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Electrical work concern regrading licence - new build - New York State

5 years ago

Hi All,


Need you advice, we are building a new house in Albany NY area, and during the house construction I have noticed that Electrical work like rough in ( wiring, electrical boxes and meter installation) is done by builder not by the licensed electrician. few questions on this


1. Is there are a licence requirement to do electrical work in places like Albany NY and East Greenbush NY.

2. As the builder is doing electrical work, if builder dont have licence what are my options.

3. if the builder says he is licensed to do electrical work, how can I verify builder's electrical license.


Any help on this matter is very much appreciated.


Thanks,

Reddy.



Comments (17)

  • 5 years ago

    If the builder doesn't have an elect. lic.........STOP IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!!!!! Talk to the inspectors in your county/city......NOW!!!!!!

    home y thanked robin0919
  • 5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    I believe if you are in the city of Albany proper then you need a licensed electrician, otherwise it is unnecessary in most outside locales.

    home y thanked taconichills
  • 5 years ago

    I built a house in rural Vermont and the only requirements were a minimum of 100 ft from the road and #12 wire. No inspections.

    home y thanked User
  • 5 years ago

    Alas, there's no statewide rule on licenses and permit requirements for residential properties. I'm not familiar with your county. However, I'd be very wary of anybody doing work who isn't licensed, ESPECIALLY for rough-in. ESPECIALLY if you have a lax inspector.

    Here we require licensed electricians and even with a good and experienced electrician, the inspections are detailed enough to catch some errors (they're sticklers for things like box fill here).


    home y thanked Ron Natalie
  • 5 years ago

    Maybe it's time to hire an independent electrician to look over your wiring if there are no regulations for an electrician to do the work.

    home y thanked cpartist
  • 5 years ago

    Hi All, Thank you so much for your inputs, this is very help full, I will check with other electricians in my area and let you know what I have found out.


    Thanks again, really appreciate all your help.


    Regards.

  • 5 years ago

    I personally I'm shocked that allot of locations 'don't' require a lic elec. to wire houses and not inspected!!!! That's just crazy and could cause allot of fires and electrocutions.

  • 5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    A child can do the resi electrical. And an electrical fires are not that common.

    Every electrical scheduler has to be approved. Inspector checks subpanel connection and the kitchen multiple branches (dedicated circuits). Todays electrical systems are way over engineered, because of switch to more energy efficient lights and appliances. Some modern refrigerators rated at 11A (samsung), presumed government 7A but draw only 1.1A running for a dedicated circuit. NEC went over the board requiring two or more 20A electrical branches circuits over the counter to make sure you excessive ampacity. The modern NEC code with residential is pretty strong unlike other areas. The hacks moved away.

    It is really shocking to see sometimes when a licensed electrician can not pass electrical after two attempts. LOL.

  • 5 years ago

    Licensing and competence are two different, largely unrelated, things. Folks on this forum talk about contractors licenses as though they are some kind of magic bullet that guarantees properly done work. T'ain't so.

    House wiring, except in unusual circumstances, isn't rocket surgery. The code is reasonably clear, it doesn't take long to read the parts related to house wiring. Read it and then look and see if it's being followed. If you pay attention to box fill, support of the wires, grounding, how the connections are made, and correct use of AFCI/GFI circuits you'll cover most of the likely errors. There seems to be a correlation between neatness of the work and the likelihood that it's been done right.

    It irks the heck out of me to pay a licensed hack to do work badly when I know I can do better myself. (I've pulled my own permits in other jurisdictions where that's allowed and have gotten only compliments on the work from sometimes very skeptical inspectors.) In our state work can be done "under the supervision" of a licensed electrician, which means that most of the electrical contractors have one or two licensed guys and 20 people of unknown competence actually pulling the wires and making the connections. The licensed guy doesn't need to be on site to "supervise". Our previous (brand new) house had a half dozen readily visible code violations installed by a licensed electrician (or under his supervision). He was a buddy of the inspector, so the inspector didn't need to actually look at the work it seems.

  • 5 years ago

    LOL, check this out, current builder using a licensed electrician [supervision] screwed up:

    - in and outs of gfci (1/2 were installed backwards)

    - no bonding @gas line anywhere, running ungrounded CSST

    - wrong conductor @ grounding rod.

    - 1 GFCI feed for all 5 bathrooms in the house [two floors]

    - garbage disposal & dishwasher same circuit

    - no lights/outlets in the pantry

    - forgot the wiring over the mirror(s) lights in the master bath.

    Violations caught: 0

  • 5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    Gas piping is exempt from bonding requirements in the code.

    It is permitted to use one GFCI for multiple bathrooms provided that there are nothing other than bathroom receptacles on the circuit.

    There's nothing in the code that bars the dishwasher and garbage disposal on the same circuit unless the manual for one or the other mandates a dedicated circuit (most don't) and either both are hardwired OR both are cord and plug connected.

    Forgetting a non-specifically required light fixture is not something the inspectors are going to be concerned with. Not a code issue.

  • 5 years ago

    Oh, not again.


    - Switching in and out of GFCI makes then trip and worthless


    - CSST must be grounded by NFPA 54 Sec 7.13 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QiNMnDdXQ8 and manufacture requirements


    -shared GFCI: hair dryer 1800W, you can not run two of them on the same circuit. Having 5 bathrooms on the same circuit is insane.

    - Hardwired dishwashers not allowed here, county required dedicated circuit.


    >> forgot the wiring over the mirror(s) lights in the master bath.

    > Forgetting a non-specifically required light fixture is not something the inspectors are going to be concerned with.

    It was spec'd on the electrical plan. It had a switch box with no wire! I mean come on, every box should have one incoming wire and at least one outgoing. This one was missing the outgoing wire.



  • 5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    Multiple bathrooms on one circuit may be suboptimal, but it is NOT against the code and the inspector isn't obliged to check for it. Electrical inspectors aren't usually concerned with the plumbing and fuel gas codes. Not all CSST is required to be bonded and your implication was that there was other piping involved.

    Your county goes beyond the NEC on the dishwasher then. You'll have to live with that.

  • 5 years ago

    ' In our state work can be done "under the supervision" of a licensed electrician, which means that most of the electrical contractors have one or two licensed guys and 20 people of unknown competence actually pulling the wires and making the connections. The licensed guy doesn't need to be on site to "supervise". Our previous (brand new) house had a half dozen readily visible code violations installed by a licensed electrician (or under his supervision). He was a buddy of the inspector, so the inspector didn't need to actually look at the work it seems. '

    rw......that's INSANE to me IMO!!!!! Where are you? I had a 4200sf house built 10yrs ago and the elec. I had was ONE lic elec. person that did ALL of the work.

  • 5 years ago

    Massachusetts. The barriers to licensing here are very high, taking many years to complete so most of the people working for licensed electrical contractors aren't licensed. Great if you need to find someone to wire your nuclear power plant, not so good for getting ordinary house wiring done.

  • 5 years ago

    If you're building a house, it behooves you to keep an eye on things. As I pointed out, it's not the inspector's job to make sure that things are optimal, just compliant. I didn't do much of the work on my house, but I did check things daily (and I spent a lot of time reading the building and plumbing codes to check on the other trades). There's been more than once that I pointed out something that an inspector was going to fail us on that was legal.

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