Heard a guy at the supply house say 'just tape the neutral' and it made me see red.

That kind of lazy thinking is exactly why we get called out for hack work, so what's the dumbest shortcut you've seen someone try to get away with?

3 comments

3 Comments

schmidt.amy3mo agoMost Upvoted

Watched a guy try to use a single zip tie as a makeshift pipe hanger on a full size water line. It snapped before he even got his tools put away. That "tape the neutral" mindset gets people hurt or burns buildings down. There's no good reason to skip the right connector or box.

parkerkim1mo ago

Man, that zip tie thing made me cringe just reading it... I used to do side work with this older electrician who was super old school, and one time he needed a temporary hanger for a conduit run and just grabbed a piece of scrap wire instead of walking 20 feet to the truck for a real strap. It held for like a day then sagged and almost pulled the whole box off the ceiling. After that day I just started keeping a stash of the right hardware in my truck, even the little stuff like connectors and box adapters. Saves you the headache of having to redo it later when the quick fix fails.

sam_anderson3mo ago

Saw a guy use duct tape on a live wire once, pure chaos.

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