My "medical/mental" condition

[blume357]

I was commenting in Bob Wrights post about his father and realized I needed to do a post of my own about fixing things.

My wife and I rent a beach house twice a year and when ever we come I bring a 'few' tools with me in case I need to fix something... easier than having to call the management company and deal with the repair person and them. Here's the thing... I take this to an extreme.... and we have come up with a solution in case the management company or even the owner says something... it is that I have a 'condition' that I have to fix things that are not right... if not I get psychotic and will have to go to a hospital. And since this is a medical/mental disorder HPPA rules require them to not stop me....

Here is the really scary part.... not a joke... I was trying to figure out how to add a plug at the kitchen counter that was a wired box but just had a cover over it. I had bought the plugs and new cover and such but needed about a foot of wire to connect it. Of course no extra wire anywhere. I was planning to go down the road and dumpster dive decided first to go up in the attic and see of there was a left over piece just laying around... could not find any but did find where they had run wire from one light fixture in the kitchen to another and there was about 2ft excess. so I figure I'd take that light fixture down.... just a spring loaded LED... and disconnect the wire and pull the excess down, cut it off and then wire the light back.. So, I did this and got it all back together and turned the lights on to make sure I had connected it back and it came on but the one that the excess wire was running to did not... what the heck... took the light back down and the connections are all good. So, I pull the other light down and below is what I find:

when I pulled the fixture down no plastic wire covers fell loose and as is obvious no electrical tape on either the hot or neutral wires! All of this in a grounded metal box..... I still to this day can't believe someone did this....let alone that it did not ground out when I pulled the light fixture down.... I see this kind of work in my business of fireplaces and chimneys and I always blame it on 'cousin Elmo'. I tell people the guy or guys doing the work go out to and cousin Elmo, the helper, stays on the job because he can't afford to go to the local dinner and while there by himself he decides to 'help out' and do some work on his own....

Oh, and by the way... I got the extra plugs put in the kitchen.

 

[arfmel]

I've seen a light over a kitchen sink that had no switch. It was on all the time. Upon investigation we found that it had been wired from a nearby wall outlet, using lamp cord, which was imbedded in a slot that appeared to have been scraped into the plaster wall and then plastered over. I suspect this was a home "improvement" made by a do-it-yourselfer.

 

[eveled]

My friend bought a house. There was a lamp cord plugged into the basement light socket. I unplugged it and he lost power to his entire second floor! Not just a couple bedrooms. A makeshift in-law apartment with a refrigerator!

 

[gjgalligan]

it is that I have a 'condition' that I have to fix things that are not right... if not I get psychotic and will have to go to a hospital. And since this is a medical/mental disorder HPPA rules require them to not stop me....


Be careful with that, some might think it is a good enough reason to prohibit you from having guns.

 

[Dave P.]

I know it's not the point but was this your house or the rental?
Second thing if it's your house, maybe put your "condition" to use and check over some more wiring.
Third thing ...searching the attic for extra wiring....that right there is really the mental issue, you might be a cannibal?
Well maybe just a cheap SOB, go buy some Romex and throw it in the basement.
Were you ever a farmer?

 

[the_leper_colony]

.... I see this kind of work in my business of fireplaces and chimneys and I always blame it on 'cousin Elmo'. I tell people the guy or guys doing the work go out to and cousin Elmo, the helper, stays on the job because he can't afford to go to the local dinner and while there by himself he decides to 'help out' and do some work on his own....

Talked to some folks, years ago, who were remodeling a place in west Texas. They were redoing a hallway, and inside one wall they found about 10 or 15 little pieces of Romex that cousin Elmo had connected together to reach from one box to another. A licensed contractor in the same town told us about finding speaker wire used for the same thing.

That Elmo is a busy guy!

 

[contender]

I, like blume do a lot of work on other people's homes. I too have seen some truly crappy, or dangerous work. Heck, some things I've seen even "cousin Elmo" wouldn't do. That's when I've been using the term; "day worker Jose!"

