Enbridge Guy

Started by Porcupinepuffer, July 30, 2015, 07:22:19 AM

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Porcupinepuffer

July 30, 2015, 07:22:19 AM
About a good month back, we had this new meter piping job with the whole furnace, a/c, water heater install with a removal of all the oil equipment. Twas a pretty nice job.
My boss then gets the dreaded call that the inspection failed because our piping passes up against the service riser of their supply pipe, (for the meter) and needs to be 1/2" minimum from it. Not an immediate hazard, but the a minor one with the limited number of days to fix it and send it in.
Being a townhouse in the middle, and the meter in the backyard (beside the neighbors fence), there was only one spot to weasel by with the piping. This involved going back and down around to the left side (near their riser) and back in to the house... Going by memory, I managed to do it with a good 1/2" of space between their riser. Not only that, but the spot where I clear it by a 1/2" of space is actually right where the bulge of the main shut off valve is located. So I'm actually more than 1/2" from the actual riser since I'm 1/2" or more from the main valve...
Oddly enough, I wasn't even aware of their requirements for this 1/2" space, I was just trying to keep a decent clearance from their riser out of common sense, and to avoid any BS of any weird clearances they may have that I don't know about.
My boss also tells me that  Enbridge had originally installed the incorrect regulator and they had to change it to a different one on this meter...
DING DING DING! So now the red flags start going off for how this meter got tagged.
We then head down to fix this mistake. My boss is overly thrilled about driving across town and working for free.
We get there, and right away we see the new set up with the regulator, and some other pre-regulator crap. I don't know the specifics of what they used, but we could clearly see new stuff completely changed and extras added in. The meter actually sat crooked from how we had it, and my pipe was now jammed tight up against the main valve. We saw the different type of paint that Enbridge uses and it was clearly obvious the changes that were made, and that it was not at all like we had left it.

Basically, the guy changed a bunch of things around, put it back together and realized that our pipe is now jammed up to the valve on the riser. So rather than change a couple of nipples, or simply front kick the meter to force our pipe back into the house to get the required clearances, this goofball just writes up a tag for OUR hack job on not maintaining the clearance to the riser. Pretty ignorant when it was him that changed it around and caused the loss of clearances!
My boss phoned them up and gave them a pile of crap and was supposed to get a call back about it. Surprisingly, they never called back about it.
To fix it, we only needed to loosen the nuts on the meter and simply slide our piping in the hole to get the required clearance. This would have took the Enbridge guy almost a minute of his time, but I guess it was too much work, and he was worried about possibly breaking a sweat that day.

TECH X

#1
July 30, 2015, 03:47:13 PM
Yes, I love how only Enbridge has access to these rules.  1/2" clearance to the service line, even though the gas pipe is bonded and lighting would not travel through the gas pipe to their service riser as they claim.  Or the wood under the gas meters, located in gas boxes, must be cedar and must be 2" or 1.5".  Noone knows as they keep changing the type and size of wood.  There's over 6 Enbridge bulletins regarding gas meters and nowhere do you find these requirements.

My biggest beef is when Aecon installs a gas meter inside a gas meter box but forgets to install the wood beneath it or does not leave enough play on the service line to be able to fit wood under the gas meter.  The Enbridge inspector fails the inspection because the wood is missing.  Then I go and tell the builder to call them back to fix their service line.  Then I have to make a 3rd trip to reconnect my supply pipe because they left it disconnected after raising the gas meter.  So I have to eat a $79.10 rejection fee and make three trips to connect one gas meter.  Enbridge blames it on Aecon.  As far as I'm concerned Enbridge hires Aecon, so they are one and the same.

:frustrated:

Attavior

#2
July 31, 2015, 03:52:23 AM
In my experience, pissing  off the inspector just causes more hassles on the next job, I also prefer to have a good working relationship with them.

And they get double time after 4pm, with a 2 hr minimum.  Loose spud/union easy fix @ that rate, lol

Porcupinepuffer

#3
July 31, 2015, 08:40:45 AM
We average 1 or more new meter jobs a week. All of them pass inspection since I started doing them, so I don't really have any qualms with Enbridge in general. And any Enbridge guys I've ran into on the job always seemed to have a good attitude. I feel I know the codes well enough that they would have to work pretty hard to find a reason to fail it.
Fortunately, all these new meter jobs are for older homes, and not these new meter construction jobs inside boxes with all the extra crap that Tech X has dealt with.
Another thing to mention, Enbridge also admitted to my boss that the technician they sent that day was on a power trip. I have no idea who he is, but we'll be taking pictures for now on.

I suppose it is nice that the fee is waived if it's not an immediate hazard when you send in the information showing you fixed the issue.

Admin

#4
July 31, 2015, 11:07:37 AM
Yes, I love the new warning tag system.  It saves everyone money :)

walker

#5
August 02, 2015, 06:44:49 PM
Quote from: Admin on July 31, 2015, 11:07:37 AM
Yes, I love the new warning tag system.  It saves everyone money :)

new warning tag system?? explain, did something change that I'm not aware of?

Ted Mosby

#7
August 27, 2015, 07:05:05 PM
I had them fail a piping job we did a couple of years ago. We installed an air conditioner at this house, while they were still on oil. Next summer, Enbridge installed a meter at the house. We questioned it at the time for being too close to the A/C, but they assured us it was fine. Job failed inspection for the meter being too close to the A/C disconnect. I emailed pictures from the previous year, along with a copy of the invoice with dates on it showing that the A/C was there when they installed the meter and we never heard from them again on that one. Customer said they came up and piped the reg away.
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