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Subject - new panel/ old wiring.
twildenhaus I am installing a new panel and the house wiring is 2 wires with no grounds. 1/2 of it anyway. Old house. Do I spend the many of days pulling wire. or use the old wiring.
JimmyDee
quote:
Originally posted by twildenhaus

I am installing a new panel and the house wiring is 2 wires with no grounds. 1/2 of it anyway. Old house. Do I spend the many of days pulling wire. or use the old wiring.

I am going to recommend you get professional help and hire a licensed electrician.
Jim
SteveMc Jimmy,
Your answer to the above question may have been off a bit. I think the writer could be a qualified electrician looking for an opinion. Case in point, I just gave a quote on an older house being purchased for investment purposes and I wanted to post here to ask for other opinions before I gave the quote, unfortunately I had to have the quote "yesterday" and didn't have time to post and wait for replies. That being said, the house in question was very run down and the prospective buyer only wanted a service upgrade (60a to 100a) and a couple of receptacles added for window air conditioners. My question and the one I wanted to pose here is, what about the liability of doing just a little work where I have seen several flagrant code violations. Do I just do what is being asked or do I make the house safe?
BTW, I quoted the house as a total rewire, and noted on my bid that I wouldn't do the work otherwise. Still haven't heard if I got the job.
So,twildenhaus, give us some more information about the job and I'm sure you'll get some opinions.
My opinion is that you will have to evaluate the wiring to see if it's safe. A lot of the old rag jacket stuff is very brittle and the insulation just falls off if you handle it. The best place in my experience to check is in ceiling light fixture boxes.
JimmyDee
quote:
The purpose of this site is to help those who seek to better understand the theories, codes and safe practices involving the use of electricity.

We are fortunate to have sharp contributers who continue to show good judgment. These are friendly people who will help and have helped anyone that common sense allows. In an effort to act responsibly, we cannot help people with a specific Do-It-Yourself electrical installation or modification. This puts everyone involved at risk. Surely, you can see the hazards of us thinking your doing one thing and your talking about or doing something else. What if you misunderstood us or worse, we misunderstood you? What about errors of omission based on assumption? We just can't see what's going on and will not contribute to an accident because of miscommunication. We recognize that there are people out there that for many different reasons prefer to do there own electrical work. We can even imagine that a small minority of these people are very capable of safely performing this work. The problem is since we don't know the person, we have to err on the side of caution. If you insist on doing your own work then at least get an electrician to supervise who can see what's going on.
Pierre Belarge

Steve
Your situation can be a tough call, it is difficult to help to make a decision over the net with so little information to go by.

But... If you do see violations/situations that are potentially dangerous, it is your ethical duty to discuss them at the least with the property owner. A lot of people will think you are gold digging, but you will walk away with a clean mind and have done your job.
There are some houses that have old existing wiring that is in good shape, to determine the condition may take a 'survey' which involves more time and effort.

As far as liability, you are liable for the work you perform.

Pierre
SteveMc Thank you Pierre for you timely reply. The house I refered to above is one of thosse job you really don't want, but it's an old customer that you hate to turn down. I hope he decides against buying the house.
lctrc789 I have changed many services through the years and I think that if you watch what you are doing on the contract you can cover your rear end.
Point: I changed a service many years ago that was an old 60 amp service with with three knob and tube circuits and one old a/c cable and 6 new romexs.
I changed this service and installed the proper size breakers and gave a letter of explanation to the homeowners that stated, I have changed the service, installed proper grounds, and the right size breakers, and that I have not rewired any part of the home and they could blow breakers, at any time seeing how the old panel had 30 amp fuses on 14 gauge wire.
A period of time went by and the house did catch fire due to fire inspection they stated it was electrical fire. Well, I got involved in it because I was the last electrical contractor that was liable for work done.
The fire marshall stated that a wire had overheated causing the fire, well there was, an old extension cord that was wired to the range hood in the wall.
Because I had written my contract to the point of what I had done, and I only changed the service and done nothing else of course my liability was done.
The point in this post is this document all work you have done no matter how small if you find a problem write it down and tell the customer and explain.
Many may think you are trying to get more money, but the bottom line guys there are thousands of homes in your area that are outdated, unsafe,and homeowners do things that no one even knows about it.
I have even went as far to take pictures of unsafe situations and keep them in a file for years to show what I have seen and or noted.
It works and it does cover your rea end. Many of us have changed services i am sure and noted old ragged wire and we just change the service and go on.
You can recommend a re wire or updates and tell the homeowners what is bad, it is up to them and we can only cover our tails.
Good luck