Don't Let Sub Contractors Do This! Owner Builder Tip 

Ive seen some electricians add a little extra loop of wire before entering their boxes so if things like this happen they have some extra they can pull through.

Over the years, I have seen wires stuffed in boxes like that, but not by tradesmen. The time involved screwing around stripping that outer sheathing back at finishing would have gotten me fired by any company that I worked for. I understand the basic point that you are making, however the electrical contractor failed to do his part to protect his work and not hinder the trades that follow him. edit: clearly I made my comment before you mentioned that you were the sparky...perhaps in the future you should consider stripping and tying your boxes in before drywall to minimize bulk, and it's easier to keep everything straight when the wires are exposed. I can't imagine coming back to a job a month later and trying to figure out how to tie the circuits together if your labels got wiped off.

My solution to this issue is to pay the few exra cents each and buy oversize boxes. The extra room makes it a lot easier to put multiple wires in without pushing them in so hard that they kink. It also helps future-proof your work, such as when someone replaces a standard switch or outlet with a smart substitute that has a module inside the box. Plus, it just makes everything easier to do.

They never told us anything it was the trades would end up sayi g something ...that's how I learned

Spraying the floor ? He knew the box was their . Their going to jam the Roto zip in the box those wires have to be back in the box .

If they did box make-up some call it tear-out this won't happen. Pull the sheath off strip and pigtail the wires and tuck it all in nicely, that way only the most aggressive bad hangers will nick the wires it also makes deciding out quick.

This is exactly what happens when you hire “hard workers” instead of real tradesmen.

If you push the wires in with a hammer, you can put a kink in one or more of the wires. This will cause electrical resistance which can overheat over time and can cause a fire. That's why electricians are taught to bend wires over the side of their hand to never make a kink (too sharp of a bend) in the wire.

Thank's a lot for sharing. Noted.

LOL, "they're not bad". I have a bamboo cane that I go around the job site with and whip the living crap out of subs when they screw up.

Absolutely leave some slack inside the wall so there is always a few inches that can be pulled through for installation damage or repairs years in the future. Just be aware of how that code is enforced in your area. There are restrictions on how close your last wire fastener must be to the box and how much slack you can have..

Yup! They also bend the box clips when they shove the drywall over the box. Then the cover plates are different elevations and not parallel to the floor. Always a punch list item regardless of who the drywaller is.

I don't know where some of these subs are coming from! Work ethics have gone down the S---R. You should see the crap they are building here in the Denver area. Shocked to see a 500K tract home with so many problems.

I have the following LARGE PRINT COVER SHEET ON MY CONTRACTS WITH SUBS. 1, I will not put good work on top of a sub standard / bad substrate 2. I will be responsible for any damage my work causes to other completed work. 3, I will clean up my own trash 4, I will not produce or provide any workmanship that does not meet code or is not properly done, I.E. Straight and Level. Further I will not produce any work I would not accept in my own house. 5. I understand that I am to invoice on the second and fourth Friday of the month for phases of work that are complete by that date only. I understand payment for that phase of work is to paid by the following second or fourth Friday if and only if any punch list items as of two weeks ago are completed. Each of these provisions are initialed by the subcontractor and his lead trades person or job supervisor

Had that happen to 80 % of the boxes in a past project... took me days to fix. No recourse due to the drywall guy being kinda a co worker... sucked it up and moved on

Thank you!

Nope, no tape on the floor if you are going to stain the floors. Learned it the hard way

I dont use router so much dust i hand cut it with keyhole saw

My guess is that there were marks on the floor for locating that ceiling box, because otherwise the ceiling would have looked like Swiss cheese, with lots of holes where they probed to try to find that box. They were just careless in the depth they used on their cutting tool. Had they set the depth to only penetrate for a smidge more than the thickness of that drywall, then the wire would have been much less likely to incur damage. You also have to pay attention to those ice maker water line boxes, and remove the escutcheon from them before the drywall guys drywall right over the escutcheon. Then they end up defeating the purpose of the escutcheon (which is to trim things out for a nicer appearance), by having to cut away wider than the escutcheon so that they can get the escutcheon free from behind the drywall. Then inevitably there’s patching that’s needed after that ...

In my country, you are required to use pipe conduit for hidden electrical wires, trips me out that its not the case in america

Come on man as a drywaller that never happens to us we alway push wires in o tell the electrician not to leave 2 feet of wires i usually cut them so they tuck in the outlet simple i zip the out let from the outside of it

Yes they are bad if they don't care. Too many guys don't give a sh*t,. Craftsmen are hard to find and general tradesmen need to step up their game, it's a competitive world.

Hempcrete... Gypsum sheetrock must be treated with something that makes drywallers disrespectful. It should never be "my job" to tell a sub-contractor to do a good job.

No kidding! I hired a builder to remodel a bathroom, and each subcontractor totally made the next one’s work a nightmare. I have fairly good building skills and pointed this out to the contractor I hired, and he ignored me. I ended up doing so much rework myself, that overall, it was pointless to have hired a contractor in the first place. I spent allthat money, and now have to live with the flaws that were impractical to fix then, and are creating failures now.

