How Do You Deal With Sub-contractor's Sup-par Work

[360Youth]

I went to an existing customer's home today to reinstall a receptacle in an office where a new desk (permanant) and cabinets are being installed. I did my best to not overly vent my frustration with yet another cabinet guy that seemingly has no concept of safe and proper installation of electrical. I do not grasp the concept of someone that does their work with no consideration of the necessary communication skills with whatever other subs may need to be involved to give the customer a quality finished product. I hate to think of the down-the-road result of this receptacle being put back in the condtion it is in. (And people wonder why most house fires are blamed on faulty electrical) Thankfully it was so bad off that the cabinet guy had no choice but to notify the homeowner. I guess I should give him credit for that much. After the HO showed me some outside work that he wanted done also, I felt the need to appologize if I came off the wrong way, and said no, if anything, I was being too kind. I by no means presume to be anything other than an electrician (barely that sometimes :roll but I have grown weary of offcenter cabinet cutouts, tiled over boxes, painted receptacles, etc. What say you? Chime in. I'm curious how, and how often, you deal with similar circumstances.



Here is the first view where you can hopefully see that the box is about an inch behind the surface and on the left side there is not a wall section to offer any support for the device, let alone any hope of getting a plate on...

And here is a close up that maybe you can see the old paper style insulation is gone for about two inches worth of the hot and neutral conductors...

And as a bonus, here is the switch for his overhead light. Nothing to do with this concern, but I personally have not run across one like it. Some very old stuff in this house, electrically speaking...

 

[LEO2854]

I went to an existing customer's home today to reinstall a receptacle in an office where a new desk (permanant) and cabinets are being installed. I did my best to not overly vent my frustration with yet another cabinet guy that seemingly has no concept of safe and proper installation of electrical. I do not grasp the concept of someone that does their work with no consideration of the necessary communication skills with whatever other subs may need to be involved to give the customer a quality finished product. I hate to think of the down-the-road result of this receptacle being put back in the condtion it is in. (And people wonder why most house fires are blamed on faulty electrical) Thankfully it was so bad off that the cabinet guy had no choice but to notify the homeowner. I guess I should give him credit for that much. After the HO showed me some outside work that he wanted done also, I felt the need to appologize if I came off the wrong way, and said no, if anything, I was being too kind. I by no means presume to be anything other than an electrician (barely that sometimes :roll but I have grown weary of offcenter cabinet cutouts, tiled over boxes, painted receptacles, etc. What say you? Chime in. I'm curious how, and how often, you deal with similar circumstances.

They just don't have any commonsence .And think its just two wire's

Went to a job a couple of weeks ago this handy man did a whole Kitchen remoldel and installed 10 6" can lights he ran into trouble when he hooked up
the lights to the old BX switch leg ceiling box ("No Box") 3 BX Cables and his new romex spliced together so he goes down ad turns on the breaker comes up and the lights are on,The switch is off and he wonders why the lights are on:-?well he goes up the ladder to check his splice and gets a shock from touching the The BX:roll: so then he calls the Electrician:grin:

What a mess this guy made.

 

[K8MHZ]

I see this all the time.

And worse.

One place I was at you had to remove a the shelves and the back paneling of a built in bookcase to get to the main breaker panel. Yes, you read that correctly, the breaker panel was behind paneling that was behind shelves.

 

[macmikeman]

50 years ago the men who ran building contracting companies of all trades would hire quality men to work for them.

Todays employers are looking for the low cost crew of monkeys straight out of prison to work for dirt so they can compete with the other guys who have only got guys from down "south" if you get my drift.

The other factor is the sheer volume of unregulated yahoo's who are working below the radar via online "list" type websites where they get free advertising.

The whole quality/ pride in workmanship thing has taken a big dive in the last twenty years now. Twitter dedum and twitter dee dee.

 

[tryinghard]

I don't give any energy to make this type stuff work, install correctly around it or replace altogether.

 

[ceb58]

We had a elect. contractor do some work for us at one of our old communication sites that was being revamped. Boss told me to go by and check it out and report back. The violations hit you when you opened the door and looked in. Open KO's not plugged, conduit supported from ceiling with jack chain and covers missing on panels. After looking it over found 16 #12 ccc in a 3/4" conduit on 20amp breakers. #3 thhn on a 125amp breaker for UPS, UPS output disconnect wired on wrong side of switch and the list goes on. Sent the boss a list of violations including poor workmanship.
About a week later boss sent me back to the site to meet the contractor. (contractor not getting payed until it's fixed) The first thing out of the guys mouth is what the F you mean by poor workman ship? I opened the door so he could see. It took all of the wind out of his sails. After showing him all the violations he,inadvertently, made the comment that he never checked on the job or his "south of the boarder" guys.
He spent the next week with a different crew fixing the violations.

 

[bradleyelectric]

first stop yesterday the ho told me the county cut a wire going to an outside light and he had them fix it, but it tripped the GFI whenever he turned the switch on. When I got there and saw what he had there was a 1/2" piece of pvc where the driveway had been sliced where it met the curb and on 1 corner the curb had been redone. The uf that was fed through the pvc had been cut at the curb and a piece of 12-2 nmb had been twisted and taped a couple foot into the pvc and the other end spliced in the same manner beside the driveway.

second stop today was for a tree guy that busted a post light and his climber replaced it and couldn't make a good enough splice to make it work.