Just yesterday,, I was in a high end development, working on a house that's about 2-3 million dollars worth. Yet,, at some point prior to me being there,, I found some external "repairs" that were not only wrong & ineffective,, but horrible looking. When I asked the homeowner about them,, he said he'd had a "well known franchise" company at one point do some work. It's something I can not only fix,, but fix it correctly, AND make it appear that I wasn't even there. What gets me is how homeowners will pay a lot of money for crappy work & feel they have no recourse.

A guy I knew, (he passed away long ago,) used to say; "Don't worry, you can't see it from Lake Lure." It was his normal response when he did shoddy work, and tried to "hide" it.

And no,, I didn't work for him, nor had any work done by him for any of us. But he was well known among the local builders for doing crappy work, then hiding it with all kinds of things.

 

[Enigma]

It all goes back to something that my dad told me about 60 years ago. There's never time to do the job right, but there's always time to do it over. My first squad leader in the Army must have been my long, lost, elder sibling, because he repeated it to me.

 

[blume357]

Back when I first started working for myself I also installed ceiling fans in folks homes... usually had to go up in the attic to put in a supported box or add support to the existing one and would often come down and mention that there was exposed wire connections and missing covers on junction boxes ... at first I expected the lady of the house to say her husband did it but often they said an electrical company had done the work.

Dave P.
I grew up on a farm but did not work it...
Not my house... rental house managed by a big company.... but I don't care... I'll fix something if I can and if it doesn't cost too much... I not only added the plugs in the kitchen... which by the way are not to code (no GFI) .... is on a different circuit from the other outlets but I can't find the GFI for them either... those within 6ft of the sink (I think that's code, (IRC)... but I also installed a light over the kitchen sink, fixed the flag pole on the walk way to the beach, and a couple of other things... my latest plan is to lift the cook stove 1" so that the utensil drawer will open fully.. it catches on the oven door.
Wife won't let me move the light switch in the pantry that you have to use a fly swatter or paint stirrer to flip the swith because it is wedged beside the washer and dryer... or remove the long horizontal board on the 'back porch' that blocks the view of the road in front of the house...

 

[epags]

@blume357 : We must be related or one of us contaminated the other one.

I cannot stand things that are not correct or are 'make shift'. Cases in point:

Rented a older house while attending a MO university under an USAF's Masters program. House had a constantly wet basement. The exterior landscape was graded back to the foundation which was old brick construction. I took it upon myself and regraded and re'landscaped around the foundation to stop the leaking. Water pipes in the garage would freeze up so I thawed and insulated them. The interior door hardware barely worked and did not lock (beautiful antiques as old as the house) so I reolaced them (but kept the old hardware in case the owner wanted it restored. Found carpenter ants eating one of the exterior windows and by chance there was an exterminator working next door. I had him treat the window area and paid for it myselt.
Eventually I told the absentee landlord what ai had done without his permission. He was so impressed he applied the costs I had incurred against the monthly rent. So good deeds ocassionaly go unpunished
.
Was moving to a new job and the company was paying for the rent of an apartment. I could not stand the condition of the carpeting in the place and rented a shampooer and cleaned the whole place at my expense.

Finally a few fellow shooters and I were building a covered shooting shed and a young man was nailing up some cross bracing at each end and the bracing pieces were not of equal lengths . I had him remove them and cut to equal lengths and reinstall. He asked why and I replied his work was not 'elegant' and looked like a hack job. His reply was "gee, his original work would have done the job though" Some people settle for "good enough" and some do not.

So you see we are related.

Edit: Update, today. It never ends. Went to wash my hands and the bathroom sink drain didn't. Looked under the sink and unscrewed the piviot arm connection.....the end of the piviot arm @ the ball had rusted off (house built in 1982 and this item probably had never been changed. Looked into my plumbing junk box, found another....oops it had a plastic ball that was too big....oops the the stopper doesn't have a washer any more....oops the ball on the new arm is bigger then the old one, oops the new retaining nut is bigger then the one on the old tailpiece.
Ended up totally replacing the sink drain system...at 84, I found it a bit uncomfortable to lay on my side and back to get under the sink and then have to repeatedly get up to have to go to the garage, about 6 to 8 times, to get more tools. Started about 10 AM and finished about 1 PM with a 30 minute break for my body to recover. Loving spouse chanted: Call the pumber, call the pumber, call the pumber. But kept thinking of the $150 to $250 bill they would have charged and did it my way. LOL

 

[Dave P.]

