If you can do dis, U 2 can be a lectrishun

[MacFromOK]

I used to know a couple of staff electricians at OU, and they had some stories to tell. Let's just say that electrical codes have changed a mite in the 100+ years since some of those buildings were built (and electrified), and not all electrical contractors do everything according to Hoyle.

My brother bought an old frame house and had it moved onto his property back in the '80s. When he crawled up in the attic, the wiring had cloth insulation, and splices were twisted together and BARE with no tape or anything on 'em.

Needless to say, he rewired everything.

 

[John6185]

My house was built in 2003 and every light switch and plug -in receptacle is professionally held in place with sheetrock screws-even the outside floodlights! Grrrrrrrrrr! I've had to replace few of those junction boxes because I couldn't tighten them since ht ethreads stripped.

 

[Tanis143]

The security and fire alarm guys crack me up. They run their cables across the overhead any way they see fit but us data/network guys have to follow a standard. We'll get in there and see alarm cables laying across the drop ceiling, draped on sprinkler pipes but we have to make a proper path with J-hooks.

There is a reason why data has to follow a strict no touching code, cross contamination of EMI can corrupt data packets. Alarm wiring is a simple resistor circuit. If it has continuity, all is good. If the continuity is broken then the alarm goes off. Coax is a bit more lenient than CAT5e/6/7/x due to the fact it has proper shielding to prevent egress/ingress, but even it is susceptible. I had a house that had seen 4 techs come out for intermittent tiling. Swapped boxes, replaced fittings/splitters. The last tech out put in an amp and overdrove the signal. I did an ingress check and saw some ingress spikes. The line going to the living room was zip tied onto a conduit that was going to an outside outlet. When I took the line off the conduit and mounted it 3 inches away the ingress spikes stopped.

So its not just that the alarm people are lazy, they just do not need to isolate their lines to prevent data corruption.

 

[Tanis143]

Jeebers!

My house built in the 70's. Apprentice or day laborer or a good Doobie Brothers concert last
night?

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I wish I could share pics of electrical work I have seen in attics. I've actually told people to call electricians to fix stuff I have found. I've seen many romex lines twisted together with nothing covering the connections, lamp wire used as romex, 3-4 lines coming off one in parallel, etc. How some of these homes have lasted is beyond me.

 

[dennishoddy]

My brother bought an old frame house and had it moved onto his property back in the '80s. When he crawled up in the attic, the wiring had cloth insulation, and splices were twisted together and BARE with no tape or anything on 'em.

Needless to say, he rewired everything.

That describes my parents house they lived in for 50 years. I got into the attic once to find out why the light over the dining room table was blinking.
All of the wiring was bare conductors supported by ceramic insulators nailed in to ceiling joices. Hot wire down one, and neutral down the other. The drop for the ceiling light had only been twisted around the hot line and never soldered so over time heat caused by a poor connection caused the issue. The entire house was powered by two 20 amp screw in fuses.
It took me two weeks, but by the time it was done they had a 200 amp service with breakers and properly installed wiring.

 

[Snattlerake]

The security and fire alarm guys crack me up. They run their cables across the overhead any way they see fit but us data/network guys have to follow a standard. We'll get in there and see alarm cables laying across the drop ceiling, draped on sprinkler pipes but we have to make a proper path with J-hooks.

Only the fly by nighters. We followed code.

I wish I could share pics of electrical work I have seen in attics. I've actually told people to call electricians to fix stuff I have found. I've seen many romex lines twisted together with nothing covering the connections, lamp wire used as romex, 3-4 lines coming off one in parallel, etc. How some of these homes have lasted is beyond me.

Same here. I have found many a J box uncovered and with bare copper ends sticking up. I have seen bad things on both sides. As to shoddy workmanship, we followed code. We even went overboard and never ran non plenum cabling just in case we had a plenum area to go through. We went so far as to flush cut all our zip ties and never strapped to conduit. That would get you fired. With permissions we did run with CAT5 and fiber and vice versa when they needed the same pathways.

All that being said here is some of the stuff I have run into in my job I fixed.

 

[thor447]

There is a reason why data has to follow a strict no touching code, cross contamination of EMI can corrupt data packets. Alarm wiring is a simple resistor circuit. If it has continuity, all is good. If the continuity is broken then the alarm goes off. Coax is a bit more lenient than CAT5e/6/7/x due to the fact it has proper shielding to prevent egress/ingress, but even it is susceptible. I had a house that had seen 4 techs come out for intermittent tiling. Swapped boxes, replaced fittings/splitters. The last tech out put in an amp and overdrove the signal. I did an ingress check and saw some ingress spikes. The line going to the living room was zip tied onto a conduit that was going to an outside outlet. When I took the line off the conduit and mounted it 3 inches away the ingress spikes stopped.

So its not just that the alarm people are lazy, they just do not need to isolate their lines to prevent data corruption.

I can attest to this. I've ran miles and miles of cat5/5e/6 in casinos back in the day, and have run into this on multiple occasions.

 

[murphranch]

That describes my parents house they lived in for 50 years. I got into the attic once to find out why the light over the dining room table was blinking.
All of the wiring was bare conductors supported by ceramic insulators nailed in to ceiling joices. Hot wire down one, and neutral down the other. The drop for the ceiling light had only been twisted around the hot line and never soldered so over time heat caused by a poor connection caused the issue. The entire house was powered by two 20 amp screw in fuses.
It took me two weeks, but by the time it was done they had a 200 amp service with breakers and properly installed wiring.

I miss my old screw in fuse boxes and the 20 amp fuses. Always had electricity as long as i had a few pennies laying around.

Sent from my LG-H700 using Tapatalk

 

[BReeves]

Only the fly by nighters. We followed code.

Same here. I have found many a J box uncovered and with bare copper ends sticking up. I have seen bad things on both sides. As to shoddy workmanship, we followed code. We even went overboard and never ran non plenum cabling just in case we had a plenum area to go through. We went so far as to flush cut all our zip ties and never strapped to conduit. That would get you fired. With permissions we did run with CAT5 and fiber and vice versa when they needed the same pathways.

All that being said here is some of the stuff I have run into in my job I fixed.

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All low voltage stuff, no codes and the worst thing that can happen with shody work is it doesn't work.

 

[MacFromOK]