucket truck to replace HPS bulbs than him getting on a 30' ladder.:grin:
 
grich said:
The previous maintenance super was...ahem...chemically impaired, and the toggle-bolt thing was right up his alley. The current super is good about calling in pros...he's found it's easier to call in a sparky with a bucket truck to replace HPS bulbs than him getting on a 30' ladder.:grin:
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Chemically impaired or chemically enhanced?
 
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