House 'Bashing'

[AlanWirral]

Well to help explain what i'm on about...

Over the last 3 years before i got made redundant (boss left to work offshore) the job's i was used to mainly involved Domestic work inc Problem solving/Rewires and working in mansions etc doing posh work if you get me with the odd grotty job maybe once a week. On the Commercial and Industrial side it was the usual stuff like Machine/Motor supplies etc.

I've been doing 'Temp' work for two different contractors over the last 8/9 weeks and i must say i've been doing some proper ****** work

The guys i'm with at the moment are renovating council houses. What they do is the bathroom and the kitchen on the electrical side and also smokes. We have to pull a new ring into the kitchen and then chase out all the sockets/spares inc second fix at the same time....Cooker cable inc switch...change the board...wire in and fit a smoke and heat detector. New pendents and switches on the lights keeping them dropped for the plasterers. All this including cleaning up (which with all the rubble takes ages at times) Loading and unloading the van and of course sorting any problems! Oh and the bodges i've seen already after a week would make you cringe.

How long would that take 3 of you? A day ish? We have to do TWO of these a day or you lose your job glad i don't work for them full time! Now i've done some serious grafting in my last career and also in this one but FFS some lads out there REALLY get crapped on. Not what i imagined how an electrician works day to day. Seriously making me question wether it's worth still doing this job if this is the type of work i'll be doing.

Rant Over...lol

 

[AlanWirral]

NIC bugsy

 

[robsparky1975]

Someone is making a lot of money on those jobs and its not the sparkies,our time will come,ive been doing some storage heater installs,one a couple of weeks ago,on my own,3 heaters, new wiring from scratch,new main earth bonding,new ccu,full test and all the risk assessment forms blah blah,these people gave a day,i laughed,i done it 1 1/2 days flat out,then i found a guide on the install labour cost £700,talk about take the p,this dog will have his day soon enough,so much wanna go it alone,now just a bad time,still there is the future to look forward to,5 years from now i will look back and laugh at my whining.

 

[AlanWirral]

Needless to say the MD is driving a spanking new 6 series Beemer.

That's what will keep me going Rob one day I'll be earning decent money doing some proper quality work.

 

[Olec]

Thanks Jason, I hope not mate

In regards to the certs and testing I forgot to add the paperwork for the client/company has to be all filled in and also the test certs on the day. I don't go near them thank god but the lad who does is only 20 and not 'Fully' qualified. He looked at me a few days ago and he had the last years test sheet in his hands, he just copied the readings down Inc ZE, r1 r2 etc and said...'They won't have changed much from last year anyway' my heart sank when he said that.

Oh dear! of course the've changed it was a different install last year!!!
I know its a pain mate but at the moment you have to think is it better than nothing. The fact that it's bothering you can only be a good sign as it shows you have standards and take pride in your work.

 

[AlanWirral]

Yeah I your right Owen! It's making me realise how much 'Bodging' annoys me and goes against my work ethics. I only have tomorrow then next week to go then the guy I'm covering for is back.

 

[brucelee]

This is how they did my house mate kitchen refurb council
came in smashed big holes either side of joists all down one side
chopped into joists and clipped there right next to the wall
just used jbs to connect the new drops for rings to existing legs stuufed em back up
ccu no warning label for two colours no schedule fixed identifying circuits
none of Cbs identified
sockets look like they were very drunk as they went round the work top they got lower and lower
there way of chasing the bricks for the backboxes was to just knock them into cavity with lump hammer
installed 45a dp switch for cooker directly over the cooker until i pulled there gaffer
so instead of moving the cable over and the backbox 2 minutes work as it was chased
they just extended out that backbox using connector blocks and put another to the left of cooker and then back to the first backbox more connector blocks then down to the outlet and then just let tiler put tiles over the backbox with the chock blocks nice and a jb under the floor connecting old conductors to new wouldnt mind but ccu only 4 feet away from first socket
so were we had no jbs as it was rewired completly in 1990 now we have loads over the kitchen and hidden connector blocks in wall
proper job
there is no way they tested as soon as they had finished scewing last socket on they were gone onto the next
because they are on price it just gets botched

 

[Guest123]

Couldn't read all the posts.......started shaking with rage at post 5 or 6 so had to stop.

