I have a small job coming up where I'm replacing all the switches throughout a large house.
The house is ancient and the walls are covered in 1/2 inch tongue and groove paneling that has been stained brown for probably 100 years.
One of the switch plates is a standard, three gang toggle switch cover made of wood and stained to match the wall.
The plate is oversized by about 1 inch vertically and horizontally.
I've tried every local vender including the big home centers and almost every electrical wholesale house in the area as well as all the design centers.
No one carries three gang decora plates in brown and don't even think about picking up a brown, three gang decora goof plate.
I would have thought this wouldn't be such a hard item to get.
It's amazing! I can get any Bulldog pushmatic breaker ever offered, any F.P.E stablok, as many old swingjacks (buss plugs), Even a 1000 amp break before make transfer switch within one day and I can't find this one little switch plate to save my life!
What's this industry coming to?

I've been "waiting" for a 2-gang BLANK goof plate for about 2 years now. One would think that would almost be a standard item....maybe by the time I retire.

I was told that most of these colors http://www.lutron.com/products/colors/default.asp#architectural are in stock at Lutron. That would make them shipping (5 days at most?) away. I'm sure they aren't cheap by any standard. Maybe it's the oversize that's making so difficult. Have you tried a national distributor like Graybar or Grainger?

I used to have a local tin shop make my specialty items. Any size switch plate you wanted. You can drill the screw holes to save money and paint it any color you want. Also good for custom gutters, and panel bottoms that have too many knockouts.

"No one carries three gang decora plates in brown and don't even think about picking up a brown, three gang decora goof plate."

P&S TPJ263 - 3 gang brown decora - jumbo plate
http://www.passandseymour.com/pdf/R20.pdf

I am sure no one wiI would be surprised if a distributor had this in stock.. but delivery is usually pretty quick from P&S

[This message has been edited by distributor x (edited 12-08-2005).]

I haven't ordered anything from them yet but Classic Accents has alot of switch covers. Pushmatic, toggle, and decora style in stamped, forged, and wood covers.
http://www.classicaccents.net/cgi-bin/miva?Merchant2/merchant.mv+Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=CAI

Grainger has a three gang brown decora that I can order but, not the goof plate.

Well, this all goes back to giving your business to a supply house instead of places like HD. If you have a good relationship they will have no problem ordering whatever you need directly from the manufacturer. Maybe the item will be a bit more expensive and take a week or so but you can get it if they make it. I do this all the time for different color Decora and plates. They can even make plates up for you with more than the standard stock gangs or special combinations.

-Hal

Hal,

I'm curious why your response turned into a tirade against Home Depot. The opening poster did mention this after all:


It sounds like he did try the suppliers with no luck.

Peter

It sounds like he did try the suppliers with no luck.

We KNOW it wasn't in stock anywhere. Next thing to do is order it. Unless you are a regular at a supply house and have an account most won't want to bother ordering anything for you.

Not a "tirade" against home centers, but giving your business to a supply house that only sells to the trade has it's advantages.

Many times I can walk into a house and know right off that it's the house that Home Depot built because there is nothing there that's unusual or isn't on display in their isles.

-Hal

My supply house back in Orange Co. would special order anything my heart desired as I stayed pretty loyal to them for many years, even opening up at night a couple times on emergency calls... But I also found most supply houses have no problem taking special orders as long as you pay up front and don't try to return it.

Hal,
I've gone to every supply house I do business with regularly (5 in all)and they can all order it for me but, every one of them says atleast 4 weeks.
It makes me cring to think of waiting a month to get what should be a regularly stocked, $1.98 item.
I've located 1000 kva, 13,200v transformers and had them shipped to the job over the course of a weekend to get a factory back on line but, I can't find a decora 3 gang goof plate in brown anywhere locally in a town that makes almost anything.
I just makes me a little ticked off that's all.

You really think a brown 3 gang decora idiot plate should be a regularly stocked item?

One thing I miss about having an electrical mfr. here in So Cal is the ability to just take a 45 minute drive and get oddball things tlike that.. Sierra Electric used to be in Gardena, CA till they got eaten up by P&S ... I once got a 22 gang Stainless switch plate next day from them. Quite handy

If you happen to live in the NYC Metro area, you might try the same thing with Leviton in Little Neck, NY or P&S in Syracuse, NY..

Around here, a 3 gang brown decora goof plate should be a regularly stocked item.
Everybody and their brother has a basement with wood paneled walls and almost everyone has finished off the basement with rows of recessed lights that they want to switch seperately. It's a big fad around here.
If I can get a 2 gang brown goof plate as a stocked item, and a 3 gang white plate as a stocked item, why not a 3 gang brown?

Obviously because you are the only one who want's one. I'm sure if they sold one a week they would keep them in stock.

-Hal

Hal you sound like my wife (AKA favorite builder). She won't let me put anything in our house that someone stocks.
If anyone else has one she doesn't want it.

