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Posted By: Dave55 Getting along with other trades - 07/11/04 11:19 PM
I'm on a commercial project and have been lucky about getting along with the other trades. I'm curious about the experiences of other ECs.

I think my worst experience over the years was asking the owner if the job was going to be spray painted. He said he was going to roll it himself. When I went back to finish it had been sprayed & all my wires were off-white. Also, sometimes I go to finsh & it seems like there's a missing outlet. With a little detective work I find my outlet under the drywall.

Dave
Posted By: twh Re: Getting along with other trades - 07/11/04 11:35 PM
On hot days brick layers like to start work at 4 AM, so they have a half day of work in before we show up. It can be tough getting everything lined up for them.

For the most part, it takes two to get things really going. That's pretty rare.
Posted By: CRM Re: Getting along with other trades - 07/11/04 11:50 PM
Drywallers are the worst to get along with, the last commercial job we did, they piled all their drywall all around the area we were trying to rough in. We couldn't get the man lift in where we wanted. In the end they cost us a lot of extra time and money.
Posted By: Lostazhell Re: Getting along with other trades - 07/12/04 12:16 AM
pretty much the only trade I've ever had issues with is the drywallers also... The painters I've come across for the most part have been good about where they paint.. As far as any other trade, no problems at all! (except for when an apprentice hole hogged through a a/c duct once... but nothing major.)

Drywallers & rotozips have cost me alot of time & them alot of backcharges... Not to mention boxes full of mud, or just buried also!

-Randy
Posted By: e57 Re: Getting along with other trades - 07/12/04 01:17 AM
Rockers!
Zipping through boxes with a 3" bit, then filling them with mud, or not cutting the opening at all.

Then occasionaly framers who shoot 16's for shearwall, or don't bother with blocking until you've finished.

Plumbers who show late and torch the wires.

The worst is a fresh General Contractor, newly out on his own. Clueless, and new at planning!

Every crew is different. Once you get them sorted out, things start working better, you get a new one.

The big complaint I get, Is that I'm a "Code Nazi", if it were "Code Fascist" I would take it as a compliment! The other is that I beat the details out of the job before I start, I consider that my job. As I don't like mistakes.
Posted By: twh Re: Getting along with other trades - 07/12/04 01:54 AM
I take it back about brick layers. The worst person I ever saw was an electrician.

I was sent to a job to take over for a foreman a few days before he went on holidays. I saw him figure out where a fitter was going to run his line up a wall, and he punched a hole for a 2 inch conduit, in the way, stuck a piece of pipe through and cemented it in place. He got into a fight with the ceiling installer that reached the point they were throwing things at each other, from on top of their scaffolds. One apprentice picked up his tools and walked 5 miles back to the shop.

When he was on holidays, I asked a plumber if I could use the bottom of his pipe rack for one run of conduit. His response was that I could if I could guarantee that ******* wouldn't be coming back.

Electricians suck!
Posted By: macmikeman Re: Getting along with other trades - 07/12/04 04:57 PM
E57,
You hit the nail most precisly square on the head as to the same exact things I have repeatedly encountered and hated finding on the jobs from other trades. You forgot one thing. Whenever another trade tries to do some hot wiring on one of my jobs so they get power to a closer receptacle outlet than the ones I setup with gfi protection to be used by trades for temp power.
Posted By: sparky Re: Getting along with other trades - 07/12/04 08:16 PM
dealing with other trades always seems to come down to thier bedside manner....
[Linked Image from creativeconcepts.demon.nl]
Posted By: e57 Re: Getting along with other trades - 07/13/04 12:48 AM
You're right, I did forget to add S#$%ing around with the installation. Two months ago, had a general who wasn't into changes, wait til after I finished rough and added, moved, and changed half the job on his own. The kicker is that he thought I wouldn't notice. I keep my rough plans with mesurements and wire diagrams on most jobs, and usually video before I leave, just for CYA! Cost him more than what the changes would have been to fix the stuff he messed with. The fun one was he added outlets to the bed rm. from the kitchen on the other side of a wall. We let him do the explaining to the owner on that. Had to pull cabinets to re-do it! 'Cause we wouldn't call inspection 'til we were sure all was ok!

That picture above is priceless, hope it didn't cost the guy who took it his life!
Posted By: JSD453 Re: Getting along with other trades - 07/13/04 12:50 AM
WELDERS!!!!! Some of them think that shiny new conduit is a good spot to attach a ground clamp. You don't usually find out until test out that the little green wire you carefully put in the conduit has melted and fused all the motor wires into a ball of charcoal.
Some times you just have to paint the inside of their welding helmet and see how many days it takes them to notice. [Linked Image]
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