Adsibob Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 We had some very expensive joinery made. It went through umpteen design revisions before the final drawings were shown to the joinery company and they were asked to quote. Some of the cabinets have integrated lighting. The joinery company said they could router the channels for the LEDs but I would have to get my own electrician to install. I did. The electrician came to do the first fix, he explained to me which cables had to be fed through the joinery and I explained this to the joiners. When the joiners installed the joinery they forgot to feed two of the four push to break switches through a hole at the back of one of the cupboards. I complained to the joinery and was told “don’t worry, your electrician will have a way of fishing them out.” My electrician did fish them out, but in doing so he snapped the connectors/plugs. He said that this could be fixed by soldering the connectors back on. So he did, and now everything is more or less working… more or less because the LED strips activated by the bodge job connectors flicker a bit when they come on. When the cupboard door is open they are generally fine, it’s just doesn’t look as nice when the light comes on, as rather than a soft dim on, it flickers on rather unpredictably. It just pisses me off, that such an expensive bit of furniture has turned out this way because of a momentary lapse in concentration at the time the joinery was installed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 I am not convinced the issue is the soldered connections instead of a plug in connector. Before installing and connecting the strips I would have given them a dry run on their own to make sure the light they give and the startup characteristics are to your satisfaction before fitting them into the cabinet. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 Are we they not removable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adsibob Posted March 2 Author Share Posted March 2 57 minutes ago, Kelvin said: Are we they not removable? The way the joinery recommended they be installed, no they are not removable. Very strange. i didn’t query it at the time, but now i realise how stupid this is. The only way to change the push to break switches is to remove the whole wardrobe, which is quite a big job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyT Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 You haven’t had much luck with this refurb. clear delegation of work is always required when there is multi or disciplines installed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 I read the issue as lack of sufficiently talented people. He might be a brilliant joiner, but to design it such that to replace a switch you have to remove the whole think is just lousy design. I am sure you electrician could have designed the location of the switches better than that, but he is not a joiner and not making the cabinet. And this is the problem when you ask 2 different trades to contribute to one finished product. When there is a problem, they will each blame the other and you will get no satisfactory resolution. I know on this job your expectations and standards are high, there is nothing wrong with that, and sadly it seems they have been unable to meet those standards. The only way to determine if it is an installation problem (the "bodged" joint) or an equipment problem (either a dodgy switch or a dodgy LED strip) is by substitution. I bet nobody is offering to do that? In a perfect world you would have been able to get the cabinet, with lights fitted, supplied and installed by one person with a performance guarantee on the end result. And there is you lack of skilled people because nobody would offer that. I am in fact doing this with a neighbour. He has a brilliant German cabinet maker building the shelving unit and I am installing the lighting. We are of course testing the lights are up to expectation before installing them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 I'm retired now but when I was project managing electronics projects we had this sort of problem all the time. It was near impossible to find people that thought about other aspects of the job. Its true in a lot of industries, I'm sure garages curse and swear about car designers for not thinking about servicing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adsibob Posted March 2 Author Share Posted March 2 Yeah, it’s all really rather piss poor. There is actually a fairly straightforward solution, I think I can just add a small panel to conceal a new - ACCESSIBLE - channel for the switch wires. If the flickering continues to bug me, I will then be able to replace the switch quite easily. Oddly it’s now stopped flickering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Ambrose Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 I don't mean to sound unsympathetic but.... I think that if you use one or more trades on the same project and unless you have an overall designer and they manage and keep track and ensure all trades do what is designed .... then it is up to you to play that role. Anything else is asking for trouble. Sorry. It's a new kind of skill: + how am I going to maintain that after it's installed? + what happens if x or y breaks during installation? + in 10 years time will I be able to swap out that component when a higher tech version comes along? + what's the likeliest thing to go wrong here? + etc etc etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adsibob Posted March 2 Author Share Posted March 2 I did foresee this issue and raised it with the joinery at the time of agreeing the final design and I was told I was over worrying and that hafele electronics are designed to be threaded through channels, they’ve done this hundreds of times before and the channels they will drill into the cabinetry can have cables threaded through them. So I accepted their view, because I’ve done this zero times before. I guess it’s possible the sparky was a bit rough in his handling of the switch cable, but it wouldn’t be such a problem if I had stood my ground at the time the design was finalised instead of allowing myself to be persuaded by “the experts”. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe90 Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 Hindsight Is a wonderful thing, yes relying on trades to do what they say, in conjunction with others is fraught with danger. When I used to fit bathrooms I came across so many customers that had problems with tilers not talking with plumbers not talking to builders and jobs being bodged, I did all the trades which made it so much easier. 1 hour ago, Adsibob said: Oddly it’s now stopped flickering. Let’s hope it stays that way for you. 1 hour ago, ProDave said: We are of course testing the lights are up to expectation before installing them. A very wise move Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adsibob Posted March 2 Author Share Posted March 2 3 hours ago, joe90 said: 4 hours ago, ProDave said: We are of course testing the lights are up to expectation before installing them. A very wise move If you can get the staff. I’ve really struggled to get an electrician after the one we had on most of the build moved back to Poland. And getting a good joinery has also been mission impossible. So getting them both on site within reasonable times has been very tricky. The joinery is coming back for two days of snagging with this week. Let’s see what they say about making the lighting bits and bobs more accessible… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe90 Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 4 minutes ago, Adsibob said: If you can get the staff. I think that’s why so many of us “ do it yourself” 🙄 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marshian Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 2 minutes ago, joe90 said: I think that’s why so many of us “ do it yourself” 🙄 Agreed - it takes me a lot longer but I get what I want to the std I'm happy with And the next time I do something similar I do it even better having learnt from the previous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe90 Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 I have to say that the pinnacle of my life times doing DIY culminated in my build, I designed it (with tech help here), built it (with a main contractor to do the heavy stuff) and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Although I was not able to keep it the sense of achievement I got can never be taken from me. (I am now doing little DIY projects on my sons house). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceverge Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 (edited) 15 minutes ago, joe90 said: I have to say that the pinnacle of my life times doing DIY culminated in my build, I designed it (with tech help here), built it (with a main contractor to do the heavy stuff) and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Although I was not able to keep it the sense of achievement I got can never be taken from me. (I am now doing little DIY projects on my sons house). You had very good airtighess, well proven materials, plenty of insulation that relies on air (not gasses that migrate off into the ether) as the insulant. A sensible roof and with good overhangs. Assuming the occupants use the MVHR, keep the chutes clear and treat the windows properly it'll last forever. Much like a cathedral it will be there long after you're gone but unlike the master builders of yore at least you got to see it finished. Edited March 2 by Iceverge 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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