Chancers

Discussion in 'Electricians' Talk' started by peter palmer, Feb 13, 2020.

  1. peter palmer

    peter palmer Screwfix Select

    How often do you meet other trades that are clearly chancers and shouldn't really be on site and are clearly winging it. Last week it was the plumber who had to cut holes in a newly decorated ceiling because he had no idea that a combi needed to have a 22mm gas supply and today it was a so called CCTV installer. Story-

    We are doing the normal electrics on a couple of HMO's but the client has got his own guy to do the fire alarm, intruder alarm, CCTV and bizarrely emergency lights. This actually suited us as we didn't have a lot of time and the plasterer was cracking on anyway so it was too much work for just us anyway.

    The guy apparently works for another firm so did this install at night, apart from it looking rough most of it is done wrong, he has wired all the emergency lights in the building all one one circuit where we have wired 3 lighting circuits, no test switches, fire alarm is looped in 4 core cable for some reason, no call points, no keypad cable for the alarm, just looks like a bodge job.

    None of it is anything to do with me though so I've just left it alone and not said anything. We have now started the second house for them and the client has asked us for a price to install the fire alarm and CCTV etc on this as well as doing the electrical work. We quoted this a couple of weeks ago giving a detailed quote for everything but not heard anything back from them so I'm presuming they are going to let the other guy do it again, thats fair enough as again the plasterer is getting on with it. but wait for this...

    Today we get a phone call from the client asking us to have a word with his "CCTV/alarm/eml engineer" I kid you not, he basically asked us how to fit CCTV cameras on the first house. So we spend time pricing jobs, don't get them because someone else is cheaper but we have to use our knowledge to tell the cheaper guy how to do his job because he is clueless, its a strange old world.
     
  2. Sounder base and detector, pair for sounder and pair for detector in and out.
     
  3. Joe the Plumber

    Joe the Plumber Screwfix Select

    I had a customer who I quoted for his bathroom but he got someone else in. He's only a few doors up the road.

    When the other chap was there doing the job, the customer came to ask me if that chap could borrow my tall ladders to
    sort out the outside waste pipe as they hadn't got any.

    Sadly, I was literally just taking the cat to the vet and hadn't got time to get them out. Cheeky blighter.

    And I had another bloke who asked me on a Monday to quote for fitting a wall hung toilet with tiling. He haggled about the price. On the Thursday, he'd
    already had it done by someone else who'd made a mess, and he asked me to come in and sort it out. I was nearby so popped in and gave him a price.
    He haggled again, so I told him to bo****ks and left.

    Incidentally, I believe no one without an engineering degree and membership of the appropriate engineering body (and I don't mean Checkatrade...) should be
    allowed to call themselves an 'engineer'. "CCTV engineer".... Hmm.
     
    stevie22 and FlyByNight like this.
  4. a.refurb

    a.refurb New Member

    Using the same cable? OMG call the BS5839 police..
     
  5. peter palmer

    peter palmer Screwfix Select

    It could be but you can get basic bi-wire panel nowadays, either he only knows how to do it the old fashioned way or its soemthing special but I doubt it, maybe its for a visual beacon, I don't know. I always fit the C-TEC stuff nowadays.
     
  6. peter palmer

    peter palmer Screwfix Select

    Its just frowned upon isn't it? What I find strange is they don't like you using a 4 core to extend the detector circuit to an additional head to loop in and out, I would have thought it was better that way, one cable has a 50% less chance of getting damaged as opposed to two cables.
     
  7. MGW

    MGW Screwfix Select

    The company I worked for had a outside company doing alarms, the number of times they put alarm cables on our cable tray I could no believe, they got called back to move them every time, but never seemed to learn.

    But some times it really is not their fault, I worked with pipe fitters, very skilled, they would grind and shape a pipe 32" dia 1" thick on the ground, then crane it to position and fit first time. Then new starter would arrive and he had only worked with 1" copper.

    The personal department just did not know who they were hiring.

    In 1980 I went as an electrician on a pipe lift and re-lay of a 42" pipe in Algera, lucky some one showed me the ropes and I was a fast learner. It was nothing like I expected, 2.5 years latter and I was a real electrician and could hold my own, but I was really out of my depth when I started.
     
  8. Bogle Crag

    Bogle Crag Screwfix Select

    MGW did you work on the CP for the pipeline or was it an above ground job
     
  9. MGW

    MGW Screwfix Select

    I did not do much as far as the CP was concerned, I can only just remember the pits, I was on the coast only working on plant, only in Hassi R'mel did I work on the general electrics to any extent, rest of time only covered when other electrician was away, and it was a long time ago. Oh and I was brown, sun bathing all year round.
     

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