OTHER CONTRACTS TERMINATING IN YOUR GEAR

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Alwayslearningelec

Senior Member
Location
NJ
Occupation
Estimator
If you buy switchgear and there is another electrical contract going on at the same time as your and the other contractor has to land wires in your switchgear do you need to witness or be there for it since it's your switchgear? Thanks.
 
You tell them to have at it and the warranty belongs to them afterwords.


Roger
 
roger said:
You tell them to have at it and the warranty belongs to them afterwords.


Roger
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Warranty for what? Do you expect them to warranty your switchgear because they landed wire in it? Really?
Or do you mean they warranty for their work is theirs and not yours? that I can understand but to expect someone else to cover your switchgear is ridiculous.
 
qcroanoke said:
Warranty for what? Do you expect them to warranty your switchgear because they landed wire in it? Really?
Or do you mean they warranty for their work is theirs and not yours? that I can understand but to expect someone else to cover your switchgear is ridiculous.
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I'm very serious. If another contractor has been in gear that I furnished I could't know what they might have damaged.

I have an project where this scenario is ongoing, the others can only pull their conductors into our gear and we will land them, of course this is built into our price.


Roger
 
roger said:
I'm very serious. If another contractor has been in gear that I furnished I could't know what they might have damaged.

I have an project where this scenario is ongoing, the others can only pull their conductors into our gear and we will land them, of course this is built into our price.


Roger
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So if we land the electrical in something that someone else installs it should be our responsibility to replace it if something goes wrong with the equipment?
 
I would get the switch gear inspected and passed with a bill to the owners before I would want other electrical contactors working with the switch gear.
but that me. I can be a big JO if I haven't been paid yet.
 
roger said:
I'm very serious. If another contractor has been in gear that I furnished I could't know what they might have damaged.

I have an project where this scenario is ongoing, the others can only pull their conductors into our gear and we will land them, of course this is built into our price.


Roger
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Let me see here, if I supplied and installed a load center, panel board, LV swbd, MV swgr, and MCC etc, then what, it just sits there until I get paid? It?s supposed to supply something with power. I would like to understand that a qualified person who has knowledge of safe electrical practices and procedures should have the where with all to terminate the circuit(s) as may be required in these assemblies.
with all of the Eaton and Westinghouse equipment that I have provided over 21 years never once did I encounter and grief form the installing contractor complaining about others terminating in the gear. It's common practice to do so. I would venture to guess that there are some butchers out there who will mess things up though. But the people that I have worked with have never complained of such an occurrence.
But, if you build this into your price if it works for you, great. The only place where I may have run into this may have been a union shop where there were those who wanted to protect their jobs where one guy stands around watching the other guy work.
 
templdl said:
The only place where I may have run into this may have been a union shop
where there were those who wanted to protect their jobs where one guy
stands around watching the other guy work.
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they really do that? wow. good to know. glad you clarified that for me.
who would have thought those scum could do that.... of course, realize
that probably a fair chunk of the people reading this are those standing
around, do nothing parasites... probably posting on this forum instead
of working...

until a piece of equipment i'm furnishing has been ACCEPTED in WRITING
by the customers representative, meaning that my one year period
of warranty has begun, other people working on it, modifying it,
doing whatever to it doesn't work.

once i have signed release from the customer, they can do anything they
want to or with it. it's theirs.
 
Regardless of a another contractor adding a load to a switch gear if the work we did failed we own it.

Obviously if the failure is the other contractors work, or the failure can be shown to be the other contractors fault we would fight paying for it.
 
templdl said:
Let me see here, if I supplied and installed a load center, panel board, LV swbd, MV swgr, and MCC etc, then what, it just sits there until I get paid?
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Your thinking as a supplier, we are discussing an installed working item when the warranty period starts. (and in some cases before)

Here's how it works
  • We bid and win a project
  • I award the gear package to the low bidder (there might be an exception to the low bidder at times depending on circumstances)
  • I submit on this gear package
  • The gear package is approved
  • We install the gear and all associated items (this includes wiring)
  • After the final inspections and C O we start a one year warranty covering materials and workmanship
During this one year period if someone were to come along and tap into our raceways, extend circuits, move fixtures, move equipment, add components in gear, etc..., then our warranty as we wrote it is null and void.


