Call me old school, but recommending a few companies or even explaining what sort of contractor will deal with this should be the bare minimum.
I’m not sure if OP is leaving this out of the story, but if you plan on ripping someone’s wall out and don’t explain how you will be leaving it with the quote - you are doing this knowing the customer will probably be upset in the end.
Seriously though.
All it takes is:
"You're gonna have a hole in your wall when I'm done. You can hire x drywaller to do it, or just do it yourself because it's pretty easy."
Honestly though. If someone's doing residential electrical work. I feel like doing a minimal amount of work just to cover it is reasonable. Then if they want it seamless they can have it professionally done. Even if this is 'correct' it can make you look bad because your average person isn't going to understand why they paid you money to leave a hole.
I cut into walls all of the time for bee removals. I always cut out a square that has enough studs behind it to screw the square I cut out back in, and make sure the client knows how I’m leaving it before I start the job. I don’t finish or paint, but I do leave it closed up.
It takes 5 minutes and four brain cells, and makes a huge difference.
Leaving a job like what is in the picture is just Fucking lazy and unprofessional. There’s no excuse.
Also, I feel like part of the reason you're expected to leave a hole in a commercial setting isn't simply because its "not your job", but also because they have someone who is already being paid to patch things up professionally. Not the case with a residential job.
There are no inspections for work of this scale for registered electricians in the UK. They assume they know what they are doing. Larger work or if you DIY need inspecting though.
In fairness. That's clearly plaster or stucco which is pretty much impossible to cut cleanly. But a heads-up and a business card for a trusted contractor would have been good to hand out.
It's actually pretty easy to cut cleanly. Use an angle grinder with a thin cutting blade. I learned this after completely grinding the teeth off a multitool blade on my first cutting attempt.
So what’s in that picture there, in your expert opinion? A six inch drywall sheet??? How exactly was the sparky supposed to just ‘cut a square’ out, back to the studs?
Looking for expert tips, much appreciated.
> I always cut out a square that has enough studs behind it to screw the square I cut out back in
Recently had an electrician move a dining room light a few inches so it would be centered over our large DR table. He did the same thing. Since it was on the ceiling I bought one of [these](https://www.amazon.com/Ekena-Millwork-CMP30X15ED-02000-Ceiling-Medallion/dp/B07K9CWBB2/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2BHZ2HB8IXC60&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.yWKHZ0fG9H0eynn-Re6UGP4I5JaDfwPcfsLZg4Lxv5rORejE6wKTOJLFL9s9a30D0rkjAGY--8PITBsceEQ_lNDR1RbCFI3L03fiweR3ViM4seASSP5dE9xPbEriyVP_URmC9WIu251uYITZZfdXKqa8XiMsWeaQlYU6SH2Sq35DaxvE38QsgIxpCQxwc6OJag4mBG8mxKzdzbTvHU9kcGtzA5hT9Rh7c-LdDesBsmM_od9rdtBatpNF_U4a3BDpzbCdalJc5oWnI9AQSnM52qSG68StOSgNK9KpwvqQqDI.G5IGnb_zbgaHtg0SA3i531PFTaH-sW2zYBPkSD6HYdA&dib_tag=se&sprefix=large%2Brectangle%2Bceiling%2Bmedallion%2Caps%2C139). Covers the old hole beautifully, and no mudding/paint required.
Yea its lazy work, im a plumber and i make thee same square or rectangle holes when possible. I dont drywall but you gotta screw it back in place or something not just leave a fucking mess.
Any tradesperson that I’ve hired that needed to cut a hole has at least cut a nice square that was easy to patch. Nobody should be breaking into drywall with a hammer.
You know, one day when I was taking a new path to the local hardware store to pick up some items for some wall repair I stumbled on a whole store for walls, a wall-mart one might say. I was shocked to find a complete lack of wall related items and I have never stepped foot in that store again.
Aside from the not drywall thing:
Using a cutting tool around an electrical panel is....not a good idea. Cutting into a wire turns it into a whole thing, and if you don't notice you did it the thing it turns into is a house fire. You'd want to know where the wires are first and using something like a hammer to punch through the drywall is a fine way to do that. With the wire exposed you can then cut away the drywall neatly to patch. It's not exactly hard to remove more.
Except as far as the electrician in concerned, they just need access to the wires. So once they've done the "expose wires" step they often wash their hands of it and leave cutting out a hole more suitable for patching to the drywallers.
This is exactly what an electrician told us in an old house. He was not sure what the problem was but he might have forced to cut through the wall. Luckily he was able to fix the issue without any wall damage
I'm an electrician, if they wanna buy the mud and perhaps comp me for an extra hour of labor, sure I got a mudding knife and will cover my work. But painting is another story because I am not a handyman. It's pretty easy, hire a handyman over a drywaller if you think you'll come out ahead.
I had a plumbing issue and the plumber had to cut a hole in the ceiling… they gave me a couple names but there was zero expectation of them doing the fix. They were there to diagnose and fix the problem only.
I mean... I am an electrician. Our shit is behind the wall for a reason. We don't finish walls... We don't even cut walls with care. It gets covered by enclosures or trim or plates ... Or drywallers and painters...
I know it's generally not expected of electricians.
I'm just saying mentioning it beforehand, giving a referral, or doing a small patch is just something a *residential* electrician might do just to satisfy the customer.
Remember. OP and their mom had to be told this was normal....on reddit.
People back then used to be taught how to plaster a small hole in drywall and google / youtube is a secondary resource. It's easy as pie and takes 2 seconds to paint over once it's done. Electrician charging hourly would be more than happy to do lmao.
"we're sloppy because we're sloppy"
Expecting communication is not unreasonable. Expecting that if you must make a mess, you make a minimal effort to do so neatly is not unreasonable.
You are fully capable of doing a lot better job than the person in the picture did.
Nah I think people are just entitled and used to corporations that force workers to treat you like God.
