Interesting Job

[ToUtahNow]

I have a friend who is an Electrical Contractor. We have worked together for over 30-years on different projects. About 10-years ago I got him stated work as an Expert in Construction Litigation as well. He called me today and asked me to help him with one of his cases.

This is a project which includes a couple of 200' feeds which are in 4 conduits. This is a new project and there is already a problem before the job has been completed. For whatever reason he is pulling all of the wire back out of the conduit.

The problem is one of the fittings pulled apart and he noticed the conduit was not fully inserted into the fitting and the conduit had large sharp edges which had not been reamed. Anyways now he wants me to send my seesnake through the rest of the conduits to inspect the rest of the fittings.

I never thought of using my seesnake in that way but I guess it will work. I just hope the non reamed joints will not hurt my push rod.

Mark

[HVAC HAWK]

let us know what you find and if you can put a picture up to

thanks Charlie

[PLUMBER RICK]

mark, you think that is bad, try running into 4'' sheet metal for a dryer vent:eek:.

you'll be ok as the electrical fittings have a long sweep and the push will be much easier than plumbing lines. is this emt or ridgid:confused:.

the transmitter will have a difficult time penetrating the steel pipe. 512hz. works great on cast iron, not steel. keep track of your footage and changes of direction to help locate.

ps. if you need a helping hand, i can bring out one of my older, on the shelf cameras:D

will work for food;)


rick.

[ToUtahNow]

Okay last night I ran a KD-200 mini camera through the 4” conduits. This project is at a High School so we could not start the work until after 4:00 P.M. and we finished just before midnight. The guy who hired me had also hired an Electrical Contractor to pull all of the wires out of the conduit before I ran the camera through it.

I believe what started the problem I was looking at is one of the runs which is under the raised floor pulled apart and it was noted the EMT had sharp edges from cutting the conduit. Each run was 200’ long but I had pull boxes at 110’ and 170’. I found the limit of the push rod to be right around 100’ and a couple of sweeps. As such I had to run the 110’ run through both ends to get a complete picture of what was going on.

An inspection of the inside of the conduit revealed in many cases the EMT was not fully inserted into the fitting. In addition many of the EMT ends were bent, had sharp edges or were covered in dirt. In some cases the EMT was as much as 3” from being seated against the shoulder in the fitting. You could actually see the lock screw only caught the conduit by the very edge of the conduit which left a large bend in the end of the conduit. Along with the dirt in the conduit I noted rocks, rusty nails, a broken compression ring and half of a clothes pin.

All in all the camera did a good job of inspecting the inside of the conduit. When the limit of the push rod was reached I wished it had been a lateral so I could have just flushed the water closet to get that last 10’.

Mark

[PLUMBER RICK]

mark, did you say the electrician screwed up:eek:

no not the electrician:mad:

i thought we were over the plumber/electrician debate:confused:

glad they don't have cameras. they might start checking our work:rolleyes:


rick

[ToUtahNow]

Rick,

The Project Manager and State Inspector watched me the entire time. They were really impressed with the results so I might get a lot more work out of them. I believe this is just one building in one school out of 20-schools they are working on.

Mark

[papadan]

Rick,

The Project Manager and State Inspector watched me the entire time. They were really impressed with the results so I might get a lot more work out of them. I believe this is just one building in one school out of 20-schools they are working on.

MarkYou'll get more work and the electrical contractor will get a lot less work. LOL

[ToUtahNow]

The update is they now want me to video after the new stuff is installed to show the old contractor what his job should have looked like.

Mark

[Bob D.]

So now you're doing training videos too huh? :)

[Gofor]

If you're doin' training videos, you need to charge triple!! All that academia stuff costs big bucks:D

[ToUtahNow]

Rather than a training video this will be used to show the other Contractors Insurance Company how he should have done it. With prevailing wages you’d think this stuff should not happen.

Mark

[PLUMBER RICK]

mark, i saw electrical ,emt fittings with an inspection hole in the fitting at the joint. this was on a large fitting (1.5''). sort of like some of the sprinkler rod couplings we use. this way an inspector or installer could have caught this without all the rework.

rick.

