Shoutout to the guy who showed me that splices are not the end of the world

I used to be the kind of installer who would replace a whole run of wire if I found a bad splice. Then last Thursday I was on a job in a warehouse in Columbus, and this old timer, Dave, saw me starting to pull new cable. He stopped me and said 'just fix the damn splice, it's faster.' He showed me how he uses a good butt connector and some heat shrink, and even wrapped it in a little piece of tape to keep it from rattling in the wall. I timed myself, and his method saved me about 45 minutes compared to fishing a new wire through finished drywall. I still don't love doing splices on alarm loops, but Dave convinced me they aren't gonna fail if you do them right. Has anyone else had an old pro change their mind about something you thought was a hard rule?

2 comments

2 Comments

mia_singh247d ago

Wait, is it actually fine to just fix a splice instead of replacing the whole run?

allen.cole6d ago

Right on, @mia_singh24, patching a splice is totally fine as long as it's done right. I've saved myself a ton of hassle doing the same thing before.