Illegal splice - Electrician Talk - Professional Electrical Contractors Forum

rinburevolution · 08-21-2008, 06:22 PM

Sometimes you just don't know what you're going to find when a place hires an incompetent moron… Every time you work there, there is a new discovery, each one worse than the last.

The splice in the photo is schedule 40 PVC, ½ inch if I remember correctly, ran into 1 inch irrigation pipe. The ends were joined with duct tape, the wires sealed in the pipe with candle wax.

Not only do I not know where in the hell this idiot was able to obtain so much wax, but how he got it solidly in that pipe is beyond me. The guys of the golf course had to dig up a 50 foot section of the number three fairway, but the other pump, the wire to which ran diagonal across the number eight fairway, also had to be completely dug up.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/DSCF0549.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/DSCF0557.jpg

Some days I'm insulted by the people who call themselves electricians.

Kletis · 08-21-2008, 06:43 PM

Somebody get this guy a code book,

352.48 "All joints between lengths of conduit, and between conduit and couplings, fittings, and boxes, shall be made by an approved method."

and of course my favorite,

110.12 "Electrical equipment shall be installed in a neat and workmanlike manner."

I swear some people go out of their way to do it wrong. Did you replace the whole conduit run?

brian john · 08-21-2008, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rinburevolution

Some days I'm insulted by the people who call themselves electricians.

Don't be or you'll never make it in my job, you'd go crazy, I just shake my head and wonder, but every so often I see something above the norm that flips me out.

John · 08-21-2008, 10:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rinburevolution

Sometimes you just don't know what you're going to find when a place hires an incompetent moron… Every time you work there, there is a new discovery, each one worse than the last.

The splice in the photo is schedule 40 PVC, ½ inch if I remember correctly, ran into 1 inch irrigation pipe. The ends were joined with duct tape, the wires sealed in the pipe with candle wax.

Not only do I not know where in the hell this idiot was able to obtain so much wax, but how he got it solidly in that pipe is beyond me. The guys of the golf course had to dig up a 50 foot section of the number three fairway, but the other pump, the wire to which ran diagonal across the number eight fairway, also had to be completely dug up.

Probably a retired farmer doing some work for pocket money. Farmers are real resourceful. They got a lot of mechanical abilities but lack the technical knowledge.
Been there seen that.

rinburevolution · 08-22-2008, 04:26 PM

Actually this guy was the maintenance man for the entire golf course. Apparently he thought he was an electrician, work was done in every building and every outlet was run in a completely different manner from the last. You can't trust any wire color, most things eventually catch on fire, and for some reason they kept him around for about 15 years.

Any time the equipment failure was mentioned to him, he would always say "well it worked when I was here, so I must've done it right".

We had to replace the conduit run, wire, disconnect, as well as the inside relay, which shot flames the day before we had to rip it out.

Kletis · 08-22-2008, 05:56 PM

Wow...

Rong · 08-23-2008, 04:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John

Probably a retired farmer doing some work for pocket money. Farmers are real resourceful. They got a lot of mechanical abilities but lack the technical knowledge.
Been there seen that.

Farmers around here are famous for doing their own work. IF they do break down and call an electrician then you can bet your bottom dollar that they have tried to fix it already. It is pretty much FUBARed when you get there. On a side note I have been told by a DIY'er that electricity don't care what the color of the wire is. Which that statement is true it will flow though anything that conducts however it just ain't kosher nor legal.

dSilanskas · 08-25-2008, 06:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rinburevolution

Sometimes you just don't know what you're going to find when a place hires an incompetent moron… Every time you work there, there is a new discovery, each one worse than the last.

The splice in the photo is schedule 40 PVC, ½ inch if I remember correctly, ran into 1 inch irrigation pipe. The ends were joined with duct tape, the wires sealed in the pipe with candle wax.

