Other trades:- Give us sparkies a break

[littlespark]

I was asked over the phone to come and move an outlet as it was in the way of a new kitchen cabinet. A couple of inches to the left to miss the unit.
"Sure", I said "I'm not busy today. Give me half an hour to get there"
By the time I got there... within the half hour, the kitchen fitter had given up for the day.
This is what I found. Screwed to the wall, and screwed to the unit on the other side. At least the worktop wasn't in place.

Oh... and I did replace this flex outlet with a socket. There is a DP switch above, i'm not cutting moulded plugtops off a brand new dishwasher... Yes, dishwasher. There's still pipes to run BEHIND this cabinet.

 

[Wilko]

Tempting as it may be leaving unsafe cables when you know a plasterer will follow will likely land you in the dock should a spread get fried.
Don't try this on site kids.

Agreed !
But I do like the idea of sticking on a 3 terminal Wago

 

[telectrix]

Tempting as it may be leaving unsafe cables when you know a plasterer will follow will likely land you in the dock should a spread get fried.
Don't try this on site kids.

be one less to make a mess though.

 

[Octopus]

At least we sparks don't make the Top 5

Citizens Advice reveals top five botched building jobs - BBC News - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41048170?postid=127912497#comment_127912497

 

[Marti]

First two weeks of my apprenticeship were spent chasing out 47mm boxes on a couple of £1.1m new builds. Dopy dry wall installers applied the dot and dabbed with 40, yep forty millimetres of adhesive. Loads of space for cables but trying to screw back the socket on to tabs so far away they were in a different time zone. Gotta empathise with a boss who paid two weeks wages for nothing even if it was useful experience for me.

 

[JK-Electrical]

Pete the plasterer is my sworn enemy. Willie wetpants, Kevin kitchen-fitter and Dave decorator are not too far behind in my death-list though.

How long does it take to run the edge of a trowel along the inside of a back-box to remove excess skim? All of 10 seconds at the most. So why do I continually find myself wasting precious time trimming hardened plaster skim from dozens of back-boxes all because some lazy b****** plasterer couldn't be bothered to tidy-up his own mess? What is wrong with these selfish, inconsiderate imbeciles? Is being incredibly stupid a trade requirement for a plasterer?

And what about the idiots who plaster round sockets and switches thus ensuring that the accessory becomes permanently bonded to the adjacent wall thus guaranteeing that the surrounding plaster-work will be damaged should the switch or socket need to be removed.

Then there are the f***wits who consider the cables you have left protruding from the ceiling to supply the rows of LED battens that you will be installing on your second-fix to be getting in the way and decide to just push them up into the ceiling void so they can skim the ceiling quicker. Screw the poor electrician who wasted his time crawling around inside a ceiling void installing the cables and measuring the ceiling so to determine exactly where holes need to be drilled so to maintain equidistance between fittings, and who will have even more of his time wasted having to do f***ing do it all over again. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

 

[sparkdog]

Well said Sir!

 

[Leader]

Yep, I had plasterers decide that they would swap my cables around because the lengths were better that way. Never mind they were all labelled up and now we're incorrect. ****heads.

 

[Deleted member 9648]

I've put a disagree on post 20 because you cant expect a spread to skim a ceiling to a high standard when there's bunches of cables hanging out every couple of feet. Where downlights are to be used all that is required is an accurate plan of installed wiring positions and the hole can be drilled and cables pulled through after skimming. That's what I do.
Try skimming a ceiling yourself with a forest of hanging cables and then see who's the f***wit.
Other than that bit I agree entirely with your post!

 

[Octopus]

I've put a disagree on post 20 because you cant expect a spread to skim a ceiling to a high standard when there's bunches of cables hanging out every couple of feet. Where downlights are to be used all that is required is an accurate plan of installed wiring positions and the hole can be drilled and cables pulled through after skimming. That's what I do.
Try skimming a ceiling yourself with a forest of hanging cables and then see who's the f***wit.
Other than that bit I agree entirely with your post!

On the basis you have drilled the downlights holes , why would you leave the cables dangling? That's asking for trouble imho

 

[Deleted member 9648]

On the basis you have drilled the downlights holes , why would you leave the cables dangling? That's asking for trouble imho

I don't drill the downlight holes until after the ceiling is skimmed, it's also difficult to skim a ceiling full of holes, just as it is to skim around hanging cables. As long as an accurate plan of cable positions is made there's no problem and the plasterer can do his job.
I have done a fair bit of plastering, including ceilings, it's only when you have a go yourself you find out what other trades are up against. To skim a ceiling to a high standard you need a flat uninterrupted surface,not full of holes with cables everywhere, and the sparkies will be the first to slag off a poor finish.

 

[telectrix]

i do the same. it's the boarders who are the worst, trapping cables under joists and/or screwing them.

 

[Rpa07]

i do the same. it's the boarders who are the worst, trapping cables under joists and/or screwing them.

They're too busy cussin' to be paying attention!

 

[Phil Thompson]

I've put a disagree on post 20 because you cant expect a spread to skim a ceiling to a high standard when there's bunches of cables hanging out every couple of feet. Where downlights are to be used all that is required is an accurate plan of installed wiring positions and the hole can be drilled and cables pulled through after skimming. That's what I do.
Try skimming a ceiling yourself with a forest of hanging cables and then see who's the f***wit.
Other than that bit I agree entirely with your post!

Yeah but the post you disagree with is about batten fittings, not downlights lol

 

[ED17]

We had a job where the kitchen fitter drilled and screwed through three separate drops to fix his wall cupboards even though the cables were in newly plastered chases.

His reason was "that's the only place for my brackets "

 

[GlenTavener]

Still not as bad as a plasterer once deciding to trim the cables that were coming out of the wall for wall lights in a pub! as in his words they were a bit long and preventing him from getting a good smooth finish... dopey **** cut them back so just about reached the backbox... thankfully we had used conduit and could run new ones by pulling through.

Had this very problem some years ago. The young electricians I had working for me came back from a site saying plasterers were cutting our cables short had told them they left them long enough a refurbishment job. My instructions were that they must inform the plasterers if they did that again they, on my order, would rip the cables right out of the walls so that they could route replacement ones that were long enough. A plumber friend once told me the problem really is that we more technically minded people have to work with those who only work with sticks and bricks and obviously there will be limitations on their part. To be fair though have usually found other trades more than helpful, if there is going to be an awkward bunch it usually is the plasterers. Loud bad language scarcely drowned out by very loud radios.