griffonsystems 0 Posted October 6, 2005 just finished a job where i joined my installation tech in pulling wire for a 16ch dvr upgrade - 13 replacement cams and 3 new cams in a hotel - knocked out 10 the first day along with moving the homerun 150ft to the data center from its spot in an office - 12hr day then yesterday the fun began with the 3 new runs in a 20ft ceeling with 2 access panels and a lot of pipes, wire, insulation, old wire, old pipes, old drop ceeling that was never removed when the new ceeling was added, cutting through dbl drywall, army crawling on pipes and ducts,etc etc etc.. and the place is only 17yrs old but you would have thought it was 50 with all that crap in the ceeling.... 14hrs later(with ur typical snags like "we need to get through that conf room but you didnt block it off for the hr that we needed it so we have to wait till the meeting gets done stuff) we had everything complete, and since i weigh 100lbs less than my tech, guess who was the rat in the ceeling sore in places i never thought i could get sore in, and im still blowing out drywall dust and dirt from my nose.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted October 6, 2005 i feel yah pain dude .. i got 2 holes in my head from nails, crawling in attics down here back in the day .. not to mention the amount of times i got hit by high voltage as we gots no building or electrical codes here .. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
qman 0 Posted October 6, 2005 Stop Crying. I do these things all day long. But I wonder if that's the reason that my head always hurt..................... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jisaac 0 Posted October 7, 2005 hey I got stuck underneath an air duct one time for about 30 minutes. It was a very high end client and I did not want to make a seen so I did not ask for help so I for about 30 minutes panicked pinned between a air duct i had wedged myself under to try to snag a wire my tech was pushing up through the whole we had drilled. I finally just somehow unwedged myself and never since then have i taken my freedom for granted. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted October 7, 2005 i got stuck in the corner of an attic and basically passed out from heat stroke .. in a daze i managed to get unpinned and fell through the attic hole to the ground, nearly broke my darn neck!! Oh yeah i fell mostly cause the other worker was using the ladder elsewhere!! ARghh. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
griffonsystems 0 Posted October 7, 2005 hehe that's exactly what i was thinking when i was up there.. ok dont go that way because if u get stuck no one is going to be able to come get u.. it was also fun climbing over the duct and trying to to snag my head on the cement nails that were hanging above glad i didnt run into any furry creatures up there Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted October 7, 2005 them nails man. thats the 2 scars on my head, hair wont grow back, and no its not just old age Things here we have to watch out for is, nails (everywhere), high voltage not secured just sticking up everywhere, no tape nothing, and the darn heat will kill yah in the summer especially ... i use to do on average 2 alarm installs a day in normal 3 bedroom single story homes (all concrete in and out, not sheetrock like in the US!), in the summer months, and that was by myself most of the time ... basically in attics all day long .. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jisaac 0 Posted October 7, 2005 glad i didnt run into any furry creatures up there One time I was in an attic that had wasp all up in this one section in the front. Granted it was a small section but never the less they were there. Well I decided that if I could just slowly creep pass them and dont show fear or dont piss them off ( remember that statement, irony is a *** later in the story ). So i make it pass them without creating a poormans version of accupuncture. Then crawl over the attic extend my grabbzit pole with my z hook hook the wire and pull it back. Well the wire gets hung up in the hole that i was feeding the wire through so i crawl over there and try to see what the hold up was. Look over a bunch of crap and look straight into the eyes of a massive raccoon! I made it across that attic faster than anyone in this forum has every made it across any attic or any crawl space for sure! During this mad dash for the daylight i can hear behind me this raccoon paniccing as much as I am which was pretty hard to keep with. So you can feel my sense of urgancy to get out. So i get almost to the end of the attic and forgot all about the first little hurdle i had to overcome getting into the attic. And went straight through the center of this million wasp march that was going on in this attic. Needless to say there was no place that the wasp and the rest of their gang was not afraid to hit! And that is all I have to say about that! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted October 7, 2005 lawd that is the best!! sorry bud .. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