[Bob D.]

Rather than a training video this will be used to show the other Contractors Insurance Company how he should have done it. With prevailing wages you’d think this stuff should not happen.

Mark

So you will end up unintentionally instucting them how to perform the work correctly, an ad-hoc training session more or less.

[PLUMBER RICK]

i had an interesting job these last few days. there was aburied 2'' pvc 200 amp 3 phase conduit that blew out a few days ago. the line ran from an electrical main panel 180' away in another building, underground to feed the panel in a movie production co.

with all the hot weather we've had these last 2 weeks, the temporary power cords to bypass the underground was not going to handle the air conditioning demands.

the contractor hired me on day 2 to locate the buried conduit and problem area. i ran my color mini seesnake and within 1 foot the lens got smeared with cable lube. at this point all i could do is push and feel. at 40' i felt a little resistance. i marked the line just outside the building at 1'9'' deep. i continued to locate at 50'. 9'' deep:eek: and 60' 9'' deep.

the next day they called me back as they attempted to swab the line clean and lost the rag that was tied onto the pull rope. this time the line was clean enough to see the real issue. at 40':o there was the scortched pipe. i then located the rag at 103' in and at 23' in from the other side. still a 3' spread between the 2 marks. both 9'' deep:eek:.

today, the third day:eek: i used my 7/8'' k-60 machine to retrieve the rag out of the pipe. i then jetted the line with 3000# 5.6 gpm jetter to wash out the pvc. removed lots of cement slurry that had formed around the old wire. appears that the pvc was broken at the 40' and then the pipe was buried in concrete to protect the shallow depth.slurry got in along with ground water. 20 years later the wires shorted out.


still getting hung up at the 103' mark where the rag was, i videoed the line from the 23' direction and located a 1/2'' pvc sprinkler pipe had penetrated the top of the conduit. along with more cement slurry.

so after 3 trips and 4 hours of work, the problem is solved and conduit is repaired. the electricians come tomorrow to repull the 4 wire feed into nice clean pvc conduit.

without the camera, jetter and snake, the power would still be out and the contractor would be digging up the concrete to replace the entire underground. this was all fixed with less than 10' of conduit.


rick.

[PLUMBER RICK]

how about the sewer line that was pierced by a core sample drilling rig?

i was called to a small medical complex last week to figure out why the sewer is plugged up and the last plumber had to cut off his snake.

i ran my seesnake out 74' into the stopped up line. trying to get a strong signal, i backed it up to 25' to start tracking it. yipes th eline is already 7'6'' deep. after marking every 10' i got to the dead end at 74'. i moved a parked truck that was where my camera homed in on.

guess what? under the truck was some fresh asphalt (6 months). it was a soil core sample done in 2 spots of a 50 spot parking lot. at 8' deep the sewer was hit by a 6'' diameter core.

after discussing my findings with the dr. in charge, i was informed that the sewer had backed up 4 hours after the cores were drilled. this was 6 monts ago. it has been backing up every 2 weeks since. you would have thought that the dr. would have put 2 and 2 together:confused:

once the problem was discovered the blacktop was hand dug by another co. in 3 hours. half the dirt had already washed down the sewer at this time. 2 cleanots were installed and the line was jetted to wash out the remainding debris.

the seesnake allowed me to find the problem, even thought the pipe was full of sewage. too bad the dr. didn't use some common sence prior to snaking the line for 6 months.

rick.

[ToUtahNow]

I used my SeeSnack camera and Navitrack on an electrical problem again a couple of weeks ago. This was up at my place in Utah where one of my neighbors has a small Sports Bar with an RV Park and a half dozen or so large Log Cabins.

He was just finishing up construction on his last Cabin and he could not pull the wires from the main Park panel to the Cabin's sub panel. The Electrician told him there was some type of blockage 20 feet in from both sides of a 130' run. The electrician had marked the lawn but I offered to verify the problem and the locations before the backhoe came in and tore up the new sod.

