"Home Builder" wrote in message
news
Xa3c.49275$Ri6.19383@lakeread04...
cornytheclown wrote:
Home Builder wrote in message
news:uMz2c.44391$Ri6.30603@lakeread04...
This morning I decided to check all the burglar alarm circuits just for
grins and found a second circuit that had been severed albeit not by me.
The insulation installer, knowingly or unknowingly, had managed to
damage the second circuit, and then (knowingly or unknowingly) had
concealed the damage by spraying additional foam to cover the circuit!
I dug the damaged wires out of the foam and repaired the connections
quickly but I was left with a lingering fear that some of the romex
circuits could have been damaged as well. The insulation installer
could have sawed into a run of romex just enough to damage the
insulation without bothering to warn me about the damage, stuffed it
back into the wall like he did with the burglar alarm wire, and then
covered it with additional foam.
Why is it so difficult for building tradespeople to simply admit it when
they inadvertently cause or contribute to a problem instead of trying to
cover it up?
similarly, there are probably technical solutions to many ongoing problems,
but people are too stuck in their ways to risk trying solutions.
Conduit isn't appropriate for many situations. The aforementioned house
has roughly three runs of 1" conduit to every room for network wiring
(RG6 QS, cat 5E, etc) --- and each top plate had to be bolstered with
steel straps from stud to stud on each side of each hole... a process
that only partially restored the strength lost from the large conduit
hole and will eventually cause headaches for the sheetrock hangers. In
spite of the drawbacks, conduit is appropriate for network wiring
because network wiring changes every few years. NOT SO with romex.
It would be just plain dumb to run all romex through conduit in my
opinion because of the resulting loss of strength in the frame.
yeah. all those holes concern me. almost like you need continuous access (as
in commercial bldg) for all the utilities.
Lastly....Why were the wires not secured properly in the first place.
The wires were properly secured. As with conduit there is a trade-off
between various options when you're securing wire. For example, I like
to leave a loop of the 24/4 wire in the wall next to all burglar alarm
switches. Why? Because switches could eventually fail and the loop of
wire allows future repairs to be completed without re-running the wire.
Suppose a switch fails. You pull the bad switch out of the hole,
clip the leads, reconnect a new switch, and stuff the new switch down
into the same hole. This requires at least six inches of slack IMHO
which is more than enough to get pushed outside the stud bay and damaged
if the foam installer isn't careful. There were roughly 40 burglar
alarm circuits in the aforementioned house, and most of them survived
the foam. Two were damaged and were easily repaired. Yet the loops are
still in the wall to facilitate future repairs. Now what's better?
Spending a couple of minutes to repair two damaged circuits in order to
facilitate future repair work? Or stapling down the wire so thoroughly
that there is NO SLACK WHATSOEVER... thereby forcing the homeowner to
rip out the wall or run new wire if/when a switch fails?
minor idea:
tuck the crumple of spare wire into a short tube, perhaps also attach the
tube to a stud? or include an electrical box for spare LV ends?? (I can't
visualize your situation)