Ok, I haven't posted for a while, so now I am! I will post a thread a day for 5 days if I can find anything to say, and instead of covering numerous matters in one thread I'll spread them out.
This initial post is about two things, first of which is I can't see the blue "New Posts" button at the bottom of a thread. Secondly, and more of a rant:
Kitchen fitters! Need I say more? No, life's too short. Suffice to say that while there may be some good ones, I've yet to encounter one. Why do other trades conspire to make an electrician's job difficult? A customer wanted some under-cupboard lighting but the kitchen guys, who used their own "electrician", forgot to install the under-cupboard lighting, the customer was abroad when they finished the kitychen, sent him photos and he paid them. He comes back home a few weekd later and discovers the lack of lighting, tried to contact said fitters to no avail. Ok, I said, there's a small gap behind the units so we can run cables down there...but no, we can't because the cabinets are hung on full width DIN rail stuff so no access at the top.
Some very tricky drilling created holes for wiring, and a feed from the cooker hood supply should sort this out, but then we find there's battens or noggins halfway down the back of the cupboards too. Eventually had to drill into the tops of two cabinets, right in the corner and put the wiring in tiny trunking inside with an exit hole at the bottom. OK, the trunking is discreet and hardly seen when the cupboards are full, but it should never have come to that.
The plinth lights were flickering...I don't need to tell you what a rat's nest I found under there, I'm sure many of you will have seen the sort of mess I mean. As further evidence of the skill of these fitters, they had used folded-up bits of cardboard to level the units at the floor...no plastic shims, wedges or packers, just bits of smoke packets.
Rant over.
This initial post is about two things, first of which is I can't see the blue "New Posts" button at the bottom of a thread. Secondly, and more of a rant:
Kitchen fitters! Need I say more? No, life's too short. Suffice to say that while there may be some good ones, I've yet to encounter one. Why do other trades conspire to make an electrician's job difficult? A customer wanted some under-cupboard lighting but the kitchen guys, who used their own "electrician", forgot to install the under-cupboard lighting, the customer was abroad when they finished the kitychen, sent him photos and he paid them. He comes back home a few weekd later and discovers the lack of lighting, tried to contact said fitters to no avail. Ok, I said, there's a small gap behind the units so we can run cables down there...but no, we can't because the cabinets are hung on full width DIN rail stuff so no access at the top.
Some very tricky drilling created holes for wiring, and a feed from the cooker hood supply should sort this out, but then we find there's battens or noggins halfway down the back of the cupboards too. Eventually had to drill into the tops of two cabinets, right in the corner and put the wiring in tiny trunking inside with an exit hole at the bottom. OK, the trunking is discreet and hardly seen when the cupboards are full, but it should never have come to that.
The plinth lights were flickering...I don't need to tell you what a rat's nest I found under there, I'm sure many of you will have seen the sort of mess I mean. As further evidence of the skill of these fitters, they had used folded-up bits of cardboard to level the units at the floor...no plastic shims, wedges or packers, just bits of smoke packets.
Rant over.
