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Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 794
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wa2ise Offline OP
Member
What would you estimate the percentage of buildings with completely code compliant wiring to, say, buildings with only a few easily corrected problems, to old places that would be grand fathered, to sites with lots of mistakes, and finally places with really hazardous conditions (fire ready to happen)?

Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 1,374
R
Moderator
I don't think I've ever seen a compliant building. I'm not sure that I ever will. Even after the inspector and installer walk away from it.


Ryan Jackson,
Salt Lake City
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 7,381
Likes: 7
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I don't know if it was the full moon, or the eclipse...
Did a few of the resi guys forget how to wire a kitchen???

Three (3) finals; three EC's; three refrig outlets on the small appliance counter circuits thru the GFI's.

Rough comm reno; phone/data wiring, no grommets/bushings in metal studs, no comm/data permit.

1200 amp feeder.....3 sets of 500kcmil???

What's happening???

100% code compliant?? For how long after I give a final and walk out??

John


John
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 6
K
Junior Member
my inspector once told me that he had never
inspected a job that he coulndt have red
tagged for some reason or another. so i am not sure a perfect installation exists.

Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,044
Tom Offline
Member
Like the others, I have never seen a totally code compliant building. I will even include my own work in that category.

Tom


Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,056
R
Member
Speaking as a plant E & I Technician who has studied (but not mastered, of course) the NEC for about 19 years, I have observed contractor-installed work that is mostly compliant and relatively safe, such as properly sized, but not properly supported raceways, 20-amp lighting circuits drawing 18 amps continuous (oops, forgot to acccount for the ballast?), cord-connected luminaires with excessive cord length and borderline work space clearance violations.
Then there are the more severe violations...
Motor starters installed without disconnects, and without properly sized heaters. Subpanels installed with grounds tied to neutral busses, standard fittings installed in hazardous locations, transformers not properly grounded and more serious work space clearance violations.
As a contractor, I would say that 75% of "added" electrical installations in houses over 20 years old are in violation to some degree from overfilled boxes to ungrounded 3-wire receptacles to unprotected feeder circuits.

Although difficult to do, I would estimate that less than half of what I see is compliant, with about 25% what I would consider serious safety problems.

[This message has been edited by Redsy (edited 11-13-2003).]

Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 1,143
D
Member
Like others here, I think ALL jobs could technically be red tagged for minor things

(or because the AHJ didn't get any the night before [Linked Image])

It's the degree of screwup that is amazing sometimes - especially to us, as the EC who comes in after the build to make improvements (or fix the original install).

Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 197
G
Gwz Offline
Member
How can one interpret a minor vs a major violation ?

An NEC violation is a violation!

See NEC 90.1.

Not being in a "Rattlesnake" area ( I guess they are found occasionly ), I would be scared of a Rattlesnake.

I consider a NEC violation like a Rattlesnake, " don't bother it and it would bother you, but if you distrub it - - - WATCH OUT !!!"

That could be a conductor slightly undersized for the load. It may not fail for several years, but when it does WATCH OUT !!

Gwz

Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,457
E
Member
Quote from hotline "I don't know if it was the full moon, or the eclipse...
Did a few of the resi guys forget how to wire a kitchen???
Three (3) finals; three EC's; three refrig outlets on the small appliance counter circuits thru the GFI's."
Ok maybe a bad design but code violation?

Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,392
S
Member
a worthy Q wa2ise
[Linked Image]

laws are really not much good if they are not enforced, and they are usually not enforced due to lack of funding.

certian electrical orginizations should actually be studying your questions in depth as to the overall efficy of the NEC.

to allow for manufactures to introduce frivilous codes on one hand, and expect compliance without unbias oversight on the other is a holy grail approach.

what are the percentages? on second thought, perhaps such ineptitude would be detrimental pr eh??

follow the money...


[This message has been edited by sparky (edited 11-13-2003).]

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