The pipe that use for electrical wiring is typically called "conduit" but it's technically EMT (electrical metallic tubing). Some in the trade call it "pipe" too.

As for the cut conduit and wires, it's somewhat of a gray area. A tradesman should exercise reasonable caution and not be cutting willy-nilly but at the same time doesn't have x-ray vision. How is your home constructed? Does your home have a basement or crawlspace where the flooring guy could have checked for wiring or plumbing pipes obstructions first?

The part about "they couldn't figure out where it went so they capped it and cemented over it" isn't reassuring. The odds are pretty good, even in an old house, that the wires went somewhere and more effort should have be put into figuring out where that was. In any case, electrical wires, unless they are known to be abandoned, must be terminated in a electrical junction box that remains accessible.

What does you contract say about all of this?

Thanks Mike! The house is built on granite (I live in Arizona), so there is no basement or crawl space. It is an adobe-style home and previous owners pretty much used duct tape and bubble gum to fix things (I'm kidding a bit, but you get the idea). When they removed the floor, there were two floors beneath the current floor, so they had to demo that to get to sub floor which was also cement.

As for the contract, I guess this is where my ignorance will come through. We didn't have a contract. I have never had anything like this happen before and didn't think to require it.

I appreciate the insight. I do believe it is a gray area. And I agree that more effort could have gone into where the wires went. Maybe the fair thing to do woudl be to split the cost of repair? Thank you again!

they do the same thing in florida. before i moved into my house there, they had a plumbing problem. they cut a 2x2' patch out of the center of the living room floor then filled it til it was even at the top of the parquet, the correction would have been incredibly expensive so we just laid that carpet right back down. lol. but this old house is where i learned that you can cut wires or plumbing and often go above ground or another way to prevent that happening.

As Mike said, the wire cannot be buried unless it's known to be completely unused (as in, not connected to a circuit anywhere). I think it's best to pull out any unused wire. If they buried wire that was active, the work is not to code and is tell them they need to fix it.

So if i understand this correctly they were aware of the wiring in pipes under the floor since they already had worked on the floor outlets so no reason for them not to aware there could be more issues under the floor , without a contract you probably will never get restitution so lesson learned and get those wires out of there and IMO they were responsible to bring all of this up to code so where was the inspectore before the concrete was poured.

Since they knew wiring was run through the floor, how could they not be thinking of that in further floor demo? No common sense. Someone was not thinking. Sounds like someone took a reciprocating saw to it instead of a circular saw set to the depth of the planks and subfloor. It is common to find wire in the floor joists, you dont just cut like a fool.

It is fixable, but the junction needs to be accessible and not buried. Everyone knew better but did it wrong anyways. I would type up a nice letter explaining what he needs to do to remedy the situation or legal action will be taken.

All he really has to do is make it accessible and ensure the wires are secured correctly. What type of floor are we dealing with? If it is wood, it could be made accessible by taking off the tongue and grooves over the junction box and securing the boards down with trim screws. Except now they have no clue where it actually is under the floor, since they buried it.

I guess if it is buried in concrete, it isnt a fire risk! As long as everything still works...

Thank you all! Vith, unfortunately it is a stained cement floor. I need to check again and ensure that they took the appropriate measures to either pull the wire or kill it (if that's even a possibility). There is a lot about this house that is not up to code as it was built in 1968. This was the last part of the interior electric that had to be brought up to code, so it's important to me that it is done right.

The old wire feeding through the conduit that was cut could undoubtedly be disconnected at the breaker box. However, if there are other receptacles, etc., that are supplied by that circuit, this will kill the feeds to them also. Whoever did the work sounds borderline incompetent. Besides not exercising reasonable caution, claiming that they couldn't figure out where the wires went is BS. Maybe they couldn't have done it because they were too incompetent, but any person with a modicum of electrical experience could have figured this out. Or maybe they couldn't figure this out because they didn't want to figure this out, knowing it would be extra work to fix what they had screwed up. By sealing up what was a live wire, they violated code and created a potentially dangerous situation since we have no idea of how they terminated the wire. If they would have wrapped it in electrician's tape before burying it, it would still be illegal, but safer than just leaving a possible exposed wire inside conduit.

I suggest you hire an electrician to restore the wiring to your outside lighting, and to determine if there is a way to insure that the capped wiring has been properly deactivated. As I mentioned, it can be made safe by disconnecting it at the breaker box, but the electrician might have to run some more wire if there was anything else on this circuit that would then need to be restored.

i know the first thing we do when we move somewhere is see what goes with what. cannot believe electricians would not do this basic.

"They couldn't figure out where it went so they capped it and cemented over it."

Who thinks that way? What a bunch of dimwits.

I'd get an electrician to write up an estimate for fixing what they messed up, then have a nice friendly chat with your general contractor. Depending on how big the estimate is, I might invite an attorney to that meeting.

Kudzu9, I'll do just that. I know the wiring ran to a switch on the wall because that's how I used to turn the lights on and off. Maybe there is a way they can check it from there.

I did speak to my GC who told me the outside lighting isn't up to code either. There is conduit that runs outside of the arch that holds one of the lights (as opposed to being buried in the arch). The GC said any licensed electrician who touches that has to bring it up to code and suggested I hire a non-licensed electrician to do the work. Needless to say, I won't be doing that.

What I am willing to do is share in the cost. If this had been addressed while the floor was opened, I would have had to pay to replace the wiring and bring it up to code. Now, it will be more expensive to fix so I feel like it needs to be a shared cost. We'll see how this goes. Thank you again!

I think you've made the right decision. I'm skeptical about whether that GC will contribute, but I wish you luck.

I would be angry that they cut the conduit and without talking to you, decided it didnt matter and just covered it up. In concrete no less. It didn't matter to THEM. I am a hack DIY homeowner but with a continuity tester ($20?) I could have figured out where those wires went. They just didn't care.