ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Poll: Testing Rough installations

Mark,
I might seem like an oddball here, but I was bought up to test with a Megger and an Ohm-meter in various stages of construction.
Having said that, I've never really done a lot of new residential work, Commercial and Industrial was always my fort`e as an EC.
Residential was always too cut-throat.
Before I even started using a reel of cable here, I would test it between cores to make sure that all were open, with the Megger.
I've sent a few reels back to the supplier for having a short somewhere within the reel.
Upon installing the said cables, I never failed to test with the Megger, to see what the Insulation Resistance was and noted it in my Test Records book.
(Every Electrician should have one of these, it is used not only for cable measurements, but for trip levels when testing GFCI's and any other relevant readings, I have used it in court a few times before today).
Going back to a fully lined house, you test again with the Megger to make sure that no-one has nailed any of your cables, during the lining process.
Before livening I take readings of the final Insulation Resistance (with no lamps in the light fittings and nothing plugged in to the recepts). Most of this is recorded on the Certificate of Compliance that the Homeowner gets when they move in, this is also the form that the Electrical Inspector signs when he sets and energises the metering.
Sure, I'm a wee bit different, but the work I have explained takes very little time.
5-6% of your time on site at the most.
Cheers,
Mike.

I have to agree with Sixer
I double and triple recheck all the wires after each room is finished. I too am a 1 man shop doing residental only. I have found that if you do all houses the same way every time, it leaves little room for error
Chris

As far as covered boxes goes... I always mark the floor for each switch,recp,can ect with Orange marking paint
Chris