That one panel in a crawlspace ate up my whole Saturday

I had this residential call in Phoenix last month, basic motion sensor install on the ground floor. Figured 45 minutes tops. Got down in the crawlspace and realized the previous installer had run the wires through a pest control bait station they just left there, totally blocking my path to the panel. Spent 3 hours rerouting and patching drywall because I couldn't get a straight line to the terminals. Has anyone else dealt with random junk left behind that makes a simple job drag on forever?

3 comments

3 Comments

ryantorres3d ago

Respectfully, you guys are griping about stuff that's part of the job. That bait station and paint mess? Yeah it sucks, but a 3 hour reroute is a slow Saturday for me. I've pulled old toys, broken tools, and even a dead rat out of crawlspaces before I could breathe near a panel. You charge by the time it takes, not by how clean the homeowner keeps their junk. If you want quick jobs every time, don't take residential work in Phoenix. That's just how it goes.

jana_hart184d ago

Oh man, I feel this one hard. Had a job last year where the homeowner decided to store old paint cans and Christmas decorations right in front of the furnace panel. Couldn't even get the door open without moving everything out of the crawlspace first. The kicker was one of the cans had leaked, so I spent an extra hour scrubbing dried latex paint off the floor before I could even think about wiring. People just dump stuff down there and forget it exists until you show up. Makes a quick install turn into a whole day project real fast.

the_aaron3d ago

Ngl, dried latex paint on the floor before you can even start the real work? That's wild. People really do just treat furnace panels like spare closet doors and forget they exist until someone has to dig through everything. Sounds like you earned every penny of that job fee just getting to the starting line. Honestly, I'd be tempted to snap a photo of that mess and send it to them after the job.