Last Tuesday was the worst day I've had on the job in 10 years

Had a washing machine that kept tripping the breaker and spent 4 hours chasing a ghost before I found a tiny nail through the wiring behind the drywall. Has anyone else dealt with hidden damage from a shoddy installation that made you want to throw your tools across the room?

3 comments

3 Comments

clark.alex20d ago

Gotta say, I see this a little different. A tiny nail through the wiring isn't really shoddy installation, that's just bad luck from whoever hung something on that wall after the fact. Shoddy installation is when they leave loose connections in the junction box or forget to tighten the ground screw. Spent an afternoon once chasing a flickering light in a bathroom, finally found the previous guy had the hot wire barely pinched under the screw, not even wrapped around it. That made me want to throw my tools. A nail through the romex is just a frustrating Tuesday.

milesbailey19d ago

Ha, yeah there's nothing like finding evidence of the previous owner's "handiwork" to really test your patience. I once spent a whole Saturday tracing a short in a living room outlet only to discover the guy had used masking tape instead of wire nuts on a splice. Just rolled up the wires, slapped some tape on there, and hoped for the best. Makes you wonder what kind of dark magic they thought was going to keep that from catching fire.

taylor1217d ago

Wait, has anyone here actually tested a nail through romex with a meter to see if it always shorts out? I did it once by accident hanging a shelf and that circuit still worked for months until I swapped a switch and found the nail. The stupid thing was it had just barely missed both conductors but hit the ground wire. Nail through the drywall is still bad luck, not bad work, but sometimes it's a time bomb you never knew about until you demo the room.