What's A Partially-Tripped Circuit Breaker?

Depending on the brand it may be easy to find the old breakers. They seem to have changed very little as far as fit in many years.

The new sub panel out in the shop here uses the same breakers the

Brand and time would certainly matter.

A friend was looking at an early 1940's house recently. She asked me to be there during the inspection to help with any questions she might have.

I got there early and looked at the panel. I said to myself "Self, there's nothing written on the main breaker. I can't tell what size service this house has."

The inspector comes over, pulls the cover off the panel (What a mess! Doubled up circuits, 14g wire on 20A breakers, etc.) and says to me "There is nothing written on the main breaker. I can't tell what size service this house has."

I just smiled. My friend, not so much. She withdrew her offer.

The company I worked for was built in 1965. Most of the 120 volt brekers are Square D and they still fit the boxes of today.

There are some other major companies and I am sure they are the same. Some companies may be out of business and components may be hard to find.

On Thu, 29 Jul 2021 14:02:07 -0400, Ralph Mowery posted for all of us to digest...

Federal Pacific comes to mind immediately. Zinsco, second.

On Thu, 29 Jul 2021 11:36:31 -0700 (PDT), Marilyn Manson posted for all of us to digest...

She could could have lowered her offer to pay for a Sparky to replace the panel & upgrades. It depends how much she likes the place.

It also makes one have a second thought about the other mechanicals and infrastructure. It is a hot sellers market so who knows?

With that much wrong with the wiring, it makes one wonder how much other substandard stuff is in the house.

My son bought an older house about a year ago. I would not have even thought about that one, but I doubt he would change his mind as his wife wanted it.

Sofar he has had electrical problems, water heater problems, air condition problems. Not sure what all else.

While probably a 'fake' program , the one about Holems on Homes or what every that man's name is shows all kinds of shoddy work on peoples homes.

Yes, for the last year or so around here it is difficult to find a home at a reasonable price.

I sold a house I lived in that was built in 1966 for about $ 90,000 about 15 years ago . Saw in some listings that it was completely remodeled and sold for $ 230,000. It is a small 3 beadroom 2 bath home on a 1/2 acre lot in the country.

It was probably sold for $ 50,000 more than it should have.

Mike Holmes has had a couple different TV shows and he has guested on a couple others. He is near Toronto.

She was infatuated with the exterior, blind to the issues with the interior.

There were other problems, some major, some minor, but it all added up to a lot of money. Cheap wood paneling throughout the second floor and not a single piece of trim on any door or window. You could see the bare edge of the paneling and a gap between it and the jambs. Demo would be easy. ;-)

One of the bigger issues was the layout of the first floor. Right off the kitchen was a small room, probably a converted back porch. The washer and dryer were in there. She was going to move the washer and dryer to the basement and turn that room into a breakfast nook. Then I pointed out all of the framing that would have to altered to get the machines down the stairs. The "easiest" solution would have been to cut the framing to make room, use temporary supports and put the framing back the way it was - essentially locking the machines in the basement. To make "permanent room" to get the machines in and out would require some serious reframing of the stairs and joists - i.e. the first floor floor.

OK, so no breakfast nook...the table goes in the kitchen. Oh, that must explain the lack of cabinets. There was one base cabinet for the sink. 1 drawer. One. I kid you not. 2 small uppers. That's it. No room for anything else.

Off the kitchen on another wall were 2 doors. One door took you into a full size, magazine quality bathroom. Absolutely gorgeous and absolutely out of character for the house. Thing is, that bathroom was fitted into what I assume used to be the dining room. The 2nd door, right next to bathroom door, took you into what was left of the dining room, which was now an L shaped space. Picture looking down into a square room. 2/3's of the width and 2/3's of the length was taken up by the bathroom, leaving a L shaped space along the side and back of the bathroom. The previous owner had left a treadmill "behind" the bathroom.

Entertaining would be impossible. No room in the kitchen and the living room was on the other side of the kitchen wall, around the corner and through a large foyer. A large, but unusable foyer, because there was no wall space - doors and stairs breaking up the space.

She wasn't happy at all the things I pointed out, but once she calmed down she realized was a mistake it would be to buy that house.

That's why I went QO when I replaced my fuse panel with a breaker box. Industry standard since 1955, ( a 1955 QO will fit today's QO or QOB panel, and today's QO device will fit a 1955 QO panel)

That's $600000 with 10 or 15 offers any day of the week here right now - best offer might hit $750000

The guy knows his stuff - no doubt about THAT. ANd the aufull workmanship he uncovers is NOT STAGED. I've seen some of the same crap when I go to open houses (was looking to "downsize" a couple years ago when my house was worth less than $300,000 - now double that on a bad day)

There were one or two where they showed him dealing with previous contractors who'd ripped off the homeowners. He was always firm, polite, yet clearly angry on their behalf.

My husband and I imagined a show called "Mike's Friends", where a bunch of guys with pipe wrenches, conduit benders, and other blunt instruments would find and tune up some of these shady contractors.

Cindy Hamilton

Right now many homes are selling at an all time high. If you have to replace the house you live in you are probably going to be a looser money wise. The replacement house will probably be way high also.

Then as you mentioned the property tax may be much higher, insurance also. I think the house I live in now has about 1500 of property tax and close to the same for insurance each year. That would probably double if I sold this one and bought another of the same size.

I also hae spent some money doing things like puttin on a new roof not too long ago that will last me my lifetime if we don't get a hail storm or something.

On Thu, 29 Jul 2021 15:55:21 -0700 (PDT), Marilyn Manson posted for all of us to digest...

Your description makes it an ideal project for a flipper.

On Thu, 29 Jul 2021 18:06:30 -0400, snipped-for-privacy@ccanoemail.ca posted for all of us to digest...

Yup, he sure does find the sketchy stuff. I presume there is editing done to concentrate on that but he seems genuine.

On Fri, 30 Jul 2021 05:55:17 -0700 (PDT), snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com posted for all of us to digest...

You could watch "Catch A Contractor" with Adam Carolla & Skip Bedell. They used to legally do this. What expressions when the knuckleheads were caught.

On Thu, 29 Jul 2021 21:35:36 -0400, Clare Snyder posted for all of us to digest...

That's a Square D panel (Schneider Electric) for those unfamiliar.