Pronstar’s “living with the in-laws” adventures

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  • popsgarland

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    Aug 24, 2011
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    I had to buy it online at Home Depot, had them pick it up.

    Contractor didn’t network the smoke detectors together per request from prior inspection…that was one issue.

    The rest are a bunch of wires in the attic that need junction boxes…was supposed to have been done months ago.

    You should have hired me as your superintendent for this project. I would have made sure all of the above was completed when they should have been and way before final inspection.


    :beat:
     

    bbbass

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    Yeah multiple times LOL

    One of the things I used to build into my contracts with contractors was a 5% bonus for on-time, proper completion of the project... and a 5% penalty for failure to properly complete and finish on-time.

    Back when I was doing private inspections of newly built homes, my punchlist of "discrepancies" was often several single spaced pages worth. (I have found furnaces full of sawdust, and floor heating registers/ducts that had been used by workers as urinals. Disconnected plumbing, plumbing cross connects, saw damaged siding, damaged roofing, missing safety rails, non-working smoke detectors, missing junction boxes, improper wiring, non-functional GFIs, etc, and all this was after building officials had signed off on the permit completion.)
     

    Brains

    One of the idiots
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    Apr 9, 2013
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    I imagine your punch list wasn't too bad compared to ours. For example, this is cabinet lighting installed by a "licensed" electrician. I didn't hire him, we hired a GC to do the whole project, but I have my doubts. If you look closely, the painters painted around the lighting. Painstakingly taping them off, when they could have very easily just pulled them down and bagged them. All for naught anyway, because not only was that wiring not going to fly, I ended up switching out the lights for better units that actually matched the color temp of the rest of the lighting, and employed *gasp* a real junction box. The lamp cord went away too, and those grounds actually got connected too.

    1679775680207.png


    1679775757157.png
     

    Tblack89

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    Apr 3, 2022
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    Hutto tx
    I imagine your punch list wasn't too bad compared to ours. For example, this is cabinet lighting installed by a "licensed" electrician. I didn't hire him, we hired a GC to do the whole project, but I have my doubts. If you look closely, the painters painted around the lighting. Painstakingly taping them off, when they could have very easily just pulled them down and bagged them. All for naught anyway, because not only was that wiring not going to fly, I ended up switching out the lights for better units that actually matched the color temp of the rest of the lighting, and employed *gasp* a real junction box. The lamp cord went away too, and those grounds actually got connected too.

    View attachment 379628

    View attachment 379629
    That was definitely not done by a licensed electrician.
     

    leVieux

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    Both FIL and MIL have lived with us for 4+ years now. FIL passed about 18mo’s ago. So just the MIL now. It would annoy me on occasion but for the most part it’s been fine. My MIL is quiet and easy to get along with. I do miss my FIL playing his squeeze box on Saturday mornings. I like Cajun and Zydeco music and he was pretty good. All in all, it has been fine and a very minor inconvenience. My wife got to spend some quality time with her Pops before the cancer came back and took him.

    the other option…moving to LA… Noooooooo! Living with Cajuns (all on ‘em but me) in your house is one thing… be surrounded by them is another… they are fun to visit and a couple of my wife’s cousins always have some home made Shine to share.
    <>

    I would make you FAT !

    But, to die Happy. . . . . .

    .
     

    Army 1911

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    Mar 17, 2008
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    Here's what happens when you have a 7 year old kid helping his dad wire a ceiling light on the second floor. He sends me down to the basement to replace the fuse for that circuit. So I run down two flight, screw in the fuse. run up two flights and tell him it's in. Mom calls us down to lunch. After lunch Dad says touch those wires and see if it hot. I told him I knew it was because I put the fuse in just before lunch, He says well just touch them to make sure. So I grab both wires as hard as I can because I knew it wouldn't bother me (a trick dear old Dad taught me last week). No reaction from me so I said it was okay. Dad goes up the ladder with the light fixture, brushes both wires which shocks him and he falls of the ladder. I run to the door yelling next time you'll believe me. I didn't come home till dinner. Dad was still mad at dinner but i think it was mostly at Mom for laughing at him about it.
     

    TexasRedneck

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    Jan 23, 2009
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    When we had our place built back in 2004, it didn't take long for the building supervisor to realize that:

    1. I had a pretty good idea of how things are supposed to be built

    2. I NEVER confronted his crews about any issues - just went straight to him.

    3. I didn't sweat the Small Sfuff.

    4. I wasn't afraid to get in a trades face.

    I wandered all over the site every 1-2 days - if I saw anything out of place, he heard about it. No ranting/raving, in fact, generally very much friendly/easy-going in my approach. As a result, we had zero final inspection issues, and I got to get a lot of special touches done between myself, the supervisor and the trades. He particularly enjoyed my confrontation with his then contracted electrician after he tried to blow wind up my skirt re. some alleged Code issues that "prevented" him from doing some things I wanted changed. I played dumb - asked him where it was in the Code....then proceeded to pull out a copy of it and call him a liar.....lol Turned out he'd been doing the SAME type of work on the 30 houses he'd done for them - they made him go back and correct it, then shit-canned him.
     

    Brains

    One of the idiots
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    Apr 9, 2013
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    Turned out he'd been doing the SAME type of work on the 30 houses he'd done for them - they made him go back and correct it, then shit-canned him.
    I wish my experience were similar with this "electrician." I had to fight the GC who was defending this yahoo. We were too far in and the wife really wanted the project finished, but honestly I should have ran them all out on their ear like I wanted to in the beginning. Worse, it was during the pandemic surge when everyone was booked solid. Perfect nightmare.

