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The number of guys who still don't test their wire runs before putting up drywall is wild
I mean, I just finished a job in Tempe where the last crew ran the whole system, closed the walls, and then found a break in the main loop. They had to cut open three fresh sheets to find it. That's a full day of work and about $200 in materials down the drain. It takes maybe 15 minutes with a meter to check continuity before you seal things up. How do you even bill a customer for that kind of fix? Anyone else run into this a lot lately?
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evan_davis2mo ago
Been there... had a crew do that on a rewire last year. We just eat the cost and fix it, but it's a brutal lesson to learn. You can't charge for your own mistake, so that lost day comes straight out of the job's profit. Always test twice, it's cheaper than opening a wall.
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sammartinez1d ago
Yeah, "always test twice" is something I read in an electrician subreddit the other day. Some old timer was talking about how they caught a mislabeled breaker before they started cutting, and it saved them from having to rip out a whole ceiling. It's one of those things that sounds like overkill until you've been burned. Especially on a rewire where the old wiring is a mess, you never know what the last guy did. I'd rather spend an extra 15 minutes double checking than spend a whole day fixing a screw up.
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brooket432mo ago
I mean, I get the idea of eating the cost, but sometimes you can pass a small part of it along if you're upfront. Maybe it's just me, but a full day's loss seems rough to always just swallow.
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