All Forum Posts by: Loren Thomas

I have a unique-ish situation and I am wondering if I have any options. We want to pull about 40k out of our house... somehow? We have a ch7 discharge from 6/22/16. We owe about 290k, current value via redfin is 432k, via zillow 387k. Does the fact that it the first position is a private mortgage affect anything?

#1. Aluminum wire is not wrong or bad. The wire just needs to be larger than it's copper counterpart at a given ampacity. If it's from the 60s though, it's probably not grounded, and that is a problem.

#2. This is bogus as far as I'm concerned, unless all The breakers are GFI beakers. The safest solution is to install GFIs in all outlet locations, or load up the electrical panel with GFI breakers.

I don't fully understand. What is a hydro buried splice? Are we talking about conductors from the utility to the house?

Around here homeowners are allowed to do their own electrical work and pulling a permit to do it isn't difficult. Investors must use a licensed electrical contractor. 

Grounding/bonding was unexpectedly emphasized for me. Labor and industries is the authority around here, and they provide a list of how many questions are from what sections of the NEC.

In that situation you are only going to be able to switch the light in the fan at the same time.  You can use the pull strings that normally come  attached to  the fixture to control them individually,  but even then the switch would have to be on for it to function as such.

Sorry y'all my life got a bit busy this summer.

I don't see any misinformation from others so I'll just respond the the outdoor electrical panel.

You CAN have the panel on the exterior of the house if certain clearance criteria is met. That said, if your gutting it... I'd say best to move it inside... if nothing else because a new owner may have the same questions you have now... 

It's not wrong, but it's usually done for a cheap way to replace an old fuse box... and it shows...

Yep there's a tab between the gold screws on the outlet you need to snip to separate the screws' continuity. 

You should have one outlet with an extra wire, probably red, that needs to be landed on its own gold screw as described above... this will be your switched location.

That will be the most likely solution.

The rust is certainly worth noting. A leak or drain or flood of years past maybe. If there's no rust or corrosion or any other sort of water damage on the electrical components then I'd say leave it be... it's leftover from a previous symptom.

BUMP

This is very bad advice and misinformation. Code varies a lot depending on the "authority having jurisdiction." What you are saying might apply in Vegas, but it doesn't jive at all with the Seattle area. Plus I very much dislike any sentence that includes "just play dumb."

I agree with this gentleman.

I completely disagree about buyers not caring about the ground. I was frequently called to fix this issue from seller's agents or contractors.

Your best bet is going to be finding a ground behind the receptacle connected to a metal box. Just swap out all the 2 prong for 3 prong and connect the ground. 

In the real world this probably isn't the case. GFCI breakers will not solve your problem. When was the house built? Is it the original wiring? Assuming you don't have a ground, I see 2 options: You can rewire the whole place. Or, you can replace all the outlets with GFCI receptacles. You are flipping a house that a family will be living in, it needs to be as safe as possible, which is modern code. The cost to replace all the outlets with a $25 dollar unit might be significant. It will probably be worth just re-wiring by the time it's done.

All of my experience has been in the Seattle area. You really should do what the local authority says. Figure out who's in charge of inspections, and ask them.