A few years ago, the small company (4 people) I was at relocated to a new space that was as-is so we had to do the custom build out for it ourselves. Two of us are hardcore DIY types, so we took on the build ourselves. Part of that required electrical work. We found an electrician that worked with us on the plans and permits, but then allowed us to do the work for the internal wiring to the panel before he ran the mains with the explicit understanding that if there was anything that did not meet specs, he would not connect mains until it was corrected. So we bent conduit, pulled/labeled wires, wired the breaker, then held our breath when he came back for inspection. It was very satisfying when the electrician said it was better work than 90% of his employees. I wish I could find the pics I took of how clean the breaker panel was. The bending of the conduit and measure 3 times cut once was fun and frustrating at the same time, and the decisions on which way to run based on which route needed the least amount of bending was challenging and fun. I definitely have a much deeper appreciation of what electricians go through. It also made it very clear why I did not pursue that kind of construction career path my dad took and did everything he could do to have me not follow those footsteps. To this day, I find myself looking at the conduit work in places and admiring the work more than your normal person
I’ve seen lots of cases where I or others can do better work than “the pros”. Some of it is because we’re working for ourselves on our own stuff and care more. But a lot of it is speed. It’s very possible to do a great job if being slow doesn’t mean you and your family get to starve.
I finished my 900 sqft basement including electrical. Everything was perfect, and the inspector was kind of blown away. The reason was because I took 2 years to do the whole basement, and if I spent a weekend doing just one circuit, that was fine. A pro would never be able to spend that much time.
Even in my experience of doing all of the wiring for the studio, it only took a couple of weeks. By the end of it, I had started to get the hang of what type of bend the conduit would need, and how to measure so the bend would be exactly where it was supposed to be without having to cut some straight pieces to couple the "oops". So the speed would have come naturally just like with any other newbie gaining experience. Doing it "right" doesn't mean doing it slowly, nor does going slow guarantee correctness.
Yep. I'm in that situation right now, finishing up with a kitchen rebuild (water damage). I'm livid with the GC for the mediocre quality of the work and his audacity to consistently lie to my face even about trivial things (e.g. about written communication or insisting a 20A circuit needs a 20A receptacle).
The quality of the work though… it's not that I could do better, it's that I've done better at specific tasks e.g. when they R&R'd a ceiling fixture I'd installed. We would've parted ways a long time ago if they'd done things right the first time. Instead I'm slowly going over their work to make sure I don't get screwed even more.
Right, but it's hard to care to the same level when you're doing the work for your own use vs caring enough to do a job for someone else you may or may not know or like. Caring to do a good job for the sake of doing a good job is so not a common thing any more. Also, having the time to care and do everything to that precision for a single one-off type of job vs doing it every day is a whole other level of discipline.
