ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Photos for General Discussion The House I Bought

Greetings,

A little over a year ago, I bought an early-1970's era house whose original owners had recently passed away. At the closing, one of the sons told me that his dad wasn't much of a woodworker (as evidenced by wood filler everywhere; the phrase "I cut it twice and it's still too short" comes to mind). Based on the electrical work I've found while doing my own upgrades, the son should also have mentioned that his dad wasn't much of an electrician either.

Example 1 (photos attached). In the kitchen, the ceiling mounted light had duct tape wrapped around the wire nuts, AND the green and white wires from the light were wire nutted to the white in the box. I guess he didn't know the green wire was supposed to connect to the bare wire in the box.

James

Example 2. It's a split-level house, originally with a garage on the lower level, with the garage convered into a family room not long after the house was built. The electrical boxes were installed even with the framing, which means every light and outlet box is flush with the BACK SIDE of the drywall. He added wood paneling on top of that, so extra long screws are needed to attach faceplates. Of course, the actual outlet is almost an inch behind the faceplate.

To be fair, I added the faceplate to the outlet in the picture; there wasn't one before.

Example 3. The pool has a 240 volt 1.5 HP pump, with each leg protected by 20A GFCI breakers in the panel. Next to the pool pump is an electrical outlet wired into one leg. To provide electricity to a couple of outdoor sheds located on the property, the previous owner ran shallow-buried 12-2 UF from the sheds to the pool, and terminated the cables on plugs wrapped with electrical tape.

The second photo shows an outlet box in the farthest shed, which is 150' from the house. The plug visible in the picture is the "disconnect" for a submersible pump in a nearby 20' diameter shallow pond with fountains. I haven't bothered checking, but judging by the water flow my guess is that it's at least 1/2 HP pump. And judging by how warm the cord in the shed gets when it's running, it may even be a 3/4 HP pump.

I guess the phrase "voltage drop" didn't mean anything to him.