Worst Fire Alarm Water Flow Installation Ever

Last week we were preparing to finish up a simple fire alarm system for a two story apartment style building with 20 units.  We chose to utilize the BOSCH FPD-7024 addressable fire alarm control panel and System Sensor notification devices.  The site also consisted of a passenger elevator which was proposed as non-operable.  This raised the question with LA County Fire Prevention that I mentioned in an earlier post titled, "Fire Alarm Elevator Recall is Required".  This is where we found out that elevators traveling more than 25 feet will need to be connected to the building fire alarm system with proper elevator recall functions whether the elevator is operable or not.

Now my onsite technician had the system ready to go for our final inspection with the exception of one item.  The sprinkler water flow switch was outdated and only employed one knockout and switch.  Therefore, we could not connect our wires since the electrician had already used the available contacts for his sprinkler bell switch leg.  At this point we informed the general contractor of the issue and awaited the installation of a new Potter water flow switch by the sprinkler contractor.  Once the water flow device was installed we connected our wires from the BOSCH D7052 addressable dual monitor module and left the cover off for the electrician.

The next morning, day of inspection, we needed to test the newly installed water flow switch with the sprinkler bell connected and setup our central station monitoring account.  Simple enough right?  Well in a way yes, in reality apparently not.  While we were setting up the BOSCH FPD-7024 for reporting the electrician was hard at work to connect his switch leg.  And about an hour before the inspector showed up this is what we found. 

The electrical contractor had drilled out and installed his MC cable directly into the water flow switch cover.  WOW!!!  I am blown away with some of the half ass installations I see out there but this is just plain stupid.  You can see the available knockout in the picture, so why make your own.  Not to mention the difficulty in connecting the wires to the switch while the cover is in your way.  On top of that, he had broken the diaphragm on the water flow switch when he attempted to shove the wires under the cover.  So you guessed it, we failed out inspection because someone lacked experience or in this case common sense.