New build housing

[Evans Electric]

Just picking up on Sparkybob's  thread about going innto the domestic wiring field and thinking back .

Talking to a Sparks , we were both apprentices at same firm , now on the tools and moved on .       He was on a major new housing site on the edge of Birmingham  ,  the firm we were with never did any housing so it was a different world to us , never really saw twin/E at all.       This was many , many years ago by the way. 

The system on this job a first fix a day or a second fix a day....apparently they'd arrive early , drive through the mud to the electrician's compound , pick up a plastic bag with a complete first fix kit in it , then through the mud to the allotted house .    They were driving the equivalent of top BMWs today as a normal wage for a dayrate spark was £20 - £25 /week ....these guys were earning £10  for first or second fixes , working 7 days a week  so £70 /week   ........something like £2000 /week today  :C .

My mate, as the newbie , couldn't get a look in on that lot , jobs for the boys ,  he was on remedials .  Apparently virtually every house had faults , from nails in cable  to incomplete rings , lights not working ,   2 ways not working etc etc. boiler controls not working  ...he had a boxful of JBs ..connectors and rolls of tape!!   And was on £20 a week.

 

[Andy™]

My mate, as the newbie , couldn't get a look in on that lot , jobs for the boys ,  he was on remedials .  Apparently virtually every house had faults , from nails in cable  to incomplete rings , lights not working ,   2 ways not working etc etc. boiler controls not working  ...he had a boxful of JBs ..connectors and rolls of tape!!   And was on £20 a week.

nothings changed. councils used to do a re-wire in a day. rough as hell. but at least it was done in a day on target. the extra days spent later fixing what was broke didnt count

 

[phil d]

I remember a rewire many years ago,Manweb contracting were doing a load of flats and houses for the local council, I was an apprentice at the time and one of the properties being done was my grans flat. She was wary of strangers and asked if I'd go round and keep an eye on things, the flats were wired by running a 50x50 trunking around the entire flat at ceiling level, then dropping down for sockets and switches, the lights were fed from a piece of 16x25 running from the main trunking across the ceiling.

A short distance away were some houses, these were also being rewired, that's were the fun began, because they could get access to the upper floors in the houses they were wired conventionally, i.e chased in and plastered.

Well they were working in my grans house when all hell let loose, this angry looking bloke rolled up demanding to see the gaffer, he found him and began shouting about them being bloody hooligans and vandals. He gripped the bloke by the scruff of the neck and dragged him down the road, some of the lads followed and so did I, he dragged him into a house, we followed, the guy was absolutely raving! In the beautifully decorated front room we saw the cause of his anger, the walls were artexed and in the middle of the dividing wall the artex had a huge bulge in the middle. Just visible in the middle of the bulge was a shiny piece of metal, cue a quick visit next door, sticking out of the wall like some kind of weird ornament was a Kango 637! The young lad doing the chasing had held the machine at too steep an angle and just kept going, instead of cutting a chase down the wall the chisel had gone through into next doors, damaging the artex and annoying the tenant.

 

[Lurch]

Sounds like that lad grew up to be a builder and is doing a job next door to me. 3 rooms need repairing after works next door.