Spent 45 minutes on a drop ceiling cable run that should've been 15 - what's your worst time sink?

I had to fish a coax line through a drop ceiling with old grid wires everywhere, and the tile clips kept popping off every time I moved a panel. How long did a "quick" job take you before you realized you needed to switch up your approach?

2 comments

2 Comments

anthony1274d ago

Honestly, I feel like you're making this sound way worse than it really is. 45 minutes on a drop ceiling cable run is barely a blip on the radar. I've seen guys spend an entire afternoon trying to reroute one line through a mess of old plumbing and electrical. Your tile clips popping off is annoying, sure, but just grab a better set of pliers or a different type of clip and move on. Maybe switch from trying to wiggle the panels to actually taking a few out completely, it saves time in the long run. Ngl sometimes we just gotta accept that a "quick" job is never quick and plan for twice the time.

the_seth4d agoTop Commenter

HAHA you're not wrong about that! Actually had a buddy tell me about this ONE cable run he did in an old school building. The drop ceiling had been patched like a dozen times with different sized tiles and random pieces of sheet metal. He spent THREE hours fighting with just ONE section because the clips kept breaking and the tiles were all warped. What really got me was when he finally got the tiles out and found a whole nest of old romex wrapped around the grid wires that someone had just left in place. So yeah, 45 minutes sounds like a DREAM compared to that nightmare. Some jobs just REFUSE to cooperate no matter what you do.