Ranch Demo: Time to Gut Out Some Horrible Old Electrical Work

As electricians, we are in the business of building things. I think that is a given! But not all the projects we are tasked with building lead straight into the “building” phase. Many times, we are required to remove a building or parts of a building before putting the new one in its place. In todays episode of Electrician U, Dustin shows us a bit about the “Demo” phase of a project!

🤘⚡️MEMBERSHIP⚡️🤘
JOIN ELECTRICIAN U - become a member and get:
FREE Continuing Education every year
FREE Practice Exams
FREE Monthly Video Courses
FREE Weekly Live Instructor-Led Classes
FREE Monthly Educational Newsletter
Premium Members-Only Content
Private Discord Channel
Monthly Members-Only Discord Chats
Sign up here --- https://www.electricianu.com/electrician-u-membership/

😀🔨SPONSOR: KLEIN TOOLS🔨😀
https://www.kleintools.com/

🎧🎹MUSIC AND VIDEO:🎹🎧
https://www.facebook.com/descantmv

🎬✍️ART AND ILLUSTRATION:✍️🎬
https://www.daverussoart.com

There are many sizes and scopes to a demo portion of the project. It can range from just removing/replacing the fixtures, to removing several walls, to tearing down a complete structure before building a new one in its place. Sometimes, the demo project will grow in size depending on what we find as we start tearing things apart! As a general rule, know what your trades individual scope is, and the overall vision of the demo project before you just randomly go to tearing into something! You don’t want to remove something that the overall person in charge wanted to stay, and we certainly do NOT want to make any situation less safe than need be!!
One of the things that a demo project does allow us to do is see directly into the past! Well, sort of! Codes and standards change over time; they don’t remain the same forever. A demo project allows us to go back to the codes/standards of a particular moment in time! So, it can be rewarding to see how the previous generations of electricians performed their craft. Seeing how someone else performed the same task as we do, can show us different ways of accomplishing the same thing that we maybe did not think of! It can also allow us to see how we can perform BETTER. For example, in the video, Dustin did find some wire joints that were NOT twisted together in the house he was demoing. Most of us know that our wire joints should be twisted together properly so they don’t peel apart when the wire connector is removed.
A demo project can also let us see different ways a project can be built. Throughout much of the country, projects are built on concrete slabs. But you may run into a project that is built on pier and beam (where the floor is built up off the ground on beams that are set on concrete piers in lieu of on an entire slab of concrete), and this may be something that you wouldn’t normally get to see in your travels! So, it can give us some exposure to different areas of construction where we can learn and grow in our crafts. Perhaps we can see the framing process as its happening or the plumbing as its going in, all of which is more knowledge for us!
As electricians, one thing we need to put some though into on a demo project is temporary power. If no provisions for an alternative temporary power source are made, at some point, we will be removing the available power, and no one will be able to plug anything in to do their work! As shown in the video, Klein Tools does make an awesome temporary power source called the KTB500. This is in essence a large battery capable of providing power to items. It can provide power to things on the low voltage (such as something plugged in with a USB cable) or it can also provide power to our 120v items (such as a radio or cordless tool battery chargers) so it is very versatile and an awesome compliment to an electrician’s tool kit!
We hope this has been an informative look into the demo phase of a project and allowed you to see into a portion of a project that you may not have been exposed to! Is there a topic you would like to see a video made on? Leave a comment in the section below and let us know! Please continue to follow Electrician U and Dustin as we are constantly adding new content to assist our followers in their careers!