Starting at the sub-panel I found a broken 2" sch. 40 conduit about 30' in and marked the spot using my Navitrack. It looked like a backhoe must have got it by the way it was broken. I then ran from the panel (live panel :eek:) about 100' and found the same break. Again using the Navitrack I was able to verify the locate I had preformed from the other direction.

Because of my camera my neighbor was able to see the problem before he dug it up. Because of my Navitrack he was able to hand dig the right location rather than backhoe the Electricians location and he saved his new sod lawn.

Mark

[PLUMBER RICK]

careful mark. you know what happened to plumber when he pissed off the sparkies:eek:

good job, but i already knew that:confused:

it's your turn to give adam a field trip. i did and he's as good as it gets:D


rick.

[Bob D.]

how about the sewer line that was pierced by a core sample drilling rig?

i was called to a small medical complex last week to figure out why the sewer is plugged up and the last plumber had to cut off his snake.

i ran my seesnake out 74' into the stopped up line. trying to get a strong signal, i backed it up to 25' to start tracking it. yipes th eline is already 7'6'' deep. after marking every 10' i got to the dead end at 74'. i moved a parked truck that was where my camera homed in on.

guess what? under the truck was some fresh asphalt (6 months). it was a soil core sample done in 2 spots of a 50 spot parking lot. at 8' deep the sewer was hit by a 6'' diameter core.

after discussing my findings with the dr. in charge, i was informed that the sewer had backed up 4 hours after the cores were drilled. this was 6 monts ago. it has been backing up every 2 weeks since. you would have thought that the dr. would have put 2 and 2 together:confused:

once the problem was discovered the blacktop was hand dug by another co. in 3 hours. half the dirt had already washed down the sewer at this time. 2 cleanots were installed and the line was jetted to wash out the remainding debris.

the seesnake allowed me to find the problem, even thought the pipe was full of sewage. too bad the dr. didn't use some common sence prior to snaking the line for 6 months.

rick.

Rick, I hope this Dr. doesn't do brain surgery or something else critical, cause if he couldn't put the core bore and the sewer back up together I don't want him operating on me. :eek:

[apf]

Sounds like a great account you picked-up . Congrats :)

[ToUtahNow]

it's your turn to give adam a field trip. i did and he's as good as it gets:D

rick.

I got a call asking me to look at a $20,000,000 home in Hawaii the second week of July. Do you think Adam would be up for a field trip then?

Mark

[PLUMBER RICK]

I got a call asking me to look at a $20,000,000 home in Hawaii the second week of July. Do you think Adam would be up for a field trip then?

Mark

forget adam, my bags are packed;)

my passport is still good:D

rick.

[plumbdog10]

forget adam, my bags are packed;)

my passport is still good:D

rick.

Adams too young, Rick's too busy.

Luckily I know a guy with over twenty years of construction plumbing experience who could probably squeeze a trip into his busy schedule.

When do we leave?

ps. Rick,

I know it's been awhile since you were in school, Hawaii is now a state. You don't need a passport.

[ToUtahNow]

ps. Rick,

I know it's been awhile since you were in school, Hawaii is now a state. You don't need a passport.

LOL-Now that is probably one of the funniest posts I have seen in a while. (sorry Rick)

Actually I have not accepted the job yet but I am giving it strong consideration.

Mark

[plumbdog10]

LOL-Now that is probably one of the funniest posts I have seen in a while. (sorry Rick)

Actually I have not accepted the job yet but I am giving it strong consideration.

Mark

When you say you are considering the job, are you talking about contracting the plumbing or acting as a consultant?

[ToUtahNow]

When you say you are considering the job, are you talking about contracting the plumbing or acting as a consultant?

No the house is a couple of years old but is having some problems so they are looking for a consultant. At this point I'm not sure who my client would be.

Mark

[PLUMBER RICK]

Adams too young, Rick's too busy.

Luckily I know a guy with over twenty years of construction plumbing experience who could probably squeeze a trip into his busy schedule.

