Install practices which annoy you

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Phoenix

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Thinking about things that are done by original installers that annoy us when we go back years later

To start:

Equipment on ceilings fixed to loose bits of scrap timber in the roof above held down by the apprentice, its alright until someone on his own wants to change pull switch, fitting or whatever (in my case backbox for 50A shower isolator because hager has changed the design from the old ashley days and the newer switches fowl on the fixing lugs of the odler boxes!) and you unscrew it, and then cant refix because its not held in place. Even worse when its done under a carpeted floor that was open at the original second fix stage and you latyer have no access.

Anyone else? (Kerch, I might have to limit the number you can submit!)

 
junction boxes hidden under floors - a practice still done by the few these days ............

Sockets behind white goods 

The IET making petty changes to justify new revisions of the big book and introducing more errors

😀

 
For me, it's idiot builders that build out of brick and plaster directly onto the brick.

I am SO glad 95% of the houses up here are timber frame and plasterboard.  I really hate it when I have to do alterations on a brick house that involves chasing plaster and brick.  Stupid prehistoric building method.

 
Kerch, I might have to limit the number you can submit!)


Basically everything!

YESSS luxnar down lights

batch 1 massive fault.....total shytte

batch 2 replacements.....male and femal connections cahnaged so hot a starightbexćhange

batch 3 totally different connection ( wago style but think "runny rancid incontinent dog faeces version) which is also,deeper and wider so won't fit

MCB s being withdrawn

contactors from out of area using shytte that you cannot source locally.....my lad is moving to a new warehouse 10 times the size of his old one..contractors have done basic install 

4 lights

1 socket

1 roller door supply

bloody Contactum 3ph boards....plastic conduit on ceiling in open areas held on push in clips

he has actually taken over 4 units. One only has a roller shutter door, no personnel door. Roller is fed from RCBO. RCBO Trips, can't get in!

looked at me like an idiot when I mentioned it. I became terse 

on the plus plus side he is buying ( me ) a scissor lift 10m working height. I have 3 months work to do on it as well as my other stuff , so I will be there as and when. This way he hasn't got hire charges when it's not being used. AND it's always handy to have your own 😂😂😂😂

 
he has actually taken over 4 units. One only has a roller shutter door, no personnel door. Roller is fed from RCBO. RCBO Trips, can't get in!😂


RCBO tripping kinda irrelevant, itll only trip if there's a fault - same issue if the MCB trips, unless youd rather not fit one of those either

for situations like that, i fit a changeover contactor & an IP44 plug on the outside of the building. coil wired to the external supply. at least that way there is an option to get power to it

failing that, you can lift them high enough without doing damage. easier with a forklift but dont lift from the bottom, itll just jam in the guides and make things worse

 
Light fittings that are designed to take just ONE cable into each termination so no looping through.  DOUBLY absurd when they are down lights.  I often say the designer should be made to spend a week installing them, then be allowed to go back and make some changes to the design.

Came across an LED batten light (flourescent replacement)  It has a termination at both ends so you can loop through. Except you can't because there is no provision for linking the CPC through, just L and N

The trend for outside lights to come with a sealed termination and a short bit of flex.  Brilliant. Now an IP rated junction box needed to make it look ****e.

Oh and to add to the list "open" downlights.  You know the ones where you are supposed to clip the arm that holds the terminal box behind one fo the springs, but the spring pops off and you just can't get it back on with the spring wound up.  I now only fit fire rated downlights with a fixed terminal box by choice.

I have even come accross one downlight where you had to change the lamp from above, which in most cases means popping it out of the ceiling. I wonder how many lamp changes it will take before the hole in the plasterboard ceiling is too chewed up.

You might sense I am not a huge fan of downlights. 

 
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I used to hate the  Tungsten Halogen floods  for three reasons .

1)    Many had to be dismantled  to get a driver in for fixing ......  then  , at top of ladder , freezing cold ,  replace two nuts & bolts to fix fitting to bracket .  

2)   The holes in the fixing brackets  were always made big enough for your No8  screw to fall straight through ..so either washers that rust away  or drill smaller holes. 

3)    Return to  90 % of them  to change lamp  and they will be well rusted up   and the paint peeling off them .  

On the plus side...

All these modern LED floods  have a crank in the wall bracket to allow screwdriver access and are ready flexed up .     

 
Also  removing an accessory  to find the cables are all half an inch long  so it takes an hour  to change a light switch.  

yep, MCB would normally be adequate
Do you  think there is an obsession with fitting RCDs  these days? 

And  

People who fit the  B& Q type  flat plate posh  sockets ,say, onto  what was an adequate box  ....cables rammed &  trapped  behind the socket causing faults etc. 

 
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Dunno   ,  TP wiring not usually run  buried in walls .    When do you need RCD  for TP  fixed equipment ?        A big heating unit perhaps .   Don't think I ever fitted one TBH. 

 
Dunno   ,  TP wiring not usually run  buried in walls .    When do you need RCD  for TP  fixed equipment ?        A big heating unit perhaps .   Don't think I ever fitted one TBH. 


thinking more of sockets - fit loads of 16 & 32a sockets. for single phase, RCBO and a socket works fine. for TP its needs an RCD socket due to lack of RCD at the board

and a daft one for you, many TP sectional door motors come with a 16a 5 pin plug... the socket for it now requires RCD protection (even thoughts its up a height) yet if its changed to an isolator then its fine...

 
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There are a couple of things my small brain struggles to cope with .

1)    Domestic boards  numbered right to left  .  The only ones like that used to be the old Wylex  CU,s  which printed a warning in the lid , probably  caused by the misnomer that we have to count from the main switch .      Are we Chinese  writing R to L  I ask ?    I look to the left for No.1   and  these days its always No. 6 or 8 

2)    Like last week ,  I wired a  supply  to a 32A x 5 pin  socket for a  compressor...through exist trunking so wired in 5  x  6mm  x  6491X  .Because of a lifetime  using R /Y /Bu/  Bk    I still have to force myself to observe that  Blue & Black  are correct .   

 
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thinking more of sockets - fit loads of 16 & 32a sockets. for single phase, RCBO and a socket works fine. for TP its needs an RCD socket due to lack of RCD at the board

and a daft one for you, many TP sectional door motors come with a 16a 5 pin plug... the socket for it now requires RCD protection (even thoughts its up a height) yet if its changed to an isolator then its fine...
Thats interesting  as I also  fit  a lot of 16A  & 32A    x 5pin  sockets  at the printers .  This allows them to move some of the smaller machines around to suit themselves .    I don't fit  RCD sockets ,  I probably should  , but this is surface wiring & fixed machinery .    As you say ,  if it's  an isolator  there is no call for RCD .  

 
All these modern LED floods  have a crank in the wall bracket to allow screwdriver access and are ready flexed up .     
Which is handy as they usually need swapping every few days!

remember open faced halogen fittings?

got specd on a job here ( bearing in mind I live less than a mile from the sea)

ali reflectors corroded after about two,weeks!,

Another pet hate of mine is people.    Let's call them tw@s, that don't cut the tails off cable ties!  Or even worse, those that cable tie something to a lamp post and don't remove it when finished/let the wind destroy it and lamp post is covered in dead tie raps

probably got a couple more peeves if I think about it

....oooooh here's one

people in DIY stores wearing orange pennies and calling you mate. Offering advice and working for a company that has a Warranty/Guarantee policy that is as ethical and honest as HRH Sweaty Andy. Did I ever tell my ou about their

 
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