NYC Repairing Sandy Damage

[jglavin]

Hello,
My sister's house in Queens was damaged during Hurricane Sandy last year. A tree fell on her overhead service and pulled the weatherhead and some of the riser conduit off of the building. The tree has since been removed, and the electrical service is currently still in a state of disrepair - although it has been re-connected and she is living in the house currently. This house is very old, perhaps 100 years old at this point. Most of the interior wiring is either original or very old. Most of the house has ungrounded outlets. I think the actual wiring is this sort of stuff that looks like AC/MC cable but has no ground (I've heard it called BX). There are no safety issues that I am aware of.

I know that here in Denver, if you make a repair like that on the outside of the building, as long as there are no safety issues that the inspector wouldn't make you bring the interior up to current code (it would be grandfathered in). My father is paranoid that we will be looking at a six-figure remodel in order to bring everything up to code, just to get a permit to repair the service drop. He wants to sell the house to avoid that. I think we can just hire someone to make the repair, and we shouldn't have to worry about the interior.

I am not familiar with NYC codes, so I can't make an informed recommendation. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
James G.

 

[bward]

NYC uses the 2008 NEC with some changes as detailed here:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/codes_and_reference_materials/nec.shtml
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/downloads/bldgs_code/electrical_code_local_law_39of2011.pdf


This combination is, somewhat confusingly, referred to as the "New York City 2011 Electrical Code", even though it's using the 2008 version of the NEC.

The document linked to above states:

"?27-3024 Adoption of the electrical code technical standards.a. The city of New York hereby adopts the 2008 edition of the National Fire Protection Association
NFPA 70 National Electrical Code as the minimum requirements..."

 

[jglavin]

I did read that. I was not able to find any verbiage on grandfather clauses or what triggers the requirement for a building to be brought up to current code.

Thanks!

 

[GoldDigger]

I did read that. I was not able to find any verbiage on grandfather clauses or what triggers the requirement for a building to be brought up to current code.

Thanks!

Based on the example of New Jersey, you should look at the building codes, and in particular anything relating specifically to "rehabilitation" after damage rather than just repair.