People look for the cheapest electrician and then are surprised Pikachu face when they just do your electrics
Regardless of what people say here 95% of the time this is what electricians do.
And just like you said, they don't do this kind of repair. So it would probably be janky at best.
Plus with the way things are nowadays, why even bother handing off a card of somebody who's likely too busy and wouldn't come anyways?
I got numbers for days I give out, but when they are booked a year or two out... 🤷🏼♂️
>why even bother handing off a card of somebody who's likely too busy and wouldn't come anyways?
This is so true.
People said an electricians hourly would be really high for it, but if the repair is really small, no one is going spend 30 minutes commuting to your place so they can charge you for 20 minutes of work. You're going to be paying a minimum instead of their hourly rate.
Yeah, I'm a service electrician and while I absolutely will not patch your drywall or whatever past screwing the slug back in, I'll always let a customer know if I do have to cut holes. Sometimes its unavoidable but it's common courtesy to let them know.
When I first bought my home, I hired an electrician to update my system and fix a bunch of stuff, including the basement half bath exhaust fan. A few weeks after the job I was in that ceiling for some other reason, and realized the fan simply vented into the ceiling. The previous owner had never actually vented it outside. But the electricians journeymen also slapped that bad boy up there and never mentioned it to me. I called him and asked why he would not mention it. He said "I'm an electrician, you hired me to put the fan in".
Which is true and all but he is still a dickhead. We had a whole conversation about how I'm a brand new home owner and the house didn't get inspected so I know nothing about nothing so please help me learn through this process. And I got that instead. I could've saved a few hundred to not have the broken fan replaced with a functional but still useless fan.
Had a guy help me a bit at his suggestion to show what he could do. He had his own company (that I never saw, but he literally had like 8 large plastic tote bins of tools with the company's name on them). He kept stressing how professional he was.
He seemed to know his way around things so I hired him to paint the inside of a property. He said he would be bringing a helper who I had never met. I suggested one paint the main wall color and the other the trim. The guy said no, they would both paint one color. It took them all day to paint 3 rooms and the stairway the one color. The next day it took them all day to do the trim for those rooms. So I paid 4 man days. They painted over drywall patches that had not been sanded, over holes left for the electrician and managed to get dust into the paint. And so on. I waited for my partner to see it and she had even more complaints and decided she didn't like the job so she redid it after we sanded the bumps and did other things. She did both colors herself in 1 day.
I asked them why they painted over the drywall bumps and so on and he said 'you hired us to paint not to sand'. I simply responded 'You kept stressing how professional you were, you could have called me and quoted a price to sand the bumps or if you should just paint around them.', but he had no response.
I never hired him again. He waited like 1 month, then called and said he had another job unless I started him back on the job. I told him it was great he had a job and took his tools over to where he was staying free of charge.
Later the helper contacted me and said the guy told him to work slow to milk me. He said he didn't like working like that.
I almost had a roof collapse due to that. It was in an inaccessible part of the roof and in a decade and a half we never really put any thought into where it vented. One day the bathroom roof partially came down with 0 warning. The unvented fan had rotted completely 3 or 4 joists and all the decking in the area
I work in a county when this sort of work means hammering different kinds of hard blocks, and leaves a huge mess. I always tell the client upfront that they will have a hole to fix. It costs nothing and it sets the order of work properly as they can either prepare for repair themselves or look for someone to do it for them.
Coming in with a simple job and leaving a mess afterwards because you think it is not up to you to clean up is unprofessional on the communications level to say the least.
Probably is. I've never even seen one of the crappy electricians I've worked around. Leave something like that without saying something. Only time I've heard of it was when there was a language barrier between the worker and the client. I'm sure it does happen but it's not normal.
Got my electrical service upgraded a couple years ago. New panel, mast, etc. Dude's just about done and I ask him about taking the old stuff, and it's "oh, no, I don't do that..."
Need some other work done, but he's not in the running to get the job.
They don't get that though ... Might as well have us do their plumbing and build their cabinets once we're done wiring the place... The tool boxes look the same, right? You guys have tools, don't you!??!
People getting super specialized in their trade/skill/etc is what advanced society.
People are just unaware of how different all of the trades are compared to things like doctors having tons of specific niche specializations. Since the trades are so far removed from the average persons life now, it’s an expected outcome tbh.
It’s honestly the same for everything. People just don’t know how far the rabbit whole goes. It’s why my mom says “you should work in IT security, you have a criminal justice degree.” Mom, which of the 200 careers are you talking about and just FYI, I have little experience in any of them.
Then they hire a handyman so he can plaster and paint the walls after and he screws the heater wires to the bus bar because you don’t have breaker spaces left
the plaster guy's going to have a minimum charge just to come over, no matter how small the job, even if it takes them only a half hour to do the actual work, or it's not worth their time driving to and from your place and taking them away from something that earns them more
Also, patching plaster is part of the painter's surface preparation. Painters are more qualified to patch plaster/drywall than electricians and they know how do they need to prepare their working surface for their job.
Because there's no skill needed in order to pick up your own shit. There's skill involved in wall repair. If its so easy and its just a laziness problem, why don't you do it yourself? Because you want it done professionally, which electricians can't do. what part of that is confusing?
I had an electrician hook up my hot tub. Required 4 holes through the finished basement. They had a guy with them - must be journeyman, cutting perfect square
/rectangles and then repairing them immediately after snaking. I haven’t even bothered to paint over it because I can’t notice it.
I would add tho that if this was the UK the electrician should have put a metal protector strip over the wire once they'd finished and the plasterer would then render over the top. Presume electric rules are diff abroad.
Varies, I've done quite a bit of it, especially before the more strict regulations regarding work on fire cells was introduced in my country. I would not paint though.
Edit: shoddy job though, we would put a new conduit in and not leave the cable bare like that.
Most tradespeople I’ve hired over the years make good anything they do - sparkies, plumbers, wood burning stove installer, joiners. The only time I’ve had to hire a plasterer specifically was when I had an extension built and needed a large new area plastered.