Back when I first started working for myself I also installed ceiling fans in folks homes... usually had to go up in the attic to put in a supported box or add support to the existing one and would often come down and mention that there was exposed wire connections and missing covers on junction boxes ... at first I expected the lady of the house to say her husband did it but often they said an electrical company had done the work.

Dave P.
I grew up on a farm but did not work it...
Not my house... rental house managed by a big company.... but I don't care... I'll fix something if I can and if it doesn't cost too much... I not only added the plugs in the kitchen... which by the way are not to code (no GFI) .... is on a different circuit from the other outlets but I can't find the GFI for them either... those within 6ft of the sink (I think that's code, (IRC)... but I also installed a light over the kitchen sink, fixed the flag pole on the walk way to the beach, and a couple of other things... my latest plan is to lift the cook stove 1" so that the utensil drawer will open fully.. it catches on the oven door.
Wife won't let me move the light switch in the pantry that you have to use a fly swatter or paint stirrer to flip the swith because it is wedged beside the washer and dryer... or remove the long horizontal board on the 'back porch' that blocks the view of the road in front of the house...

You want to rent a house in Michigan for a few weeks?

 

[blume357]

Well, I have to be honest and admit I have done some 'jack leg' work at my house.... actually the fix I did to the utensil drawer here at the rental house is not perfect.... I raised the electric cook stove up 1" and the drawer would still not clear... still needed another 1/4" and so my next solution was to change the height of the drawer front.... dropped it by 1/2" and the drawer does open fully now but it is obvious it is not at its original designed height. There is a slight open crack along the top....

Oh, and the ceiling fans and light fixtures work off of remotes here and I just had to replace the batteries in them and figure out which one works for which fixture.... and one remote is the one that was broken last year and I finally found the one I replaced it with by ordering new off of Amazon..... don't know why I didn't throw the broken one away last year..... I think it would still work intermittently .....

 

[Hvymax]

I, like blume do a lot of work on other people's homes. I too have seen some truly crappy, or dangerous work. Heck, some things I've seen even "cousin Elmo" wouldn't do. That's when I've been using the term; "day worker Jose!"

Just yesterday,, I was in a high end development, working on a house that's about 2-3 million dollars worth. Yet,, at some point prior to me being there,, I found some external "repairs" that were not only wrong & ineffective,, but horrible looking. When I asked the homeowner about them,, he said he'd had a "well known franchise" company at one point do some work. It's something I can not only fix,, but fix it correctly, AND make it appear that I wasn't even there. What gets me is how homeowners will pay a lot of money for crappy work & feel they have no recourse.

A guy I knew, (he passed away long ago,) used to say; "Don't worry, you can't see it from Lake Lure." It was his normal response when he did shoddy work, and tried to "hide" it.

And no,, I didn't work for him, nor had any work done by him for any of us. But he was well known among the local builders for doing crappy work, then hiding it with all kinds of things.

That's the state of the available contractors. Everyone wants the lowest bidder. Good, Cheap, Fast. Pick one.

 

[Mobuck]

Sometimes things get 'fixed' as a field expedient or a short term repair. Lots of folks seem to forget that these were intended to be 'short term' and don't go back with a proper 'fix'. I've seen this many times with farm equipment that had been 'baling wired' together years and years ago but never actually repaired. Mom's middle Son was notorious for this and I ended up spending a lot of time following up his 'jury rigged' cobble jobs.

 

[RugerForMe]

I was commenting in Bob Wrights post about his father and realized I needed to do a post of my own about fixing things.

My wife and I rent a beach house twice a year and when ever we come I bring a 'few' tools with me in case I need to fix something... easier than having to call the management company and deal with the repair person and them. Here's the thing... I take this to an extreme.... and we have come up with a solution in case the management company or even the owner says something... it is that I have a 'condition' that I have to fix things that are not right... if not I get psychotic and will have to go to a hospital. And since this is a medical/mental disorder HPPA rules require them to not stop me....