 

[bullheimer]

first off remove the outlet, then splice longer wires on the existing wires, tape them if you have to. now that you have pigtails, you will need to put the right size spacer under the top device screw to keep it off the wall (use a Buchanan or part thereof, they cut nicely with liineman's and then push them back open). you then need a plastic box extender (which precludes having to wrap the device in tape), and slap on the wall plate. cut the top off with a hack saw or, better to become the owner of a Dremmel tool. a PITA but easy enuf. you wont see a microwave outlet that looks much better than that after the cabinet guy gets done.

 

[bullheimer]

Sorry, my eyes are screwed up. Just trim the hole if you have to and put some Madison Bars on the box, tape the recpet for sure, stick it in and your done. sorry for the wrong info above, this site once again, wont let me edit my post. i dont know what gives

 

[bullheimer]

thank you moderator,i need to stay offline after coming home from the bars. hope nobodies' too p.o'd. it would be nice if the edit option was modified some.

anyway i'm not sure either way i said would work on that outlet unless you could get that box ear in the corner to stay put. maybe a long screw thru the box that can hit a stud in the framing of that corner.

 

[growler]

I have grown weary of offcenter cabinet cutouts, tiled over boxes, painted receptacles, etc. What say you? Chime in. I'm curious how, and how often, you deal with similar circumstances.

It doesn't bother me so much to repair crap work as it does people thinking that they can make any kind of mess and there is going to be a fast,easy and inexpensive solution to the problem.

 

[tryinghard]

Don't make it work; make it right - emphasis matters!

 

[readydave8]

50 years ago the men who ran building contracting companies of all trades would hire quality men to work for them.

Todays employers are looking for the low cost crew of monkeys straight out of prison to work for dirt so they can compete with the other guys who have only got guys from down "south" if you get my drift.

The other factor is the sheer volume of unregulated yahoo's who are working below the radar via online "list" type websites where they get free advertising.

The whole quality/ pride in workmanship thing has taken a big dive in the last twenty years now. Twitter dedum and twitter dee dee.

This all may be true but in Georgia a lot of the bad work I see is 50+ years old. And probably more of the good work lasted 50 years than did the bad work.

Although your right this garbage I see was done by Southerners, some from families that have lived here for generations.

 

[BILLY101]

I problem is the lack of ability of the person coordinating the work. The home owner as well as a construction management firm that think they know how to sequence the work.
A simple meeting to review the design before work starts can have a profound impact of the final result of the project and any possible cost impact.
Try to convert the sub-par work of others into business for you.
But, sad to say, stupidity is here to stay.

BILLY

 

[mtfallsmikey]

50 years ago the men who ran building contracting companies of all trades would hire quality men to work for them.

Todays employers are looking for the low cost crew of monkeys straight out of prison to work for dirt so they can compete with the other guys who have only got guys from down "south" if you get my drift.

The other factor is the sheer volume of unregulated yahoo's who are working below the radar via online "list" type websites where they get free advertising.

The whole quality/ pride in workmanship thing has taken a big dive in the last twenty years now. Twitter dedum and twitter dee dee.

Amen brother!

This all may be true but in Georgia a lot of the bad work I see is 50+ years old. And probably more of the good work lasted 50 years than did the bad work.

Although your right this garbage I see was done by Southerners, some from families that have lived here for generations.

And yes, just because it's old dosen't mean it's better...that is the case in every trade, not just electrical. Ask me how I know.....and it's not just a south-of-the-Mason-Dixon issue either.

 

[K8MHZ]

Amen brother!




And yes, just because it's old dosen't mean it's better...that is the case in every trade, not just electrical. Ask me how I know.....and it's not just a south-of-the-Mason-Dixon issue either.

I don't think he was talking about the Mason-Dixon line.

More likely the Rio Grande.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

I don't think he was talking about the Mason-Dixon line.

More likely the Rio Grande.

Badabing!

My brother still has a bank of combo knife switches/fuses from an old house we worked in that was getting the knob and tube demoed out....I think 8-10 of them were mounted on an old rough-sawn 2 x 8 which was ailed on to the side of the floor joist, all wired parallel with asbestos-covered wire, full wrap under the screws, nice 90 deg. bends......some of the most beautiful wiring I've ever seen...The Dead Men certainly knew pride in their work.

 

[readydave8]

I don't think he was talking about the Mason-Dixon line.

More likely the Rio Grande.

I was trying to tactfully suggest that geography doesn't have as much to do with it as people seem to think.

 

[jmellc]

I've seen a lot of those switches. They were very common about the 1930's to 1950's, I think.

Part of that wiring looked beyond what electrical tape could safely fix. Time to pull to ceiling & crawl space & replace wiring in the wall. Then, no telling what you find further back.

I've had the same problem w/cuts not matching, boxes covered, etc. Some carpenters are good about watching detail if I leave a note that matching cuts are critical or if I leave a fire ring in the box as a guide. But it boils down to "some are better than others". I also had a cabinet brought in that had a recessed space for a switchbox. Nice touch, but it was for the little 1/2 " box, smallest one I know of. Had to cut it out for a larger box. Had to explain to cabinet man that the box size was not even legal for a switch with only 2 wires, only use was for a "dead end" box.

 

[wxstevens]

Worked on a kitchen today and discovered a wall three or four inches behind another wall. Plastic outlet boxes had the backs cut off them to allow four to five romex to be tied together. I lost count of boxes buried in the inner wall. Owners were horrified and wanted it done right though, so that's reassuring.