Re: Nick update 2#

[JoeRaisin <joeraisin@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

nick markowitz wrote:
> this asshole who was helping me was a full fledged electrical
> contractor so not only him but his crew of 8 fucked me as well
> I came on job at school that need a fire alarm installed so it could be
> opened in 3 days after a treatment one day to find
> no work done by his guys bill no where in site and 3 of them involved in a
> fist fight  the school superintendent called them to his office and fired
> them on spot for fucking things up talk about embarrasing.
> and this asshole now expeccts me to bail him out again

We are dealing with much the same thing right now with a large
commercial building - voice evac required by the AHJ.

We didn't have the man power to get the wires run in the time frame
required by the sub (which, of course turned out to be total BS - there
was plenty of time) so we subcontracted the wire runs to the Speakers
and strobes and the installation those devices out to an electrical
company.  When our guy went out to install the panels (accompanied by
two of their guys who were to install the speaker/strobes) he found
wires taped to the sprinkler pipes, run through the bolt holes of the
steel beams and, after finally getting everything installed and powered
up, spent an entire day with these two jokers (who didn't even have
meters with them) running down ground faults.

My first exposure to this job was on Monday this week, when I was asked
to meet the AHJ at 1pm for our final inspection.  I walk in to find that
the HVAC units were set right in front of our fire panel (Vista 32FB)
with two inch copper pipes running out of the building directly below it
thus preventing the required access.  So our first gig on the inspection
was that we had to moved our panel to the other side of the room (high
ceilings obscured by pipes and ductwork) - I got out of there about 8pm
thanks to two of our guys who swung by to help me out.

The sub was acting as his own GC and had a guy on staff who is an
electrical contractor.  This guy was totally dumbfounded when I
explained that Fire panels need the same access as an electrical panel -
even if it is "only low voltage."

In my experience, electricians don't seem to have any respect or even
concern for low voltage stuff.  In houses where they are the ones
running phone, tv and Data lines, those wire runs are ridiculous even
while the romex has been run neat and professionally.

Side note - the real fun on this job is the sub, who is one of those
guys who jumps up and down yelling, screaming and threatening at the
first sign of trouble.  He kept coming back to inform me that my company
was all f***ed up, I was all f***ed up, he should kick my ass and he
could have ADT here in half an hour (made me wish I owned the company, I
would have let him use my phone to call them).  He already had ADT take
over the camera system since we won't do audible - something the
salesman neglected to tell him.

It amuses me when guys like this try to intimidate me.  I stand 6'1",
weigh 235lbs (36 inch waist - some fat but not too much), study
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and taught hand-to-hand combat in the Marines - I'm
not easily intimidated...

Oh yeah, and I stayed at that job site because it was so important that
the panel be up and running (due to insurance or some such BS) before I
left - only to find out at 8 pm the electrician wouldn't be available to
run power to our new panel location until the next afternoon.  I had
told him we needed power as soon as I knew we had to move the panel but
he kept 'forgetting' to call - somehow that was my fault too...

AHJ came back out on Wednesday to reinspect and decided he wasn't happy
with several of the speaker/strobe locations so I was out there for
about 10 1/2 hours on Friday.  Its a bowling alley and I had to get
above the lanes which are all done so all ladder and/or lift placement
had to be done very carefully - plus all the work had to be done
carefully since I couldn't take a chance of dropping anything that might
ding the lane.  Of course the lanes were nothing compared to getting up
above the pinsetters...

It would have been nice if the AHJ would have looked at everything the
first day but as soon as he saw the panel had to be moved, he stopped.

wait... who were we bitching about???