A friend just bought his first house. He had an electrician come in to quote some upgrades, One was two replace two, non working baseboard heaters.
I told him to let me check it first as since both heaters were on the same breaker, I thought it unlikely both would be bad. He was kind of surprised when it only took me a few minutes to fix them. There was one wire in the breaker that was not even tightened !
I have seen this before where an apprentice electrician was working. I'm not sure how someone can be so careless.
Just wondering if anyone here has seen this?
OTOH: I'm not perfect and once had to re-do a wire nut.
I bought a newly built house in 2019 that came with a 1-year builder's warranty. During that first year, I put in about 3 dozen warranty claims, most of which were for electrical issues.
Most of the issues were a result of improperly stripping insulation before tightening the screw down, especially on receptacles, so that the screw was tightened on the insulation. That caused intermittent connections and breakers that constantly tripped. The issues with the light witches were mostly loose connections, which also caused breakers to trip. I'm out of warranty now so I've corrected at least a half dozen additional issues by myself. There are still a few issues, two loose receptacles in the hallway near the front door and a loose receptacle in the garage, but we've learned not to use those receptacles until I get around to fixing them.
I'haven't seen something tthis important, but there were 3 flaws in my house, which was 4 years old and was owned by a single guy who either didn't notice them or didn't mind.
The switches by the stairway, next to the down-pointing, had the upstairs light switch closer to the stairs than the basement landing switch. One could get used to that but I changed it.
The powder room switch was on the hinged side of the door. I think the standard is to be on the latch side. I was in one of the other townhouess and noticed it was the same. (I wish I'd paid more attention when I've been in several other houses.) Too hard to change that.
3: Bingo: The switches at either end of the front door hall were wired so the one farther from the door had to be on for the other to work. It must meant reversing two wires, but I had to make a drawing to keep from being confused.
The electician lived for 5 or 10 years in one of the townhouses** and I saw him at a meeting. I thought number 3 above would be an interesting piece of chitchat, but he didnt' like hearing it. Maybe I sounded to serious or maybe he just didn't like having a flaw "he" made pointed out. I'm sure he didn't do all the work on 100 houses himself, and I don't think I expect the boss to go test every light switch in every house. Isn't the guy who does the work the one who tests it, unless it's a nuclear power plant or something?
**You could tell his house because he had real 110v lights along the sidewalk, and instead of a recirculating range hood, his had an outlet above the front-sliding glass door.
Just remembered something. When I bought my house it was a "fixer-upper" and I had to re-do everything the previous owner did. My very first project was to remove the light switch located in the shower !!!
My builder checked every one. I'm in a development of 675 homes and there are builders that take care of a few houses at a time. He checks ever switch, valve, faucet, window and appliance before he hands it off as done. Every screw on a switch plate is perfectly aligned with a vertical slot.
Pays off. Of the four houses near me, none of us had a complaint or needed a fix of anything
I'm impressed. Especially with aligning the screw slot vertically. I used to do that when put a plate on, not sure if I still do.
When I was 10 my mother bought that probably less than 5 or 10 years old. 5 years later, big chunks started chipping off the bricks, especially one one wall and the chimney. Even though we were not the original buyer, my mother heard that the builder would give a refund. She called him and he made an appointment to come and look, but he died before then. Still he'd paid others and his intention to pay us was there. Apparetnly he'd bought a load of bad brick 10 or 15 years earlier. I don't know his name or how old he was.
Piss off the inspector ONCE and he'll DOUBLE check EVERYTHING on EVERY house you do for the next year - al least!!! It will become a game for him to find the most arcane "defects" he can.
It's great that the inspection is 100% but I don't necessarily agree with screw alignment...although on a switch plate exact torque is not critical.
When I was taking wood-shop in HS I built a book rack and at the bottom where it would not show, I put the screws in where the snugness felt just right. The teacher made me adjust them so the heads aligned.
I did not at all approve of one being slightly loose and another slightly tight. For my job, when we worked on stationary stand-by batteries, there was a specified torque which we adhered to exactly. We were not concerned with all bolt heads being aligned,
Vertical screws don't really mean much. All they mean is that the person who put the plate on made them vertical.
I could do the sloppiest job I want inside the box and then try to make people think I'm a great electrician by the applying the miniscule amount effort needed to align the screws.
We've all seen great looking facades hiding pure crap. Vertical screws
*look* good, but they don't tell you anything about what's inside the box.
Could be but the inside is as meticulous as the outside. I had the electrician do some other work for me too afterwards. Some people take pride in their work.
There's an Internet meme that says, "Tell me x without telling me x.", where x can be all kinds of things.
In your case, I could say, "Tell me you don't have a DR Horton home without telling me you don't have a DR Horton home." Above, you've told me you don't have a DR Horton home.
I agree with you. My second sight tells me that because of his change, that bookcase is about to fall over, taking many old priceless books and antique nicknacks with it.
When I took wood shop it was a year except for 4 or 6 weeks that were electric shop. On the test, he asked why the birds on power lines were not electrocuted. I had an electric train and I said it was because they weren't grounded. He marked it wrong and said it was because the wires are insulated. It was only 7th grade and it didn't affect what college I went to so I didn't argue with him.
It is not a book case, just a small , leaning shelf which I still use.
I also learned early on that teachers are not always right and also that it is generally not worth an argument.
First time was in 2nd grade, then later in college when I took Spanish.
I hated my last semester professor so much that I went to the head of the department after I graduated and asked if I could possibly get her home address.
He told me he really could not give out such info.
I then said, "Just as well, I was going to write a nasty letter."
He then gave me her address, I'm sure he hated her too.
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