Not only do I not know where in the hell this idiot was able to obtain so much wax, but how he got it solidly in that pipe is beyond me. The guys of the golf course had to dig up a 50 foot section of the number three fairway, but the other pump, the wire to which ran diagonal across the number eight fairway, also had to be completely dug up.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/DSCF0549.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/DSCF0557.jpg

Some days I'm insulted by the people who call themselves electricians.

Hey I think I did a very good job!!

Billy_Bob · 08-25-2008, 09:46 PM

I have a farmer friend who kept wanting me to run power to a newer barn he had. I kept saying I would do it right or not at all. He kept wanting me to do it on the cheap. I refused.

Anyway about a year later I ran into him and he asked me what would cause him to get shocked when he touched a certain water pipe in his barn... Guess he got that work done on the cheap!

Rong · 08-26-2008, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Billy_Bob

I have a farmer friend who kept wanting me to run power to a newer barn he had. I kept saying I would do it right or not at all. He kept wanting me to do it on the cheap. I refused.

Anyway about a year later I ran into him and he asked me what would cause him to get shocked when he touched a certain water pipe in his barn... Guess he got that work done on the cheap!

yep thats is exactly what I was talking about. Had a service calls years ago where a farmer had wired the heaters in his hog waters himself. First off he used pain romex and second off he did not bury it very deep. Hogs dug up wire and it was shorting out to water...even time they went to get a drink they got shocked. Once we had rewired it using RMC buried deep and got everything fixed the hogs would not use the nipple waterers ,seems once they get shocked from something they will not try it twice. This may be a blanket statement that is untrue as I really dont know much about hogs other than pork chops, bacon ,ham and the such.

DISCLAIMER: I respect the farmer greatly I just get amused at their ways sometimes.

dSilanskas · 08-27-2008, 12:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rinburevolution

Sometimes you just don't know what you're going to find when a place hires an incompetent moron… Every time you work there, there is a new discovery, each one worse than the last.

The splice in the photo is schedule 40 PVC, ½ inch if I remember correctly, ran into 1 inch irrigation pipe. The ends were joined with duct tape, the wires sealed in the pipe with candle wax.

Not only do I not know where in the hell this idiot was able to obtain so much wax, but how he got it solidly in that pipe is beyond me. The guys of the golf course had to dig up a 50 foot section of the number three fairway, but the other pump, the wire to which ran diagonal across the number eight fairway, also had to be completely dug up.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/DSCF0549.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/DSCF0557.jpg

Some days I'm insulted by the people who call themselves electricians.

Okay serious question here. What kinda wire did they run? If it was UF why is that illegal? You dont have to install it in pipe and its easy to see that they didnt know what they where doing and no electrician would do that. But if its UF wire does that make the splice wrong?

rinburevolution · 08-27-2008, 07:57 AM

The wire run in the pipe/wax combo was THHN. The runs were so damaged that the original color was gone, due to the heat, the green, blue, red, and black were all blackened. In several places, the sheathing had bubbled up and left the wire exposed from overheating (or fire,). There were splices/wire nuts within the pipe in a couple of locations, and the wire changed color several times over the 300' run. That is not a good thing to do with 480 if the wire is not marked properly at both ends.

The wire under the sheathing was blue in places, the sheath permanently adhered in others.

Had it not shot flames out the end in the pump house, nor burned up the disconnect, it may have run a while longer like that...

This comes from the same place where one of the guys could not understand why a wire could not be butt-spliced underwater without some type of external protection. (He has been fired for unrelated reasons, but it made me breathe a sigh of relief)

dSilanskas · 08-27-2008, 09:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rinburevolution

The wire run in the pipe/wax combo was THHN. The runs were so damaged that the original color was gone, due to the heat, the green, blue, red, and black were all blackened. In several places, the sheathing had bubbled up and left the wire exposed from overheating (or fire,). There were splices/wire nuts within the pipe in a couple of locations, and the wire changed color several times over the 300' run. That is not a good thing to do with 480 if the wire is not marked properly at both ends.