There will always be them and us, just sad to see it.

 

[AlanWirral]

Lenny you don't half cheer me up! just waiting outside work for the lads to come...can't wait to see what I can 'unlearn' today

 

[pennywise]

Best one I've witnessed is a guy through crimping new cables onto old then shoving them back up the tube or down into the floor for the sockets then claiming it had been rewired

 

[Paul.M]

Yeah I your right Owen! It's making me realise how much 'Bodging' annoys me and goes against my work ethics. I only have tomorrow then next week to go then the guy I'm covering for is back.

If your only there another week I'd use it to collect info on any job that you believe is unsafe or needs testing correctly. To rewire a house then copy the old cert??? If your not going to burn any bridges in the way of work I would inform lba.

 

[AlanWirral]

Well what a day again! Absolute nightmare and wish I hadn't bothered going in but we REALY need the money at the moment as we have a baby due and the bills still need paying.

I wouldn't say anything i've seen has been 'Dangerous' BUT the likes of taping up a live cable that has been spured off a socket and shoving it back up into the floor...another test cert calamity. The lad i'm filling in for will be getting a roasting when he comes back! The foreman went to second fix one of there jobs, cut through a 2.5 in a socket box and BANG! Wrecked his snips needless to say. Basically the lad had connected up one of the legs of the ring into the RCBO that was meant for the 1.5 for the smokes. Oh dear Oh dear.

The more you rush the more mistakes you make, and you'll agree with electrics there is compromise.

 

[kevben]

Hi al,sorry to hear about your plight but my advise is, once you have left you MUST INFORM the NIC, I guess you can stay annon. These joker,s need to be sorted urgently as they are going to cause serious harm one day. It makes me feel sick that these prats are going out every weekend with good money for doing a **** job!. Don't feel any sympathy or compation as if they are truelly qualified they should know better - regardless of the current situation!
The biggest prat who should be brought to task is the Boss. He knows exactly what is going on and needs to be sorted. Hopefully if all the Dodgy works are investigated and he is brought to task to put right, it will wipe out his presumable smug face every payday until he puts his house in order.
We have all seen these people - thinking they are the dogs ******** for doing * all. They need reporting NOW!

I need to add that i am not bitter , just ****** off that these people are so lazy and think they are cleverer than the rest.

JUSTICE FOR ALL !!!!!

 

[sliemasteve]

Suppose something goes wrong with a serious injury or worse. You are a participant or an observer the barrister for the injured party or surviving spouse, parent etc asks you about the quality of the work. He would take you down a line of questioning ending with what sholuld a reasonable person or tradesman have done in that situation. The minimum response in a civilised society is an anonymous note or call to the Council's whistleblower section.

|Even if there was no accident or dangerous consequence the Council tax payer should be getting a better deal. The profesional response is to in form the appropriate authority.

There is no point in other sections of this web site to complain of poor standards elsewhere ..such as DIY etc

Be on the side of the angels and not the beasts.

best wishes

 

[IQ Electrical]

Well what a day again! Absolute nightmare and wish I hadn't bothered going in but we REALY need the money at the moment as we have a baby due and the bills still need paying.

I wouldn't say anything i've seen has been 'Dangerous'

If "copying the previous results including Ze" isn't dangerous then what is?

That means that in effect, the property could have no earth at all !

I'd have to have this out, firstly with the 'spark' filling in the paperwork, secondly with the boss and thirdly if it still wasn't resolved to my satisfaction, the NICEIC by way of a written report.

Putting the safety aspect briefly to one side, these are the sort of jobs that we sometimes loose by £25.00 a property or some other paltry amount and I always wonder how anyone can go in at such a low price-the answer is here in this thread!

There's an on old saying that "contractors make money on what they don't do".

Do us all a favour and blow your whistle, you obviously don't deserve to be party to such reckless scum.

 

[bristollspark]

hi, house bashing is all that i did for 2 years,rewiring housing association kitchens,we had to do three a week each.i have heard that a local contractor rewires a three bed house in two days!,the guys must be falling over each other