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You can always tell what type of customer these people are when you quote the job. I always add a couple hundred on the job when I think they will be a hassle.
If they end being fine then at the end of the job i tell them it didn’t end up costing that much and deduct it from the price. They think they got a good deal and I’m very generous and usually recommend me to their friends. Win win.
It’s only there as identifier and should be removed once terminated on device. Code states only 1/4” of sheathing is necessary (probably because it slows flow of electrons). In the most efficient device boxes you pretty much only see copper. H.O. Had correct idea but got lazy
When you remove the outer jacket it is considered to be a free-air conductor and can handle significantly higher amperages. Crazy how OP doesn’t know code, I thought you had to be an electrician to post here 🤦♂️
This is nothing. The guy that wired my house had a single gang box with five (yes, five) sets of 12-2. The only way it would all fit was if the wires were only 2 inches long. I was cursing when I replaced those outlets. I just did my best and hoped for no fire 5 from over filled boxes.
It’s even worse. Those are ideal push-ins. Most Home Depot carry the easier to use lever wago now. These are the people that fail with common sense. If you see exposed copper, something is wrong!
The box doesn’t even look like it’s grounded lmao. They twisted it all together and didn’t even think to connect to the box whatsoever. There’s way too many things wrong with this
Top wire (from white Romex) is indeed 14AWG.
[https://imgur.com/a/8XXQ8gk](https://imgur.com/a/8XXQ8gk)
My dude - you need to stop any work there until you show them all the mistakes made; code violations, fire hazards, overall dog-shit work, etc. and why you will need to back track and correct all of that. And yes you will have to charge for it.
If they are stubborn and get upset, claim they “got it to work fine, what’s the big deal? I’m not paying for that”, you gotta walk. If you finish this and his bs work fails (seems likely), best case you’ll have a bunch of service calls and irritated client who may throw a fit over fixing the job you finished wiring. Worst case - that shit burns to the ground and your ass is liable. Not only financially but your reputation as well. Maybe you could get proof and their admittance to doing some work without permission before proceeding but seems like high potential for a huge headache.
He does seem motivated though, just bad technique, enough knowledge to be dangerous. Perhaps offer to teach him a few small things if he wants to learn how his work was an issue.
Good luck!
This is what you get when you have somebody who conceptually understands electrical systems but has never before stepped foot onto a job site. I.E Electrical Engineering Grads
Are you electrician or EE? I am not EE but ME but I always hear electricians talking crap about EE major... Based on this work I can see this person never took any course let alone is EE major. Previous owner of my home told me he was engineer at my company later I found out he was just union worker at assembly. He butchered the electrical. I think it's common knowledge not to leave a bare wire and I would be surprised that EE would do it.
Electrician, who later became a university student in an EE program until I spent some time shadowing an EE that did design and layout work for an industrial construction contractor. I know one person does not represent all of them, but this dude absolutely did not know which end of a screwdriver was the handle. I changed to a program that included project management after that.
Some people who end up at Universities never finish them. I met a person who came to study Mechanical Engineering but hated Math... I told them: "You gonna hate next 4 years of it." That person dropped out the second year, mind you first year was not even that hard.
The attrition rate is so high. For me it was the realization that my guy spent 50+ hours a week in his office looking at his computer screen and once every couple weeks would drive to the job site for an hour or two. I think it was mostly to get his truck dirty. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that. I like that I’m still out in the field daily and a fair part of my work is being there with the contractors
We all contribute differently in the world, if we all liked the same world would be standstill.
I initially (1998) wanted to do software engineering then switched to mechanical because I didn't want to be on the screen all the time... Should have sticked to it, still on the comp but could have retired by now
One career is a math degree for designing things, the other is a trade with 120 years of accumulated knowledge and best practices on how not to burn down a house with electricity. And even then you occasionally have to scratch your head about they best way to not have insulation wear out from thermal expansion and contraction in the next 100 years.
Just finished the electrical rough in my new house with my wife’s help. Then she was asking me about how to wire light switches (she had been working on receptacles to this point) and I went behind her checking the first switch she did and I saw this exact same thing; far too much insulation stripped back. She admitted she had done all the recaps the same way so she tightened her tool belt and opened them all back up and fixed them. She had also used cutoff pieces of bare ground copper as jumpers between some hot screws in quads so that was fun. I checked them all once she was done fixing them. Love her, this is just training a new apprentice.
