All Forum Posts by: Loren Thomas

It looks like we need to wait a couple months til her credit is improved enough, I found a good lender that helped me today a lot today and will accept pretty low scores.

 I also was considering concrete. I like how that can be done as well.

 This will vary depending on the "authority having jurisdiction". Where I live, officially, the answer is yes it needs to be inspected. That said, there is definitely a gray area. My advise would be call whoever would perform said inspection (authority having jurisdiction's electrical inspector) and ask if they would require it.

 What is your definition on "older"? Every 20 years or so there were significant changes and/or upgrades to infrastructure and branch circuit wiring. Give me a time frame cause I could write a book on the last 100 years of electricity! 

I'm reading all over that the minimum credit for an FHA loan is 580. Problem is the people I'm talking to must not work with any of the lenders that will actually accommodate this score. My wife and I are trying to refinance our house, but my income alone isn't enough, especially because she makes more money than I do. We're taking steps to get her credit up, but is there anything we can do in the now and not the next year?

 The service is built around the amperage desired. Typically 125 or 200 amps. There are smaller and larger but those are the industry standard. More amperage requires bigger wire, and bigger wire requires bigger conduit, which is why it is all usually replaced. Plus it's usually easier to just replace it all than to retrofit.

A GFI breaker has a spot for the neutral of the circuit in addition to the standard branch circuit output. Sounds like you could have mixed up the black and white wires, otherwise it sounds like you did it right. 

 A new service is from the weatherhead (where the utility hooks up their power), riser/conduit to the meter, and conduit from the meter to the electrical panel, and the electrical panel itself. I guess it's possible to replace everything but the electrical panel, but normally the electrical panel is included in a "new service" because whatever the reason for replacing it all, the panel likely will fall to the same criteria.

 Do you mean outlets on the rear of the duplex, or the main electrical panels? Assuming you mean outlets, I'd get a plug tester ($10) and plug it in. Which of the three lights light up will tell you want the problem is.

 That's the safest way yes. White wire goes to silver screw, black wire to gold screw, and bare copper or green wire to green screw. 

You can also strip the wires and stab them into the back of the outlet near the correct screw, but you can only do this if its 14 gauge wire, and only the black and white.