Required to be UL shop

[sign_girl]

How many feeling that the whole 'be a UL shop' is a scam. I do!! The signs we get from out of state companies to install are a joke - many a fire hazard. Many we have to alter to bring to code. Many, many signs here in Oakland County that we service (signs built by others) are hazards. Some seem to be built with foil and duct tape. Inspectors are sometimes too lazy to truly inspect a sign and they surely are mistaken to think that a sign with a UL sticker is built properly, safely and to code.

[StephanieVegas]

We have heaps of examples of sign companies large and small cutting corners - so many with fire hazards I sometimes think they should include fire extinguishers with every shipment for installation!

This board is a great forum & you should be commended for raising issue- many are too scared for fear of losing business or otherwise - good job to you & stick to your guns!

[sign_girl]

just had a long discussion with an inspector. He has never physically inspected a sign with a UL sticker. He assumes them all to be topnotch because they are 'stickered'. WOW!

[Erik Sine]

just had a long discussion with an inspector. He has never physically inspected a sign with a UL sticker. He assumes them all to be topnotch because they are 'stickered'. WOW!

This is true. I've said before in the past in some thread here, but some time ago I was meeting an inspector at a job for the final inspection on a set of channel letters. He shows up with a clipboard in hand and a young lady soon who is learning to be an inspector. He was going over some terminology with her and he looked at the two ladders I had set up for him and gave me an odd look. I had one leading to a opened letter and the other to a open hatch which is the crawl space behind the letter.

He led the lady past the letters, pointed to a UL section label and then turned to her and say, "This is what you need to look for, see that label?" He then looked over at me and said "You're all good".

Recently in a small county, the same thing minus a trainee.

But here in San Diego, the inspectors like to get their hands dirty. Which is a good thing.

So in a sense, yes, the labels don't mean crap.

[sign_girl]

shame on UL - they are nothing more than an expensive label company

[Erik Sine]

Well, it's not UL's fault. All they can do is write a standard, enforce what their inspectors "can" see. Any shop can display a good sign in the shop for the UL rep to see, and anyone can change that in the field to cut corners. It's up to the Electrical Inspectors of the city to be better educated at what their looking at.

But if you see something faulty of shoddy with a UL label on it, report it to UL. Take pics and submit them. UL I'm sure would be interested to see it.

[HansonSigns]

Well, we just got the official word - UL is creating an "online Ul university", and will require at least one person from each UL shop to have passed their certification - this person would have to be onhand at all times. Of couse, it's only $200 per shop for all the employees. That actually seems like a reasonable fee, but their course does not count towards the 24 hours of continuing education our electricians are required to have from WA state, so it's additional to the current requirements for the WA electricians license.

There are 13 modules in the curriculum, each is supposed to take about 45 minutes. Self paced, you can start and stop as needed. There will be a competency exam at the end of each module. Link - http://www.uluniversity.us/catalog/display.resource.aspx?resourceid=204520

Exciting, huh?