Worst install week I've had in 5 years

Last Tuesday I ran 300 feet of wiring through a half-finished basement only to find the homeowner had nailed a shelf right through three of the cables the next day. Then on Thursday, the keypad I installed started chirping at 3 AM because the battery backup was wired backwards from the factory. Has anyone else had a week where everything just went sideways like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

nathan1934d ago

Honestly, is it really that bad though? I mean, yeah, running 300 feet of wire through a half-finished basement sucks, but at least you didn't have to do it in a crawlspace full of dead raccoons like I did last month. And that shelf nail thing - that's on the homeowner, not the install. You gotta put warnings or plastic conduit over new runs in unfinished spaces, that's just basic survival in this trade. The backwards battery backup is annoying for sure, but factory defects happen. I'd rather deal with a chirping keypad at 3 AM than spend a whole day trying to fish wire through an insulated wall because somebody forgot to leave a pull string.

olivia_hernandez3d agoMost Upvoted

@nathan193 I get what you're saying about basic survival in the trade, but I gotta push back a little. Dead raccoons in a crawlspace is nasty, for sure. But running 300 feet of wire through a half-finished basement isn't a walk in the park either, especially when you're fighting with studs and drywall that was just put up. And yeah, the shelf nail thing is on the homeowner, but I've had clients who act like it's my fault their DIY shelf wasn't level. The backwards battery backup isn't just annoying either, it's a pain because it makes the whole system look sloppy to the customer when it goes off at 3 AM. I'd still take a chirping keypad over a bad wiring job any day cause at least you can swap the backup quick.