How hard would it be to cut a bunch of 1/4 ply inserts to fit tight inside the box and protect the wires?

does asking the electrician to recommend a drywall sub help prevent this?

Funny how everyone blames the drywaller in this example when this is not his fault. It’s the electricians fault for not making up his boxes at rough-in. A properly made box has the wires tucked in the back.

Can drywallers cut with a saw that can be set to the depth of the thickness of drywall? Just wondering

The wres should have been made up and pushed in box by the electrician. You missed it.mr builder

BACKCHARGE will usually solve the problem

“Stucco guys” are actually called plasterers.

You can't expect subcontractors to fix or finish the work or the previous subs. This is the fault of the electritian, the general contractor, and the building inspector. You don't leave romex in a box without removing the sheathing and making up the wires to except the finish fixture.

I would tell the subs in advance that damage like this will come out of their payout. Have it in the contract.

Why was so much wire hanging? Its not stripped or made up.

Just put a temporary cover on the box to protect the wires

Ok, I realize I'm the laymen here but how exactly does putting a mark on the floor keep the drywall team from chewing up wiring when trying to expose the box? They know where it is, they know it's got wiring in it and they still didn't care. How does an X on the floor make them suddenly care?

You did the electrical. You didn't make up the box , that's your fault for doing substandard work.

Electricians fault it seems like.

That’s the electrician’s fault for not folding the wires properly.

A real builder uses conduit instead of extension cord in the walls

So much to say... I'm a drywall subcontractor. You're right, some subs don't care about their product. Most do because otherwise, they will be out of business quickly. HOWEVER, I'm going to put the blame for both of the highlighted examples on..... YOU. You were the 'electrician' who didn't do his job. YOU didn't cut the insulation, wire the box and pack the electric wires correctly. That's not on the drywaller to fix. In fact, as a drywaller, I'm not allowed to reposition ANY wires or plumbing. A drywaller with a rotozip is cutting on the OUTSIDE of the electric box. We only stab inside to find the edge. If the electrician does his / her job and wires up the box correctly and then packs the box correctly, there is no way that a drywaller could touch the wires with their rotozip. To my relatively experienced eye, that looks like the wire was sticking out of the box, the drywaller installed the piece of rock and the tail of the wire was actually outside the box when they zipped the opening - most likely causing a drywall blowout as well as a cut wire. This affects the drywall finisher as well as the electrican. All because the ELECTRICIAN didn't do their job. Also, as you well pointed out, because the GC didn't do their job of requiring this from their electrician. As a sub doing a bid, I always ask who the electrician and plumber are (fortunately, I live in a small market and know who the good ones are, and, even more importantly, who the bad ones are). If it's someone who I know doesn't pack their boxes correctly, leaves pex pushing out of the stud bays, has ABS vents to close to the interior of rooms, who doesn't shield their wiring or plumbing, or is a framer who doesn't get all of their drywall backing done right, I'm automatically going to increase my bid to compensate for my additional time that I am going to be putting in either fixing my drywall because of these 'oversights' (aka slappy, lazy, subcontractor work) or I'll be waiting around for the sub or the GC to fix the issue. Either way, it's wasting MY time. On the other hand, I know that if I work with GC Joe and Joe always uses Great Framing Co, Great Electrician Co and Great Plumber Co as his subs, I know that I can confidently give GC Joe my best pricing on his job because he is insuring through hiring great subs that his sub work is... GREAT. That's how it's done, kids. Don't hire the cheapest bid, hire the best sub contractor and know that you're getting a great product out of it. Everyone thinks that they can cheat the system and hire the cheapest contractor around and get the best result. THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN. Don't be penny wise and pound stupid. Your second example was your fault as well. Any experienced GC knows that there is a set procedure for lining up your subs. You can play with the sequence on some of them, but there are some that need to be done in order. Stucco is one of them. Don't do this again. It was not your subs fault that you jumped the process because you were pressured by the sub. That's on the GC for not requiring his/her subs to stay on time. Sorry for the book, however, I thought that I could bring a little experienced nuance to the comment section. I do enjoy your content as I GC my own builds as well as being a sub for a living, however, I think that you might want to look in the mirror a little bit with these 2 examples of the 'sub' not doing their jobs... Cheers!

Hire a real qualified general contractor. It'll pay for itself many times over. GC are the lowest paid for the job they are doing.

This guy just wasting time making video...that shit is easy fix...your making a big deal between Sub contractors and another contractor....fine something interesting to watch.

How inexperienced are you? Electritian should never leave un made up romex in a box and what was the electrical inspector doing. Looks like you didn't get electrical permit. If that box was made up the wires could have been tucked in deeper avoiding this. Drives me crazy when I see people who don't know what they are doing making videos on RU-vid!

Every video this guy makes only reinforces how wrong he is. You need a GC.