i hate cheap builders

18 years ago

been in my house for about 4 years now, but the house itself is 30 years old. the previous owner WAS the builder. he had a farm at the time and when they had down time he and his workers did a lot of the work on the house.

well, since day 1 i have noticed that the lights flicker just a little more than usual when either of the HVAC systems kick on. no big deal, we are inthe country and the power is not always the best.

well, today i changed out 3 bath fixtures to get my wife off my back. all 3 fixtures had the wires twisted and taped, not a single wire nut. i saw this once before when i changed out the old vent/lights for heat/vent/lights but thought nothing about it then.

oh, and every bit of wire inteh house is 12g NM WITH ground. but the grounds are ONLY hooked up at the outlets and in teh panel. all switches and lights the ground is either folded back in teh metal box or clipped even with teh sheath.

ok, rant over.

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Comments (3)

coolvt
18 years ago
Seems pretty obvious that there wern't any licensed people or permits or inspections involved. I've dealt with farm people with the same attitude. I would bet they firmly believe they did a good job. The thing is their standards are just so much different ....lower. And the code is something they "heard about somewhere."
There was farmer who owned apts. in my city who constantly had problems with housing inspectors. The farm guy was sincere. He really couldn't understand the big deal about broken windows and rooms that only heated to 60 degrees, etc.. He was just used to much lower standards out on the farm. Of course this helps to explain why almost every barn that burned in New England did so because of faulty wiring.

Sounds to me like you are going to have to go through the whole place and check and do things over. I've sure some listers will tell you the things that should be checked first. Probably the ones that can burn the house down or kill someone.
M
hexus
18 years ago
"all switches and lights the ground is either folded back in teh metal box or clipped even with teh sheath."

I'm guessing you're new to the trade, or haven't done many remodels? Very common practice actually back then... I'm assuming you're upset because the box isn't grounded seeing as most switches didn't even have ground terminals 30 years ago?
The way you described how the lights were terminated used to be a very common practice as well. Wrapped in black cloth tape right?

From what I read from your post it doesn't shock or surprise me in the least since that is how it was done back then, at least around here, and yes the houses were inspected. You see it all the time when doing remodels.
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davidandkasie
Original Author
18 years ago
up until LAST year there were no building codes in teh county here. the only thing teh state regulates is the septic systems, beyond that it is up to each county/municipality to decide IF they even want building codes. so no, no inspections.

the grounds not hooked up is fairly common on older fixtures, BUT i thought it had pretty much always been code that a metal box was to be grounded. i am not a licensed electrician, i am an electronics tech though. been working in the communications industry for almost 18 years now. we usually only have to deal with the grounding portions of the code and few for running control lines. but i try my best to make sure that anythign i do at home is up to or better than code. my wife will fuss that her uncles never have the issues i do with wiring, but then again her uncles are the type to twist wires together and not even tape them. i have issues because when i fool with it i make sure it is right when i am done.

no it was not cloth tape, it was the cheapest tape you cna get though, the kind you just about have to tie a knot in to get it to stick. about the only good thing was there was no residue left on teh wires so i did not get my hands all gummy!

the really sad thing is that the panel was replaced in the mid 90's. pull the cover off it and it looks immaculate. but the other ends of the wires are all nightmares.