    There was more bullshit too, like him trying to tell me it's perfectly acceptable to use blue boxes as junction boxes, then just leave them in the wall (w/o mounting) and with no access (cabinets on one side, decorative wood panel on the other, no access plate).

    Long story short I went back and personally redid quite a bit of this yahoo's work to bring it up to code. Well, to prevent his shit from burning my house down, but I digress.
     

    TexasRedneck

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    Jan 23, 2009
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    New Braunfels, TX
    Some work I've seen made me wonder how some electricians managed to obtain a license.

    Had a "master electrician" tell me once that he'd wired a 120 vac outlet w/220 "because he didn't have his meter with him to test voltage at the panel". I hit the roof - told him that ANYONE that did electrical KNOWS that each breaker is 120 vac - and if you connect TWO leads (black and white) to individual breakers, you WILL have 220 vac - period. I immediately reached out to my customer and advised him to have all the work the yahoo had done checked out by a QUALIFIED electrician. The inspection answered the question as to why several appliances in the house had already failed.... Customer lit the GC up, made him pay the damages AND filed a complaint with the state board over the "electrician". They yanked his license.....
     

    bbbass

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    Sep 2, 2020
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    I imagine your punch list wasn't too bad compared to ours.

    Depends. When I was doing a standard home inspection of an existing home that had been sold, it was primarily a "visual" inspection looking for items that did not function as intended, plus a "life safety and fire safety" inspection. No items were reported that were merely "cosmetic" in nature. We didn't access beyond the standard access covers for elec panels, furnaces, etc, so lack of a junction box inside a wall would not be seen unless it was already exposed to view, like in a basement. I constantly got shit from realtors that complained I reported lack of boxes in the attic, or lack of covers on jb's. "Oh, that's a code issue and code doesn't apply to existing work"... "No, that's a safety issue". No torn carpets unless they were trip hazards, no blemishes on walls, etc.

    But my inspection of newly constructed homes was picky (listing paint blemishes, and other "cosmetic" flaws.) Some days I ran out of blue tape to stick on walls.


    That was definitely not done by a licensed electrician.

    One would HOPE not. But in my career I inspected well over 3000 homes (burnout level). And improper wiring was observed in homes where the Electrical Inspector signoff was visible on the work card. So not only was it poorly done by some lazy and/or ignorant electrician or electricians helper, but it went unnoticed by the city/county inspector. Then I would get yelled at by the realtor, saying it passed inspection. Uhmmm, no it didn't, he/they/ze just missed it for some unknown reason, or the homeowner messed with it afterwards. Another common problem and illegal as hell, is the GC or the electrical contractor having unlicensed laborers/carpenters/etc do the work.


    Maybe he was blind?

    Blind drunk on the bottle provided. Family on the East Coast said a bit of gratuity was expected. My Grandpa was a Dairy Inspector, and he never had to buy his own milk, etc. (Many years ago.)


    ETA: Dang! I was going to comment on the guy hooking up breakers 220V but I've forgotten so much since the diabetes took my brain. (Reason I had to quit my biz.)

    I'd bet you meant "breaker" instead of breakers. I'm soooo confused. Sigh.

    ETA2: so, if you had mini breakers and used two contacts that were side by side, you'd still have only 115v.

    1679863241530.png
     
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    bbbass

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    My daughter and SIL finally bought their dream mini-ranch north of Bentonville in Anderson MO. While they were waiting to move in, some dick(s) set the couches etc on fire down in the basement. Destroying all the basement coverings, wiring, and a lot of the upstairs.

    After they had already passed inspection and moved in, a huge rainstorm came, and the new subpanel was miswired and the sump pumps not working. Flooded all the new drywall and floor coverings in the basement.

    The Elec contractor fought him, disclaimed responsibility, but the panel was obviously and provably miswired. Duh!! He eventually got them to fix the wiring and they ponied up for most of the drywall replacement etc that the insurance balked at. Phucking insurance companies!!!
     

    TexasRedneck

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    Jan 23, 2009
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    New Braunfels, TX
    ETA: Dang! I was going to comment on the guy hooking up breakers 220V but I've forgotten so much since the diabetes took my brain. (Reason I had to quit my biz.)

    I'd bet you meant "breaker" instead of breakers. I'm soooo confused. Sigh.

    ETA2: so, if you had mini breakers and used two contacts that were side by side, you'd still have only 115v.

    View attachment 379910

    No....two breakers, each on a separate leg. Might help to mention that I was raised by a RCA Field Engineer who left to open his own hardware store and be home more. I grew up working in that store - rewired a vacuum cleaner for a customer at the age of 12 - obviously, dad inspected my work before releasing it to the customer....but by the time I was 14 I was helping rewire houses - and I NEVER had an issue with my work, primarily because my dad wouldn't let me do anything he hadn't trained me to do personally - and I could tell him in detail every step required to do the job. To this day, I won't wire a 120 vac outlet with anything less than #12 - as dad always said - you have to protect the homeowner from their own special level of stupid! LOL Might also add that I worked on 3-phase, as well - and had to educate more than one "electrician" on what an "Open Delta" circuit was. I also know that you test 3-phase on leg to leg, lol!!
     
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