one of the nursing homes I visited had a can of pledge and a yellow duster in the fire extinguisher box (nothing else) while one in London just had bare wires in the fire alarm call point.
I went to inspect a fire alarm in Ilford, a nice couple had only recently taken over the hotel , various idle bastards on our firm had fiddled with the fire alarm trying to get the kit in the extension to work, even installing a top of the range control panel
still not working, so muggsy here get called, out with the testmeter, no voltage across the smoke detector terminals ??
thinking that the cable had been chopped some place, i kept going , idle bastard had fitted the End of line diodes in the panel
eventually getting tired, I unscrew a base and lifted it down to work out the possible cable route, 2 feet of cable in and out cut off
and the next one
and the next one
removed the bell
same thing
got hold of the owner and showed him, he was a little bit pissed that idle bastard had not even done the basic check ( typical with that one)
turned out the only part working was the pair of callpoints in the old building, big round metal things, and two bells and a heat detector!!!
spoke to the boss, he spoke to the brigade, they were very helpful, and we agreed a plan
Monday morning I was back with a helper to wire the extension, and replace all of the old wiring in the main building
At a substantial discount, think the client only paid for the parts and fed us and provided a room
if idle bastard had done the basic check 3 months before, the client would have happily paid for a complete new system, as the sodding place was closed for 3 months for decorating and carpets
Turned out that the git selling it had raided the skips in the high street when the office block was refurbished, we even traced the old detectors through the manufacture and supplier
Was does auger me is when I visit some one with a similiar problem, and test the system and show them, invariably I get the reply how did that happen ??
I have yet to arrive at a smart answer that is both polite and informative