scuba_dave
September 7th, 2006, 02:17 PM
or...dumb things I have found
Apt I rented, Kitchen circuit was tied into the 240v stove outlet.
A surge strip had the plug cut off & was wired into hot & ?
I can't imagine any electrician hooking this up
It was an old house that was converted to Apartments, and the electric system was not upgraded enough. The kitchen was the worse, but I'm sure the bathroom was not a dedicated circuit & did not have a GFI
Apt on 3rd floor, turns out everything was on one circuit. And it was alum wiring to boot. Looked in the knee walls & the outlets in the main room were connected using 18g lamp cord. Talked to the landlord, ran a 2nd circuit & reran the 1st with copper. Fixed the wiring in the knee walls
Another Apt - house had a fire, landlord fixed it up enough to collect the insurance $$. I was in college & needed a cheap place to stay. Place had been empty for years, he agreed to rent it. A friend went in on it with me, we started renovations..fixing leaking roof, burned out bathroom
Place was a mess, no kitchen stove, so we called to inquire - since a stove is required by law. Landlord went off, started to yell, I calmed him down & said I was just asking - we could get a stove. Bought a stove for $75 & plugged it in - no problems
No hot water - wires disconnected, hooked that up - but I think they wired it wrong - OR it was a great HW heater. We could run the shower all day & never run out. 1st floor was rented out to Landlords cousin. They went away in December and shut their heat TOTALLY off!! Freezing cold weather, pipes froze. So we break into the 1st floor & turn the heat up.
Water pipes unfreeze, spraying everywhere
We go in the basement & shut things off & start taping things up
Turn back on - very little pressure on 2nd floor
Rip out a wall on the 1st floor & tape pipe, now we have some pressure on 2nd floor. Enough to flush the toilet!! Not a lot for showers. This is right around Christmas - 10 days went by like this before the landlord sent a plumber in. He kicked his cousin out
Then the next month he sends us a heating bill to pay...for the 1st floor
I call up - secretary & explain we have electric heat, gas heat is on the 1st floor. Three months later the landlord tries to triple the rent. We call board of health since he refused to provide a stove (required by law).
We file a complaint which freezes our rent for 6 months - gives us enough time to find a new Apt
We move out, house is empty again. Local teenagers realize it's empty & break-in & use it as hang out & trash the place...oh well
Last house I bought before they foreclosed:
Live wires behind baseboard molding - not capped or taped off
2-3 live wires hanging in the crawl space
Live wire in the yard where a shed used to be - I found it with the lawnmower
Dead runs that were never connected
Walls that did not have a single 2x4 going from floor to ceiling
I fixed the house up & sold it 7 years later to my brother in law
He passed away & I went back to help her clean out the house & realized there were more problems that I did not know about:
100a sub panel in the crawl space, was used for a pool at one point, then a hot tub. I didn't check the wiring too much down there, but I'm pretty sure it only had #6 wire feeding that 100A, and only 3 wires. I was just looking last week & I think there is a black - black - and a white - but I could be wrong
The bank is taking the house...so She is just moving out
I also know the neutral & grounds are not seperated, and possibly the cross bar was not removed/grounding screw
The hot tub - GFI 50a breaker is in the sub panel
Conduit buried to hot tub - maybe 5-10" MAX under ground. There used to be 18" patio blocks over the conduit run, but those were removed when the new septic went in. I removed the hot tub & wire
The last (2) 90's were not glued, and there was dirt in the conduit
The conduit was 1.5" & had 6-3 cable inside, as well as a 12-2 run, and a phone wire.:(
Another 10-3 run in the crawl space was disconnected, I pulled that out too
Looking around the house I realized I could spend all week trying to clean up the wiring that had been changed, pulled out & never completed
The bank will have to deal with it
Someone will get a good deal & flip the house, wish I could do it
Current house:
(2) 20a 240v old heater runs coiled up at the bottom of the stairs when we bought the house - no tproperly capped off. I have removed them
LOTS of old cloth wire runs. Everything on the 2nd floor has been replaced now - dormering the back of the cape.
