BigB,
Did you charge for the time you were there or did they get you out there on the we need a "free estimate" game?
I just got done with a inspection/estimate. The panel was a old FPE that had burned pretty good. I found signs of allot of DIY work and looked around. I found a garage with a FPE sub-panel that looked like it was next, flying splices on the garage florescent (the plug in cords were cut and wirenuted to romex and had lots of tape). Then I looked in the "new porch", I could tell there had been no permit here because the framing for the addition was directly on the old cement (no foundation) and the service entrance cable along with the overhead feed to the garage where all dragging on the porch roof. Then I looked inside and found a big whirlpool like tub that had some cord caps on romex feeding it. These wires had lots of nicks and scratches with the copper showing. No GFCI in site. Then I found a time clock and contactor with the contactor screwed directly to the framing under a big hole cut in the wall.
Well when I talked to the owner they told me I was a thief, why should they fix that stuff it was there when they bought the house. They only wanted the power back on and they knew a handy man that could just replace the burnt parts for a few hundred dollars. Jeez!
Now I was there because they already had one fire. Tomorrow I'm call a friendly inspector at the city and report this fire, he'll find the rest and the new owners (I think they are selling this house) will get a list latter, from me (we'll see if everything was disclosed)
I don't usually go so out of my way but they were out of line calling me a thief and they were way to rude.
Sam
PS on the hot tubs people don’t want to fix. I send news articles to them, like in the latest trade mag were the guy lost his wife and daughter because of the way he wired the male plug on his boat. Sometimes safety will come first after reading something like that.
