ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Violation Photo Forum Hall Of Shame worthy violations at my apartment!

The next violation deals with our construction crew that is doing a a fair job at best of replacing some termite infested, rotten walkway boards around here. This place has ineffective gutters so they get soaked.... real smooth move there. However, let's not talk about the construction of the walkway right now; lets talk about how they were powering their tools!

I had to pause and admire this bit of stupidity while on my lunch run. This cord was connected inside the compressor disco with ALLIGATOR CLAMPS! I didn't get too close to really get detail, I let the zoom on the camera take care of that.

You will note in the pic that not only are they using automotive clamps, the polarity is reversed, they are using ground as a neutral and the green grounding conductor in the cord is connected to nothing. The clamp attached to the breaker is insulated with good ol' blue painter's tape.They could have at least used duck tape! Hmm...anyone know what the dielectric strength of painters tape is? To add insult to injury, the cord is a 16AWG cord and it appears to be attached to the line side of the breaker. Not that it matters much, the breaker is a 30A unit.... I don't think the open air rating applies here. (beat you to the joke!)

There are a couple additional violations in the pic showing the overall scene with the compressors on the ground...spot them!

The apartment manager was extremely angry when she saw this, not just from a safety point of view, but the fact that these guys were stealing power from an occupied apartment. They were stealing quite a bit too... two small air compressors, a drill or two and a circular saw were running off of it. I didn't touch the cord to see if it was hot..... I think we know the answer to that!

The work the construction crew does is shoddy too. The old walkway uses Warren type trusses in it....the replacement is a ladder frame. It's sagging under its own weight. My friend states that the building inspector might be quite interested in hearing about that one.. I'm not a carpenter but I do know the difference between good construction and crap when I see it. I'd love to see one of those code compliance trucks roll up right about now and give this place a once over.

If I see that alligator clamp to socket adapter again and nobody is around, I WILL make it disappear. You'll find it in 6" pieces in the skip! It was not in use but I did see it on the sidewalk today.

- hardwareguy