ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Compliance Question

This is directed mainly towards SvenNYC, but opinions from anyone else are appreciated.

Sven stated his NY resolution is to rewire his apartment's crumbling wires

I'm not "picking" on Sven, his abilities, or the fact that he's not an EC, but this subject was discussed a few times at work, and I would like some input from other areas.

My qustion is:
Is he allowed to do this work "leagally" in NY, if he is NOT a licensed EC??

Here in NJ, the owner of a single family home can perform all work, as long as he lives in the home,is capable of doing the work, and obtains the required permits and inspections. ALL other electrical work must be performed by Lic. EC's


John

[This message has been edited by HotLine1 (edited 01-07-2003).]

In Mass u can run a business with a journeymans license. Your not allowed to hire another licensed electrician and you can only hire one electrical apprentice. This law pretty much speaks for itself, you wouldn't be capapble of working on large projects. You could do homes and some commercial possibly some light industrial.

hotline1...i'm working with a guy from ny this week and will ask him tomorrow.see what he says.

wirenuttt...who had the brains for that rule.talk about stupid.

lighthouse;

That's the way it's always been as far as I can remember. There are other rules that go along with being a journeyman in Mass. Your Co. van has to display your full name then electrician with #s. Masters can pick any name. Jman has to use this full name on all bill heads, biz cards etc.. There was a time in Mass where there had to be the letter E before the numbers and an additional E for every time they had taken the exam. I remember seeing a few vans years ago with several Es on them. This was overturned considered discriminating and defamation. I mean imagine having a dozen Es on your van and showing up to meet a builder to wire a house.Tell yah the truth I don't think it's a bad idea to have a chance to run a limited biz on a j-mans. Gives you a chance to see what it's like, then if you decide to grow you have the oportunity to get the masters and expand. Most Jman are sole proprietorship.

Lighthouse:
BTW, in NJ, you are "supposed" to have your "name" on your trucks, and your lic. #
Without all the details, the License # belongs to the individual, the Business Permit # belongs to the business, and 1 Lic
Business to a Lic EC. If you alter the business name, you add an "A"; "B", etc each time.
If you want the details e-mail me direct please.

Back to the question of this thread:
In your location(s) who is "allowed" to legally do electrical work in an apartment??

BTW, Where are you from???
WIRENUTT: Thanks for the input
John

Hotline:

I must confess, I haven't looked into the permit aspect of it yet. I should do that...I don't know what the legalities of it are.

However I don't think anyone who has done renovations in their apartments in the building I live in have ever taken out permits.

I know one guy who definitely didn't...he owns two apartments and knocked down the wall in the middle and joined them. Although judging from what he's done it shure ain't up to my taste....knocking the plaster off the brick walls so they have that "fashionable" exposed brick look, etc. Then he scraped off all the paint on the door frames, radiator covers, etc. to bare metal and had some guy come in and laquer them over...so that it looks like stainless steel.

What can I say...he's a fashion photographer...hehehe. Guess he was going for that loft look.

Hell...I'd see this guy with a luggage cart at night with a box...tossing the plaster chips in the garbage can on the street corner and dumpsters a couple of blocks down the street.

Sven:
I know what you mean about the trash in "cans/dumpsters by others" He's hiding the evidence.

I'm not being critical or picky about what you want to do, I am curious if the NJ way is the same in other localities.

John

Hotline:

Don't worry about it. I'm curious about it myself.

Considering it is an apartment building and if I do anything stupid I could cause damage to neighboring units....I wouldn't be surprised if the permit requirements are probably even stricter than New Jersey.

In Ohio we are supposed to have our Lic # on our trucks too - but couldn't someone potentially use my lic number to pull a permit for themselves?

John,

I just had this fight not so long ago. If you read your NJ contractor's by laws, a maintenance man in a factory can "legally" do electrical work for that factory. However he has to be "qualified". According to NJ by laws "qualification" means that the worker has to have 8,000 hours of practical experinece and who has 576 hours of classroom training. It comes from the NJ Administrative Code Title 13, Chapter 31. Board of Examiners, Subchapter 1, 13:31-1.3(b).