Got my special ordered plate yesterday.
Cost me $1.18.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the price, but when I asked the guys if he had a case of them shipped in, he said "No, just that one.".
Now I'm sure that the cost of labor involved to type in the order, have someone at the warehouse go pull it off the shelf, box it up, load it on a truck, drive it here, unload it, seperated it from the rest of the orders, carry it to the will-call desk and hand it to me was more than $1.18.
Where's the logic in not ordering atleast a couple spares just to have around for future? It's not like they take up too much room.
I really don't care whether or not they have to order another when I need one. I just wanted to give Hal more reason to give me a hard time about this thread.

What I would have suggested is some creative finish carpentry around the switch opening that would have allowed you to use a regular size 3 gang plate and trim around the oversize opening with a wood frame. Make sure to fill in the drywall voids with spacle first so there is no gap at the box edges.

Macmikeman,
Thanks for the input but, it's not the size of the hole for the box that I'm trying to cover, the hole is perfect for the box.
The prob. is that the wall is antique, stained 1/2 inch wood paneling and the old switch plate was oversized and made of wood.
I'm trying to avoid having to match the color of the stain.
The wall was never stained behind the existing plate and since the old plate was so large, there is sure to be a large area of untreated wood around the new plate.
I'm just trying to leave the customer with the best looking job at the least amount of cost.
I'd rather he didn't have to hire a painter to match the wall exactly (if possible) just for an area of a few square inches.
Thanks again for the input though.

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
where's the logic in not ordering atleast a couple spares just to have around for future?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lamplighter,
Why didn't you order more than one so you would have some for future use?

My thoughts exactly.

I just wanted to give Hal more reason to give me a hard time about this thread.

No, actually I agree with you about the supply house ordering just one. Mine does the same thing. I can understand it with oddball items but they do it with the not so unusual items also. I needed an ivory single gang plate for a single 15A/220v air conditioner receptacle. The had the receptacle in ivory but they didn't stock the plate. Go figure.

-Hal

[This message has been edited by hbiss (edited 12-10-2005).]

'Just In Time' stocking has been the mantra in the supply industry for years. It was the begining of a day dream that ware houses that had too much un-usable stock laying around for years. (Which in thier minds is money in the bank that does not collect interest, and becomes obsolete...)

So the idea was that if an end user needed something, they could order it, and have it "Just in time" for when they would need it. That way a supply house would not have a case of (24) 3 gang over-sized brown plates collecting dust on the shelf for years when that 24X1.98 ($47.52) could be collecting interest in a bank. On top of that... If you consider the cost of urban and sub-urban real estate, that box could cost more to store per month as .5 cu/ft of shelf space also needs to be paid for. For them, it may cost less to ship and handle a small item like that than it would in storage of stagnate capitol.

The problem lays in what the end-user, and the supply chain see as "Just in time". Lead time for a 3 gang plate is much more, because the supplier figures you can wait a few days for some un-consiquential item like that. On the other-hand, if you need a high dollar transformer and they know you can not wait for it (or go somewhere else) would be shipped over-night from some low dollar sq/ft warehouse in deep space special just for you. A low dollar item of low importance may have to come from a warehouse in the Dagoba Galaxy...

FYI I was a warehouse and distribution foreman for Mass General Hospital before I was an Electrician. $3.5M of material inventory, and when they needed it, they needed it yesterday... Another $3M handled each month that was too expensive to store in stock... Labor is cheap when floor space is going for $130+sq/ft.

It's all about "real estate".
That one item is not cost effiecient to keep on the shelf. that case collecting dust could easily be replaced by a case of 1900 boxes that actually "move".

I have the same issue in my shop...sure I'd love to keep all sorts of stuff "on hand", but space is limited and what gets used most is what's stocked. I cannot justify the "expense" of keeping "non-standard" items on the shelf.

I would have ordered more than one if I thought I could keep them in good enough shape for sale later.
I used to have a supply of cover plates that would orbit the earth if laid end to end but they always seem to get things thrown on top of them whether in the shop or the truck.
It's like stocking cases of flourescent tubes. they just get broken.
Every supply house I've ever walked through has enough room to stock hundreds, if not thousands, of plates without leaving them where they'll get damaged.
I don't have that luxury.

Lamp, by ordering only one plate, you did exactly what you're criticizing the supply house for.

I wasn't criticizing anyone as much as I was just using this thread as a vehicle to vent about myfrustration in finding that plate.
I realize that in only ordering one plate I'm guilty of the same thing I am complaining about but, the difference is that I don't have room to store the extras where they won't get damaged like a supply house would and I am not in the supply business like a supply house is.
Believe me, if I did own a wholesale house, I would have a small stock of those plates on the shelf next to the four and five gang white decoras that are in as much demand as the one I needed only, they're a regularly stocked item.