[00:00:00] Ben Poulter: Electricians don't clean up after himself. They turn up for half a day and get paid more than everyone else. Maybe a couple of the reasons why other trades they, they seem to hate electricians. Toolbox talks for electricians back once again to help load electricians with the tools and skills they need to reduce stress, gain back time, and earn more money.

[00:00:26] Also here to tell you why a tradesman, they just seem to hate electric. With a few little tips, you can maybe get your own back on them, other tradesmen. Hey everyone, I hope you're having a fantastic day. It's Ben Poulter, your host here once again. And what's the problem with other trades towards electricians?

[00:00:50] The main rivals I think are plumbers, well, personally to me. Yeah, they get in the way. They've ripped your cables out the wall where you've took your time to install them and they're always in the areas that you wanna work. . So I think if you work as an electrician, it'll be hard to say that. Yeah, I've never fell out of a plumber at all, cuz I fell out with no end of plumbers.

[00:01:12] And I would put it down to the main reason is probably workspace. We both work in the same sort of areas. Plumbers need to be all over the property. , all oversight, and so do electricians. But the difference is an electrician will be all over the property connecting every single switch in socket and light fitting.

[00:01:30] You're not just in one area when a plumber. Sort of thing. I'm working in this area at the minute. , you don't need to be here, do you? They're probably sitting there for a couple of hours or an hour or two , fixing a rad to the wall maybe and plumbing it in, or electrician. They'll be in the whole room and not just in that room.

[00:01:47] They'll be back and forth to the fuse board to make sure it works and wiring different positions, and then also carry on the feed into the next room. So we're all over the place. All over the. and this is what happens. We, we obviously get in each other's way, but we've both got a job to do and when it's a tight scheduled, things can get a bit hectic.

[00:02:09] When , we both obviously want 'em, get 'em done as fast as possible. If the plumbers are ahead of the spark and they'll be at you to say like, , when's power gonna come on? I need to test my boiler. , when's the power gonna be on? I want it on asap. And then us as electricians, we wanna make sure everything's spot on first before we actually turn the power on.

[00:02:27] For one reason is we don't wanna blow that PCB board in the boiler. Cause if it gets damaged, , it's gonna be our fault, isn't it? So I personally tried to get all the electrics done and finished before the plumber even comes in to do the property. Then if there's a problem where they've maybe gone through a cable, or they've moved the cable, then you know for a fact that that's what they've done.

[00:02:48] You, you can't just move it out the way. A lot of the time , they've just move it out the way thinking, oh, the electrician will sort it out. But if you are done and dusted, It's their problem. And I've even had it before where I've gone in after the plumber. The plumber's been in there where it was a property we were, it was putting a boiler in it.

[00:03:06] It was a rented property, so it was empty, and we were doing all the electrics and all the plumbing and the plumber went in there, fit his boiler. So I went in after him and I lifted the floorboards, obviously, to get my wires under there. And the plumber had only gonna put a screw through his own pipe.

[00:03:19] Like, I dunno how you laid the pipes down. You put the new pipes in and you put a screw for him. Yeah. I know that accidents happened, but you've put a screw through the pipe that you put in. You knew it was there. You, you can't be that thick, surely. , but I don't think plumbers are the only ones that we have sort of problems with.

[00:03:38] Cuz I've had a few problems with builders as well and they, ah, I don't think a lot of 'em understand what's involved in wiring electrical circuit safely and properly. Cause normally if they see a light fitting, they've , got an extension and they say, yeah, you can, , come off that light switch. You are, well that's just the switch.

[00:03:55] I, I don't even know what's in there and okay, so what are we running? Maybe just one light or something like that then, No, we want, um, six sockets, a hot tub supply, and it's gonna be a kitchen. So you need, uh, a six mil feed. , they know a little bit as they tell you a six mil feed for the cooker and you think , it can't happen then, mate, you can't come off that light switch.

[00:04:15] It doesn't work like that. You might even think, how can someone be that thick? But I'll tell ya, that ain't probably, ain't the thickest thing I ever heard. Because on a lot of occasions, , the main contractor is the builder. He's the one that's got the job. He's building the extension, and they've got you in as a subcontractor for doing the electric side of it all.

[00:04:34] And you're given a drawing. They've done fantastically. They've got a drawing. So you quote it on that drawing. So write every position. This is what I'm labeling out. This is what I wire to, this is what I'm quoting for. And that same drawing. Obviously you keep it and then when you go to actually do the work, you measure it out as well.

[00:04:49] So you get 'em spot on in the position. That's the kitchen drawing, right? Nice. That's exactly where everything's going. So we've got the hub there, the oven there, the work top there. The work top heights. You've got everything cuz. I don't know. Being an electrician, I think , you need to know these things.

[00:05:02] You need to geek out and give them the options to say, right, do you want a smoke alarm here? Or maybe do you want undercovered lighting? Or how are you gonna switch these lights on and off from that back door to maybe the front entrance where you come in? Do you want it in two way? You gotta give them options.

[00:05:18] You need to write everything down in a quote so you can obviously install it when you finally come to do the. But as with any install, things change. Things change all the time. Maybe they've, I go out, we've just found out them, uh, velux windows are sort of a couple of grand each. Well, yeah. So we're gonna knock it down and have two, right?

[00:05:37] So now you want more lights in the ceiling, so that scarves you gonna change as well, because you don't wanna have a, a space where there should have been a vex window and now it's just an empty. I'm a bit of a perfectionist. , I like to make them look nice and neat, like they're meant to be there and not sort of an add-on later on.

