Found a nest of wires that had been sitting wrong for 6 years in a Chicago condo

Went to swap out an old DSC panel in a building from 2018 and behind the drywall was a tangle of cat5 and 22/4 that looked like a bird did it. How many of you actually label every wire from day one or just figure it out as you go?

3 comments

3 Comments

willow73222d ago

Yeah, the "labels facing inward against the back of the box" thing hit me hard. I had a similar mess in a remodel where someone used those stick-on flags and they all got caked in drywall dust and fell off before I even got the panel mounted. Had to tone out every single pair with my probe, took me half a day for what should have been a two hour swap. The heat-shrink labels sound like a lifesaver, I usually just write on the jacket with a sharpie but that stuff fades too eventually.

the_val20d ago

Still finding Sharpie dust in my toolbag from the last time I tried that shortcut.

alex_coleman22d ago

Labels are great until you're in a pinch and the drywall is open for a week. What people don't talk about is how the drywallers or painters often just shove everything back in after they finish, then the labels get torn or wrapped around a stud. Had a job once where every single wire was labeled but the labels ended up facing inward against the back of the box. Had to pull every one out and re-label them anyway. Real trick is using a label maker with heat-shrink tubing, not the stick-on flags that fall off after a season.