A homeowner watched me run cable and said I was doing it the hard way - he was right

Last week I was doing a new build in Phoenix and the owner kept hovering while I fished lines through the attic. He was an old electrician from way back. He pointed at my bundle of zip ties and said "you're gonna hate yourself when you have to pull one wire out of that mess later." Told me to start using hook and loop straps instead so I can add or remove cables without cutting anything. He was dead on. After three years of doing it the old way I switched that same day. Anybody else got a tip from a customer that actually made your job easier?

2 comments

2 Comments

jessicajohnson10d ago

Actually that reminds me of something that happened to my buddy Dave who does low voltage work. He was running lines in a bank and the branch manager was an old timer who used to do IT back in the 90s. The guy watched him bring out the impact driver and told him to stop, go grab a manual screwdriver instead. Dave thought he was crazy but the old guy explained that in a bank, you're going to strip out those screws on the server racks with a power tool and then you're stuck. Dave said he fought it for like two weeks and then tried it his way and never went back. It's funny how these random folks just know stuff from experience.

mark_cooper9d ago

And that's exactly the kind of advice you only get from someone who's been burned before. I've run into the same thing with older electricians who refuse to use anything but a manual screwdriver for terminal blocks on panels because they've seen too many stripped out in tight spots. Once you've had to drill out a stripped screw in a server rack at 2 AM with customers waiting, you start listening to those old school guys. Little tricks like that are gold because they save you from messing up something simple that turns into a huge headache later.