Quirks from the job that you bring home

[mosparky]

Yes sir all of the cover screws should line up and the ground should be facing the floor !

And the switches also drive me crazy !
There IS a proper order

Keith

I'll see that and raise you a "up is on, down is off"

 

[chopsaw]

"up is on, down is off"

And that's why I hate 3 way switches . One's always wrong !!

 

[Brokenhandle]

And that's why I hate 3 way switches . One's always wrong !!

I did notice that today when I went upstairs and turned light on...switch was up so flipped it down to turn light on. Was gonna turn light off upstairs so switch would be correct when I came downstairs! Look what you're (your ) doing to me lol.
And Keith, 912smoker as a former plumber, with no plumber's eye...I used to be skinny...it sucks being the skinny guy, guess who gets crawlspace duty lol! As a former plumber...they are water heaters, not hot water heaters...hot water is already hot, no heating needed!

Ryan

 

[bauchjw]

I've been providing life and supplemental benefits to groups for over 30 yrs.
Before that a plumber/elec for 13 yrs. I still check out the outlets in every room to make sure they're all turned the same way and mounted correctly. Take notice of every faucet and still have a "plumbers' eye" and use it on a regular basis ....according to my wife .

Just added some outlets in a workout area of my basement . I like all the cover screws horizontal .

Here's my electrical gripe . All my rooms are wired with a light switch and a ceiling fan switch . In a 2 gang box the first switch as you enter the space should turn the light on !!! Not the freaking fan . Drives me insane .

My father-in-law is a retired master electrician, when my wife and I bought a house, 13 years ago, the previous owners had been trying to flip it cheap, but got caught in the crash. I didn’t notice anything annoying about how they did the wiring, but within less than a day into his friendly visit, he was tearing everything apart. He did about 15k worth of rewiring for free over a week because he couldn’t handle it being below his standards, trust it because it was below his standards, or want his daughter in a house with wiring/switches/outlets below his standards I was pleasantly shocked, even though I had to pay for material I wasn’t expecting…..including dry wall and mud that he did after the wiring….again to his standard! Even if I wanted to argue, it was very clearly not an option for me if I wanted his daughter under that roof! Besides, I learned a lot!

EDIT: To clarify and address Fueling Around ‘s very good point. I left out that the house was 100 years old. It was a safety issue more than cosmetic.I think they somehow had spliced “knob and tube” to modern wiring. That’s what started the major overhaul, his obsession with details is what stuck in my memory though.

For the grammar, spelling, punctuation people, pease forgive my mistakes….normally I’m typing on my phone!

 

[Fueling Around]

Many of the gripes against electrical is merely cosmetic or common sense of alignment, switch position, and outlet orientation. I agree with the commonsense comments, but they do not violate NEC (code) regulations.

Code only addresses safety.
Here is a common code violation

Sad is the 3 inspection stickers passing this installation

 

[BXMurphy]

MJB, It's none of your business which way I'm turning !

Are you in a labor union?

 

[BXMurphy]

I run a title company and have been at it for my whole life. It's really cool, I work with all sorts of famous names all the time, like James Brown, Steve Miller, and Jim Morrison.

My grandfather owned a sign shop that specialized in neon. I inherited his OCD for graphics. I see it all day long. Here's a good one I saw this past Christmas.

View attachment 526802

The printer in me screams, "Bad kerning!"

 

[BXMurphy]

The printer in me screams, "Bad kerning!"

I figure there's at least a half-dozen OCD freaks in here that just went looking up what "kerning" meant. Go ahead... admit it... I know you're you're in here...

 

[Bearcarver]

I'll see that and raise you a "up is on, down is off"

Exactly!!
Mrs Bear turns the wrong one on and messes them up.
I like up being on & down being off, especially at the end where I go in there at night in the dark. I like to just rub my hand upward across the plate, catching the switch on the way. I don't like having to find the switch & stand there having to figure out which way to swipe it.

Bear

 

[clifish]

I figure there's at least a half-dozen OCD freaks in here that just went looking up what "kerning" meant. Go ahead... admit it... I know you're you're in here...

Not me, 30 years in the printing business, that is both a bad font choice and bad kerning. Just today I got a newsletter from a customer ( A PR firm at that) and they use auto hyphenation in every paragraph. While technically not wrong, it drives me nuts. For those that do not know, auto hyphenation is when a word is too big to fit at the end of a line there is a hyphenation inserted to continue the word on the next line.

 

[zwiller]

Here's my electrical gripe . All my rooms are wired with a light switch and a ceiling fan switch . In a 2 gang box the first switch as you enter the space should turn the light on !!! Not the freaking fan . Drives me insane .

I get that. I had to move a bunch of stuff they way I wanted it, bonus was adding dimmers. Helped rewire my nephew's house and he had 3 and 4 ways all over the place and ONLY the dude who built it coulda understood it. Was probably really slick in the 40s... One of the previous owners didn't help by putting in single poles all over. LOL Our bedrooms all have switch to outlet for lamps. Was not a fan at first but has grown on me. All our closets had pull string lights and HATE them. I came close to rewiring mine for switches a few times like I did in my last house but put it off. One of them went bad recently and I work in a few small gov office that have motion sensor restroom lights and wondered... Found motion activated LED fixtures on Amazon for $17. OMG. Total game changer and making me look at things in another perspective. Just replaced smoke detectors and that is another wild one. I went with units with a built in lithium battery good for 10 years. They're only good for that long anway (Dad retired FD). Under $20 too... Put in a one of those usb power hubs in the kitchen and has been a Godsend. Pretty cool time for this sorta stuff.