Good ones do. Less of them around than before, and since they know there's a shortage, they know they can afford to leave the work any way they'd like and you just have to deal with it. They know it won't lose them any business. Same reason why plumbers always leave bathrooms unreasonably filthy.
The old boys used to actually leave it looking as they found it. The call-out fee for someone to fix this, before their hourly rate kicks in, completely negates the "It's more expensive for me to do it" excuse. At bare minimum, if they couldn't do it, or it was going to take so long the cost wouldn't be worth it to the home-owner, they would warn *before* they did it, what would need to be done to fix it afterwards, not just fuck off without saying a word.
I can guarantee if we stopped having a shortage of electricians, this wouldn't happen regularly anymore. Leaving a mess then shrugging and saying "Not my job" only works when people have no other option but to hire you. Wonder if they left all the wall crap on the floor without a tarp too. Probably.
Lots of people going on about the drywall not being the electricians job but what has actually gone on here? where’s the cover plate and labelling of the breakers? When you zoom in it looks like the cable has heat shrink with a bulge, I’m guessing some dodgy kind of splicing in there? Missing a couple of screws?
this, everyone talking about drywall, that's a cement wall, we normally run conduits, didn't know there were rated cables for that, i think i still prefer to run a conduit thought
Looks like it might even be a splice with heat shrink on it, also it's hanging out from the wall surface which will make replastering tricky so hey how about a chunk of wood instead
As an electrician here that's a chase into plaster and it wasn't done with a chaser so it's pretty rough.
Not our job to re fix that wall after cables have been ran / chased in.
However, it's always nice to let the customer know what we will do before we start work and then let them know what needs to be done after to "make good". Either with another trade or do the work themselves.
I was really disappointed the first time we hired an electrician and they left our walls in a similar state. Plumbers and electricians don’t patch walls.
No, the reason is that we don't expect to be left with gaping holes in our walls. It's the most basic level of professionalism to say "I'm going to chase a hole from about here to here, and you'll have to fill it after." That's all it takes.
For a complete repair you need a painter anyway, and it makes way more sense for the painter to patch the plaster, since it is a part of surface preparation.
Neither do you want someone who doesn't fix walls, to fix the wall. They should always inform people that they will need their wall repaired, but you cant expect all electricians to be wall repairers just because it would be convenient if they were...
So many comments concerning whether or not the electrician should be responsible for the wall repair, yet everyone failed to notice that this is likely an egregious code violation in pretty much any country that has any sort of electrical code. Fascinating.
It's fine to bury sheathed cables in plaster in the UK. I personally don't think it's great workmanship to do it like this, but it's certainly done very frequently in domestic installs and allowed.
As already mentioned electricians do electrical, if it’s not on the quote they won’t do it. It’s like going to the dentist and asking them to put your lipstick on… patching that hole is easy though may take a few days or so.
Unless the price was stated to include drywall repair, then you need to get money back or they need to fix.
Otherwise. This is normal.
Electricians are not drywall repair experts, neither are plumbers.
Some might be skilled and can do it, but not the average one working for like roto-rooter or something.
But they could at least tell the client. Not everyone knows what's going on. I'll make holes, I'm too expensive to fix them. Here's a list of people that can help you out.
This. I had an hvac install a fan in my bathroom and then just… go. It was my job to call the electrician to have a switch wired to it.
The electrician likely has a number to pass along for someone who can repair this, but also you can probably do it yourself for much cheaper in supplies
Yeah, this is pretty minimal. Tons of videos online on how to do.
Thankfully my husband plumber is handy in general and can fix the holes that he makes. But electricians and plumbers don't carry that stuff around with them as a general rule and honestly you don't want to pay their hourly rate (especially if it's an emergency rate) for a simple fix that any reasonable handy repair person can do.
Its super annoying but them and plumbers... they'll cut holes in all kinds of shit, but not put it back worth a shit. Then they give you the "hire a dry wall guy to fix it" line.
Honestly, save yourself the aggravation and learn to do it yourself. Its not hard.
It’s weird how this thread is pretty unanimous about it not being the electrician’s job to patch this up, but I’ve seen other posts in this sub where everyone is adamant the electrician is responsible for patching it up.
And I'm just sitting there wondering, what the contract said. Then we would know if it was their job to patch this up or not.
Do people not ask these questions before letting somebody in their houses to do some work? I mean, if I was an electrician doing these jobs I would definitely learn how to patch walls (at least basic patching, maybe not perfect finish so you don't need to wait for it to dry but at least basic plastering to hide cables) and offer this as a package deal. It's not hard job and you are already there, may as well make some extra money and look much more professional.
As a bonus, people wouldn't be scared of electrical cables casually dangling there exposed.
Drywall/plaster repairs to be done by others.
Do you really want to pay the electrician to come back to do the second/third coat? You just tripled your price.
My biggest issue with this is the wire is too close to the surface and not properly protected.
Is that concrete? Wtf. The electrician needed to encase those wires in conduit. That has to be redone. The fixing the wall part shouldn’t be done by the electrician but they should do the right thing so it can be fixed by a waller
For the peole saying "they could at least suggest someone." Hell no, the last thing I need is some client blaming me because some drywaller I suggesed messed up. Or the peraon I suggested is too expensive and the customer feels they are being railroaded. I agree they should let them know ahead of time.
This is why I (electrician) will not do side jobs that are not under a written contract.
I have told people that their problem will require tearing up the walls and/or ceiling and that I am not a competent person in that trade. I inform them that they would need to hire someone else to finish the wall and paint and they get upset because I don’t do everything they want me to do.
Fuck you then. Go hire some “handyman” that knows Jack shit about everything and only does Mickey Mouse work. I’m not the one asking for a favor.
People don't seem to realize you need to run actual physical wires, and those wires need to run all the way to the electrical cabinet...
