todays mess

went to a site today to install some temporary security lighting, the electrical work is being done by a large firm from the north west and how terrible it was! The first thing I noticed as I got out of my car, was a lump of SWA coming out of the main building, this went into a 32A yellow(110v) trailing socket, connected to this was a lump of SY cable feeding a couple of portacabins! Inside the building was a temp supply off the recently installed mains, 4 twin sockets fed from a fairly big CU, again temp, no rcd anywhere,not even on the supply to the cabins! There was a CAT 5 cable that was twisted and kinked so badly it was clearly damaged, yet had been left in, and the wall was just about to be boarded, there was also a lot of stud walls, there were holes cut in these, none of which was straight or level, they plan on using fastafix boxes, why?

There were numerous outside light cables emerging from holes drilled in the wall, the Tails protruding, were in some cases over 2 metres long, even the cables left at switches and socket points were almost a metre long, that's some waste!

The property is massive, and has a proper fire alarm, various detectors fitted in the wrong place, I could go on for ages listing the faults, apparently the bill for electrics is 70k! how much of this is spent on the amount of scrap cable due to excessive length I dread to think, talk about a mess.

Phil, I have recently done a fair bit of general labouring on commercial jobs, like domestic, it all seems to a be a race to the bottom price wise, almost everything in LSF Twin & Earth, fast fix boxes rather than metal back boxes properly mounted to structure, I shake MY head and wonder when I see some new electrical work now.

Andy Guinness

I was speaking to a fella from Portadown today, during the conversation we both said "better looking at it than for it" at the exact same time, he has his own firm with men working for him. He tells them "lads, I don't mind if there is 5m of extra cable left over, but if it is half a metre short, I will be raging". The extra cable hanging can also be pulled in in case you have an unsure customer who is prone to changing their mind.

And just what is wrong with fast fix boxes, as long as you choose a good make?

Nothing Dave, its just the way I do things, but one of the jobs I was on the PB boxes fell away from the wall due to a flood (admittedly not an issue due to install), I just do things differently is all, its just Me, I apologise if I gave the wrong end of the stick, so to speak.

Andy Guinness

phil d said:

the electrical work is being done by a large firm  / 

apparently the bill for electrics is 70k! how much of this is spent on the amount of scrap cable due to excessive length I dread to think, talk about a mess.

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A large firm probably purchases its cable in bulk at reduced costs, and as Rapparee said its not uncommon for the final precise location of an accessory to be unknown at the time while you are pulling some cables in. So a meter or two of extra cable is unlikely to break the bank and can save a lot of hassle later. Another phrase sometimes used is "you can always cut it shorter, but you can't stretch it longer". A lot of PVC accessory cable is only pence per metre, so unlikely to ramp up a 70k bill? Even at B&Q prices wasting a few 100m drums of cable is not going to make much impact into 1k.

Doc H.  

Cable lengths? Measure in yards, order in metres. I have a chain measure (22Yd) with 5ft missing in the middle where a train ran over it, great for measuring cable runs.

Large companies can stand it as they get preferential prices and service. I needed 400M of 500mm² cambric singles.

“When do you need it?”

“ASAP”

“Can’t do tomorrow, is the day after OK?”

The waste of cable for me was obvious and blatant, if a cable is left hanging then fair enough it can be moved, however in this case everything was worked out earlier, everything fits in with everything else, it's just people wasting stuff.

As for fastafix boxes, yes they have a place, I've used them on occasions, however if I'm wiring on a stud wall,then obviously it hasn't been boarded so it's no trouble to stick a noggin in at the correct position and use a proper box, likewise if the wall is dot and dab, it's easy enough to chase the block and drop a 35 mm box in.

Oh no wait, that means cutting a bit of timber, or getting a chisel out, far too much effort for a lot of the dog rough bone idle people in the game today!

As for the lack of rcd protection on the temp circuits, there's absolutely NO excuse, by the very nature of them, in most if not all cases a temp installation needs to be done with the utmost care,lets be honest, in a finished job you are not going to encounter puddles of water, or damp, unless it's a bathroom or the like, building sites are always wet, muddy places, perfect for that severe electric shock.

Building sites and puddles.

Reminds me of fault finding a tripping rcd on a  farm. It turned out to be a caravan hookup lead. Plugged in in a garage, out the window across the yard to a caravan housing a worker. The 'van was so far away there were 2 leads connected together, and the male / female joint of two commando's was completely submerged in a puddle.