BTW, let's leave Union / Non-Union innuendos out of the conversation please

Roger
 
[
QUOTE=roger;1386613]Your thinking as a supplier, we are discussing an installed working item when the warranty period starts. (and in some cases before)

Here's how it works
  • We bid and win a project
  • I award the gear package to the low bidder (there might be an exception to the low bidder at times depending on circumstances)
  • I submit on this gear package
  • The gear package is approved
  • We install the gear and all associated items (this includes wiring)
  • After the final inspections and C O we start a one year warranty covering materials and workmanship
During this one year period if someone were to come along and tap into our raceways, extend circuits, move fixtures, move equipment, add components in gear, etc..., then our warranty as we wrote it is null and void.
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Sounds like good business practice.
But if some one wants to take on the responsibility of what some one dose 6 months later then have at it. Not me
 
jumper said:
You touch it, you own it, unless otherwise specified. IE, would you warranty a piece of gear someone else fooled with? Not me.:happyno:
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yeah you're talking switch gear, I was thinking more in the lines of A/C units, furnaces, H2o heaters, and similar products that someone else installed and I land wire,
but those are different
you're talking different company same trade

Had resi job I could tell without a doubt that someone added a wire for another switch, no one, my employees, HO, or builder took responsibility for it, but the builder and I knew it was something that I did not install, and I can and did prove it to the builders satisfaction. That area of switches was no longer under my warranty

i will agree with you and Roger on that point :thumbsup:
 
roger said:
After the final inspections and C O we start a one year warranty covering materials and workmanship


During this one year period if someone were to come along and tap into our raceways, extend circuits, move fixtures, move equipment, add components in gear, etc..., then our warranty as we wrote it is null and void.
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I don't even think local law would let us take that position.
 
You can claim all kinds of things in a warranty statement, but as a practical matter it is going to be hard to make some exclusions stick in court or with a customer.

Are you going to exclude everything from warranty because the customer's electrician opened up an MCC to replace a fuse?
 
petersonra said:
You can claim all kinds of things in a warranty statement, but as a practical matter it is going to be hard to make some exclusions stick in court or with a customer.

Are you going to exclude everything from warranty because the customer's electrician opened up an MCC to replace a fuse?
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Replacing a fuse is not working on the equipment. Trying to nit pick the verbage of the posters who are in the "not my problem" crowd, soed not reflect what the point I think most are trying to make.

I am with the "not my problem" crowd here. If Simplex installed the fire alarm system and then Joe Blow came along, purchased some duct detectors off of Ebay and installed them, do you think Simplex is going to honor any warranty?

Regarding court issues, I would expect that once someone else touches my stuff, the court would place the burden on them to prove that the equipment itself or my work was the direct cause of the issue. Normally the burden would be on me to prove that the issue was caused by circumstances beyond my control to void the warranty. So, yes, I think the court would back me up. To expect that the warranty is void just because we say so is not what I think others here meant either. I have made that statement. That said if the customer called me out because the B phase lug was burnt up because it was not tightened enough, I am probably going to fix it, because I would believe that it was bad craftmenship by us. If the bus burned up because a breaker was not properly tightened and the panel was factory assembled, then they can get the new electrician out there to fix it, or pay me up front and deal with the factory. It is their equipment and they had someone else work on it. I no klonger feel obligated to spend the time and deal with the factory for the repair.

Lets face it, if we use this argument it is protectionism. I don't want someone else to go in to a building I am working on just becase they were $3 cheaper. So I will use any legal means I have to prevent it. I think you would be a fool not to.

I have used this argument many times. It has never failed me yet. I have not had to go to court over it, but the customers and GC's I have dealt with accepted the premise.
 
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