Gotta love the drywallers...

[BeachBum]

The drywallers just finished drywalling/mudding/texturing.. Found about 8 my of freshly installed network cables like this..

Seriously frustrating...

 

[L&LD]

I. Would. Have. Lost. It.




How did you ever manage to keep so calm (at least seemingly, outwardly)?

What is your course of action now?

 

[BeachBum]

I would have normally lost it bad, but so far its just another case in a string of this type of situations. Sort of gotten used to it I guess. Construction sucks.

I have told the responsible parties in no uncertain terms that the network wiring company will be called back out to replace the damaged items and they will be paying for it. Period.

 

[L&LD]

I would rip out the wires and the walls and make them pay for it all again (or, at least the Iron Man version of me would).

 

[CaptainSTX]

Not excusing the mess but the cables should be fine if the are reterminated. A coat of paint isn't going to hurt them.

Normally finish electrical work including low voltage terminations isn't done until the walls are finished and painted.

Everytime I need to change a switch or outlet I find the electrical wires have been spray painted so identifying what color wire you are dealing with is a bigger challenge that it needs to be.

 

[BeachBum]

The wires can be reterminated, in the end they will be fine. What gets me the most is the complete lack of care. The guy had to of seen the wires hanging there, and he couldn't care enough to move it or cover it? Completely didn't care and respect other peoples property and hard work at all. And I mean hard work. The network install company spent 3 days pulling over 35 drops, terminating the wires, setting up patch panel, wall plates, etc.. Then the drywallers just comes in and renders a bunch of that work useless in seconds. In the second pic above the splatter couldn't have landed more perfectly. Disappointing...

 

[rtcomputersinc]

I have seen union workers do this to non-union work least they didn't cut them flush to the wall.

 

[BeachBum]

...least they didn't cut them flush to the wall.

I would have gone ballistic had they done this...

 

[sfx2000]

I would have gone ballistic had they done this...

I would have just pointed it out to them - "So this is how you do your job, eh?"

Union or not - no excuse for bad workmanship - they could have easily masked over things when using the texture gun and painting...

In any event, just re-terminate the CAT5/6 cables, and the wall plate for Coax - pretty much the same thing...

 

[CaptainSTX]

Live and learn. The guys doing the spraying probably had no idea what they were doing. They normally just spray everything including the electrical boxes and the roughed in wiring there in.

Why were all the low voltage drops finished and wall plates installed prior to texturing and painting the walls?


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[degrub]

First time acting as general contractor ?
You'll laugh about it in later years....
Happened to me as well when we built our house.
Rule number 1: no finish out work until the painters are done.
Rule number 2: cover and mask everything else before they get there or explicitly require it on their bid and then double check them. The crews get paid very little and just want to get done and on to the next job. Part of the difference between tract house contractors and custom house contractors is the attention to details. Ask them what type of work they do before accepting a low bid.

 

[CaptainSTX]

The low voltage contractor is as much at fault as the drywallers. They may have tried to cut corners by pulling and terminating all the connections in a single job when as devein said they should have pulled the wire and then come back after the walls were finished and painted. I'll bet your electrician hadn't installed all the switches, outlets and wall plates prior to the drywall texture being applied.


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[BeachBum]

First time acting as general contractor ?

No I am not the GC, just the home owner. I did however hire this install company on my own.

 

[CaptainSTX]

No I am not the GC, just the home owner. I did however hire this install company on my own.

Now is the time to try and make lemon aide with the lemons you have been dealt. Instead of terminating the cables coming out of the wall with male jacks terminate them with female keystone fittings. This will accomplish two things for you. First the painted cable will be hidden in the wall and secondly you will have more reliable connections long term. If the wires coming out of the wall have solid connectors, then over time the wires will get brittle and break if the cable is subject to movement, vibration, etc. Then use jumpers with stranded connectors to make connections from the wall plates to your devices with Ethernet ports.

 

[BeachBum]

CaptainSTX, thanks for the advice, thats basically what I have done. They did get mud in a few keystone jacks, I just didn't post a pic of one of those.
The pic of the wire above is for a WAP location in the ceiling. Once my UniFi AC Pro's are up it will be hidden. Unless I'm mistaken you need a solid connector for this.

All the other end points that are in a wall are fitted with keystones and wall plates. Still trying to figure out how to do the outside jacks, I'll start another thread...

 

[CaptainSTX]

A solid connector will be fine as the AP won't be moving and you don't have to plug and unplug it on a regular basis.