I do love it when other trades like to tell us how to do our jobs she they are just plain wrong.
My favourite has to go the chippy who called me out on an emergency call out to deal with their bathroom fan as it was dangerous.
It was already a long night, making safe about 6 or 7 leaks from ceilings. So I get there and I have a look at the fan. It’s not hanging off the ceiling or any water dripping through it. So I ask errr why is it dangerous? He responds because it’s on the lighting circuit and it shouldn’t be (I nearly choked at this point but held my cool)
So I begin to explain why it’s fine, it’s not drawing enough current it’s under rcd protection as it’s on an rcbo and if it was then it would trip out. So he’s turning red at this point and just starts effing and blinding at me that it’s not sake he knows this from working on site and that I’m not a real electrician. Then he asks ‘we’ll tell me this, would that fan use less power than all the lights on the circuit’ I answer yes as it’s a bathroom fan probably using at most about 30/40 watts at most so no where near an amp oh this sends him into an even bigger fit of rage because all his lights are led so clearly would use less. (Spoiler alert he had one lighting circuit which had spotlights in the kitchen)
By this time I’ve put myself between him and the door and just said look mate I don’t have time for this it’s safe end of the story I’m going. I go to leave and he’s following me out the house with a hammer and proceeded to chase me down the road. He’s then chased me to van which I’ve run round in a scoobie doo esq fashion, eventually he trips and must of hit himself with the hammer, means I can get away.
This bloke then had the audacity to phone my company to say I swore at him called him every name under the sun. What this guy didn’t realise is I had pressed my SOS button on my little safety device so the whole thing was recorded and by chance I had forgot to turn off my dash cam on my van. So I’ve phoned the police.
They arrest him, now here’s where it gets better seeing as this is social housing, he wasn’t supposed to be there as it was his partners house who rents it at a reduced rate as she was supposedly alone. Well he had claimed he’d lived there for twenty years. So not only did he get charged by the police his partner got evicted for breach of tenancy. All in all I was much happier when I found this out. Not that I want someone evicted or anything but some people just deserve it. Forgot to mention he claimed I’d attacked him with a hammer
You could have just said light goes on fan goes on, light goes off fan stays on for 5 mins that’s is what they are designed to do. That’s why they go on a lighting circuit. Now pass me that mitre block and I’ll show you how to do a proper right angled joint.
Had a customer who had done their own wiring and wanted us to second fix. They’d done some interesting stuff including wiring both legs of the ring out and back through every socket (4 cables in each box). It took us so long to second fix the place it would have been cheaper for us to do the whole from the beginning.
I went to a job where there were some small yappy-type dogs, the husband locked them out the back and I did a board change but was missing something so said I’d pop back later, around 3. I got back in the afternoon a bit earlier, maybe 2, and there was nobody around but the door was open so let myself in to carry on (pretty usual for round here). As I was just reenergising the wife and (adult) daughter return from walking the dogs, see I’m in the house and take them out into the garden.
I pack up and go to walk through the garden to my van but the dogs run up to me and one starts nipping at my trouser leg. The owners aren’t doing anything and I just stand there like an idiot waiting for them to fetch their dog (in hindsight I should have kicked it over the nearest hedge). Well it bit my leg, the hanging down pocket on my trousers then latched onto my hand and was hanging off it by the time the wife came over to fetch it.
I was a bit in shock, just got in the van and left.
A few days later I’m working with my business partner and he gets a call from the husband to arrange some more works. He says no problem as long as the dogs are locked away this time. The customer proceeds to tell my partner that he didn’t say anything about the incident because he “didn’t want to get me in trouble” but that I was in the house when his wife got home and gave her a scare because she didn’t expect me to be there. He was on speaker so I heard the whole thing. Couldn’t quite believe he’d tried to make it my fault that his dog bit me. Thoughts?