The wire under the sheathing was blue in places, the sheath permanently adhered in others.

Had it not shot flames out the end in the pump house, nor burned up the disconnect, it may have run a while longer like that...

This comes from the same place where one of the guys could not understand why a wire could not be butt-spliced underwater without some type of external protection. (He has been fired for unrelated reasons, but it made me breathe a sigh of relief)

Well takes all kinds I guess....

randomkiller · 08-28-2008, 07:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rinburevolution

Actually this guy was the maintenance man for the entire golf course. Apparently he thought he was an electrician, work was done in every building and every outlet was run in a completely different manner from the last. You can't trust any wire color, most things eventually catch on fire, and for some reason they kept him around for about 15 years.

Any time the equipment failure was mentioned to him, he would always say "well it worked when I was here, so I must've done it right".

We had to replace the conduit run, wire, disconnect, as well as the inside relay, which shot flames the day before we had to rip it out.

At a place like that you never know who he knew to be doing the tennis pro or pool boy.

Mackie · 08-29-2008, 03:44 AM

Awesome!

Looks like all the additions at my house! As I've already posted in previous threads, the previous owner (a GC no less!) changed a single family into a two family with a finished basement.

Every single thing he touched - wood, metal, and plastic - had at least one code violation and many 'what was he thinking' factors.

The latest thing I found was on the outside porch light for the basement. He used a chopped up lamp cord run along the outside of the wall to power the light. This week I went to fix it and of course the switch was installed on the grounded conductor. WTF??? And those pesky wires with no insulation weren't connected to anything anywhere... Multiple wires on the light's terminal screws... 20' of slack buried in the wall (which is nice - I can use it to fix all the f' ups). #12 wire on 15A circuits and #14 on 20A... He just couldn't do anything right even by accident!

What I want to know is how this place passed inspection before my sis-in-law bought it??? He musta given the inspector a finsky!

Ecopat · 08-29-2008, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rinburevolution

Sometimes you just don't know what you're going to find when a place hires an incompetent moron… Every time you work there, there is a new discovery, each one worse than the last.

The splice in the photo is schedule 40 PVC, ½ inch if I remember correctly, ran into 1 inch irrigation pipe. The ends were joined with duct tape, the wires sealed in the pipe with candle wax.

Not only do I not know where in the hell this idiot was able to obtain so much wax, but how he got it solidly in that pipe is beyond me. The guys of the golf course had to dig up a 50 foot section of the number three fairway, but the other pump, the wire to which ran diagonal across the number eight fairway, also had to be completely dug up.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/DSCF0549.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/DSCF0557.jpg

Some days I'm insulted by the people who call themselves electricians.

I feel for you, but dont be disheartened.
Just know that you are a professional & as such are more than capable of fixing some incompetant f*cks so called work & make the world a safer place for all concerned.

I can see why this got to you however, 15 years, what were they thinking?

rinburevolution · 08-29-2008, 09:37 PM

Probably that it was cheaper to keep another guy on who would work for minimum wage plus free golf, as all the other guys seem to be paid in...

Mountain Electrician · 08-31-2008, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rinburevolution

Actually this guy was the maintenance man for the entire golf course. Apparently he thought he was an electrician, work was done in every building and every outlet was run in a completely different manner from the last. You can't trust any wire color, most things eventually catch on fire, and for some reason they kept him around for about 15 years.

One refinery I worked at had an electrician who's favorite color must have been green. He was happy to use it for hot or ground. Also, instead of using an EYS for big conduits, (4 or 5") he would stuff rags down the pipe and pour liquid asphalt right down them. Try pulling those conductors out 30 years later!

sparky970 · 10-01-2008, 02:36 PM

Can you say "colossal ineptitude"

nick · 10-01-2008, 08:34 PM

oh that looks like some pictures from kbr ya see plumbing and electrical goes together thats part of there apprentice training glad to see some of there work nice looking work .