ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area If you had your choice

I do alot of resteraunt service. The problems I encounter is serious abuse. They basically dont care. The greece build up in the kitchens are enough to make me want to go home and shower after a 1/2 hr service call, but they pay, and pay right there with no questions asked. I do dread the 10:00 pm saturday night serice calls though. If I had my choice, I would do nothing but new light commercial. , strip malls exc. Get in and get out, kind of like new resi. But around here residential pays the bills, but commercial makes you money.

Hey, you guys are all sick-o's.
You notice Bill did not limit it to the trades........ Well, Lil Abner was a matress tester........THERES my hero

George,

You shoulda been a Lawyer I guess.
For the record, lets confine the answers to the trade though. ...


Bill

Bill:
We used to do industrial & commercial..
The industrial customer base packed-up & moved, so now it's commercial.
(Retail, office, exterior lighting)
Renovation is "king".
Parking lot lighting maintenance & retail store maintenance keeps two guys busy.
We don't look for residential, but we take what we get thru the commercial accounts.

HotLine1
John

Metering and protective relaying in medium- and high-voltage switchgear are fun. Miles of {mostly} grey SIS wire—14-1/0AWG…41-259 strand. Lots of crimp terminals, heatshrink wire labels and mountains of cable ties.

Most important—very thorough testing, as-built documentation and detailed test records.

Definitely Industrial Repair work/
Faultfinding.
Works over the Grey matter more than just
installing gear.
But do not really mind crawling around in
roof voids, mind you we do not really
have a lot of poisonous spiders and no
snakes at all.
Feel sorry for you people that have snakes.

the residential and commercial new work has been our "bread and butter" for many years, with a good deal of remodeling and additions thrown in. but, in the past few years, it seems as though the industrial operations, i.e. auto manufacturers, paper mills, stone quarries, etc., are down-sizing their in-house maintenance departments, and "farming out" their maintenance and line upgrade work. its made it very necessary for all of us, even us "old-timers", to change gears, so to speak, and pursue new avenues in our continued training. we are pretty much required to learn, and become proficient in areas such as PLC's, process control systems, VFD's, soft-starts, computer controlled process networking, etc., just to stay competitive. as a result, this may be our new "bread and butter" area, especially when the snow flies and the outside construction comes to a standstill.



ron

Although i favor industrial, i'm quite happy with a mix where i don't get bored...

Bill,

Yes, resteraunts do have a lot of grease and they want you NOW! Not leter but right now. Some of the crazier things I have wired, I wired up 2-3 solar homes. Lots of control wiring, solar panels on the roof and rock storage pit. I also wired up a mausolium/creamatory. Talk about imediate service call. When they have a body in the oven and it is half baked and the equipment stops working. Well, they do everything short of calling 911.

Harold

Have only dealt with large Commercial. Enjoy the planning and observing all trades working together to finish projects. Have had the opportunity to work as a leadman on such projects as the Disease Control Center in Winnipeg, Canada to the Atlantis Hotel and Casino in the Bahamas. I like nothing more than looking up at "a nice rack".