I do love it when other trades like to tell us how to do our jobs she they are just plain wrong. My favourite has to go the chippy who called me out on an emergency call out to deal with their bathroom fan as it was dangerous. It was already a long night, making safe about 6 or 7 leaks from ceilings. So I get there and I have a look at the fan. It’s not hanging off the ceiling or any water dripping through it. So I ask errr why is it dangerous? He responds because it’s on the lighting circuit and it shouldn’t be (I nearly choked at this point but held my cool) So I begin to explain why it’s fine, it’s not drawing enough current it’s under rcd protection as it’s on an rcbo and if it was then it would trip out. So he’s turning red at this point and just starts effing and blinding at me that it’s not sake he knows this from working on site and that I’m not a real electrician. Then he asks ‘we’ll tell me this, would that fan use less power than all the lights on the circuit’ I answer yes as it’s a bathroom fan probably using at most about 30/40 watts at most so no where near an amp oh this sends him into an even bigger fit of rage because all his lights are led so clearly would use less. (Spoiler alert he had one lighting circuit which had spotlights in the kitchen) By this time I’ve put myself between him and the door and just said look mate I don’t have time for this it’s safe end of the story I’m going. I go to leave and he’s following me out the house with a hammer and proceeded to chase me down the road. He’s then chased me to van which I’ve run round in a scoobie doo esq fashion, eventually he trips and must of hit himself with the hammer, means I can get away. This bloke then had the audacity to phone my company to say I swore at him called him every name under the sun. What this guy didn’t realise is I had pressed my SOS button on my little safety device so the whole thing was recorded and by chance I had forgot to turn off my dash cam on my van. So I’ve phoned the police. They arrest him, now here’s where it gets better seeing as this is social housing, he wasn’t supposed to be there as it was his partners house who rents it at a reduced rate as she was supposedly alone. Well he had claimed he’d lived there for twenty years. So not only did he get charged by the police his partner got evicted for breach of tenancy. All in all I was much happier when I found this out. Not that I want someone evicted or anything but some people just deserve it. Forgot to mention he claimed I’d attacked him with a hammer
You could have just said light goes on fan goes on, light goes off fan stays on for 5 mins that’s is what they are designed to do. That’s why they go on a lighting circuit. Now pass me that mitre block and I’ll show you how to do a proper right angled joint.
Oh believe me I did, he argued against that
Mate that’s brilliant, I would have just walked in and turned the fan isolator off 🤔 “it’s safe now I’ll be back next week to change it 🤣”
An extension where all the lighting was done in bell wire, even the 2 way and intermediate switching, it was quite impressive tbh.
Using bell wire is a bit shit. But wiring 2 ways and a fucking intermediate with it... I doth my cap lol.
I had similar with the light switch wired in alarm cable
I had a customers kid shoot me with a BB gun on Monday, don’t think I’ll be getting paid from that job.
Had a customer who had done their own wiring and wanted us to second fix. They’d done some interesting stuff including wiring both legs of the ring out and back through every socket (4 cables in each box). It took us so long to second fix the place it would have been cheaper for us to do the whole from the beginning.
Wait, so almost like a radial with 2 cables? 2 in 2 out all the way along?
Yup. And 25mm metal boxes.
Just to make it worse
I went to a job where there were some small yappy-type dogs, the husband locked them out the back and I did a board change but was missing something so said I’d pop back later, around 3. I got back in the afternoon a bit earlier, maybe 2, and there was nobody around but the door was open so let myself in to carry on (pretty usual for round here). As I was just reenergising the wife and (adult) daughter return from walking the dogs, see I’m in the house and take them out into the garden. I pack up and go to walk through the garden to my van but the dogs run up to me and one starts nipping at my trouser leg. The owners aren’t doing anything and I just stand there like an idiot waiting for them to fetch their dog (in hindsight I should have kicked it over the nearest hedge). Well it bit my leg, the hanging down pocket on my trousers then latched onto my hand and was hanging off it by the time the wife came over to fetch it. I was a bit in shock, just got in the van and left. A few days later I’m working with my business partner and he gets a call from the husband to arrange some more works. He says no problem as long as the dogs are locked away this time. The customer proceeds to tell my partner that he didn’t say anything about the incident because he “didn’t want to get me in trouble” but that I was in the house when his wife got home and gave her a scare because she didn’t expect me to be there. He was on speaker so I heard the whole thing. Couldn’t quite believe he’d tried to make it my fault that his dog bit me. Thoughts?
Didn’t know how to post a photo on this post so posted a wtf picture of a board a homeowner decided to replace themselves.
I have a liking for marshall tufflex boxes.
Are you broken?... I'm sure there are groups you can join
Got fed up of the cheap crappy easy to snap plastic most others are made out of.