griffonsystems 0 Posted October 7, 2005 if that was me i would have had a mild heart attack after seeing the racoon and then fell through the ceeling there probably isnt a time since then on every install that you dont think about that every time you go up in an attic or ceeling im surprised you're still in the biz after that day! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jisaac 0 Posted October 7, 2005 try filling out that insurance claim! that was alot of "other" check marks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jisaac 0 Posted October 7, 2005 has not been a whole lot of times i have made trips up there since then. I would wake up in the middle of the night with my bed sheets drenched in sweet from seeing that damn thing in my dreams for a pretty extended amount of time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
netpromax 0 Posted October 8, 2005 I am sorry... but my belly just popped from laughing. I couldn't resist. my mishap is kindergarten stuff compared to what you've been through...phew... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jisaac 0 Posted October 8, 2005 yes health insurance. Came in mighty handy. AFLAC! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cctv_down_under 0 Posted October 8, 2005 Are racoons scary? Gosh I just don't install anymore, I simply sub out any jobs I need to do, not because I am lazy it is more to do with lack of productivity, I know it saves a few dollars to do it yourself but the problem is that most installs take a few days to do, and quite simply when you are doing installs you are not selling and if you add time for training and picking up equipment then all of a sudden there is 4 days you did not sell. After looking at finances and looking at graphs of when I made money and when it was quiet it bacame apparent that I ALWAYS started to drop down on the graph just after an install and that was because I stopped selling, so now I NEVER crawl through a roof anymore! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stupot 0 Posted October 8, 2005 Well i have just finished a 600 year old hotel in England, and it was a pig of a job, nothing was straight, the floor sloped the walls were 4 feet thick, there were no roof voids, abd the floor boards were solid pieces of wood. Have you ever tried to fix straight trunking to a non straight wall. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH. Give me a 2 month old building any day. Stu. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jisaac 0 Posted October 9, 2005 well I personally take extreme pride in my work. I have a hard time lettting my install crew do a complete job without me having some part to do with it. Much less sub contracting it out. I would not like to sell a job and then pass it off on someone else. If you can plan and schedule your time right then you wont have the problem of having down time after an install. I get most of my business of referrals. 9 out of 10 jobs are off of referalls. I would credit that to having extremely satisfied customers based off of the incredibly clean and efficiant install that is almost down to a science. When we get done with our install I sit my customers down and ask them. "Have you been very well pleased with our installation, service, and your complete system?" 99% say ,"oh yes. Very well pleased" So then I ask "Would you be so kind as to provide me with 3 or more people I could contact who might be interested in getting a system" Have yet to have one so no. Because you already got them to say they were pleased. They pretty much feel that if they said no they would be somewhat of a hypocrite. So you also ask them to please contact them and let them know you will be contacting them. If you did as good of a job on the install as you should have. And if you do what i stated above right then I promise you the only down time you will have is if and when you are not able to get your equpiment shipped to you in time for your earliest available starting date. Which most of the time you are just pulling wire anyways the first couple of days. So take that formula I just provided (which i got from someone else) put it into practice. And you will have very little down time. (especially if you have a referral program where you provide things to the referree) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jisaac 0 Posted October 9, 2005 and yes a raccoon the size of bloodhound is very scary. Especially under the circumstances. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted October 9, 2005 man 4 weeks now and i still cant get an electrician or someone with tools etc to run conduit for 2 small jobs ... down here it can be impossible sometimes ;-( Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