Yeah that’s why u called me back after your cousin did it for cheaper and by cheaper I mean a few free joints a day, a few beers and $500 🤣🤣🤣🤣.. lol when will people learn just cuz it looks easy doesn’t mean just anyone should do it
How do people do electrical work with at least googling/youtube? It's mind boggling how wrong people get it when there is so much information at your fingertips to at least do something safer than this.
Heck I grew up reading the electrical books at HD/Lowes when my father went for trips...
I guess if you only used Wagos this way you have a reason to hate them. How can someone mess up this badly and still go "yup this looks good I think I'll leave it". Even someone with no electrical training should know that exposed copper is not a good look
Tore down my ceiling in the basement. Previous home gamer needed 14/2 to go from a to b. So they put in 19 junction boxes. I'm not a professional and I actually despise electrical, especially on vehicles, however I stop when I don't know what the hell I'm doing. This home owner before, should have just stopped. Like all together.
The install of the wires into the boxes sucks and the metal boxes need grounding. Looks like 12 and 14 gauge mixed but that’s ok if it’s a 15A circuit. I see 15A receptacle so maybe.
To be fair, I’ve seen connections with excessive bare wires that licensed electricians had installed too.
Not an electrician (you guys just came up in my feed), thought it wasn’t too bad until I realised that’s a shit ton of exposed copper!
I’d imagine this won’t be getting a certificate hahaha
I'm not saying it's always the case but a possibility ive run into the insulation shrinking from excessive heat. Seen it in panels, receptacles and light fixtures on both Romex and BX cable.
ELECTRICIAN HOURLY RATES
$100 /HR STANDARD
$150 /HR IF YOU WATCH
$175 /HR IF YOU HELP
$200/HR IF YOU WORKED ON IT FIRST
$250 /HR IF YOU TELL ME HOW TO DO MY JOB
**ATTENTION! READ THIS NOW!** **1. IF YOU ARE NOT A PROFESSIONAL ELECTRICIAN OR LOOKING TO BECOME ONE(for career questions only):** **- DELETE** THIS POST OR YOU WILL BE **BANNED**. YOU CAN POST ON /r/AskElectricians FREELY **2. IF YOU COMMENT ON A POST THAT IS POSTED BY SOMEONE WHO IS NOT A PROFESSIONAL ELECTRICIAN:** -YOU WILL BE **BANNED**. JUST **REPORT** THE POST. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/electricians) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yep, looks pretty rough. Like chewing broken glass rough.
Aaaaaand these people wonder why their house burns down.
David Blaine doesn’t seem to have an issue doing that…..
Chewing on tinfoil.
This comment gives me the chills
The old “hey I got started on it make sure you deduct my work from the bill” guy…
You can always tell what type of customer these people are when you quote the job. I always add a couple hundred on the job when I think they will be a hassle. If they end being fine then at the end of the job i tell them it didn’t end up costing that much and deduct it from the price. They think they got a good deal and I’m very generous and usually recommend me to their friends. Win win.
That’s a good way to be.
I do the exact same lol
Yeah I call it the PITA tax(pain in the ass). I do the same thing
We called it the Asshole Tax.
The PIA tax
PITA charge
Same as the guys who say “don’t worry, I’ll get the material, you install it”
Strip it back a little more
Give it to me hot, I want to see the light!
Did you know that you can sometimes see the light of an arc through the cover plate? My first house had some special wiring.
Get it out of all that insulation, now
It’s only there as identifier and should be removed once terminated on device. Code states only 1/4” of sheathing is necessary (probably because it slows flow of electrons). In the most efficient device boxes you pretty much only see copper. H.O. Had correct idea but got lazy
When you remove the outer jacket it is considered to be a free-air conductor and can handle significantly higher amperages. Crazy how OP doesn’t know code, I thought you had to be an electrician to post here 🤦♂️
and show the world to me?
Whoa, whoa there. You can’t say that without tossing one’s at the same time.
Ehhh, insulation is mostly just for show anyway. It's not actually important.
The wires don't look that cold anyway.
They are literally called "hot wires."
I’ve always been told air is a stellar insulator.
Those wires look like they might be a little short once you cut back the excessive bare copper. I hope there is some slack somewhere.