Basement almost everything has been replaced. One run was 2 wires only - no ground. There were (8) 40w flourescent lights & about 5 old 2 prong outlets on this run. Touching any metal/lights meant a small tingle
I redid the basement outlets to a sepearte run, GFI protected
Removed the old lights & ran a new run for new lights. I also included that new invention...the "light switch" to be able to turn them off & on without going to each light & pulling the rope or pressing a button
Downstairs bath ran off another circuit that included lights & outlets. The wife couldn't use her hair dryer without tripping the breaker. Pulled the medicine cabinet out & lo & behold there is a hidden junction box (old wiring). Another new run, GFI protected.
Ran a new run for the freezer. Upgraded the laundry run to GFI
All of the basement runs are now GFI protected, except the freezer & an outlet in the boiler room
The 100a panel in the house was upgraded at some point to 200a
But that was all they did, and running new wire to junctions boxes to connect the old wire left the panel area a mess.
I recently spent Labor day weekend rewiring (3 days), updating & cleaning up in expectation of my electrician burying the Service Feed
The kitchen outlets are currently running off of one circuit, including the fridge. The stove has old wire in metal flex conduit. A sunroom will be added off the kitchen & the wall opened up to the sunroom. Kitchen will be renovated & updated. Dedicated circuit will be run for the refridgerator. Three new outlet circuits GFI protected will be run for the kitchen.
The 1st floor will be very hard to upgrade the odl cloth wiring without ripping the house apart. The house was wired top-down, so it's nearly impossible to pull the old wire out. I'll be able to upgrade the outlets from the basement, but the lights will prove to be very difficult
The 2nd floor already has a finish floor down from before I started renovation
I was able to fish wires for hard wired smoke detectors for the 1st floor from one side.
I have one major project left, straightening out the wiring IN the panel
I have a new diagram where I want all the wires to go based on their length, amps & side of spare wire. Some of the runs in the box zig zag back & forth to use up spare wire before terminating at the hot/ground or neutral bus
I'm going to run some extension cords in from a generator, then turn off the main to redo the wires. I'm much happier with the wiring already, I just want the SF buried so I can fill in the trenches
Wow, this is long....and not complete
Am I having fun yet? I'm so glad my wiring issues are almost done
I hope to never see another problem like some of the ones I have run into.
I don't tell ANYONE I know "how" to do wiring.
Hire an electrician!!, my friend is a stay at home dad and is always looking for side jobs for extra income. I send everyone to him bow_1
Apt I rented, Kitchen circuit was tied into the 240v stove outlet.
A surge strip had the plug cut off & was wired into hot & ?
I can't imagine any electrician hooking this up
It was an old house that was converted to Apartments, and the electric system was not upgraded enough. The kitchen was the worse, but I'm sure the bathroom was not a dedicated circuit & did not have a GFI
Apt on 3rd floor, turns out everything was on one circuit. And it was alum wiring to boot. Looked in the knee walls & the outlets in the main room were connected using 18g lamp cord. Talked to the landlord, ran a 2nd circuit & reran the 1st with copper. Fixed the wiring in the knee walls
Another Apt - house had a fire, landlord fixed it up enough to collect the insurance $$. I was in college & needed a cheap place to stay. Place had been empty for years, he agreed to rent it. A friend went in on it with me, we started renovations..fixing leaking roof, burned out bathroom
Place was a mess, no kitchen stove, so we called to inquire - since a stove is required by law. Landlord went off, started to yell, I calmed him down & said I was just asking - we could get a stove. Bought a stove for $75 & plugged it in - no problems
No hot water - wires disconnected, hooked that up - but I think they wired it wrong - OR it was a great HW heater. We could run the shower all day & never run out. 1st floor was rented out to Landlords cousin. They went away in December and shut their heat TOTALLY off!! Freezing cold weather, pipes froze. So we break into the 1st floor & turn the heat up.
Water pipes unfreeze, spraying everywhere
We go in the basement & shut things off & start taping things up
Turn back on - very little pressure on 2nd floor
Rip out a wall on the 1st floor & tape pipe, now we have some pressure on 2nd floor. Enough to flush the toilet!! Not a lot for showers. This is right around Christmas - 10 days went by like this before the landlord sent a plumber in. He kicked his cousin out
Then the next month he sends us a heating bill to pay...for the 1st floor
I call up - secretary & explain we have electric heat, gas heat is on the 1st floor. Three months later the landlord tries to triple the rent. We call board of health since he refused to provide a stove (required by law).
