Friday Night Rant

Constantin

Absolutely right....

Fire sprinklers are not required for a single-occupancy residence of this size in MA. The state building code also stipulates that R3 type structures can stick to NFPA 13D if they want to have sprinkler systems installed. Our installer went as far as having a P.E. stamp his calcs, drawings, etc. before submitting it all to the local fire department for the permit.

We may abandon the system while the FD is still around. Furthermore, one could argue about the merits vs. the pitfalls of ticking off one important leg of the local bureaucracy. Yet, I don't need a tempest in a teakettle, I just want to move in finally and enjoy the place. It would be much more fun not to be distracted 100% by this kind of stuff and working on more fun projects like data acquisition!

Dean_7

amazing

Amazing what happens when you try to do something the right way. Went through something similar a couple of years ago. Finally had to cut our losses and abandon what we wanted to do. However if someone had put the system in all wrong probably no one would have said a word.

Weezbo

ANY time you do something Right ,

You are going to meet with opposition. it requires work and right thinking and right consideration, basically this is a negative world in which we live.

Brian (Tankless)

I am unemployed because

I did the right thing.

During routine predictive & preventative maint' procedures that the company didn't even have in place, (I schedule my own) I found an 800hp D.C. generator that was full of broken carbon brushes & oil; sucked in from a badly leaking EMD engine (cheaper to keep filling it with oil than fixing the leaks). My boss, the guy who hired me, was in the ER at the time, said "pull it, change it out with your spare" and tell the chief the "I told you to tell him that I said so". Did just that. Chief said "clean it out & put it back on line". This isn't possible in-place.

I said "I can't do this, it's wrong, but I'll do what's needed on the barge until you leave the dock for open water, then I'll leave". He (without authority) kicked me off the barge that afternoon (my office boss didn't back me up).

Later: the barge is DP (dynamically positioned & this gen' is critical) & lost a thruster via a bad generator, guess which one....vengance is mine, said the the former electrician :O)

So, instead of the cost/ease of swapping gen's in port, they had to eat a $180,000 gen' & interrupt a multi-million $ pipelay job. And you wonder why nat gas & oil cost so much.

Of course, my electricians log book didn't make it's way into the boardroom where the "causes" of the breakdown were discussed. The good ole boys covered the other good ole boy's asses, and I was booted..troublemaker!

I'm broke, but I sleep 7hr's of great sleep every night.

I don't do "quick fixes", I'm a pro like you guys. I don't allow things to come back & bite me in the rear.

It could be worse, I could still be working there:O)

Is there anywhere where we don't have to work with stupid, redneck, good ole boy, companies who are afraid of the truth? Blacklists exist, trust me. Many, many resumes out, no calls.

Enough! It's too late (emotionally) to do anything constructive today, so, I'll pop a Bud & finish building a doghouse for Butch (my yellow lab, who found me during Rita.

Later, B.

Constantin

That's nuts...

... and it makes my troubles seem pretty petty in comparison, Brian.

I hope you find work soon, and more importantly, with a employer that values your skills. It's crazy to think that with all the drilling and other heavy reconstruction work going on that there wouldn't be tons of employers screaming to get you onto their payrolls.

Brian (Tankless)

Thanks, Constantin

your words help.

A small drilling company called this morning, screaming for resume's from tech's qualified on the specific equipment they own (I am), faxed it to them. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I'm guessing they called my previous boss who didn't back me up.......no call-back.

I'll tow the line, to a point. But I will not sign-off on ANYTHING that's not safe, or is not in the best interests of the guys I work with, or the company.

The blah's will pass & all will be well.

Thanks again, Con.

Merry Christmas Fella's.

Glen

look north -

the B.C. and Alberta economy is going nuts and trades are in very short supply. The oil patch in particular - basic stuff required: a pulse, ability to pack your own lunch and a trade ticket - you could be working in Canada :-). (we sell bud here too!) Enjoy your time off - a fellow with your skills will be working soon.

Dave Yates (PAH)

big fish, little ponds!

We've seen nozzle-nutters gone haywire too. In building a 2-million parking deck, midway through the final stages, the FD Chief decided we needed an engineering study on the neighboring home's exterior wall to determine if it sufficed as a fire barrier. He refused to budge (ain't it funny how far they'll go to show they are in charge) when I pointed out the obvious - it's three courses of brick thick without a single door or window, of course it will be a fire barrier should a car catch fire on the upper deck.

No good. Common sense flew out the window the second he puffed up his chest and inflated his ego. Problem was, no certifications existed for bricks manufactured prior to 1900. I guess there's some possibility that an inert masonry product might degrade to a pojnt where it could spontaniously combust, but I'll be damned if that thought makes any sense. So, 5K later, we had the engineering study to prove bricks laid and cemented three courses thick will provide a one-hour fire rating. D'OH!

Too much authority with no one to reign them in. That's a bad combination that almost always attracts the wrong personality to the job.

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S Ebels

Sounds like

The fire inspector probably got half of the engineers fee kicked back to him. I've run across that scheme a time or two Usually a couple "buddies" in the right position come up with a plan that they implement during opportune moments such a the one you described.

Constantin

I don't think that's the problem here...

... no requests have been made to get something approved... nor have any companies been "suggested" we work with. The captain who signed off our paperwork is on vacation, so that doesn't help either.

Ever more Kafkaesque is the insistence of the Leutenant that he cannot do a smoke-detector inspection until the matter with the sprinkler system is resolved. That seems odd since a working sprinkler system isn't usually required to test smoke alarms for compliance, but what do I know. :-P

Naturally, we cannot even get a temporary/conditional CO or whatever it's called without the smoke inspection. Delicious.