ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Handyman or Home Owner

Our electricians, like most, do work on the side. One of them went to a house to give and estimate to install a new counter top range and seperate wall unit. (Kitchen remodel) A week later the woman called him back to have him do the job. She told him she priced it with 3 people, the other 2 being handyman services, they were more money than the licensed electrician so he got the job. I asked "how did that make you feel Bud?" He just walked away shaking his head!!

In Ontario to work on residential other than your own you must be licensed.The home owner bares the responsibility to hire a licensed,insured person.If the handyman fries himself the homeowner pays the price.If it's a licensed sparky he must insure himself and the home owner does not pay.If a roofer takes a dive and is uninsured again the homeowner pays.So when an accident happens you can lose everything if you hire the wrong people.

I remember responding to a thread like this when I first visited here...

Handymen are more dangerous, because they HO's who pay them think that they know what they're doing... and they can be left with a worse situation that if they'd bought one of these:



and just followed the advice inside.

That said... I started out as a "pirate" electrician - $25-30/hr, a little knowledge, but an understanding of the Code and basic (for us) safety considerations. I lost several jobs because I wouldn't simply run more lamp cord through the hole in the wall.


To which I had the following response(s):

A) Try and get a licensed electrician in here for what I'm charging you... I'll wait.

B) Even though I'm not licensed, by following the Code the only thing they can get me for is operating w/o a license... not the additional charges of endangerment by doing blatantly unsafe work. If you want tyo run lamp cord, that's your business. I'll pack up my tools and wait at the firehouse for the call back here when you do.

I even had out (then) AHJ tell me he felt more comfortable with me "assisting" the homeowners because he'd seen my work, and felt it was safer than some of the guys who were licensed but were "still working off the '58 Code".

[This message has been edited by DougW (edited 10-30-2005).]

[This message has been edited by DougW (edited 10-30-2005).]

Several years ago a couple had their son (the handyman) add an addition to their home. He moved the POCO lines to the other side of the house (I have no idea how) & tied them to the soffit. Then he taped them to his new service lines.

He got some instructions from who-knows & didn't quite understand that the support is the neutral. When he threw the main he noticed the insulation bubbling & turned it off. Unfortunately it powered up the 120 at 240 & fried a few things.

When I was doing the repair he said something to me & I looked him in the eye & said "You're lucky to be alive".

Dave

Regarding the big box store staff it all depends on what store you go in to.

The store near me has 3 qualified electricians working as sales associates. Two are retired contractors trying to supplement their pension income and the other is a hydro plant operator (industrial electrician) who fell off a ladder and fractured his ankle and can't climb anymore. He was placed there by workplace compensation to get him off their payroll.

Unfortunately they also have the girl working in the gardening center working in that department part time as well.

Everytime time I'm waiting at the local HD checkout line, I have to look at the face of that Black and Decker wiring book cover and chuckle (Ground wire wrapped counter clockwise.) They probly painted the outlet and wires blue because no one could say for sure where the black wire went! - J

Wow. You're right!! Good eye, Sponge!!

And I think the neutral wire is back-stabbed.

There doesn't appear to be anything wrapped around the screw. LOL

Sponge, if you look closely, you will see that the ground wire on that particular receptacle should be wrapped counter-clockwise. The receptacle on the cover is one of the little known 'mirror' patterns, NEMA 5-15MR. These are usually found on the front of ambulances and other emergency vehicles. If you look at a conventional NEMA 5-15R receptacle, then with the ground slot 'up', then the smaller slot (the ungrounded conductor connection) is on the _left_ side, and the larger slot (the grounded conductor connection) is on the right side. These concept is similar to subway car lightbulbs with left handed screw-shell threads.

While most screws that we use are 'right handed', and tighten by turning clockwise, the mirror pattern receptacles use only left handed screws. This is a safety measure required by UL so that if an untrained individual manages to grab a mirror pattern receptacle by mistake, none of the screws will work properly and they will quickly notice their error.

I have no idea why Black and Decker would place a picture of such an esoteric item on the front cover of a home wiring book. Maybe someone who worked on the book wires amublances.

( *grin* )

-Jon

Yup... all around the world!
I won't _ever_ forget the Austrian box store guy trying to tell my dad the 1+N breakers (that actually fuse the hot and only switch the neutral) are safer than single poles because they work like GFIs...

Jon, the toughest part about installing those "MR" series devices is finding the face plates with the left-hand screws. They sometimes have them at topeD emoH.

:-)