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1 members (Scott35),
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Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 814
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I do a lot of home inspector follow ups for realtors, so I see a lot of crazy stuff. Today was no exception as when I went to pull the bathroom GFCI to correct a reverse polarity I found the whole bathroom was wired with an old extension cord. At least they used a 3 wire 16 guage, the flat yellow kind. Maybe they thought the yellow made it 12 guage like the new romex. They tapped the bathroom behind it for power and ran to the GFCI, light over mirror, and fan.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 345
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Sorry no pictures. I had ldft my camera at home.
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Tom Horne
Tom Horne
"This alternating current stuff is just a fad. It is much too dangerous for general use" Thomas Alva Edison
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 345
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Well I managed to fish an entirely new supply to the receptacle. The fan light is now supplied by the original 14/2 WG cable from one switch.
Here is the kicker. The box that I fished the new supply from was a full inch back of the surface of the wall. So I put on box extenders to close the gaps but now the plate does not sit on the wall the same. The occupant is going to have the dry wall repaired but he was real upset that I couldn't put it back the way it was. I got a little snappish and said that the whole reason for having a box is to contain any sparking to it's interior and I was only trying to protect his family. I just can't win for loosing.
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Tom Horne
Tom Horne
"This alternating current stuff is just a fad. It is much too dangerous for general use" Thomas Alva Edison
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 345
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Took a trouble call to a home with "a breaker that won't reset." Those always worry me because I wonder if the engine company will beat me in to the clients home. The bathroom fan light was wired with 14/2 NM. In order to provide continuous power to the receptacle by the basin the bare EGC had been sleeved at each end and used as a current carrying conductor. In order to ground the receptacle a single bare number sixteen wire had been run from the receptacle to the water pipe supplying the toilet. The receptacle outlet was a GFCI that had the supply wiring connected to the load terminals with the line terminals unused. Of course the client was unhappy that I couldn't get it "working like before." I just told him that the wiring of that circuit almost arose to the level of attempted murder. If I can devise a way to fish it I will be pulling in new cable for the supply to the light / fan so that they can be individually switched. Wish me luck. Well I managed to fish an entirely new supply to the receptacle. The fan light is now supplied by the original 14/2 WG cable from one switch. Here is the kicker. The box that I fished the new supply from was a full inch back of the surface of the wall. So I put on box extenders to close the gaps but now the plate does not sit on the wall the same. The occupant is going to have the dry wall repaired but he was real upset that I couldn't put it back the way it was. I got a little snappish and said that the whole reason for having a box is to contain any sparking to it's interior and I was only trying to protect his family. I just can't win for loosing. -- Tom Horne
Tom Horne
"This alternating current stuff is just a fad. It is much too dangerous for general use" Thomas Alva Edison
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 62
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I once went to a service call, complaint was that every time they turned the new dryer on the lights house lights went out. When i opened the panel I could see why. the "maintenance" man that had wired the dryer had landed one of the #12's to a new 20a single pole breaker and the other to an existing 15a single pole with the lighting circuit. When the tenant asked him why the lights went out he told them it was because the dryer was new and because of that all the power would go to it first! Luckily, the tenants kept complaining to the property management company and they finally called us. We ended up rewiring the dryer, range and doing a service change. We also rewired a window AC receptacle to replace the 12-2 Romex run 1/2 way around and stapled to the outside of the house.
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CDS
Nicholson Ga
Posts: 34
Joined: June 2006
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