I finally sat down with a master installer who had 40 years in

Last week I was running a job in a nasty crawlspace and the homeowner's dad came out to watch. Turns out he was a cable installer back in the 80s and 90s before everything went digital. He told me he never used a ton of tie wraps because he said they make troubleshooting a nightmare later on. He showed me how he used to run coax through walls with just a few loops and let the cable hang natural. It hit different because I've been using 50 ties per run thinking it looked professional. He said the real pros leave room for movement and future pulls. Has anyone else learned old school tricks that actually beat the modern way of doing things?

3 comments

3 Comments

young.thomas7d ago

Old school tricks usually win because they came from fixing stuff, not just installing it.

nancy_wood7d ago

My old man told me the same thing for years and I never listened. I remember trying to install a water heater with all these plastic quick-connect fittings and smart valves, and it leaked three times. Finally just sweat some copper like he showed me in the 90s, and it's been dry for two years now. Those old tricks weren't about being fancy, they were about what actually works.

evan5437d ago

Buddy did the same with his truck and spent a week patching a new hose.