Quote:
Originally Posted by crescere
There is absolutely no reason an experienced landlord cannot learn to correctly put in a standard outlet, GFCI, or a switch. He will do the same thing an electrician would do.
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Yeah I agree there, it certainly isn't rocket science to attach three color coded wires taken off the old outlet and put onto the new one and tighten the screws!
That comes under "repairs" not remodelling or renovation, or installing new circuits, and I know back in NYC it was typical for the building's superintendant or handyman (usually lives in) to do such repairs, as well as paint, repair broken windows, patch the roof, clean the hallways, repair the toilet, water leaks, leaking faucet, maintain the boiler, minor carpentry etc.
Imagine calling and paying a plumber to come all the way out with a helper just to replace a 25 cent rubber washer in the bathroom faucet that drips!
Sure, there's plenty of idiots out there who can't even figure out how to do that, but most people with some common sense can figure out how to do a minor repair like fixing a leaking faucet, a broken receptacle, or replace a frayed lamp cord.
Good grief, if a homeowner had to call a contractor every time something needed adjustment or minor fix they would never be able to afford to live in a house.
I'm a very handy type guy, I watch and I learn, and on the job back in the 80s I worked in a 9 story commercial building in NYC, my immediate boss- the building super was about 70 at the time, and he worked there for a long time. One day the air compressor on the pressure tank for the flush toilets seized up, I went to look at it and the crankcase was BONE DRY! I asked the guy if he ever put oil in it, and he replied that he had no idea it took oil... Just about every pump and motor in the boiler room failed because he didn't know you had to lubricate them!
There I was, barely over 18 and even I knew these should be lubed!
Once, I watched the elevator repair guy work in the control room and quickly learned how it all worked, it came in handy the day a too full car of factory workers got stuck between floors, I forget how, it was something with the door contact. I was able to override the bad door contact and bring the car to the ground floor landing from downstairs in the control room, it was no big deal, I watched, I learned, I successfully applied the knowlege during an emergency.
I also learned how to fill the 2 oil fired boilers with water if the level was low, and how they operated, I noticed an odd thing going on with them, that every WEEK the boiler repair guys were coming in to replace firebrick on the inside of the fronts of the boilers because they would fall down. Every time they came it cost $3500 (I saw the bills) and they just dumped the old brick in a pile on the floor, so one day on my night shift I climbed inside the back of the boiler with a flashlight to look, and I could immediately tell what the problem was- they were using a piece of thin angle iron across the whole width of the boiler, and the angle iron was the only thing supporting about 6 courses of firebrick.
It was easy to tell the heat was twisting the angle iron, it would weaken and the bricks would cave in, so Monday I chatted with the landlord's agent and told him what the PROBLEM was, apparantly no one thought it strange the bricks had to constantly be replaced every week for $3500 a shot 6 or 8 times in a row! Every time this happened the boilers were shut down for 2-3 days and it was a real pain in the arse in the winter!
My suggested fix: cut and mortar the bricks into a self-supporting arched configuration to eliminate the angle iron, once that was done to the boiler's firebrick, they never had the problem again! A freaking 18 year old 9th grade dropout kid has to tell these clowns how to properly fix the boiler!
Then there was the painter in a crew painting the windows on that building who decided to put his safety rope around a projection on the roof while he was suspended below on an electric scaffold 9 floors up. I had to tell him his safety rope was wrapped around a foot tall cylinder of TAR PAPER that covered the remnants of what was left of a stub of a rotted old wood flagpole, are people really this stupid? I thought after seeing that.
Point is I guess, someone like that superintendent who didn't even know moving machinery takes oil and grease, or someone who would put a safety line over a piece of tarpaper covering a rotted flag pole stub- should maybe have gotten jobs as janitors or something and stayed away from the building systems and high risk occupations, while someone like me is so obviously capable of replacing a damaged receptacle- geez!
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