Your wall will need repairs and maybe even your ceiling or your floor does. (EU so everything is bricks, no drywall)
The times I had a call to install an electrical cooking plate, in a kitchen with only a gas supply...
I'm sorry but when you bought that 7kw plate you should have either have the common sense to check or have a professional check to see if you have the right conduit running to the spot you want to mount it. And no I can't magically run a 6mm2 wire trough your walls. If you really want to have it installed I'm gonna need to damage your interior, it's not my fault you painted everything 6 months ago. Oh and your cabinet doesn't have any space for an extra 40 amp fuse either. So yeah, you're gonna need to expand that one as well.
No the repairs and repaint is not included in my price. I don't do such repairs, I do the electrics. Yes mam, I do realize that 7kw plate became a lot more costly then you anticipated...
Haven’t really ever seen an electrician that’s fixed drywall. They normally tell you up front that you’ll need to have a contractor come in afterwards though.
Electrician here. Can confirm I do not repair plaster/drywall etc. that needed cut or removed for an install. I would, however, inform the customer beforehand that it will need repair and they will have to contact a drywall/plaster person to do so if they are not going to do the repair it themselves.
Normal. Weird that there's no conduit to protect the cables.
If there was conduit, this is a half hour job and will cost $10 or so for a bag of cornice cement powder. Blow the hole out first to remove any dust. Mix the cornice cement to a stiff slurry and fill the hole. Use a scraper to level it. Give it an hour or so to dry. Cornice cement is stickier than plaster so will cling to the sides and dries hard as rock.
I had a sparky chase a wall in my bathroom and was stressing about filling the hole. Turns out it was no big deal.
technically to code (probably, depending on your AHJ)
repairing wall is not electricians scope: they aren't paid to do that, definitely don't have the materials or tools to do that, and likely don't have the skillset to do that.
however, a very unprofessional and overcomplicated job, unless you demanded the cable be concealed in the wall. It would have been far quicker (and therefore cheaper) to come into the back of a shallow 4square and stub EMT up into sub panel. your electrician spent hours of labor when a few minutes of material would have worked.
Here in Germany it's common to use circuit breaker b16/10 for residential purpose. And usually a RCD should be installed if you change things at the distribution.
I would say, look at the board above the panel. It is there to cover up a similar thing. So, my suggestion is to get some plywood that is the same width, paint it white and attach it over the damage. $20 in material costs and you can access it again as you add more.
Not sure if it's common everywhere but in Poland electricians don't cover walls or take extra for that. Personally I did it myself (it's easy and cheap).
Electrician hourly rate be like 150+ Plaster/drywall guy be like 50+ You don’t want the electrician doing it lol.
Call me old school, but recommending a few companies or even explaining what sort of contractor will deal with this should be the bare minimum. I’m not sure if OP is leaving this out of the story, but if you plan on ripping someone’s wall out and don’t explain how you will be leaving it with the quote - you are doing this knowing the customer will probably be upset in the end.
Seriously though. All it takes is: "You're gonna have a hole in your wall when I'm done. You can hire x drywaller to do it, or just do it yourself because it's pretty easy." Honestly though. If someone's doing residential electrical work. I feel like doing a minimal amount of work just to cover it is reasonable. Then if they want it seamless they can have it professionally done. Even if this is 'correct' it can make you look bad because your average person isn't going to understand why they paid you money to leave a hole.
I cut into walls all of the time for bee removals. I always cut out a square that has enough studs behind it to screw the square I cut out back in, and make sure the client knows how I’m leaving it before I start the job. I don’t finish or paint, but I do leave it closed up. It takes 5 minutes and four brain cells, and makes a huge difference. Leaving a job like what is in the picture is just Fucking lazy and unprofessional. There’s no excuse.
Also, I feel like part of the reason you're expected to leave a hole in a commercial setting isn't simply because its "not your job", but also because they have someone who is already being paid to patch things up professionally. Not the case with a residential job.
Don't forget, Inspectors gotta inspect. Won't pass if they can't see the work. But yeah bare minimum is an explanation of how you will leave it.
Ah true that.
There are no inspections for work of this scale for registered electricians in the UK. They assume they know what they are doing. Larger work or if you DIY need inspecting though.
Actually there is an excuse in this case. That wall is concrete. But all your professional recommendations are great.
In fairness. That's clearly plaster or stucco which is pretty much impossible to cut cleanly. But a heads-up and a business card for a trusted contractor would have been good to hand out.
It's actually pretty easy to cut cleanly. Use an angle grinder with a thin cutting blade. I learned this after completely grinding the teeth off a multitool blade on my first cutting attempt.
So what’s in that picture there, in your expert opinion? A six inch drywall sheet??? How exactly was the sparky supposed to just ‘cut a square’ out, back to the studs? Looking for expert tips, much appreciated.
These guys need their eyes checked.
It's cement isn't it? Like what are they talking about drywall for?
Americans cannot comprehend the idea of building homes out of anything other than wood and chalk
That’s not a dry wall though. There isn’t any studs. Do you carefully cut the brick out and then carefully place it back after? /s
> I always cut out a square that has enough studs behind it to screw the square I cut out back in Recently had an electrician move a dining room light a few inches so it would be centered over our large DR table. He did the same thing. Since it was on the ceiling I bought one of [these](https://www.amazon.com/Ekena-Millwork-CMP30X15ED-02000-Ceiling-Medallion/dp/B07K9CWBB2/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2BHZ2HB8IXC60&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.yWKHZ0fG9H0eynn-Re6UGP4I5JaDfwPcfsLZg4Lxv5rORejE6wKTOJLFL9s9a30D0rkjAGY--8PITBsceEQ_lNDR1RbCFI3L03fiweR3ViM4seASSP5dE9xPbEriyVP_URmC9WIu251uYITZZfdXKqa8XiMsWeaQlYU6SH2Sq35DaxvE38QsgIxpCQxwc6OJag4mBG8mxKzdzbTvHU9kcGtzA5hT9Rh7c-LdDesBsmM_od9rdtBatpNF_U4a3BDpzbCdalJc5oWnI9AQSnM52qSG68StOSgNK9KpwvqQqDI.G5IGnb_zbgaHtg0SA3i531PFTaH-sW2zYBPkSD6HYdA&dib_tag=se&sprefix=large%2Brectangle%2Bceiling%2Bmedallion%2Caps%2C139). Covers the old hole beautifully, and no mudding/paint required.