When do we leave?

ps. Rick,

I know it's been awhile since you were in school, Hawaii is now a state. You don't need a passport.

dog, did you notice the little smiley at the end of my post about the passport:confused:

joey too gave me grief over this. no one understands my humor.

mark, can you back me:confused:


dog, so now you want to take my spot and you haven't even met mark yet.

plus i owe mark a lunch or two:D

tell you what, we can all go together and i'll buy the meals;)

rick.

ps. joey doesn't care who she goes with, as long as she goes:D

[ToUtahNow]

[quote=PLUMBER RICK;82667][/b]

dog, did you notice the little smiley at the end of my post about the passport:confused:

joey too gave me grief over this. no one understands my humor.

mark, can you back me:confused:


I don't want to get in the middle here but Rick did call me to ask what language they speak in Hawaii.

Mark :D

[plumbdog10]

[quote=PLUMBER RICK;82667][/b]

dog, did you notice the little smiley at the end of my post about the passport:confused:

joey too gave me grief over this. no one understands my humor.

mark, can you back me:confused:


I don't want to get in the middle here but Rick did call me to ask what language they speak in Hawaii.

Mark :D

Utah,

That is funny.

Rick,

I'll make a deal with you: you go to Hawaii, and since Joey doesn't mind who she eats with I'll take her to dinner. Note the is no smiley faces.

I use no faces because I don't know how.

[gear junkie]

I'm from Hawai'i. Let me know if you need a tour guide.;)

[PLUMBER RICK]

I'm from Hawai'i. Let me know if you need a tour guide.;)

tour guide, chauffeur, another buddy, translator:D

k-60 owner:)

rick.

[PLUMBER RICK]

[quote=ToUtahNow;82673]

Utah,

That is funny.

Rick,

I'll make a deal with you: you go to Hawaii, and since Joey doesn't mind who she eats with I'll take her to dinner. Note the is no smiley faces.

I use no faces because I don't know how.

you take joey to dinner.

joey will turn on your smileys:D

rick.

[drtyhands]

Adams too young, Rick's too busy.

Luckily I know a guy with over twenty years of construction plumbing experience who could probably squeeze a trip into his busy schedule.

When do we leave?

ps. Rick,

I know it's been awhile since you were in school, Hawaii is now a state. You don't need a passport.
Dog your funny,even though I believe you are quite qualified to give a good hand to Mark.
We are the same age my freind;)

Rick,thank you for the kind words.In Feb. when I joined Ridgid I never imagined it growing into something so close to me.

Mark,Thanks,Hawaii sounds wonderfull I would definately be all over it if responsibilities weren't keeping me on the mainland.
When is your Victory club coming through town?I still owe you that lunch at Neptunes Net:)

Adam

[ToUtahNow]

Funny timing, my son and one of his partners from work borrowed some bikes and rode to Neptune's Net today. My son's partner is in motor school and has to start riding 300-miles a day for the next week as part of the class.

My club left New York on the 21st headed West to San Francisco. They should be at "Jack London Square" (Oakland) to watch the fireworks and have dinner on the forth of July. It's an annual trip which I will have to miss this year because of work.

Mark

[plumbdog10]

Dog your funny,even though I believe you are quite qualified to give a good hand to Mark.
We are the same age my freind;)

Rick,thank you for the kind words.In Feb. when I joined Ridgid I never imagined it growing into something so close to me.

Mark,Thanks,Hawaii sounds wonderfull I would definately be all over it if responsibilities weren't keeping me on the mainland.
When is your Victory club coming through town?I still owe you that lunch at Neptunes Net:)

Adam

Dyrty,

I meant no disrespect to you, I thought he was referring to that kid that has posted here as of late. My mistake. I have respected your opinion for a long time.

ps. I still think Utah should take me, just because.

[drtyhands]

Dyrty,

I meant no disrespect to you, I thought he was referring to that kid that has posted here as of late. My mistake. I have respected your opinion for a long time.

ps. I still think Utah should take me, just because.
I think it would be a good thing,Like to see you get away.

[MrsSeatDown]

Dog, you meant Aaron

Joey