Maybe someone can tell me this.....why do plumbers, job after job after job continue to put there 4inch cast down the middle of the hallways????? don't they understand that the lights and smokes have to be centered...i know this isn't the first job they've been on, but why over and over?

When you say 4 inch cast ,I think of the old cast that they used babbit and lead to make up the joints

Reasons I have heard range from, 'first on job'; 'horray for me & xxxxx"; 'don't care about your problem', etc.

Not only plumbers, but HVAC ductwork, fire sprinkler, etc.

I have to agree John.
It's usually a situation of "first up, best dressed!!"

I get the first in mentality, but you would think that job after job of them having to move there stuff, or the gc yelling and screaming until they finally drop the ceiling that it would occur to them, am i wrong?? I couldn't beleive it but i had a tin basher come up to me to discuss the job before it started about how we could work together, imagine that hun.....

What??

When I 'had the tools', fortunatley a large percentage of the jobs were with other trades that we worked with steadily. That's when co-operation was achieved between all the guys.

Todays climate of 'best price' and non-cooperation is becoming the norm.

You have to blame the job super for things like this. Ultimately they are the ones who are supposed to make sure everything works.

Great poing Greg. Sorry i didn't think about that angle before.

My wife says if you are not in every room of every house every day looking at what they are doing today and figuring out what you will be doing tomorrow you are not doing the job of a super.
One thing I always thought was a good idea was painting things on the floor, like where required outlets go, phone/TV/data jacks, door swings or anything else that may be important later. That makes it fast to see that step 1 is not screwing up step 2.

I use to have this problem with the electric and gas company. Who ever put the meter in first was suppose to stay, but many times I would have the electric service installed and the gas company would come next and put their gas meter right next to the electric. Then I usually had to move my service. Plus the gas company would rip up my ground rods and never tell me. I would find them on the ground under the service. Lucky I walked around the house before inspection otherwise I would have failed the job for sure.

Harold:

This is a point that should be suggested to ALL electricians and ECs!!!

"Lucky I walked around the house before inspection otherwise I would have failed the job for sure."

Just one of those things.
Been dealing with it for years,even our own trade fights for location.

Everything is spaced and drawn,on many different prints.

Imagine how:

A 2x4 trough,smoke detector,occupancy sensor,security motion,sprinkler head & supply/return diffuser are to fit in that same 2x4 space.

Another reason,Most supers ( & subs) just want it done and on to the next one.
Additionally, the EC has to wait for the dwelling to be rain tight,this gives the others a big advantage to space.

Sounds like its time to have a chat with the GC. Get out the change orders. Bill him for your time and tell him let me know when its moved! Next time it it will be diffrent! One way or another!

Ob

PS As I get older I find we should all be thinking more like the lawyer's If I give advise,bill. Show up and its not ready, bill. Look at the job add it to the estimate. Does your doc diagnose you on the phone, no make an appointment, bill. It takes about 8 yrs to be an electrician, same as a doc? Sorry for the rant!

Another fight I use to get into was with the plumber. They always ran the vent pipe right up the center line of the vanity. Right where the box for my vanity light should go. The thing that got to me, was that I use to work with the plumber on more than 1 job and you would think by the 2nd or 3rd house, they would remember my box placement.

Things get worse the other way round... if something gets in their way, plumbers here will just whack it with a hammer until they can cram their stuff in.

Last summer I helped a friend renovate her mid-50s condo and I had to replace 3 sections of conduit the plumbers had hammered flat to get their pipes through.

Texas,

We weren't that bad, sometimes though a plumber would drill through our wire and not tell us until the end of the job. That was bad.
On other jobs, (especially when you weren't working with friends) there was friction between the trades. Then you would get some outright damage to each others work. Like someone would put cement down a pipe. (being either electric or plumbing) That was borderline criminal offense.

Some years ago I saw a great response to the time-honored tradition of the other trades flattening the conduit stubs to make for easier walking.

The EC ran EMT in the slab, but the conduit stubs were IMC.

You should have seen the Sub's face the first time he rammed his gangbox into a conduit stub expecting it to bend out of the way.

Priceless!!

Sometimes it doesn't seem to matter who's there first!

Creative engineering at its finest!

Lost...

Talk about an epic fail...

-----

As for plumbers...

On one TI the NEMA3R big box SERVICE had U/G stubs that entered the building and then turned up -- finally running horizontal into each demised space.

However the very first tenant located their water closet such that their plumber eliminated that pesky U/G turn! It was necessary to re-pipe and take the feeder outside the building. The other branch undergrounds were cut to pieces, too.

The best / worst was on an episode of 'This Old House.' A prior plumber had cut away the critical support for a bathroom so as to get his drain in. The whole side of the house was collapsing in slow motion. ( Hence the need for a re-hab. )