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Showerthought: I spent a whole day on a single keypad wire run in a 1990s split-level
The job was in a house in Bellingham, and the old alarm panel was in the basement utility room. The homeowner wanted the new keypad upstairs by the front door, but the original installer had run the wire inside a finished wall cavity that was now full of blown-in insulation (which I didn't know until I started fishing). It took me from 7 AM until almost 5 PM just to get a new 4-conductor wire through without wrecking the drywall, using about 20 feet of fiberglass rods. Anyone else get stuck for hours on what should have been a simple pull?
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abby_chen1mo ago
That line about the blown-in insulation you didn't know about until you started fishing is the whole story. It's like when you go to hang a picture and hit a metal plate protecting wiring you couldn't see. Or when a simple furniture assembly has one pre-stripped screw that ruins the whole afternoon. The job is never the thing itself, it's the one hidden condition the last guy left for you.
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blake_cooper1mo ago
Right? Last week I tried to swap a light fixture and found the old wiring was wrapped in cloth that just crumbled in my hand. Who even thinks to check for that before they start?
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