[00:05:56] So that'll change the whole design of the, ceiling lighting. And I think the worst thing is when you, they've got maybe a breakfast bar, or this is a dining room table. Yeah. We want that light switch over the dining room table to be switched separately. You never told me that. So I need to sort of configure.

[00:06:15] at that time, like long as you tell me why is the ceiling's down and it's not plastered and painted, then it's okay, we can change it. But after the ceiling's plastered and painted, it's a bit of a nightmare. And it's happened to me before where the extensions turned out to look a lot bigger or come across a lot bigger than it actually is.

[00:06:35] Um, we don't actually need a kitchen that big. So the builder says, yeah, no worries. Then , we'll put in a utility room on the end. So I think. You could put in utility room, but that's completely different room. That's completely different. Lighting. That's , a new circuit. Basically, you can't just come off what you've put in already for that kitchen.

[00:06:53] And not only that, they've probably shifted everything over just that little bit. Maybe, I don't know. . It could be as little as 20 centimeters, but they've shifted it over and that's not gonna fit perfectly behind where the dishwasher goes. Now, that's not gonna fit perfectly. It's gonna be inside a cupboard.

[00:07:10] Now, I didn't want to be inside the cupboard. It's crap. I don't wanna do connector blocks. It's a new install. You've gotta do it properly. And then when you've obviously gotta let the builder know that this is extra, this is extra work, it's all changing. This is more work for me and well, obviously I've gotta change what I've put in there.

[00:07:27] But not only that, you've gotta wreck the plaster's work or. , they've got to re skim it and reboard it. The chippy's gotta put a wall up so it's all change. So these things are , a big change sort of thing. And it's not just that easy to stick a wall up. You've gotta change the electrics, you've gotta change the position in, you've gotta change everything.

[00:07:47] And a lot of the time, builders , might not understand that completely and it'll cause a bit of tension. And you don't wanna cause tension with other trades. Cuz when the plasterer gets , his sort of hair up and says, ah, man, you've wrecked , my nice finished ceiling because plasters I know for a fact love skimming straight over the ceilings.

[00:08:05] So that's what I do now. I measure out my cables for down lights. I know exactly where they are and exactly where the joist are so they can just ski him straight over. They can don't have to have the holes in there. They can skim straight over. I know exactly where I to cut the hole nice and neat and tidy and straight.

[00:08:20] I hate it when down lights are wonky. So you need to cut the holes nice and neat and tidy, and then you can just pull the cables out and it's like a sat. It is satisfying when a plan comes together and you get them cables perfectly in the right place cuz you've planned it beforehand. But if you do like piece of plaster is off, they'll want to get you back and their easiest way to get you back is to either chop your cables off that are maybe hanging out slightly because you didn't want them to cover 'em up when they're plaster or the other end of the spectrum, they'll skim straight over it.

[00:08:52] So they've got a nice, beautiful plain wall, but you haven't got a clue where them cables are you. You can measure it out and find it, but it's, you shouldn't have to do that. You left them hanging out a little bit so the plasters didn't plaster straight over 'em. I think it will be so much easier if everybody just got along, but that's never the case on site.

[00:09:15] I've been to industrial sites before where some trades have ended up actually having a scrap and it was over a van bean in the carpark. They proper went for it as well for for no reason at all. I think the, the one of the big fans are in the. And the other one wanted it to move. He didn't wanna move, so they started having a scrap.

[00:09:32] They were rolling around in the snow and I went over to split 'em up. Um, one of the poor R boys, he got up and he broke his glasses. He had his glasses on when he was fighting, and he was more bothered about the hang, about my, my glasses been broke than looking an idiot for fighting. It's no point whatsoever.

[00:09:47] But if you work on big sites, this sort of thing happens all the time. It's all all about different trades have a scrap with each other. Well, to be honest with you, I have seen Scaffolders scrapping with each other as well. After night out, something fueled on and they'd add a scrap at lunch cause it obviously built up tension.

[00:10:04] And it is mostly among those male testosterone fuel guys. What we all do. And it, it doesn't have to be like that. We all have , a job to do and we all want to get paid and we, if we all work with each other to complete that job or with the customer in mind because obviously the customer is the one that's paying us, then we can get along better and get that job done a lot.

[00:10:28] and I know it's easier said than done, but if , I challenge you today to go up to another trade on site or even in a wholesalers , and just say hi. How's it going? Like how's the job doing today? Like anything, just have a little conversation. Don't wait until obviously you piss 'em off on site and they have to come at you like a hurricane.

[00:10:47] Say, oh mate, you wanna move this, you've gotta move that. Like that's adding fuel to the fire sort of thing. If they can come up to you, they know you a little bit and go, they can say to you, Hey Ben, look that's in the way. Get it outta the way mate. It's a bit more laid back and easier and you can go, nice one.

[00:11:01] I can move it here. Can you move that there? It works out a lot. because if you've had a little conversation with them before and you maybe got to know, you might have some common interests, then the problem will be so much easier to fix together. Now, I'm an electrician. I'm arrogant, and I'm bigheaded. I think most of us probably are from what I've met of them.

[00:11:22] So what's your opinion of other trades? I'd love to hear your stories over in the toolbox, talks for electricians group on Facebook and hear what you have to say about other trades. So take a look in the show notes. And you'll find the link in there. So until next time, I'll see you again.