ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Outdoor Electric Questions

This is the second time I posted. The first time showed up for a few minutes then disappeared.

I had an electrican (certified with state license) install electricity to our Patio. To make a long story short I am questioning if he did the work to code.

All wires are run through metal conduit. They have metal type boxes for the outlet and the on off/switch for the lights. However the boxes for the light fixtures are plastic.

First of all my(lay man) of the NEC section 370-3, says that if you use metal conduit then you cannot use plastic boxes. Am I correct?

My second question is the Ground wire. Since you have a plastic box how can you have it grounded? Keep in mind all the outdoor light fixtures I have looked at indicate the ground should be hooked to the metal box, the fixtures themselves do not have a ground.

My third question is...By Code do you not have to have all electrical outdoor circuts properly grounded?

Any response will be appreciated.

Thank you,
David Leone

David, Was this work inspected by the local AHJ? Was a permit pulled for the work in question? If you feel the the work that you had done is questionable then it would be worth finding an independent inspector who can review it for you. Without being able to actually see what was done it is difficult to give an answer. As far as 370-3 their are exceptions that allow the use of plastic boxes.
Good luck, Wirewiz
Wirewiz

wirewiz or anyone else:
Thank you for your reply.
To answer WireWiz's first question.

Was this work inspected by the local AHJ? I don't know what a AHJ is but no it has not been inspected.


Was a permit pulled for the work in question? No a permit was not pulled. Certified State Electrical contractor that did the work told me that a permit really did not have to be pulled. However I now know that one should have been pulled. I'm going to attempt to resolve this next week.


I will also look for an independent inspector. Any ideas of where I can find one in the Las Vegas,NV area? I've had a hard time getting anyone out to my house, they say that they don't do preexisting building work (I guess its because there is so much building going on).

However, I did have a friend that inspects buildings for the county come out. He basically told me that since it was an outdoor installation, it had to be grounded properly. Properly means that it should be grounded at every outlet. Further, more he said that the ground wire does not do no good if it is not connected everywhere.

Seems to me there should be a direct answer to the grounding issue, Do all outdoor receipticals/outlets/lights have to be grounded?

I acutally had this electrical contractor do about $4,000.00 worth of work at my house, and now I'm starting to question everything he did.


[This message has been edited by dleone (edited 04-27-2002).]

David,

There is not enough information in your post to determine if anything was done incorrectly. Plastic boxes have been around a long time and are used in many applications. I would strongly suggest that you get an Electrical Inspector to come and look at the things that you are concerned with. AHJ is the "Authority Having Jurisdiction" A call to your town building department or Fire Marshall should be able to steer you in the right direction.

Bill