Install practices which annoy you

[Phoenix]

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...

And quite a lot of the door companies don't like you to change to an isolator, I think its quite a common thing for it to be written into their SOP that the fitter must pull the plug before working on the roller and having an isolator messes them up as they then have to carry a lock off and prove that the isolator has disconnected what they think it has.

I think perhaps we need a variation on the interlcoked socket, and a regs revision to accomodate it, where the plug is concealed behind a screwed door, so switch off, undue two no.2 pozi screws then you can disconnect.

Maybe it just needs a regs change on its own.... if the socket requires a key or tool to access then we shouldn't have to provide RCD protection

 

[Andy™]

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 socket outlets upto 32a require RCD protection, so yes, you should be fitting RCD sockets

Maybe it just needs a regs change on its own.... if the socket requires a key or tool to access then we shouldn't have to provide RCD protection

all that would be needed is a risk assessment to say RCD not required like it used to be

and most door companies send out barely trained monkeys to do the jobs. they have a similar problem with stupid people installing & serviving as we do with 5 week wonders. amount of spring break pins i remove from sectionals is shocking

 

[ProDave]

How about wiring of  "a certain age" where the tails in the back boxes were cut to the absolute minimum, to the point if you replace for say a different socket with the terminations in a different place, the wires don't reach.

Kitchen fitters that fit a splashback in front of a knackered plastic plasterboard box so you can't just pop a new back box in, you have to bodge a "repair" to the existing mess. I recall one that took me 20 minites to get the damned thing screwed back on.

 

[Phoenix]

all that would be needed is a risk assessment to say RCD not required like it used to be

But didnt we establish that its not possible for the contractor to issue a risk assessment for something on a clients premises over which he has no control, it needs to come from the duty holder for the premises, who either doesn't understand what they are supposed to be risk assessing, or when they do, they realise its a can of worms they don't want to open and put their name to....

 

[Andy™]

But didnt we establish that its not possible for the contractor to issue a risk assessment for something on a clients premises over which he has no control, it needs to come from the duty holder for the premises, who either doesn't understand what they are supposed to be risk assessing, or when they do, they realise its a can of worms they don't want to open and put their name to....

there is that, but at least the option to do so was there

 

[binky]

RCDs in commercial premises, except for outdoor sockets, doesn't make much sense to me, especially when you can install outdoor lighting with no RCD on anything (unless section 714 has changed since I last looked). 

Adding RCDs on houses with 3 ccts, lights, sockets and cooker, don't make much sense to me either, especially on the lighting cct - lamp pops, house plunged into darkness, customer falls down stairs in the dark! 

 

[kerching]

especially on the lighting cct - lamp pops, house plunged into darkness, customer falls down stairs in the dark! 

Risk assessment !.....just fit a nice LED bulkhead in every room.  Give it that Industrial Chic look by using Twin Spot Mickey Mouse ear emergency packs

 

[Bruspark]

Remote /electric garage doors fed from the CU in the garage (no other access)   Mechanical handle (if any) lost /stored in the garage
Things behind /stuffed down the back of kitchen wall cupboards
Anything a landscaper did
Anything a plumber did 

 

[UNG]

People who fit the  B& Q type  flat plate posh  sockets 

Had a builder once who called the screwless type silicone sockets and said it was a right pain to get them straight and level, being rather puzzled by his comment I asked why the reply came back well because they don't have holes for the screws you have to use silicone sealant to fix them and I don't understand why they always put screws in the pack he looked surprised when I pinged the front plate off one to show him the screw holes

 

[Evans Electric]

All fuseboards at high level  .

All fuseboards at high level , in garages, above the level of the  up & over door ,  even when you close the door  the rails are in the way . 

 

[ProDave]

All fuseboxes at low level.

I found one in a house once under the stairs.  RIGHT under the stairs.  The stairs went up 2 steps to a quarter landing before continuing and the fuse box was right at the back of that 2 step high gap that you had to crawl into on your stomach.

 

[Andy™]

All fuseboxes at low level.

