Sabotage

[Evans Electric]

Picking up from Betty's thread about a sabotaged house.

We were asked to finish off an extension to a protected housing centre. It had been 1st fixed builder wanted us to 2nd fix it. They had got rid of the original sparkies, never found out why or who they were. the work was in two common lounge areas.

We discovered all sorts of naughties like the following.

Earth wires cut within the metal sheathing, slit open the twin/E feeding sockets.

Neutrals cut feeding wall lights,also hidden in the sheathing. Cables cut flush with top of box. Nails hammered into the metal sheathings, in the centre and covered with a smidge of plaster to disguise them.

A twin /E neatly clipped to a roof joist, looks OK, but had been snipped clean through and a cable clip fixed over the cut. The builder said he was taking them to court, photographed it all but don't know if they did.

Anyone had similar ??

 

[welshwizard]

I was going to ask you to post the pics, but - if it is still an ongoing case, then maybe it is not such a good idea.

 

[patspark]

had a builder refuse to pay up put a ch timer on the lighting

cicuit under the floor boards no damdge to install and easy to remove

when he payed up 2 days of lights lights going off for an hour four times a day done the trick

 

[a1]

I like it, LOL. :^O

 

[Badger]

ill remember that one :^O patspark

 

[andyjw]

That is a great idea, must keep a couple of them in my van

 

[Andy™]

Anyone had similar ??

not so much deliberate sabotage, but at a previous employer, there were some dodgy installs i went to finish that had been 1st fixed by someone else in the company

 

[Evans Electric]

I was going to ask you to post the pics, but - if it is still an ongoing case, then maybe it is not such a good idea.

It was some years ago Welshie, but it was the builder who took the pics not me,.

Deke

 

[Evans Electric]

had a builder refuse to pay up put a ch timer on the lighting cicuit under the floor boards no damdge to install and easy to remove

when he payed up 2 days of lights lights going off for an hour four times a day done the trick

Reminds me of a job many years back when working for one of the big nationwide contractors on a new supermarket. They sacked a sparks, don't know why. Eight weeks after opening and many,many hours spent sending sparks back to trace why a row of lights kept going off at odd times, they found what he had done before packing his tools.

A Sangamo time switch in the ceiling space was switching the lights but the motor of the time switch was powered from the switch wire of a store room, so the fault was so random they had to keep sending blokes back for two months.

Served 'em right , they treated us like s**t. Applaud Smiley:^O

 

[betty swollocks]

love the idea patspark, in a perverse way i hope i can use that real soon

 

[patspark]

Reminds me of a job many years back when working for one of the big nationwide contractors on a new supermarket. They sacked a sparks, don't know why. Eight weeks after opening and many,many hours spent sending sparks back to trace why a row of lights kept going off at odd times, they found what he had done before packing his tools.A Sangamo time switch in the ceiling space was switching the lights but the motor of the time switch was powered from the switch wire of a store room, so the fault was so random they had to keep sending blokes back for two months.

Served 'em right , they treated us like s**t. Applaud Smiley:^O

i done something like that in a new b&q in the late 80s worked for an agency

the bosses thought we where the scum of the earth well at least we had lights

 

[RSR81]

Are there any other types of sabotage experienced? Knew of an office once that had intelligent lighting on a PIR from an adjacent office ?:| Wondered if that could be an example...or maybe a partition was re-aligned.

Is stuff being on the "wrong" switch an example?

 

[ProDave]

Not quite "sabotage" but when working in an estate agents office , I isolated the CU to do some work, and found the socket I wanted to use to extend the ring final was still live.

It turned out to be fed from the shop next door. A genuine mistake when one large shop was divided into two smaller ones.

The shop next door did not want to let me make alterations in their shop or even let me disconnect it, so they just came to a gentlemans agreement not to use that socket.

 

[batty]

It was a ladies boutique though.

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

Many many years ago when i worked for Haden Young on multi-million pound contracts, even as an apprentice i was shocked at the sabotage. This ranged from snipping cables in conduit boxes up to drilling 20mm holes through 75mm + armoureds. I experienced brass stops in couplings on conduit runs and pyros being hammered flat.

 

[alpha spark]

When I was a apprentice we were wiring some offices the spark and I drilled all our holes in joists ready for wiring but delivery didn't arrive for 2 days so we went to another job while delivery came. 3 days later we come back after cable had been delivered only to find plumber had run all his pipes through are holes the spark was fuming but didn't make a song and dance about it next day brought a carrier bag of marbles in and put them throughout the building. Few weeks later after plumber was testing nothing would work it was hilarious he nearly had to check every pipe

In his pipe work

 

[RSR81]

Thanks...so could have been a genuine mistake...

Part of me had just wondered whether office had belonged to a David Brent type and whether one of his annoyed collagues (perhaps a good looking one) had got someone to fix up the PIR in a, er, novel way as a prank

 

[ProDave]

When I was a apprentice we were wiring some offices the spark and I drilled all our holes in joists ready for wiring but delivery didn't arrive for 2 days so we went to another job while delivery came. 3 days later we come back after cable had been delivered only to find plumber had run all his pipes through are holes the spark was fuming but didn't make a song and dance about it next day brought a carrier bag of marbles in and put them throughout the building. Few weeks later after plumber was testing nothing would work it was hilarious he nearly had to check every pipeIn his pipe work

when I bought my first house, my dad (plumber) helped me re plumb it. To save money we used some old copper pipe he had kicking about.

When we turned on the hot water, we got just the tiniest dribble from the hot tap in the bathroom. Eventually he cut the pipe to have a look, and one section was blocked solid with mud where it had been out in his garden.

 

[Manator]

Not a bad response for a 4 year old topic, and still sabotage occurs :shakehead

 

[philbas]

I do know it's a four year old thread. but if someone is deliberately sabotaging work and making it dangerous. they should be reported to the Police for attempted murder.