I have enjoyed this forum for some time. I just ran across these photos in a drawer and thought this was a good place to display them.

Several years ago I gave an estimate to do all the electrical on this restaurant. My estimate was too high and the owner went with the cheap estimate. I got the call later after he opened and started having some problems. When you see the pictures you will understand why. Keep in mind this was inspected and passed, I actually saw the certificate and had a fit.









This next picture is just to hard to believe. It is not bad enough that this was all done in romex, a violation in this town, but apparently the metal stud seemed like a good place for a romex connector.





Just in case you are wondering. The disconnect in this next picture is being used and was wired as you see it. The person who wired this didn't feel the need to replace it I guess and while he was at it left the old wires in the box as well.



Needless to say it cost this customer more to fix this mess than the original job would have cost. Not to mention the downtime for his restaurant.

[This message has been edited by Webmaster (edited 12-29-2003).]

Is the last photo upside down or was the "installer" consuming too much Everclear?

That photo is right side up. I think the installer was upside down when he did the installation. These photos are like a where's waldo...see how many violations you can find.

pforte,
Thanks a bunch for the photo's mate!.
My Lord, there's some shocking work (if you can call it that)here.

i've got one word for it "SPOOKY."

pforte,

Welcome to ECN!

Great pictures! I've seen similar type work in restaurants where some employee was usually to blame for it.

Is that romex connector really connected to that metal stud??

Bill

Hi Bill,
I honestly don't remember if that romes connector was in the stud or not. This was not done by a restaurant worker, this was done by a so called electrician. This building was gutted and the work you see was new. Hard to believe I know. At the time I tried to track down the electrician as well as the inspector but I was met with a lot of resistance.
Turned out the electrician was using someone elses license number and the inspection agency just frustrated me into submission. The customer in this case had paid $12,000 for this horrendous work. Amazing, isn't it.

What a terrible mess!

I too thought the last picture was upside down!

I guess the $#@%^& was left handed!

Pforte:
Really sorry state of affairs here! Even going with a low-ball bid shouldn't result in something this bad. Did this "electrician" re-use an existing circuit breaker panel (in pic. no. 6) also? Besides the obvious poor workmanship and wide varieties of breakers used here, it looks like some of the wires are awfully small.
Can you tell us what kinds of problems the owner/occupant was experiencing when you were called in?

Mike (mamills)

Hi,
To the best of my recollection to answer your question. I was called in for a few problems. One was one of the roof fans wasn't working. As you can see from the picture there probably wasn't a lifetime garauntee on that installation. Also one of his fryers was blowing the breaker constantly...turned out to be undersized feed. I believe there were also some overprotected wires in that panel you see.
Besides the obvious stuff this job should have been wired in MC cable to meet local codes for a commercial building. The outdoor awning lighting around the whole building was done in romex.
What also amazed me is the utility actually installed a meter in this place??? The only thing I remember that they got right was they actually installed a GFI receptacle in the bathroom LOL.