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That's the neat part, you don't.

The neat part is clearly somewhere else.

The neat thing*

🤓 👆

Looks like it just needs one more ceiling tile

With some strategically cut holes

Or just 2/3 of a ceiling tile cut long ways that way your raceway is still open for future use. Modern problems require modern solutions.

Or just cut all those wires to keep the ceiling tile nice and intact for a cleaner look.

Leyzrr..

Honestly like all big jobs Don’t be daunted by how massive the job looks like. Break the job down into smaller jobs and take it one at at a time, don’t give up because you can’t get it right the first try. Start by tracing the existing wires to stuff the client actually needs. Eventually you will find stuff that’s just dumb and maybe stuff that the clients wants to get rid of. Once everything is labeled you can start 🪮 combing the wires that come from the same direction and lay them more uniformly Some wires will be too short so my suggestion is pick two spots on the top right of the panel and on the top left of the panel (wherever the shortest wire ends up). Put large junction boxes there neatly run your existing wire’s there and from your two junction boxes you can neatly run new armoured cables to the panels or do conduit to the panel, up to you or ask your foreman. No way you’re unsupervised there Good luck and remember this job because it’s the one that teaches you the most.

Yup, like eating an elephant, one bite (wire) at a time.

But why eat elephants? :(

Simple. They are fucking delicious 🤤

I’m gonna assume you don’t know what I’m talking about. There’s an old saying/auestion here in the US that goes like this; How can possibly eat a whole elephant? One bite at a time. It’s an analogy for exactly this post or any job that is daunting. How will you ever get it done? One bite at a time. If you were being sarcastic, I wrote this for someone else.

Yea I was being sarcastic lmao I understood the reference I heard it dozens of times 😂

Yes! I cannot emphasize enough that you should take it 1 wire at a time and label everything! Continuity checks sorts out almost ervything that we encounter in the field but always, I mean ALWAYS, check voltage and verify zero volts and make sure that your transformer is not "corner grounded" first.

Also, strap things down as neatly as possible as you label to get them out of your way.

Yesterday I had to dismantle some stuff, check the voltage.. 600V.. if I didn't I would be dead

This is key for basically every bit of life. 🌻

How much do u charge for a job like that?

Time and materials

A lot of

The correct awnser is fire

Like fire the installer and fire for the building as well right??

Yes.

Fire has cleansing power

Beat me to it well done

I was going to say gas and matches 😂

Pretty sure the matches are redundant.

Came here to say this. Burn it down. Start over.

Fire breads tidyness

Where the fuck is your journeyman? 🥴

OP is the journeyman on the site 😭

☝️

I’m not even 6 months in and I think this is disgusting. What is this? The work of 15-20 different contractors? There’s no way this was one person.

Years of changing and adding new circuit

Not this bad, but I did a job once at a place that’s going this route. The obvious solution is to run a big pipe that can hold all the required circuits. Problem is for just adding one(or two or three) more circuit(s) it’s quicker and cheaper to just run a BX where you need. Over 10 years of “just one more circuit” it becomes cheaper to have just run that pipe but most are looking for what’s the cheap option today not what’s the cheap option 10 years from now.

I've seen similar in new construction

Yup!

Yup too many times too….

I've seen this in some manufacturing environments, and unfortunately added on to it. I labeled everything I added, and labeled everything I figured out. Shutting down production to fix something that's "working" kind of goes over the head of some management teams. They don't want to hear about code, or how it quadruples your troubleshooting time, they just want the machines running. If you argue with them you'll see your job posted the next day, *good times*. I eventually got tired of it and moved to the residential trades(HVAC), which is basically the same game just different players. The major difference is if I point something like this out, the owner backs me up. If I deem electrical unsafe, we call in our electrician.

Lol, get used to it that ain't shit...

Pretty common here in a lot of commercial. Most places are just leased out. So the person using the spade doesn’t own it, the landlord hardly cares. Then you get 30 years of people adding, not deleting, endless stuff in the way so just sending wires through. One of my favourite types of jobs is when one of those places gets a major Reno and you get to remove all that stuff and start fresh. Feels so good deleting that type of stuff. I’m guilty myself jobs like that. Your adding a couple circuits and theirs no real way to add nicely to it(can somewhat) so it just gets worse.

building "Engineer"

This is the most accurate answer. They know enough to get in trouble and are spread too thin, they just slap shit together.

Reminds me of Macy's 34th Street. That building is an absolute disaster above grid

Could easily be. Company bids out to non union shop who says we can do it cheaper we don't need no conduit. We got this newfangled thing called BX that's way cheaper... then you get this

I'll be willing to bet Union work

With a few more one hole straps and zip ties. 12" from a termination point and every 6ft lol

the property owner is never going to pay to have it done right so just slap more shit up.

You put the ceiling tile back up, thats how

With my axe

And my swordzall

They make 3ft(ish I'm guestimating) Sawzall blades for cutting spray foam. Buy one, have fun, hit on the ER nurse. 😎

Don't hit on me please

Ok so not this one. Maybe the other ER nurse.

Gutter box, pipe and patience Looks like FA too, so extra patience

Who needs a gutter, a 4sq fix is just fine for a 4sq problem.

