The joys of "pre-owned" homes

My SIL was here today and told me what happened with his electrician friend just recently. They were shootin the breeze and this fellow was sitting on the washing machine while working on the main panel... #1 red flag. That's some serious butt groundage right there (talk about throwing out the one hand rule). He was just gonna do a quick tweak of the main lugs because they were a little loose from old age. SIL says he was tightening one up and a shower of sparks comes blowing out of the panel. The red faced electrician had slipped off the main terminal and, while the screwdriver shaft was sliding against it, went all the way back to the grounded cabinet. He gave SIL the screwdriver as a souvenir, which doesn't really look like one now, sheepishly got off the washing machine and paid attention... while he tightened up the terminals... Told SIL that while that sort of thing shouldn't ever happen with a licensed electrician, I also knew that it can and does when ya get complacent. Told him, prolly the worst part for his buddy was that someone was standing there to see it...

 

That's nice that you can set the place up to live out the rest of your years in it.

 

Most electrical arc flash injuries happen to senior experienced guys.
Had an elder gentleman help me with my well pump change out years back and he did something similar in the pressure switch box - I think he was blinded enough to take my advice and let me finish the wiring. Tripped the 200A main in the panel

 

Tripping the 200a main says sumthin... glad I wasn't looking at it when she lit up...

 

I had found a random live 220V wire just hanging down in the middle of the basement right after I moved in that wasn't capped and had bare wires showing. My little brother was over, who went to electrician's school and did a few years as an apprentice. He said he'd run out to his truck and get his tools and I told him I'd throw off the breaker for the whole house, since the breaker box wasn't labeled for anything when I moved in.

He assured me he knew what he was doing and could cap it off fine with it live since they always worked on everything live at job sites. Well, I watched him take his snips and cut through all the wires at once, and then saw the awesome fireworks that followed, and then laughed while my brother danced around the basement shaking his hands!!! I have no idea why he thought he could cut through all the wires at once safely, but it sure was fun to watch! I even bought him a new pair of Klein electrician's pliers since his were now welded shut!

 

Seen guys at work take hot line cutters and cut through both hot legs and neutral on live triplex a time or two.

 

There are 3 breakers in my panel that are completely unknown. They are off and everything still works???

 

I've got a few in my "fixer upper"

- Wiring had no wire nuts in any of the boxes even the newer bath addition from about 2000 all wires were taped with electrical tape if I was lucky or the old fiber tape if not.
-No insulation in any wall, nice surprise when i got my first fuel bill of $600-700 last February for a 1400 sq ft ranch
- A second roof built on top of the other in my living room with just pieces of 2 x 6's shoved between the old roof and new 2 x 6 framework as the support
- Kitchen had an electrical cord run from inside an outlet box along the carpet (yes in the kitchen) behind the cabinets and over to plug the fridge in, all taped no nuts
-Down spout on corner of the house buried into the dirt (no pipe underground, just shoved into the flat dirt) guess what? it rains and the water was backing up onto the patio slab and under the rotted sill plate below the floor-to-ceiling window and into the living room under the carpet
- Garage wired in 12-2 w/ ground (built in '75) wire ran under the siding out the side of the garage buried in the gravel next to the slab, into the grass, under a 3' x 4' slab of limestone as a paver and over on the the porch to be plugged into the outlet (2 prong house built in the 40's) with a plug taped on the end of the romex
-My basement stairs were 11 steps in 4' out and just over 6' high (a little steep and shallow) but about halfway down the steps a 2" galvonized drain pipe ran through the step to tie into the cast iron main trunk line that was in the stair walkway as well reducing the stair width to about 23" with a pipe between your feet as well
- The garage door had a lock on it but there were no man doors and the 2 storm doors didn't have handles on them so it was easier to just leave the garage door unlocked as well to save the thieves the couple steps to realize there is nothing in the garage worth stealing

Its been an experience but at least I know pretty much what I'm doing or have the connections to get help with what I don't.

 

Wow....master electrician was at work from the University of Shock and Zap!

 

You folks with electrical circuits and have no idea where they are going could benefit from a tic-tracer
They can work in live line mode, just plug in and set to appropriate mode and use the receiver to determine what it is fed from.
It's a great way to sort out a panel with no labels or switches that "don't do anything"

I'm watching Christmas vacation in my mind

 

I'll have to check into that. I recently had our main sub panel upgraded from fuse to breakers and need to map it out.

 

I have a GreenLee circuit seeker at work that let me figure out all the odd goofiness in my panel here.
It's something most everyone here would use once and never need again but big money.

I could see the way this forum works if there are enough people interested that a tool could be purchased and forwarded around that no one person would be on the hook for the total purchase price.
maybe a 5$ reduction each time it went to the new owner or a donation into the site fund? This Klien tools model could be adapted to be used on multiple circuits with cheap jumpers I could write directions and make it a sticky for folks who have been around a bit.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1A0WDRWAABNASV5WYY9X

 

thats scary