I found one in a house once under the stairs.  RIGHT under the stairs.  The stairs went up 2 steps to a quarter landing before continuing and the fuse box was right at the back of that 2 step high gap that you had to crawl into on your stomach.

there's an entire estate in gateshead with them in the hallway cupboard. you open the door and to the left there is the bin cupoard (accessible from outside) so a shelf approx 5ft from the floor. its in the top corner. spent many days rewiring those houses them as an apprentice, climb up, put a box / seat there and get comfy. just dont lean back. considering fitting the board was one of the easier jobs on the rewire, no one else really wanted to do it, so id happily sit about there for hours at a time

most awkward board change ive done was in a kitchen cupboard. it was in the corner unit at the back

 

[binky]

most awkward board change ive done was in a kitchen cupboard. it was in the corner unit at the back

I went to quote for a job with aboard in the back of a kitchen cuoboard - turns out the guy had had a new kitchen fitted but not moved the board. He was a college lecturer, for electricans... msl1:

 

[rapparee]

For me, it's ***** 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.

I emphatically disagree, concrete homes are better built homes. 





https://www.concretebuilt.ie/

 

[roys]

That is a stunning house in stunning surroundings.

As for practices that annoy me, there is plenty, but here’s one for starters, people sometimes even sparks that don’t know or are too lazy to properly crimp red, blue, yellow crimps correctly, the proper ratchet crimpers are quite cheap now, even the £2 cheapo Halfords single jaw pairs can do a semi decent crimp if people put of extra time into it, as in, properly insert the wire, properly squeeze the crimpers and if using said cheapo ones do it twice, once to grip insulation once to grip copper.

I have never used the cheapo crimpers since I was a young teenager but I still did a decent crimp even then.

 

[ProDave]

2 hours ago, rapparee said:

I emphatically disagree, concrete homes are better built homes. 

Absolutely NO detail about that house other than it is built of "concrete" looks like concrete blocks to me)  but to get an A energy rating there must be a lot of insulation, which might be a wide insulated cavity.

MOST people building energy eficcient houses like that these days build a totally sealed structural building envelope and then create a "service void" within it for all wiring and piping without puncturing the sealed building envelope then the wall finish, usually plasterboard.  If so this has all the attributes that I like, in particular NO CHASING of hard plastered walls.

Well insulated masonry builds with a wide insulated cavity seem popular in Ireland.

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

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 

Or..

Those split load boards with the main switch far left... 

and RCD far right..    (Think Volex was one brand like that..)

So if it was a 50:50 split 12-way board, and you numbered from Main switch & RCD respectively  

the MCBs  from L to R read   [Main],1,2,3,4,5,6,12,11,10,9,8,7,6,[RCD]

You then had two neutral bars numbered in opposite directions.. (if you want to maintain physical orientation with MCB's)

and an Earth bar which just created confusion!!

Guinness

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Other trades...  

who haven't got the noggin to think either...

(a) that looks Cr4p..  or...

(b) maybe they wont be able to access this anymore..??..   or..

(c) Perhaps I shouldn't grout or seal around the light switches, just in-case they need to be opened up..!!! 

:shakehead headbang :C

e.g



or..



p.s.

This was a job with the ole.. Non-Earthed lighting circuits that I was updating....

Both switches were repositioned..

Customer a lot happier,

as wanting to have kitchen tiles all replaced as well!

Guinness .

 

[binky]

I hate people painting the sides of switches and sockets and not cleaning it off, so the ruddy things are stuck to wall and leave a scar when your remove them. 

 

[sprocketflup]

Kitchen fitters that don't cut the tiles big enough for my accessories to screw onto the wall, so Im there with a file for hours taking off 0.05 of a mm so I can fit my FCU

FCU's in general. Love what they do, hate wiring them.

Floods that come 'prewired' with about 8" of flex. I always end up taking them apart and fitting my own, thereby probably negating any crappy warranty they may have had anyway. Prefer the old style with a terminal bloc tbh.

Shower manufacturers that think its possible to bend 10mm T+E through 180 degrees in about 15mm of space