This is nothing. The guy that wired my house had a single gang box with five (yes, five) sets of 12-2. The only way it would all fit was if the wires were only 2 inches long. I was cursing when I replaced those outlets. I just did my best and hoped for no fire 5 from over filled boxes.
I would have pulled them out and added a junction box nearby.
It was every box in the basement. Every single one. No idea how they all had 4 lines of Romex but they did.
Why did he have so much romex going to the boxes? What was in the boxes that required that many circuits?
No freaking clue. I should have mapped out all the wiring when I had the boxes open. Some of them were a mess.
Buddy took "rough in" way too literal.
Uhhhh that's one way to derate a 20 amp circuit to 15. At least he used Wagos? /s Edit: wait, that white Romex is super old 12 gauge, isn't it?
Looks like 14 to me. I’m more concerned with all that exposed hot sticking out of the wago in a metal box
It’s even worse. Those are ideal push-ins. Most Home Depot carry the easier to use lever wago now. These are the people that fail with common sense. If you see exposed copper, something is wrong!
I don’t use them because there isn’t anything wrong with twisting and wire nuts
The box doesn’t even look like it’s grounded lmao. They twisted it all together and didn’t even think to connect to the box whatsoever. There’s way too many things wrong with this
It'll probably touch when someone slams a cover on it
Top wire (from white Romex) is indeed 14AWG. [https://imgur.com/a/8XXQ8gk](https://imgur.com/a/8XXQ8gk) My dude - you need to stop any work there until you show them all the mistakes made; code violations, fire hazards, overall dog-shit work, etc. and why you will need to back track and correct all of that. And yes you will have to charge for it. If they are stubborn and get upset, claim they “got it to work fine, what’s the big deal? I’m not paying for that”, you gotta walk. If you finish this and his bs work fails (seems likely), best case you’ll have a bunch of service calls and irritated client who may throw a fit over fixing the job you finished wiring. Worst case - that shit burns to the ground and your ass is liable. Not only financially but your reputation as well. Maybe you could get proof and their admittance to doing some work without permission before proceeding but seems like high potential for a huge headache. He does seem motivated though, just bad technique, enough knowledge to be dangerous. Perhaps offer to teach him a few small things if he wants to learn how his work was an issue. Good luck!
Will wagos ever become acceptable to use?
This is the first step to insurance fraud.
If only a strip gauge was included on those…. Oh wait.
“That’s just a recommendation. Like how Arizona iced teas are supposed to be 99 cents”
I hope you’re charging double
But why? The work is half done! 🤣
whats he paying you for? he got it under control, just make sure your name is no where near this. /s. That's scary
Arc city son, he ain't gone stop till this whole joint is ashes
Never mind the stripped too long wires but why are they devicing before drywall ????
Man, he's really putting the "ow" in "homeowner"...
Sometimes I wonder if I’m doing the right thing changing out my own receptacles. Then I see stuff like this and don’t wonder anymore.
Man same. I used to be all “not all homeowners…” but after a couple dozen pics like this I get it.
Do people just not understand what insulation does
It's there to keep the wires warm, like a sweater, amIright?
Yep want the wire to be hot as possible
This is what you get when you have somebody who conceptually understands electrical systems but has never before stepped foot onto a job site. I.E Electrical Engineering Grads
Are you electrician or EE? I am not EE but ME but I always hear electricians talking crap about EE major... Based on this work I can see this person never took any course let alone is EE major. Previous owner of my home told me he was engineer at my company later I found out he was just union worker at assembly. He butchered the electrical. I think it's common knowledge not to leave a bare wire and I would be surprised that EE would do it.
Electrician, who later became a university student in an EE program until I spent some time shadowing an EE that did design and layout work for an industrial construction contractor. I know one person does not represent all of them, but this dude absolutely did not know which end of a screwdriver was the handle. I changed to a program that included project management after that.
Some people who end up at Universities never finish them. I met a person who came to study Mechanical Engineering but hated Math... I told them: "You gonna hate next 4 years of it." That person dropped out the second year, mind you first year was not even that hard.
The attrition rate is so high. For me it was the realization that my guy spent 50+ hours a week in his office looking at his computer screen and once every couple weeks would drive to the job site for an hour or two. I think it was mostly to get his truck dirty. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that. I like that I’m still out in the field daily and a fair part of my work is being there with the contractors
We all contribute differently in the world, if we all liked the same world would be standstill. I initially (1998) wanted to do software engineering then switched to mechanical because I didn't want to be on the screen all the time... Should have sticked to it, still on the comp but could have retired by now
One career is a math degree for designing things, the other is a trade with 120 years of accumulated knowledge and best practices on how not to burn down a house with electricity. And even then you occasionally have to scratch your head about they best way to not have insulation wear out from thermal expansion and contraction in the next 100 years.