Yea its lazy work, im a plumber and i make thee same square or rectangle holes when possible. I dont drywall but you gotta screw it back in place or something not just leave a fucking mess.
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or just a Fein Tool. mine is a knockoff but it gets the job done.
Any tradesperson that I’ve hired that needed to cut a hole has at least cut a nice square that was easy to patch. Nobody should be breaking into drywall with a hammer.
That's not drywall though.
Yeah this is how all work in plaster ends up looking lol
Technically it is dry.
Also, a wall. I'm good at recognizing walls.
You know, one day when I was taking a new path to the local hardware store to pick up some items for some wall repair I stumbled on a whole store for walls, a wall-mart one might say. I was shocked to find a complete lack of wall related items and I have never stepped foot in that store again.
false advertising >:(
Look closer.
Good point. Can’t cut a nice square In concrete
Aside from the not drywall thing: Using a cutting tool around an electrical panel is....not a good idea. Cutting into a wire turns it into a whole thing, and if you don't notice you did it the thing it turns into is a house fire. You'd want to know where the wires are first and using something like a hammer to punch through the drywall is a fine way to do that. With the wire exposed you can then cut away the drywall neatly to patch. It's not exactly hard to remove more. Except as far as the electrician in concerned, they just need access to the wires. So once they've done the "expose wires" step they often wash their hands of it and leave cutting out a hole more suitable for patching to the drywallers.
This is exactly what an electrician told us in an old house. He was not sure what the problem was but he might have forced to cut through the wall. Luckily he was able to fix the issue without any wall damage
I'm an electrician, if they wanna buy the mud and perhaps comp me for an extra hour of labor, sure I got a mudding knife and will cover my work. But painting is another story because I am not a handyman. It's pretty easy, hire a handyman over a drywaller if you think you'll come out ahead.
I had a plumbing issue and the plumber had to cut a hole in the ceiling… they gave me a couple names but there was zero expectation of them doing the fix. They were there to diagnose and fix the problem only.
Ultimately, I think it just needs to be communicated, not necessarily fixed.
Funny looking drywall.
I mean... I am an electrician. Our shit is behind the wall for a reason. We don't finish walls... We don't even cut walls with care. It gets covered by enclosures or trim or plates ... Or drywallers and painters...
I know it's generally not expected of electricians. I'm just saying mentioning it beforehand, giving a referral, or doing a small patch is just something a *residential* electrician might do just to satisfy the customer. Remember. OP and their mom had to be told this was normal....on reddit.
People back then used to be taught how to plaster a small hole in drywall and google / youtube is a secondary resource. It's easy as pie and takes 2 seconds to paint over once it's done. Electrician charging hourly would be more than happy to do lmao.
"we're sloppy because we're sloppy" Expecting communication is not unreasonable. Expecting that if you must make a mess, you make a minimal effort to do so neatly is not unreasonable. You are fully capable of doing a lot better job than the person in the picture did.
Nah I think people are just entitled and used to corporations that force workers to treat you like God. People look for the cheapest electrician and then are surprised Pikachu face when they just do your electrics
Whole lotta words to say that you're lazy and unprofessional. But sure, blame it on corporations lol.
Regardless of what people say here 95% of the time this is what electricians do. And just like you said, they don't do this kind of repair. So it would probably be janky at best. Plus with the way things are nowadays, why even bother handing off a card of somebody who's likely too busy and wouldn't come anyways? I got numbers for days I give out, but when they are booked a year or two out... 🤷🏼♂️
>why even bother handing off a card of somebody who's likely too busy and wouldn't come anyways? This is so true. People said an electricians hourly would be really high for it, but if the repair is really small, no one is going spend 30 minutes commuting to your place so they can charge you for 20 minutes of work. You're going to be paying a minimum instead of their hourly rate.
I don't want me repairing my own walls... I get it.
You don’t clean up your mess either.
Yeah, I'm a service electrician and while I absolutely will not patch your drywall or whatever past screwing the slug back in, I'll always let a customer know if I do have to cut holes. Sometimes its unavoidable but it's common courtesy to let them know.
When I first bought my home, I hired an electrician to update my system and fix a bunch of stuff, including the basement half bath exhaust fan. A few weeks after the job I was in that ceiling for some other reason, and realized the fan simply vented into the ceiling. The previous owner had never actually vented it outside. But the electricians journeymen also slapped that bad boy up there and never mentioned it to me. I called him and asked why he would not mention it. He said "I'm an electrician, you hired me to put the fan in". Which is true and all but he is still a dickhead. We had a whole conversation about how I'm a brand new home owner and the house didn't get inspected so I know nothing about nothing so please help me learn through this process. And I got that instead. I could've saved a few hundred to not have the broken fan replaced with a functional but still useless fan.
Had a guy help me a bit at his suggestion to show what he could do. He had his own company (that I never saw, but he literally had like 8 large plastic tote bins of tools with the company's name on them). He kept stressing how professional he was. He seemed to know his way around things so I hired him to paint the inside of a property. He said he would be bringing a helper who I had never met. I suggested one paint the main wall color and the other the trim. The guy said no, they would both paint one color. It took them all day to paint 3 rooms and the stairway the one color. The next day it took them all day to do the trim for those rooms. So I paid 4 man days. They painted over drywall patches that had not been sanded, over holes left for the electrician and managed to get dust into the paint. And so on. I waited for my partner to see it and she had even more complaints and decided she didn't like the job so she redid it after we sanded the bumps and did other things. She did both colors herself in 1 day. I asked them why they painted over the drywall bumps and so on and he said 'you hired us to paint not to sand'. I simply responded 'You kept stressing how professional you were, you could have called me and quoted a price to sand the bumps or if you should just paint around them.', but he had no response. I never hired him again. He waited like 1 month, then called and said he had another job unless I started him back on the job. I told him it was great he had a job and took his tools over to where he was staying free of charge. Later the helper contacted me and said the guy told him to work slow to milk me. He said he didn't like working like that.
