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.
Well, it's not like you're lcensed or anything...(Joe Homeowner)
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).]