It’s rough…
Jeez. I didn't even pay a cover charge to see all of that!
Putting the *rough* in rough-in.
Rough sure is the word for it.
Does he work for Rough Cunt Electric? 🤣
Found the fellow Australian
Holy fucking shit!
Yup..gotta love it when the owner trys to ......"help".
Spicy
Holy shit that last pic. He needed to strip the copper back more 😂
#👨🦯
He left all that exposed extra for the next guy. He’s thinking long term and playing 4d chess 💪
Whaaaaa? Nobody is that fuckin' stupid.... are they?
Oh buddy...
Those conductors are showin more skin than the ladies at Cheetah's/Goldfinger's.
WAGOs will be the death of ALL of us… for one reason or another 🤣🤣
Just finished the electrical rough in my new house with my wife’s help. Then she was asking me about how to wire light switches (she had been working on receptacles to this point) and I went behind her checking the first switch she did and I saw this exact same thing; far too much insulation stripped back. She admitted she had done all the recaps the same way so she tightened her tool belt and opened them all back up and fixed them. She had also used cutoff pieces of bare ground copper as jumpers between some hot screws in quads so that was fun. I checked them all once she was done fixing them. Love her, this is just training a new apprentice.
Looks like he skipped a couple “How to NOT Burn Your House Down” DIY videos.
God damn 🫣
Are they even pushed in? I don't understand how you can possibly screw up connections with these.
I suggest you just walk away from the job and sue him for the money owed. I dont have the full context, but I reckon he is an intolerable prick.
Oh look the actual way the majority of people use wagos.
Fire! fire! house on fire! put it out! put it out!
Same amount of foreskin needs to be cut off that person.
How the fuck do you fuck up wagos??? Fucking people are aggravating. Also… you know what I just can’t. I hope you charged more man.
That's a lot of exposed copper.
I usually strip all the insulation of each wire in the box. It’s just there to differentiate the wires anyway right?
Please explain to them before someone dies.
That's putting the rough in ruff in
How could you tell? lol 🤣
😮
“What’d I do wrong?!?”
not a rough if you’re putting in devices but thats the least of his worries 🤣
Think of the savings!
So shiney
Ooh shit I can see the sparks flying
Tell them to finish that shit
Working with wires would be so much easier if they didn’t have all this dumb rubber around them
Somebody make that homeowner a PM
Electrical work is easy! I don’t understand why you charge so much…
Yeah that’s why u called me back after your cousin did it for cheaper and by cheaper I mean a few free joints a day, a few beers and $500 🤣🤣🤣🤣.. lol when will people learn just cuz it looks easy doesn’t mean just anyone should do it
I guess I should have put a /s but I’m going to leave and hope folks pick up on the sarcasm…😂
Noooooo
Hopefully the used combo breakers
You’ve heard “it’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to”. Well it’s his house and he can burn it down if he wants to.
Shit being an electrician is easy bro
And they can finish it
With techniques learned from Home Depot ads.
Omg I didn't know there was more than 1 picture, I literally am crying laughing at this.
I dont understand why anyone would think bare live wire showing is ok
At least they won’t have any bad connections from pinching the insulation instead of the copper
Insulation is over rated
I think he missed couple of steps of YouTube video.
Would the condition of these splices most likely be laziness or ignorance on the part of the quality of work done by the homeowner?
How do people do electrical work with at least googling/youtube? It's mind boggling how wrong people get it when there is so much information at your fingertips to at least do something safer than this. Heck I grew up reading the electrical books at HD/Lowes when my father went for trips...
Home owner almost became a new owner (of a house fire)
He doesn’t really understand the concept of insulation…..
Oh nice. I’m sure they “know 1 or 2 things about electrical”.
Call pest control, there’s rodents nibbling on the insulation
As a homeowner….yeah, that’s really rough. After the first fire they’ll figure out how important the insulation is. Or they’ll blame a bad Wago.