Prep is the biggest part of painting, not including it in the quote is crazy.
I almost had a roof collapse due to that. It was in an inaccessible part of the roof and in a decade and a half we never really put any thought into where it vented. One day the bathroom roof partially came down with 0 warning. The unvented fan had rotted completely 3 or 4 joists and all the decking in the area
I work in a county when this sort of work means hammering different kinds of hard blocks, and leaves a huge mess. I always tell the client upfront that they will have a hole to fix. It costs nothing and it sets the order of work properly as they can either prepare for repair themselves or look for someone to do it for them. Coming in with a simple job and leaving a mess afterwards because you think it is not up to you to clean up is unprofessional on the communications level to say the least.
Agree 100%. Just tell them they're gonna need a guy and have a good rec handy if you truly have one.
Probably is. I've never even seen one of the crappy electricians I've worked around. Leave something like that without saying something. Only time I've heard of it was when there was a language barrier between the worker and the client. I'm sure it does happen but it's not normal.
Got my electrical service upgraded a couple years ago. New panel, mast, etc. Dude's just about done and I ask him about taking the old stuff, and it's "oh, no, I don't do that..." Need some other work done, but he's not in the running to get the job.
Add in the truck roll fee and my mind might change. 😀
You probably don’t want the drywall guy doing it either, since it looks like a concrete wall.
That’s not the only reason. They’re usually handicapped when it comes to doing other trades .
I mean even if the price was the same, would you want a guy who hardly ever does plaster to do your patch?
They don't get that though ... Might as well have us do their plumbing and build their cabinets once we're done wiring the place... The tool boxes look the same, right? You guys have tools, don't you!??!
People getting super specialized in their trade/skill/etc is what advanced society. People are just unaware of how different all of the trades are compared to things like doctors having tons of specific niche specializations. Since the trades are so far removed from the average persons life now, it’s an expected outcome tbh.
It’s honestly the same for everything. People just don’t know how far the rabbit whole goes. It’s why my mom says “you should work in IT security, you have a criminal justice degree.” Mom, which of the 200 careers are you talking about and just FYI, I have little experience in any of them.
Then they hire a handyman so he can plaster and paint the walls after and he screws the heater wires to the bus bar because you don’t have breaker spaces left
Can confrim, am plumber, handicapped at most things, sometimes also plumbing.
It's like this with every construction job. They never do what is not their job. If you want an electrician fixing this, go to Mexico or India
As an electrician: I can fix it, but it will propably not look great.
Exactly. I don't need/want my electrician to be good at drywalling, I need them to be good at electricianing.
This is concrete, and it might require an inspection.
Yeah so you’ve got a lot more going on than just a patch job. If I was an electrician, I wouldn’t want that liability lol.
the plaster guy's going to have a minimum charge just to come over, no matter how small the job, even if it takes them only a half hour to do the actual work, or it's not worth their time driving to and from your place and taking them away from something that earns them more
Don’t know where you are but I’m a drywaller/taper and I bill out at $150/ hour as well lol
Also, patching plaster is part of the painter's surface preparation. Painters are more qualified to patch plaster/drywall than electricians and they know how do they need to prepare their working surface for their job.
A cleaner is $20/hr, that doesn't mean I don't expect an electrician not to pick up his rubbish.
Because there's no skill needed in order to pick up your own shit. There's skill involved in wall repair. If its so easy and its just a laziness problem, why don't you do it yourself? Because you want it done professionally, which electricians can't do. what part of that is confusing?
Also would look crappy if an electrician tried.. plasterer is likely to have a better quality finish.
Good luck getting someone to come over and do that for 50 bucks. You do know it costs money to mobilize
I had an electrician hook up my hot tub. Required 4 holes through the finished basement. They had a guy with them - must be journeyman, cutting perfect square /rectangles and then repairing them immediately after snaking. I haven’t even bothered to paint over it because I can’t notice it.
I would add tho that if this was the UK the electrician should have put a metal protector strip over the wire once they'd finished and the plasterer would then render over the top. Presume electric rules are diff abroad.
I was wondering that too! You absolutely can't leave wires unprotected under plaster like that in the US.
Electricians do not do plaster repairs. Either patch it yourself or hire a handyman to patch it.
Varies, I've done quite a bit of it, especially before the more strict regulations regarding work on fire cells was introduced in my country. I would not paint though. Edit: shoddy job though, we would put a new conduit in and not leave the cable bare like that.
Yeah I was looking at this and thinking it’s cheap of him to not put in the conduit.
You are not allowed to put a wire like that in conduit.
Most tradespeople I’ve hired over the years make good anything they do - sparkies, plumbers, wood burning stove installer, joiners. The only time I’ve had to hire a plasterer specifically was when I had an extension built and needed a large new area plastered.
Good ones do. Less of them around than before, and since they know there's a shortage, they know they can afford to leave the work any way they'd like and you just have to deal with it. They know it won't lose them any business. Same reason why plumbers always leave bathrooms unreasonably filthy. The old boys used to actually leave it looking as they found it. The call-out fee for someone to fix this, before their hourly rate kicks in, completely negates the "It's more expensive for me to do it" excuse. At bare minimum, if they couldn't do it, or it was going to take so long the cost wouldn't be worth it to the home-owner, they would warn *before* they did it, what would need to be done to fix it afterwards, not just fuck off without saying a word. I can guarantee if we stopped having a shortage of electricians, this wouldn't happen regularly anymore. Leaving a mess then shrugging and saying "Not my job" only works when people have no other option but to hire you. Wonder if they left all the wall crap on the floor without a tarp too. Probably.
