Carpenter working in a small strip mall went to remove what he thought was a plumbing waste or vent line. Turns out it was the three phase feed for the unit he was working in. Good thing the power was turned off. He didn't realize it until he was through all four lines. The electrician who wired the mall had schedule 80 on the exterior wall and SCH 40 DWV for the interior. Next door is a day care center.... The carpenter took the rest of the day off to reflect on his good fortune.

Man, that carpenter is lucky.

One.,

The carpenter is dangbat lucky He do need to take the day off to get his nerves relax.

Now the other issue is the DWV pipe I do not know how they allow it in first place for myself I will never go that route too easy to make a mistake like that.

Merci,Marc

I try to avoid MI cable for a similar reason.
I can just see someone deciding to reroute those Copper water lines...not knowing that it's really the feed to the fire pump.

Petey:
You said....'The electrician who wired the mall had schedule 80 on the exterior wall and SCH 40 DWV for the interior.'.....

Sure it wasn't a plumber? Your area of NY has permits/licenses/inspections right??

Marc: (Frenchelectrician)

DWV (plumbing) pipe is NOT allowed. I have seen plumbing PVC used for irrigation (low volt) wiring for lawn sprinklers, and the occasional homeowner using plumbing pipe, but I have to say in 40+ years.....I have not met a hack that used DWV for a feeder, much less an electrician

One thing that seems strange about this.
Isn't DWV white and electrical conduit grey?
Sure, only a real hack would use DWV to enclose wiring with water pipe, but the onus is on the "carpenter" to actually identify the service in the pipe, before cutting it.

By this I mean, if the pipe did not head to a water fitting, would that not make you think twice?

Let's be real here, it only takes a minute or two to trace where a conduit/pipe leads to.

Mike:
I agree with you 100%. Things happen when people hurry a job, or do things 'outside' of their trade, specially during 'demo' stages of jobs. Fortunatley in this situation, the power was off.

A quick side note:
Years back, industrial bldg, interior demo & renovation. WE marked all conduits w/fluor. orange or red spray that where 'live' and were to remain. The 'demo' guys with long oxy.acetleyne torches 'cut' a 4160volt feeder. The cut was 6" from the marking spray, and next to a 4160 sticker. That was one large 'boom'.

Mike, I think that "DWV" is actually black, and made of a different plastic than PVC. Ordinary PVC glue won't work.

Ampther mistake was calling it 'schedule 40.' Drains need not withstand the same pressures as water pipe, and thus is usually a much lighter material.

In the picture, the stuff looks gray, but that is probably because of lighting, and the 'fuzz' on the cut edge.

As for the carpenter not feeling the wires inside: There have been many times I have used my saw on steel pipe, and have cut through it in a heartbeat. This might have been the case here - the cut was complete before he had any idea there were wires inside.

The 'sawzall' was nearly the last tool I bought; by contrast, for many guys it seems to be the first. I've seen plenty of guys go into a playfull frenzy when the tool comes out, filling them with that pure joy that comes from destroying things.

Well, John: There's a first time for everything. Here's a pic from a camp ground in South Carolina:

https://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l268/ev607797/Beach09.jpg

That's ABS. Both ABS (black) and PVC (white) are common for DWV. I've heard that ABS is more prevelant in the western US and PVC in the east, but I don't know if there's any truth to that. (I'm in the east and see mostly PVC, btw.)

Funny how things vary in different parts of the planet... Austria and Germany exclusively use PP (polypropylene) drain piping which is either dark grey or colored (I've seen light blue and dark burgundy red). Sewer pipes are made of PVC (65 C degrees temperature rating as opposed to a 95 degrees rating of drain pipe). Occasionally ABS is used, but it's rare. PP and PVC pipe usually has prefabricated bells on one end, with a ruber o-ring and is just stuck together. These large bells make plumbing pipe very easy to recognize.
http://www.getek-gmbh.de/shop/bilder/produkte/gross/576_1.jpg

OK....a first time for everything!
Thanks Ed

And a thread from Norcal, From a couple of months ago, showing a feeder using ABS DWV "conduit".

https://www.electrical-contractor.n...hat_NEC_section_covers_ABS_DW#Post186020

BTW: Referring to "Sch 40" for the drain pipe is correct, when referring to ABS

Never noticed that in the pic from Norcal either!

John., I allready ran into more than once when someone did actally done that kind of fashion like that.

One guy claim it work really slick however he learn a lesson when I try to pull out the damaged conductors out of DWV pipe { it was binded at sharp 90° ell } so result is have to cut it out and run the proper PVC conduit and conductor that guy is not a happy camper at all after I have to fix his's mess

Merci,Marc

P.S. it do happend both side of pond so I am not really too amused when someone try to cut the corner like that.

If the DWV (Drain, Waste, and Vent) you are referring to is of the black variety, it is cellular core (think styrofoam) ABS and not PVC.

Was repairing some sprinklers & there was 3- 3/4" lines grouped together so decided to cut them out of the way & then repair them after the orig one was done, while cutting one out of the way discovered that had cut clean through a 14/2 UF cable inside a white PVC line, to this day get really pushed out of shape when I see white PVC used for electrical conduit , BTW the power was off on the cut UF cable.

Why would he have two pipes, one inside the other? I suspect he used the wrong pipe the first time and simply fixed his problem by sleeving the proper pipe over top.