I was scrolling through some industry updates last night and saw something about the new NEC code taking effect next month. They're apparently tightening the minimum bend radius for fiber cables in residential drops. I've been doing the same bends for 5 years without issues, but this could mean rethinking how we route around tight corners in attics. Is anyone else prepping for this or is it just another paper change that nobody enforces?
I was working on a new build in Raleigh, pretty standard stuff. I always used crimp connectors for coax, never had major problems. But a senior guy I work with finally talked me into trying compression fittings on a tricky run through a tight crawlspace. The fit was way more solid, no signal loss. I think I'm a convert now. Has anyone else found one type holds up better over time?
I was dead set that a $10 compression tool and a steady hand was all you needed. Then a job last Thursday in a crawlspace with zero room to move forced me to borrow a neighbor's $60 flaring kit. Those connections actually held signal strength where my hand flares always dropped 3 dB.
I was running a new coax line through this old house and this dang squirrel came flying out of nowhere, chattering and hopping around like it owned the place. Almost fell through the ceiling trying to get away from it. Has anyone else had wild animals mess up a job like that?
I've been watching the senior guys do these for like 8 months and finally got the call to handle one myself on a damaged line over on Elm Street. The before was a mess of loose strands and the cleaned up after was so clean the foreman did a double take. Anybody else remember the first time they felt like they actually knew what they were doing on a tough splice?
Got a call last month for a service job in a new subdivision in Austin. Some guy thought stapling cable straight across studs was fine, no slack, no service loops. Took me almost 4 hours to redo 12 drops because every pull yanked the connectors loose. Now I always ask builders if they got a sub who "knows what they're doing" before I even look at the quote. Has anyone else walked into a mess like that from a cheap rough-in crew?
I finally figured out I was pushing the cable instead of pulling it. A buddy watched me on a job last week and asked why I was fighting the slack instead of running a pull string first. How do you guys handle long runs in tight attics without getting twisted up?
I was out on a job in Austin last week, an older house with a tight attic crawl... The last guy who ran cable left like zero slack at the entry point. Had to climb back down and rerun a whole 50 foot line just to get enough to terminate neat. If he'd left an extra 3 feet coiled up, I would've been done in 10 minutes. Anyone else run into installs where people cut it way too close?
Ordered a 50 pack of those no-name compression fittings for $22 last month. First job I used them on, three of them leaked right away during testing. Had to redo the whole line. Spent an extra hour on site and used up my good fittings to fix it. Lost about $80 in labor and materials dealing with that garbage. Anyone else get burned by these knockoff fittings online?
I mean, I almost cried when it snapped the other day on a drop ceiling job in an old office building. That thing must have pulled thousands of miles of cable through some nasty attics and crawl spaces. I paid like $60 for it at Home Depot back in 2014 and it never once let me down. Anybody else have a tool they used forever that finally gave up the ghost?
Last Thursday in Portland I was stuck on a second story run with a busted fish tape and this old timer from Comcast just handed me his spare without saying a word. Finished the job in 15 minutes flat. Anybody else run into random kindness like that on the job?
I had a job last Tuesday in Madison where the attic was pushing 130 degrees easy. I was up there running a new drop for a customer who wanted their living room moved around. My foreman says we always gotta use the structured wire path they got pre-installed. But that path took me through a spot where the trusses were so tight I could barely squeeze my arm in. I snapped two RG6 cables before I finally said forget it and drilled my own hole through a top plate. The customer saw me come down drenched in sweat and asked if I was okay. My foreman chewed me out for not following the path, but I saved an hour of fighting with it. Has anyone else ever just ignored the designed route when the heat made it impossible to work?
Always figured the compression fittings were just overpriced hype, but after fighting with loose connectors on a big job last Tuesday I grabbed a Klein model off the truck and wow did it save me from redoing a dozen terminations. Has anyone else made the switch and found they'll never look back at crimps?
I did a 12-unit apartment building last Friday and used push connectors on the first 4 units. Had to go back and re-terminate 3 of them because the signal kept dropping. Has anyone else found compression fittings worth the extra few seconds per connection?
I got a call to run a new coax line for a customer's home office in an old Victorian house here in Portland. Looked simple on the walkthrough, maybe 45 minutes tops. Got up in the attic and found the previous installer had tangled all the lines with no slack and stapled them to the joists every 6 inches. Took me 3 hours just to free up a path and snake the new line through 4 different crawl spaces without breaking any existing connections. Anyone else run into attics that look like a rat's nest of old wiring?
Had a supervisor walk past my job at an apartment complex in Austin last month. He looked at my drop and asked if I knew about plenum ratings. I had no idea what he meant. Turns out I was running standard PVC cable through HVAC return ducts because it was faster. Been doing it since I started. He showed me the fire code and my stomach dropped. Has anyone else missed something basic like that and just got away with it by luck?
Walked through a 50,000 sq ft facility and every single run had matching colors per floor. I'm thinking about doing this on my residential jobs now, anyone tried color coding by room?
Guy named Jerry who's been running cable since the 80s showed me how to fish a line through a finished wall with a coat hanger and some tape. Took him 4 minutes while I was ready to cut a hole. Anyone else got a mentor who made you feel like you knew nothing?
Last week I had a job in a new subdivision outside Austin where the builder buried the conduit under 3 feet of crushed limestone. My drill bit snapped on the first hole and I spent 2 hours just chipping through rock with a hammer and chisel. Then the customer's dog ran off with my fishtape while I was pulling coax through the attic. I finally got the drop done around 4 PM only to realize I ran the wrong cable type to the living room. Had to rerun 50 feet of RG6 through a 120 degree attic because the homeowner specifically wanted a different splitter setup. Has anyone else dealt with builders who bury conduit like they're hiding treasure?
Tried using a fish tape on a buried conduit last week. Got about 12 feet in before the tape snapped and left me with a 50 dollar piece of steel stuck underground. Anyone else had a conduit turn into a permanent tomb for your tools?
He said he uses a color coded tagging system on every drop before he even starts and I swear I wasted half a day last week untangling a mess at a big house in Greenpoint.
Back in 2019 I had a run in the Kansas City suburbs where all 6 installs finished by 2 PM. Every house had clean attic access and the drops were already pulled halfway by the builders. The last job even had a cold Gatorade waiting on the porch with a note saying thanks. It felt like the whole universe decided to give me a break for once. The next week I was back in crawl spaces with mouse droppings and 110 degree attics. Has anyone else had a day like that where you just knew you were done early?
An old-timer at a job site in Nashville laughed his butt off when he saw me using lineman's pliers instead of a proper coax stripper, and suddenly all those nicked center conductors made sense - any of you guys ever have a tool revelation that made you feel like a total newbie?
I bought one of those Klein battery crimpers thinking it would save my hands on a big job. Used it for 3 days and the batteries died after like 20 crimps each. The thing is heavy and awkward to get into tight spots too. I went back to my old manual ratcheting crimper and finished the rest of the job faster. Has anyone else had better luck with a different brand? I'm thinking about returning this one.
I bought a mid-range toner last spring thinking it would save me time on apartment runs, but it kept losing signal through shared walls and bundled lines. Anyone else had better luck with the basic models that just use a single tone?