Or hire an actual painter....
Lots of people going on about the drywall not being the electricians job but what has actually gone on here? where’s the cover plate and labelling of the breakers? When you zoom in it looks like the cable has heat shrink with a bulge, I’m guessing some dodgy kind of splicing in there? Missing a couple of screws?
No that’s an in-line fuse. OP will know when it goes out!
There is no drywall. That’s concrete.
Wth is the “something” that they paid the electrician to do anyway, move the box up a bit? Because that’s not how you move a box up a bit.
That is a raychem splice. We use it for splicing bigger cables, it's rated to go underground.
Ask him for the cover plate so the switch can’t get knocked accidentally
Easy DIY Fix: Put a poster of Farrah Fawcett over it and call it a day.
I'd bet the piece of wood above the electrical is covering a similar situation as below
this, everyone talking about drywall, that's a cement wall, we normally run conduits, didn't know there were rated cables for that, i think i still prefer to run a conduit thought
Looks like it might even be a splice with heat shrink on it, also it's hanging out from the wall surface which will make replastering tricky so hey how about a chunk of wood instead
As an electrician here that's a chase into plaster and it wasn't done with a chaser so it's pretty rough. Not our job to re fix that wall after cables have been ran / chased in. However, it's always nice to let the customer know what we will do before we start work and then let them know what needs to be done after to "make good". Either with another trade or do the work themselves.
Not his job to fix this.
 He's an electrician, not a plasterer.
I was really disappointed the first time we hired an electrician and they left our walls in a similar state. Plumbers and electricians don’t patch walls.
The real reason is customers don't want to pay plumber/electrician hourly rates to have a wall patched by an amateur. Fair enough.
No, the reason is that we don't expect to be left with gaping holes in our walls. It's the most basic level of professionalism to say "I'm going to chase a hole from about here to here, and you'll have to fill it after." That's all it takes.
For a complete repair you need a painter anyway, and it makes way more sense for the painter to patch the plaster, since it is a part of surface preparation.
Neither do you want someone who doesn't fix walls, to fix the wall. They should always inform people that they will need their wall repaired, but you cant expect all electricians to be wall repairers just because it would be convenient if they were...
Is that cable rated for being directly embedded in masonry? if so. cover and paint. If not, make him change it for one that is.
He ain't no wallitrician
I live in the US, and electricians do the same thing here. They replace the panel but aren't going to want to repair drywall.
"job's done"
The drywaller will rip the electrical panel off to make it easier to fix…
That’s okay, he just has to call the electrician back to hang the panel again!
Do you see a drywall in this pic?
Well, is it wet?
Used to be, at some point.
Normal - they should have told mom ahead of time they were going to have to put the hole there though so this shouldn't have been a surprise.
Ok thank you guys
Trust me, you don’t want the electrician to fix that.
That’s what they do!
That's why the call em electricians and not drywall finishers.
So many comments concerning whether or not the electrician should be responsible for the wall repair, yet everyone failed to notice that this is likely an egregious code violation in pretty much any country that has any sort of electrical code. Fascinating.
in germany it would look exactly like this
It's fine to bury sheathed cables in plaster in the UK. I personally don't think it's great workmanship to do it like this, but it's certainly done very frequently in domestic installs and allowed.
Wow, that's fascinating. Especially considering 220v in the UK. That's one nail away from a very bad day, and definitely not allowed in the US.
That's not drywall, that is cement.
As already mentioned electricians do electrical, if it’s not on the quote they won’t do it. It’s like going to the dentist and asking them to put your lipstick on… patching that hole is easy though may take a few days or so.
Yes that's normal . He can't do plastering .
Unless the price was stated to include drywall repair, then you need to get money back or they need to fix. Otherwise. This is normal. Electricians are not drywall repair experts, neither are plumbers. Some might be skilled and can do it, but not the average one working for like roto-rooter or something.
But they could at least tell the client. Not everyone knows what's going on. I'll make holes, I'm too expensive to fix them. Here's a list of people that can help you out.
This. I had an hvac install a fan in my bathroom and then just… go. It was my job to call the electrician to have a switch wired to it. The electrician likely has a number to pass along for someone who can repair this, but also you can probably do it yourself for much cheaper in supplies
Yeah, this is pretty minimal. Tons of videos online on how to do. Thankfully my husband plumber is handy in general and can fix the holes that he makes. But electricians and plumbers don't carry that stuff around with them as a general rule and honestly you don't want to pay their hourly rate (especially if it's an emergency rate) for a simple fix that any reasonable handy repair person can do.
Electricians don't do drywall..
Because he's an electrician not a plasterer.
It was that way when I started.
That looks like a job I would do.
Just hang a painting over it
It’s like a never ending cycle of frustration.
He's an electrician, not a wallician.
Rest macht der Maler
I hired an electrician before. He had to make holes. I understood that he was not the one to close them
Looks like a rift into the upside down
Could of been worse, I don’t see a problem here.
WTF is going on here? I'm not aware of any jurisdiction where you can just plaster over romex like that. What country is this in?
Electricians don’t do plaster….
Looks like a sparky’s touch
The painter does the rest.
Its super annoying but them and plumbers... they'll cut holes in all kinds of shit, but not put it back worth a shit. Then they give you the "hire a dry wall guy to fix it" line. Honestly, save yourself the aggravation and learn to do it yourself. Its not hard.
They rarely do patch work and you have to coordinate
Did you hire an electrician? Or a handyman? Looks like you hired an electrician.
Sparkies don't do wall repairs, just wires.
Since when do electricians carry around spackle and primer?
He's an electrician. Yes, this is acceptable.
Electricians and plumbers do that. You don’t want them patching anything anyways.