Here is the really scary part.... not a joke... I was trying to figure out how to add a plug at the kitchen counter that was a wired box but just had a cover over it. I had bought the plugs and new cover and such but needed about a foot of wire to connect it. Of course no extra wire anywhere. I was planning to go down the road and dumpster dive decided first to go up in the attic and see of there was a left over piece just laying around... could not find any but did find where they had run wire from one light fixture in the kitchen to another and there was about 2ft excess. so I figure I'd take that light fixture down.... just a spring loaded LED... and disconnect the wire and pull the excess down, cut it off and then wire the light back.. So, I did this and got it all back together and turned the lights on to make sure I had connected it back and it came on but the one that the excess wire was running to did not... what the heck... took the light back down and the connections are all good. So, I pull the other light down and below is what I find:

when I pulled the fixture down no plastic wire covers fell loose and as is obvious no electrical tape on either the hot or neutral wires! All of this in a grounded metal box..... I still to this day can't believe someone did this....let alone that it did not ground out when I pulled the light fixture down.... I see this kind of work in my business of fireplaces and chimneys and I always blame it on 'cousin Elmo'. I tell people the guy or guys doing the work go out to and cousin Elmo, the helper, stays on the job because he can't afford to go to the local dinner and while there by himself he decides to 'help out' and do some work on his own....

Oh, and by the way... I got the extra plugs put in the kitchen.

I see you had the same electrician that I had, at least he learned to twist the wires together, when he did my garage he was just laying the wires side by side and taping them up.

 

[coach]

I see you had the same electrician that I had, at least he learned to twisted the wires, when he did my garage he was just laying the wires side by side and taping them up.

Any "electrician" that would do that should have his side cutters confiscated.

 

[Richbaker]

That's the state of the available contractors. Everyone wants the lowest bidder. Good, Cheap, Fast. Pick one.

It used to be pick 2.... Sure has gotten worse.

 

[Watertender]

We are expanding our kitchen and I am redoing some of the electrical work. The frame of the house is 2x3"s and the interior walls are 2x2"s. I can run some of the wiring under the floor in the expansion but I do have to make some open splices along the new overhead beam where the wall was. The connections are wire nutted and folded back along the romex and double taped with the staples at the ends of the splices. There is no room for a box where they are located. The splices will be under a cover board along the beam. I did have one D'oh moment when replacing the stove circuit with copper instead of aluminum. There was a stray whisker of the aluminum ground/neutral that brushed against one of the 20 amp breaker connections while I was removing the old aluminum cable. The resulting pretty blue flash and POP was my fault 100%. I then disabled the generator and pulled the main breaker and finished the job by flashlight. I always try to work safely and have worked hot before but why take the chance. Many years ago I was wiring a switch with the power on because I couldn't find the line it was wired to. Someone thought they were being funny and goosed me while making a BZZZTT sound. I punched the joker in the face so hard that they went 6 feet across the floor on their back and told them that if they pulled that stunt again I would finish the job on them....

 

[Jeepnik]

A few years back a journeyman electrician decided that since he was only wiring up a bank of batteries for a backup system and they were new "uncharged" batteries it was completely safe. So he didn't wear any PPE (it was too hot for all the arc/flash gear). Then he accidentally became part of the ground circuit.

People that mishandle electrical equipment eventually end up paying for their cavalier attitude.

Oh the electrician lived. He was fired after he got out of the hospital. His union had the audacity to file a grievance to get him reinstated. Lost that one. Heard the guy was complaining that none of the construction electrical companies would hire him.

 

[Watertender]

Where I work now we have 3 Journeyman Electricians on staff. I have cross trained them to be Stationary Engineers and they are very conscientious around the boiler room. There is one Engineer who thinks that he knows everything, I constantly have to redo almost anything he tries to fix. The logbook is a legal document and should be treated as such. I have taught the 3 Electricians to write the logbook so as to make it admissible in court if it is ever called into evidence because I have been saved by the logbook a couple of times legally. The other Engineer mentioned does not write his log properly and has been caught a couple of times outright lying in it. Anyone on this forum who has stood watch knows exactly what I am saying and how dangerous it is....