C7 in CA 0 Posted October 10, 2005 Well, if the client is willing to pay time and materials and can wait 3 weeks, I'm available... But it would probably be pretty expensive to fedex my tools there and back. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jisaac 0 Posted October 10, 2005 just do it yourself. It is not that hard. harder than you think for me.. no tools, experience, or time ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iwatchlive 0 Posted October 10, 2005 just finished a job where i joined my installation tech in pulling wire for a 16ch dvr upgrade - 13 replacement cams and 3 new cams in a hotel - knocked out 10 the first day along with moving the homerun 150ft to the data center from its spot in an office - 12hr day then yesterday the fun began with the 3 new runs in a 20ft ceeling with 2 access panels and a lot of pipes, wire, insulation, old wire, old pipes, old drop ceeling that was never removed when the new ceeling was added, cutting through dbl drywall, army crawling on pipes and ducts,etc etc etc.. and the place is only 17yrs old but you would have thought it was 50 with all that crap in the ceeling.... 14hrs later(with ur typical snags like "we need to get through that conf room but you didnt block it off for the hr that we needed it so we have to wait till the meeting gets done stuff) we had everything complete, and since i weigh 100lbs less than my tech, guess who was the rat in the ceeling sore in places i never thought i could get sore in, and im still blowing out drywall dust and dirt from my nose.. Be thankful you were in Chicago, Griffon, if you were in South Florida you would have been blowing a very different dust from your nose! Thanks for the descriptions, I had some nightmare jobs and I wish there could be a place on here to post some install shots of our rats crawling up and down walls and columns in this 1950-1970's old crapola hotel chain that this Monopoly Man client of ours has been buying, remodeling and having up install just before the work starts, so we end up doing it all over again once the friggen ceilings are swapped out and the conduiting and wiring have to be moved.... Oh yeah, he also expects us to just install them and take them down, then install them again, with no extra labor. Woosh, a dream client, with nightmare prerequisites. Does anyone have any TUMS handy? Best regards, Adam Cohen - Internet Surveillance Specialist ACohen@iWATCHLiVE.COM WWW.iWATCHLiVE.COM Office - 954-772-5483 Fax - 954-252-4694 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iwatchlive 0 Posted October 10, 2005 glad i didn't run into any furry creatures up there That reminds me... Still takking about my hotel owner who loves to USE us on all of his properties. But this last one, he owns the entire hotel, except for this truckers bar and twilight-zone-like restaurant. Anyway, if tell you that this place must have been a total dive, even before they ever sold their first grey hamburger! So, my guys are supposed to run 22 siamese coax, 8 Sheilded 18/2 for PTZ telemetry and Audio Lines & 6 225lb test nylon pull cords. Oops here is the first free favor he asks... Please run me one fiber optic cable and 2 blue cat6 wires. Ok, so we agree to do it. But it was a miserable run through this moldy, spider webbed, smelly kitchen and slophouse dining room. These wires had to go about 375 to DVR Rack and he also wanted slack entire to ballroom dance around the server room with the entire DVR Rack. What a long tape job to keep them wires neatly through the underground conduit we buried, across the sea of filth and through 4 huge 4" conduit holes through nasty 1 1/2 foot concrete walls & peek-a-boo re-bars. My guys are just about ready to go into the attic and pull our homerun when all of a sudden, one of my new guys from Venezuela stumbled across a friggen petrified dead cat, we are talking fur and bones on top of the restaurant's walk in freezer. Slophouse was a kind word for this place, I can assure you! This new cable humper of course was on Sh*thouse patrol all week long climbing around attics and boiler rooms and finally above that filthy kitchen. Long story short... He freaks out, refuses to go back up there and swears up and down that he has some kind of santaria or voodoo curse on him because all of the cooking in the kitchen were Haitian and giving him strange looks. He didn't realize that the strangle looks were at him because they gotta go back up there and clean it! I could not believe it the entire job came to a screeching halt and I ended up firing him and I will probably get the curse in the form of some kind of crazy lawsuit filed on my ex-employee's behalf, for discriminating against his religious beliefs! I guess the friggen guy saw that movie "The serpent and the rainbow" one too many times. Happy Cabling! Adam Cohen - Internet Surveillance Specialist ACohen@iWATCHLiVE.COM WWW.iWATCHLiVE.COM Office - 954-772-5483 Fax - 954-252-4694 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jisaac 0 Posted October 10, 2005 ya you have to be careful with firing your employees. Here it cost us a arm and a leg to get someone licensed and certified that I am very reluctant to fire anyone. It goes like this $900.00 for the NBFA class and book $400 for State Police licensing and background cheks and so on and so forth. And also time it cost to actually train these people on this stuff isaac Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