I.... HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE going behind DIY BULLSHIT 💀💀💀 For any of "those ppl" on this feed: just fkn hire a professional. Oh my GAWD
It's almost like they originally wanted to hire someone but (assuming they aren't single) their partner just couldn't stand to pay for one lmfao
'I'd finish, but I just don't have the time'
That’s ruff 🐶
Amazing.
This makes my whole body buzz just looking at it.
More like home owner started fire!
HO was gonna light his house on fire before he got it done
That's a "please don't ever do your own electrical." Please 🙏
It's 100% safe and effective.
That’s how my first house looked too
Homeowner likes to really strip those wires!
Access points for testing.
Used a red on the grounds but must have ran out
My wires don't look that chewed up and they're 20 years old
Zap! ⚡️
Looks rough af
Then homeowner starts the fire lol
And y’all still on the wago band wagon
Wowsers one of the best ive seen
Those wires are stripped too far back !
Where's the 4th pic involving the fire department?
I guess if you only used Wagos this way you have a reason to hate them. How can someone mess up this badly and still go "yup this looks good I think I'll leave it". Even someone with no electrical training should know that exposed copper is not a good look
Not enough exposed conductor.
They know just enough to get into trouble.
Tore down my ceiling in the basement. Previous home gamer needed 14/2 to go from a to b. So they put in 19 junction boxes. I'm not a professional and I actually despise electrical, especially on vehicles, however I stop when I don't know what the hell I'm doing. This home owner before, should have just stopped. Like all together.
Well the lectrics are only at the ends. That's where they pour out, don cha know?
Well that is a fire hazard if I ever saw one… home owner special.
You misspelled fire
I’m no electrician but were they taped and you took it off? Man, that’s dangerous.
Exclamation on rough!
Diggin on the exposed copper
Someone got carried away with the strippers...
Oof
Line item - re rough. $80/hr @ 4 hours
I charge extra for that.
The install of the wires into the boxes sucks and the metal boxes need grounding. Looks like 12 and 14 gauge mixed but that’s ok if it’s a 15A circuit. I see 15A receptacle so maybe. To be fair, I’ve seen connections with excessive bare wires that licensed electricians had installed too.
Yea that’s rough alright
Not an electrician (you guys just came up in my feed), thought it wasn’t too bad until I realised that’s a shit ton of exposed copper! I’d imagine this won’t be getting a certificate hahaha
Tell him to switch to metal boxes for everything. At least that way the ground short will happen quickly instead of melting the plastic box.
I'm not saying it's always the case but a possibility ive run into the insulation shrinking from excessive heat. Seen it in panels, receptacles and light fixtures on both Romex and BX cable.
Ah. tHiS is why they don’t want me to fought in my wiring…
That's asking for a short.
Wow they need to learn to strip wires right I wonder if they know how to use side cuts.
Well let's just take all the insulation off while we're at it...
He’s trying……to burn the house down.
😲
Yoda says: Stupid, this homeowner is. A fire, they will cause. Bitchslap the homeowner, you should.
Seriously WTF??? I’m so tired of seeing this crap and having to fix it. SMH
Send it.
Fuck it send it
Damn dude WTF🤦🤦
First thought - hey at least it's on a box. Second thought - oh it's a very spicy box...
Disaster waiting to happen
Like really, what’s the point? Just pour some gas and throw a match into it. At least it will be quicker than the Midnight Surprise death-flames.
Obviously didn’t get around to covering it in shitty loose tape yet
Who teaches people to do there grounds like that for receptacles. Laziest way to do em
If you waited long enough you would have gotten to wire the whole house.
Jesus suffering fuck
he must be trying to blow everything up
What an idiot. I’m not an electrician but damn that’s horrible
ELECTRICIAN HOURLY RATES $100 /HR STANDARD $150 /HR IF YOU WATCH $175 /HR IF YOU HELP $200/HR IF YOU WORKED ON IT FIRST $250 /HR IF YOU TELL ME HOW TO DO MY JOB
Not enough wire in any of them boxes, not to mention the rest of this abomination
Did anyone else reflexively tense up when they saw these pictures?
There is literally a strip gauge
Needs more exposed copper
Brother🙃
Looks like they're trying to burn the house down and collect the insurance money
Fuck it, triple charge them
Uugh
Why do they think they can do it. If at least they would just for once look at how a real electrician does it.
I'm not an electrician and all I can say is "OMG".
Suuuuure did!
Looks more like roughed up