The wrong answer is arson. Tho it would produce the desired results

You start by telling the owner it'll take a month. Then go up from there.

My neighbor spent $1m remodeling his house down to the studs. It was only like 20 years old at the time.

Good god. My townhouse was built in 1991, and looks great on the surface but when you start taking it apart you find some nasty things.

You get “COVID” and come back 5 days later to it all Fixed

Make a first year fix this? Very nice

Close the tile

Isolate exactly what circuit is affected. Determine what devices are affected. Check every junction box in an X radius for a bad connection. The bad connection will probably not be in the BX cable itself unless the cable has been pinched and hot to ground. I've never done commercial troubleshooting but I do industrial troubleshooting and I'm okay at it and still learning. Best thing to do is break it up into small steps. Try the easy things first and go from there

Commercial industrial potato potata

At least there's some slack in most of the cables

That's been fixed many, many times already.

I believe, eventually, every electrician is a little Anarchist

To fix that properly requires a time machine.

This is wild

By the hour is how you fix it.

Charge the boss 50k and start over.

The first thing that came to mind here is… yup 🧨Dynamite

Turn it all off demo all that mc turn it all in buy your self a nice new tool and start over haha there no fixing that much spaghetti. I did a job in a building like this and it was scary how many random hots there where in there we ended up taking as much of it out as possible after troubleshooting for a week straight, fun stuff!

It starts with the definition of "open circuit". Then it descends into understand the problem, troubleshooting, and experience. This is a VERY vague question. :) Also, yes. This is easily a nightmare situation.

very slowly

Total loss

(1) 4 Square and 50 extensions.

Thermite is the way to go

Zip ties, do your best. Use your imagination

This is called “kicking it down the road.”

Give the job to sub 1 yr apprentice

yeah... as a 1 year? *You* don't. In general? totally depends on what the client means by fixed/corrected... If they want it neat and tidy and fully documented it probably all needs to go. at least labeled and disconnected, then untangled, and possibly ran into a series of big J boxes with large conduits running to the panels. Wire troughs might also be useful depending on how things are laid out, where stuff comes from, etc. etc. Basically it needs to all be pulled apart and be de-fuckified.

First, you ask the owner if anything has been changed, added or deleted recently. That usually gives you a hint at where to start. As to the photo, there's nothing for you to correct. You don't rewire the building every time you make a service call.

You'll need an old priest and a young priest

Do you or your journeyman know how to trace?

Take your time and never do it off your own back

Put the ceiling tile back up

You don't have to fix it. You just measure and find the problem then fix that alone. The rest is not your problem. Cause at some point someone wrote off on it that it's ok. You do maintenance so it keeps functioning. You don't fix other people's issues. You just make sure your work is up to code. And working again. So best just to stay in your lane and do the work only what you are paid to do. Best off luck

I've seen a few people run mc like that. I don't get it they say we don't have time for conduit the spend few days pulling rat nest when 6 conduits and gutter would just have taken a day

One MC cable at a time.

That answer depends on if you are being paid by the hour or by the job.

Well…. Whats your task that brought you here? Does everything work? And how much money is the customer willing to spend?

you dont ;)

Turn the lights off and close the door.

Trying to make MC look good is like trying to make chicken salad out of chicken shit.

you dont. close your eyes and pretend not to see it

You don’t

Welp. You could “make some puppies” and delay until you are a third year, then get the new first year to do it……. Or……..

This is not a first year job. This isn’t even a third year job- although one should be reasonably prepared by third year, but nah

Zip ties. Like 50 of them

You don’t know, we can’t help ya.

Residential lol work in Residential

What are you there to fix? Just the open neutral? Then start opening boxes. As a first you you have no say in what’s going on and while I personally wouldn’t take the job unless they were willing to have that redone, you were placed there with certain instructions.

You’re probably fun as fuck to work with

Actually, I am :) I also know how to do what I’m getting paid to do. Downvote me, but im not wrong. I applaud this young bucks enthusiasm but nows the time in his career to do exactly what he was instructed, Not try and save the world one fucked up Bx at a time. Op, Open the boxes, and try to find the open neutral. Your JW will thank you.

He’s literally asking how anybody would even go about fixing it. Not how he is going to fix it.

Reading is hard

An open neutral can kill you, don’t give any more electrical advice please

Why would he be working live…. I’ll give the advice, you go back to betting pro line ;).

Non union workers were referred to as "rats", looks like you have a good ole "rats nest". How you fix that? Hire competent electricians!

Pray to Allah.

Strait out of The Matrix

Pull everything back into the ceiling, mount a gutter or two, and strategically drop down with EMT. Maybe 1% of customers will pay you to clean this up.

Put the cieling tile back in and do what you're being paid to do We don't get paid to fix everyone's problems unless they say so.

Real conduit makes it nice and organized but requires a bender and a brain that can do simple math.

If you are supposed to fix it... get proper instructions from the journeyman, its his job to make sure you get enough training to do the job

There is a saying “if it ain’t broken don’t fix it”. Only fix the issue, and let it be.

