23 Mar
2004
23 Mar
'04
12:35 p.m.
When I and my now-ex bought the place I'm
currently living in, one of
the sellers (informally) told us that her father, an electrician, had
done some of the wiring.
Oy. I know of one electrician I'm never going near. You'd think that
in a case like that he'd be even more careful than for an arm's-length
job, and yet I found things like connections made by twisting and
taping, no wire nut or solder or anything. I haven't looked up whether
such a thing can be code, but I sure hope not.
Not around here. Probably nowhere at this point. At some point it was
probably OK.
Certainly we all have seen some horrible electrical jobs done by
professional electricians. However, for the most part they do a decent
job, and they know lots of things about code that most people do not know
(or think they do, but are mistaken. Trust me, there are zillions of
little rules that most people ignore). The number of horrible jobs done by
amateurs, even the "good" ones, far outnumbers the number of horrible jobs
done by professionals.
This is the reason I do very little plumbing work in my house. I just
don't know the rules, and I do not want to screw up.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org