ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Hurricane Frances

Backround: My husband and I own a home inspection company and are starting to perform inspections on home's that have suffered damage from Hurricane Frances.

A concern that we have is the effects of salt water damage to electrical wiring, fixtures, connections etc. The water that has damaged these properties in varying degrees has a very high salt concentration.

I am in the process of doing some research and it would be helpful to me to find out what your experiences have been when dealing with this type of peril.

From a home inspectors prospective we are inclined to advise and recommend a full evaluation of the electrical system during the design repair process. What are your thoughts on this?

Note: The type of inspections we are offering do not include a technical electrical evaluation, they are limited to visible storm damage.

Thanks in advance,
Ellen
A-1 Home Inspections

I would suggest you try a home inspection website, such as

www.nachi.com

I personaly do not see how you can offer an evaluation that is based on visual inspection only. In the case of damage sustained in the likes of Hurrican Frances wherby the building has been subjected to severe movement cables could have been stressed and weakened, some in-depth testing would be needed to find the true extent of the damage. In most cases would have thought complete rewiring would have been the only solution to be 100% sure.
Just my opinion of course.
Re: The contamination from salt water would have thought that there may be a spray available to neutralise the action. As its only a short term immersion. Be interesting to see what other members think.

Ellen,

Welcome to ECN.
Here is some info from NEMA:

Guidelines for Handling Water Damaged Electrical Equipment

Bill Addiss

Thank you for your replies.

I was just able to talk with our Favorite Electrician who is also a GC. He is currently working storm damage.

He confirmed my belief that all devices that are located in water damaged areas ie: walls and ceilings need replacement. He said that these are often overlooked by the homeowner and insurance adjusters.

I posted this question on this board as I am interested in your findings concerning electrical systems after a hurricane that caused moderate damage. I look forward to more discussion.

Being located in a salt intrusive environment we are aware of the detrimental effects of corrosion to panelboards etc that is caused by ongoing "normal" conditions in our area.

Thanks again in advance,
Ellen

The home inspector's site is www.nachi.org

After reading the posts on this site for years I was under the impression when I posted this inquiry it would be taken as an interesting topic for discussion.

I certainly would not have posted this inquiry on this board if I thought I would get better feedback from NACHI board participants.

Obviously some of you have no respect for anyone in the home inspection field or have not had any experience dealing with hurricane damage.

I can tell you out of every inspection we perform a licensed electrician gets work as a result of it, which would not be the case otherwise. That might be something you may keep in mind next time you shun a home inspector for posting on your public site.

Sincerely,
EB

I have to tottaly agree, as a electrical contractor i use this site often, daily to be exact! And yes it is a public site for anyone to post! therfor the proir post in responce to this topic are totally out of line. If you do not have anything helpful to say keep it to yourself. I am highly disappointed in the response to this topic and feel that mangement of the site owes the person whom posted the first thread a sincere apoligy! All they were looking for was some helpful information from a electrical standpoint! Maybe if you were to lose everything you own to a storm you would know how this people feel.

Actually I think BIll's link was very appropriate and helpful, Why not go straight to the source. I didn't take Ryan's link as a dish off, but maybe I'm wrong. N1ist was a correction to Ryan's link from .com to .org., and aland was what she was looking for, so I don't know what the problem is.

Maybe just a misunderstanding?

Hopefully the prior commetns weren't about me, but if they were, let me explain myself.

You are a home inspector, and you are asking advice on how to do a home inspection! I reccommended a site chocked full og home inspectors willing to help!!!

If that is being a bad guy, then hey, I'm guilty as cahrged.