It was an adventure doing the service upgrade. It's one of those adventures that will long remain in my memory.
The HO actually liked the look of the new Siemens panel and I also took him to the big orange box store and had him chat with the manager about continuity of supply for future parts. That seemed to ease his mind. He has been advised of all the pro's and con's of different panels and finally agreed wholeheartedly the what was now "his" choice of the Siemens panel was the best choice.
I briefly chatted with the manager after the HO left and when I came out into the store he had a big bag of something he had just purchased. - None of my business or so I thought.
We returned to his home and I started to work on removing the old panel after the POCO had pulled the meter off. I have a little 6kw generator that I can use for temporary lighting and it fired up O.K. in the minus 15 C temps. The next thing I knew the HO put down the bag he had purchased and inside were about 25 nice shiny new octagon boxes with covers. He said I could use those to splice into the existing wiring.!!!!
After a bit of discussion, I told him that I would probably have to replace about 6 or 7 new home runs because of the condition of the NM and "splicing" is just something I would not do. He asked me how that was going to happen and I mentioned that it was probably going to happen the old fashioned way - i.e. fishtape and a drill.
He told me that I would not be doing any replacement of home runs.
So I wrote up my invoice and handed it to him, picked up my generator and walked off the property.
The next morning the HO's wife was on the phone at 07:00. She said I should come back to finish the job. I said that I would not consider it if Mr. HO was going to be around and she advised me that Mr. HO was not to come home until the job was finished - she made him book into a hotel for 4 days and just stay away. I agreed to come back and finish the job but only if I could make it code compliant and done with proper workmanship.
She was in tears when I got there at 09:00 and almost begged me to forgive them for the "advise".
I lugged the generator back out back and hooked it all back up and got to work. I finished the job today and he was "called" home.
He almost fell over with approval when I turned the breakers on.
7 homeruns and lots of fooling around with fishtape and drills (God I hate outside insulated walls) and I was done.
I think next time I get "advise" from an HO before I start a job, I'm going to take the advise of many of you here.
-RUN- Run as fast away as I can.
At least I made about a grand for this 3 day job. Not enough to stay in business for long but better than nothing.