We file a complaint which freezes our rent for 6 months - gives us enough time to find a new Apt
We move out, house is empty again. Local teenagers realize it's empty & break-in & use it as hang out & trash the place...oh well
Last house I bought before they foreclosed:
Live wires behind baseboard molding - not capped or taped off
2-3 live wires hanging in the crawl space
Live wire in the yard where a shed used to be - I found it with the lawnmower
Dead runs that were never connected
Walls that did not have a single 2x4 going from floor to ceiling
I fixed the house up & sold it 7 years later to my brother in law
He passed away & I went back to help her clean out the house & realized there were more problems that I did not know about:
100a sub panel in the crawl space, was used for a pool at one point, then a hot tub. I didn't check the wiring too much down there, but I'm pretty sure it only had #6 wire feeding that 100A, and only 3 wires. I was just looking last week & I think there is a black - black - and a white - but I could be wrong
The bank is taking the house...so She is just moving out
I also know the neutral & grounds are not seperated, and possibly the cross bar was not removed/grounding screw
The hot tub - GFI 50a breaker is in the sub panel
Conduit buried to hot tub - maybe 5-10" MAX under ground. There used to be 18" patio blocks over the conduit run, but those were removed when the new septic went in. I removed the hot tub & wire
The last (2) 90's were not glued, and there was dirt in the conduit
The conduit was 1.5" & had 6-3 cable inside, as well as a 12-2 run, and a phone wire.:(
Another 10-3 run in the crawl space was disconnected, I pulled that out too
Looking around the house I realized I could spend all week trying to clean up the wiring that had been changed, pulled out & never completed
The bank will have to deal with it
Someone will get a good deal & flip the house, wish I could do it
Current house:
(2) 20a 240v old heater runs coiled up at the bottom of the stairs when we bought the house - no tproperly capped off. I have removed them
LOTS of old cloth wire runs. Everything on the 2nd floor has been replaced now - dormering the back of the cape.
Basement almost everything has been replaced. One run was 2 wires only - no ground. There were (8) 40w flourescent lights & about 5 old 2 prong outlets on this run. Touching any metal/lights meant a small tingle
I redid the basement outlets to a sepearte run, GFI protected
Removed the old lights & ran a new run for new lights. I also included that new invention...the "light switch" to be able to turn them off & on without going to each light & pulling the rope or pressing a button
Downstairs bath ran off another circuit that included lights & outlets. The wife couldn't use her hair dryer without tripping the breaker. Pulled the medicine cabinet out & lo & behold there is a hidden junction box (old wiring). Another new run, GFI protected.
Ran a new run for the freezer. Upgraded the laundry run to GFI
All of the basement runs are now GFI protected, except the freezer & an outlet in the boiler room
The 100a panel in the house was upgraded at some point to 200a
But that was all they did, and running new wire to junctions boxes to connect the old wire left the panel area a mess.
I recently spent Labor day weekend rewiring (3 days), updating & cleaning up in expectation of my electrician burying the Service Feed
The kitchen outlets are currently running off of one circuit, including the fridge. The stove has old wire in metal flex conduit. A sunroom will be added off the kitchen & the wall opened up to the sunroom. Kitchen will be renovated & updated. Dedicated circuit will be run for the refridgerator. Three new outlet circuits GFI protected will be run for the kitchen.
The 1st floor will be very hard to upgrade the odl cloth wiring without ripping the house apart. The house was wired top-down, so it's nearly impossible to pull the old wire out. I'll be able to upgrade the outlets from the basement, but the lights will prove to be very difficult
The 2nd floor already has a finish floor down from before I started renovation
I was able to fish wires for hard wired smoke detectors for the 1st floor from one side.
I have one major project left, straightening out the wiring IN the panel
I have a new diagram where I want all the wires to go based on their length, amps & side of spare wire. Some of the runs in the box zig zag back & forth to use up spare wire before terminating at the hot/ground or neutral bus
I'm going to run some extension cords in from a generator, then turn off the main to redo the wires. I'm much happier with the wiring already, I just want the SF buried so I can fill in the trenches
Wow, this is long....and not complete
Am I having fun yet? I'm so glad my wiring issues are almost done
I hope to never see another problem like some of the ones I have run into.
I don't tell ANYONE I know "how" to do wiring.
Hire an electrician!!, my friend is a stay at home dad and is always looking for side jobs for extra income. I send everyone to him bow_1