Re: Alarm Installation Pet Peeves <rant>

[<thesatguy1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> > Installers that use only tape to make up switch connections in the
>> > wall...like the tape won't fall off in a couple of years.
>> >
>> > Installers that put alarm panels 12' up the wall in a tiny pantry
>> > closet.
>> >
>> > Installers that don't leave any service loop in the wall so if you have
>> > to
>> > change a switch out you have to work with a magnifying glass and a pair
>> > of
>> > locking forcepts...like you never ever have to change a switch?
>>
>> Or they do leave a service loop, but don't tape the beans back along the
>> wire so you can't pull out the switch.
>>
>> >
>> > Running only 2 conductor wire...sheesh...like 4 conductor is like
>> > what...5
>> > bucks more a box? Especially in a flat-top house with tile floors and
>> > block
>> > walls.
>> >
>>
>> Or they run 4 conductor but cut the unused pair back so far they are
>> useless.
>> Then there was the home owner who trimmed back our prewire bundle to
>> help the painter get it out of the way.  Sure, he left enough wire....
>> AND he even saved the part he cut off so we would have the labeled
>> ends...
>
>
> I don't mean to be cruel, but that's funny. I'd bet I know what you
> said to yourself :-)
>
Here's funny... a builder builds 14 new $500,000. - $800,000.homes on a cul
de sac and I pre wire all with the darn huge prewire cabinet in the closet
of the master bedroom.
I go back to finish out the jobs and none of the closets have any prewire
boxes - they all have two rows of shelves across the wall where the prewire
boxes used to be.  So I round up a copy of the plans and go looking for the
super and he says yea those boxes were in the way right in the middle of the
closets where they were supposed to be.  He pulled all the wires out of each
one and stuffed them up above the ceilings somewhere and stacked all those
boxes over in the storage trailer.  He says he'll go open up the trailer so
I can get the boxes and put them on the walls at the end of the closets.  I
said don't bother cause I been paid for the prewire and it was done exactly
as it was shown on the plans and I am out of here - get somebody else to
finish it up and you can argue with them about all the extra costs.

Six months later I get a call from some gal saying she and her husband have
bought one of these houses and want the burglar alarm hooked up and four of
five other companies have been out there but none of them want to do it
because they can't find the central box where the wires are and she got my
number from the builder.

So just for grins I go out there to see what kind of deal the builder did to
fix this cause the phones, the data, the cable tv, the satellite tv, the
burglar alarm, the hardwired smokes, entrance camera etc, it was all in that
closet wire bundle.  When I get there she takes me into the kitchen and says
they want a keypad at the back door.  The back door has a telephone wire
running from the baseboard up the side of the door and across the top and
down the other side to a wall phone.  I opened up the back door and theres
the phone wire running along the outside wall of this million dollar home.
This is not a good sign.

She sees me looking at this wire and says it looks bad doesn't it?  I said
we prewired all these homes while they were being built and she says the
builder told her we went out of buisness and couldn't finish the job.  I
explain to her thats not what really happenend and I should look around the
master bedroom closet and see how they fixed the wires.  You're goning to
love this part; in the closet there are three squares of plywood painted to
match the ceiling where somebody has made huge holes in the closet ceiling -
no doubt looking for the wires.  I open all three holes and no wires to be
seen anywhere.

I told here if she wanted all the wiring put back to normal and to get rid
of all the wires the phone company ran all over the place I would start
making holes in the wall until I figure out what the builder did and after
it fixed I'll have a sheetrock guy come and fix all these holes including
the ceiling so all the plywood will be gone and everything will work the way
its suppose to. By the end of the next day the wires were located and
rerouted to space in the attic that was easy to get to.

I had to install new electrical outlets, I had to install some plywood
flooring, and a sheetrocker made everything look brand new in the closet and
they were all happy and I ended up doing the exact same thing in the other
lucky 13 homes too.

The really sad thing is that this sort of stuff happens often and in this
case the builder just said too bad - theres no prewiring - do whatever you
want.