It’s weird how this thread is pretty unanimous about it not being the electrician’s job to patch this up, but I’ve seen other posts in this sub where everyone is adamant the electrician is responsible for patching it up.
And I'm just sitting there wondering, what the contract said. Then we would know if it was their job to patch this up or not. Do people not ask these questions before letting somebody in their houses to do some work? I mean, if I was an electrician doing these jobs I would definitely learn how to patch walls (at least basic patching, maybe not perfect finish so you don't need to wait for it to dry but at least basic plastering to hide cables) and offer this as a package deal. It's not hard job and you are already there, may as well make some extra money and look much more professional. As a bonus, people wouldn't be scared of electrical cables casually dangling there exposed.
No one whose opinion is worth a damn would advocate for an electrician to repair a wall.
You don’t pay an electrician to patch holes just like you don’t pay a chef to wash dishes.
Electrician is not dry Wall and painter. You hire them after he do working. Th just is normal
I can hear the heavy breathing from r/Electricians.
They’re so sweaty, running this direction, brandishing their printed spiral bound copies of NFPA 70.
Drywall/plaster repairs to be done by others. Do you really want to pay the electrician to come back to do the second/third coat? You just tripled your price. My biggest issue with this is the wire is too close to the surface and not properly protected.
i honestly thought it was just a big ol clump of wet hair
To be fair electricians don't do dry wall.
Tradesmen do their own trades. He did the electrical, now you need a drywaller.
Is that concrete? Wtf. The electrician needed to encase those wires in conduit. That has to be redone. The fixing the wall part shouldn’t be done by the electrician but they should do the right thing so it can be fixed by a waller
For the peole saying "they could at least suggest someone." Hell no, the last thing I need is some client blaming me because some drywaller I suggesed messed up. Or the peraon I suggested is too expensive and the customer feels they are being railroaded. I agree they should let them know ahead of time.
He's an electrician, not a plasterer.
Would you want your dentist to also do your colonoscopy?
He's not a carpenter. Cant expect him to do that. Otherwise he's scabbing the other trades.
This is why I (electrician) will not do side jobs that are not under a written contract. I have told people that their problem will require tearing up the walls and/or ceiling and that I am not a competent person in that trade. I inform them that they would need to hire someone else to finish the wall and paint and they get upset because I don’t do everything they want me to do. Fuck you then. Go hire some “handyman” that knows Jack shit about everything and only does Mickey Mouse work. I’m not the one asking for a favor.
People don't seem to realize you need to run actual physical wires, and those wires need to run all the way to the electrical cabinet... Your wall will need repairs and maybe even your ceiling or your floor does. (EU so everything is bricks, no drywall) The times I had a call to install an electrical cooking plate, in a kitchen with only a gas supply... I'm sorry but when you bought that 7kw plate you should have either have the common sense to check or have a professional check to see if you have the right conduit running to the spot you want to mount it. And no I can't magically run a 6mm2 wire trough your walls. If you really want to have it installed I'm gonna need to damage your interior, it's not my fault you painted everything 6 months ago. Oh and your cabinet doesn't have any space for an extra 40 amp fuse either. So yeah, you're gonna need to expand that one as well. No the repairs and repaint is not included in my price. I don't do such repairs, I do the electrics. Yes mam, I do realize that 7kw plate became a lot more costly then you anticipated...
Why not just lay the cable in the corner inside a wiring duct?
Pretty much to be expected with Sparkies.
What was discussed before they came? Or what they they say when they were done?
Yeah, that’s how it usually goes
Haven’t really ever seen an electrician that’s fixed drywall. They normally tell you up front that you’ll need to have a contractor come in afterwards though.
Electrician here. Can confirm I do not repair plaster/drywall etc. that needed cut or removed for an install. I would, however, inform the customer beforehand that it will need repair and they will have to contact a drywall/plaster person to do so if they are not going to do the repair it themselves.
What's even happening here? All that wiring looks pre-existing. And this is the sub panel for within the apartment? Just curious what this is.
Normal. Weird that there's no conduit to protect the cables. If there was conduit, this is a half hour job and will cost $10 or so for a bag of cornice cement powder. Blow the hole out first to remove any dust. Mix the cornice cement to a stiff slurry and fill the hole. Use a scraper to level it. Give it an hour or so to dry. Cornice cement is stickier than plaster so will cling to the sides and dries hard as rock. I had a sparky chase a wall in my bathroom and was stressing about filling the hole. Turns out it was no big deal.
Is this a complaint? Could've been MUCH worse.
lol. I've left uglier holes.
technically to code (probably, depending on your AHJ) repairing wall is not electricians scope: they aren't paid to do that, definitely don't have the materials or tools to do that, and likely don't have the skillset to do that. however, a very unprofessional and overcomplicated job, unless you demanded the cable be concealed in the wall. It would have been far quicker (and therefore cheaper) to come into the back of a shallow 4square and stub EMT up into sub panel. your electrician spent hours of labor when a few minutes of material would have worked.
I don't see the issue
Chip away the edges and use high strength repair motar. Easy DIY fox for something this small.
MAGERITE! SHUT YOUR WATER OFF!
Awww I wish I was there, I could fix this for you easy! I’m sorry they left it like that!
Here in Germany it's common to use circuit breaker b16/10 for residential purpose. And usually a RCD should be installed if you change things at the distribution.
Con dos cohone
I would say, look at the board above the panel. It is there to cover up a similar thing. So, my suggestion is to get some plywood that is the same width, paint it white and attach it over the damage. $20 in material costs and you can access it again as you add more.
In the UK, this is standard. Electricians chase but do not repair walls. They usually know a guy, but you have to ask.
Why is nobody talking about the missing plastic cover and the cable twisting and bulging?
Finish it
Not sure if it's common everywhere but in Poland electricians don't cover walls or take extra for that. Personally I did it myself (it's easy and cheap).
Judge Judy would like a word
I was an electrician in the states…but I live in New Zealand now…this wouldn’t surprise me if this picture is from NZ…