Wiring doors in cold weather

Move to Southern California. :-) js

I saw these really cool little shelters, for locksmiths I think, maybe somebody has a name, I can't recall, just saw a picture, perfect solution though

I suppose you could tape up some plastic over the door opening.

I don't know if you have ever seen a large refrigerated food processing business. Forklifts loading and unloading trucks, etc. They have plastic strips hanging down over the door openings to keep the cold air inside.

Maybe make a tent of a painter's tarp over your existing situation. Or pull the other way, if you can.

I close all the interior doors so the cold doesn't spread throughout the house. I also turn off the heat if possible till I'm done. I'll prop a box of wire against the door on the inside so it doesn't open more than an inch or 2 needed for the wire to enter the hole in the door frame.

Depending on how much room you need, stick a screwdriver in the door to keep it open enough. And then something else of the other side of the door to keep it from opening further (hammer, shoe, toolbox, etc.).

And when the box of wire is outside, try not to leave it sitting in a pile of snow. Soggy boxes don't tend to hold up well on future jobs.

Then after you have the wires pulled, get the contacts done before anything else so you can close the doors as soon as possible.

Hey G:

How cold are we talkin' here?? In Edmonton (where I got my start in the trade), we were doing pre-wires and retro's in -30 degrees (celsius). You don't know "cold" until you've had to put your boxes of wire next to a propane heater (on a pre-wire) for about 30 minutes just so it would be pliable enough to pull *out* ouf the box (otherwise the insulation would be so stiff it wouldn't uncoil). You learn to pull *from* the control *to* the point and you have to do it fast.

Not to get into a How cold WAS it? war but you reminded me of something that happened to me quite a number of years ago while doing a pre-wire in the winter.

I was pulling four wire through holes I'd drilled through the beams in a house. It was COLD. I had to pull about 30 or so feet so I threaded four of the quads through about 6 or 8 beams. I started to walk away from the boxes and they all came up off the floor. So I laid a a couple of 2X8's across the four boxes. I got at the other end of the wire, thew it over my shoulder and started pulling as I walked away. As I'm walking and not looking at the wire behind me, I hear this sort of sprinkling of something on the floor. I turned around and saw a bunch of multicolored chips on the floor. Same color as the wire. Looking up, I see that as the wire is dragging over the edge of the first hole, the jackets of the quads are cracking and the little pieces are falling away from the conductors as it drags through the holes. I don't know what the temperature was, but THAT's cold!

Subject: Re: Wiring doors in cold weather Newsgroup: alt.security.alarms => alarman Move to Southern California. :-)

I suppose that's an option :) Do installers ever make enough to afford the $1500/mo. rent for an efficiency apt?

Subject: Re: Wiring doors in cold weather Newsgroup: alt.security.alarms => mikey I saw these really cool little shelters, for locksmiths I think,

That would be neat, however the time to set that up on each door would probably be more trouble than it's worth. Thanks for the idea though.

Subject: Re: Wiring doors in cold weather Newsgroup: alt.security.alarms => Bill I suppose you could tape up some plastic over the door opening.

I suppose taping plastic would be a good idea if I planned on working on the door for a while. Thanks for the response.

Subject: Re: Wiring doors in cold weather Newsgroup: alt.security.alarms => Crash Gordon Maybe make a tent of a painter's tarp over your existing situation.

Yeah.

That would be hard to do in Texas, all the wires go up, not down. Thanks for the reply.

Subject: Re: Wiring doors in cold weather Newsgroup: alt.security.alarms => CondoMaximum I close all the interior doors so the cold doesn't spread throughout the

That's a good idea. The whole point is to show the customer that you care about letting all their heat out. That's a good tip, adds professionalism.

That's all I could think of too. Thanks for the reply.

Subject: Re: Wiring doors in cold weather Newsgroup: alt.security.alarms => shady Depending on how much room you need, stick a screwdriver in the door to keep

Yup.

Rarely snows here in TX, but when it gets below 40 degrees you 'ld think the second ice-age has arrived based on the cx's comments!

Great idea. Thanks.

Subject: Re: Wiring doors in cold weather Newsgroup: alt.security.alarms => Frank Olson

Not even in the freezin' range! But understand this: anything below 50 F , is cold here! ;-0

I did some pre-wiring in the Northeast one year, I know what you mean about the wire getting so stiff you cant even get it out of the box. I despise frigid weather, so I guess I'll take Jack up on his offer to move in w/ him!

Pulling from the control to the door is not much of an option, it is "do-able" I suppose but since the wire goes into the attic instead of the basement it would be a royal pain in the ass..

Sure. All of the installers that work here also live here. js

Ok, but you'll have to learn to talk right. js

They do here too.

I use glow sticks, push them up into the hole, put a piece of duct tape to keep it falling out, close the door, up in attic just attach the wires, come back down open door, rip off tape, glow rod falls out and poke ya in da eye. You can do it with cut up fish tapes as well.

It gets cold in Texas?

Cold is a relative term

It gets down to maybe 30 and snows 1 or 2 days. To many here that doesn't sound very cold however when you are cooked at 100+ almost every day from June to early Sept that 30 degrees feels damn cold. And this is from someone who came from Indiana :)