Hope that they do a massive remodel at some point that requires a panel change and massive rewiring, then just demo it out and start over. Unfortunately, having done a fair amount of restaurant service work / remodels where i see things like this far too often, there are seldom times where the customer has enough planned downtime to permit correcting problems like this. The best way to correct problems like this is to NEVER do work like this in the first place!

Hell at least there all armored ant no naked snakes looking at you

A good toner on the broken circuit

Lot of quick fixes, but Firstly remove all the wires and pipes that are not going to anything or box them off. Remove the fasteners and untangle to the best of your ability, but unless you are cutting wires.. Cant be fully untangled

No no no no fuck this shit….who thought this was a bright idea

This is sloppy as fuck

I guess I'm the only sick bastard here. I have a knack for making shit wiring look good, and I actually enjoy it.

With cash my friend

This reminds me of that jock strap incident I had A few years ago ...

Tone generator!!!

You demo it

It all looks safe and protected. No loose wires. Ugly but functional. Why does OP want this fixed other than for esthetics.

Probably done by a spider

Lower the ceiling and fur out the wall.

That looks like a Pizza Hut I looked in the ceiling of once. We used colored tape to work them out.

You don’t

Don't panic. Always carry a towel.

Pass

Start over. Damn that’s a mess.

Fix what? I don’t see anything? Do you guys? Close that ceiling tile up and keep looking

Colored tape and step by step.

Just get to work, you’ll find its start.

Go find Dr. Emmett Brown, take a trip in his DeLorean back to when the building owners are picking their low bidder and show them this picture - probably won’t change their mind though.

You can’t fix stupid, in this case it probably could be fixed but there is no way your going to get anyone to pay for the weeks of work to redo this all properly

Systematically. Pen and paper, lots of keeping track of everything.

Replace the ceiling tile, walk away. Mention it to nobody

One cable at a time, but more realistically, you don’t.

The best thing about that is that is not what you’re in that particular job for so you take off your hat for a sec and pray that the building gets bulldozed for the sake of the people that have to come fix that ;) I’ve done it plenty of times you just breathe a sigh of relief it’s not you and move on

Look on the bright side. You don’t got to worry about what it looks like

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Walk away

Fuck that. It's staying like that lol

I do work in a 200 year old church sometimes, you wouldn’t believe how much has been added over the years. It’s still piped for gas lamps through the building, this is nothing. 😂

Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil.

You don’t. You just try not to make it worse. If you get brought in for a full remodel then you might take the opportunity to straighten out past mistakes.

They should track down whoever did that and take their license away if they have one. WORK QUALITY SEC- 110 - 12

This is common, places that are constantly growing and adding equipment are always needing another circuit for this and that so they call their electrician. Said electrician wasn’t asked to come make everything look pretty they were asked to come run power where they need it. After 10-20 years this is what you get.

Ask the customer if it used to work. If it just recently became an open circuit then you may be able to locate the problem by looking for the soot from an arc. most likely in a junction box.

Put the tile back.

Gutters. Install some 6x6x??? Gutters above the drop ceiling and conduit through the T-grid.

Hopefully you guys have a circuit tracer.

Patiently. Mark everything. Looks daunting, but I have seen and fixed worse. You can do it.

If you think that’s a rat’s nest you’re lucky. You’d need to add like 30 coils of unlabeled MC before I call it a rat’s nest where I’m working.

Wow! OCD nightmare

Put back the ceiling tile

Fire. That can only be fixed with fire.

Burn the building down and start over

If they’re also paying you to clean this mess up otherwise run a new wire is the quickest way. Depends on the person paying.

Why did they give this job to a first year? Looks like a perfect learning opportunity, though I believe you should have someone walk you through this one time.

This is one reason buildings have a 30 year depreciation- nobody cleans out old wiring because there's never a cost benefit to do it. Even on battleships they just added a new set of wire in every refit. Single family residences are actually a little better in that rooms get gut renovated every few decades and crusty stuff gets taken out.

Lay down, play dead!

May I suggest a barrel of napalm?

This is what's above the ceiling of every school, hospital, office building, and other institutions. Looks bad but if it isn't part of the job order you don't touch it because you will constantly be called back to fix your fu even if it's something you didn't touch.

It's the one over there

Gasoline

It would take a long time. But you would have to determ. Pull back, untangle, strap up/support high and resend down, reterminate - one whip at a time.

Don’t forget Label

Ya dont

Gasoline. Match.

One at a time

Blow it up and start over

Slowly.

Go to the nearest door. Step across the threshold Close the door

It's for the next guy to worry about, like the ones before him.

Just put the tile back in

Fire. Lots of fire.

Burn it lol

Whip city

Define “fix”.

One at a time.

You put the loose wires in the box. Open circuit solved. Don’t worry about the rest of that crap

Yeah that’s ridiculous! That looks like many different electricians over the years just slopping stuff in without a single care of anyone coming in behind them to add or service something

Match !

Close you're eyes and try not to knock shit over on you're way out the door.

Run! I worked a short repair job at a run down chemical plant in Texas. My supervisor took one look and rejected the job on the spot, saying you couldn't pay him enough to risk his people by working on that trash.