Energized soffit, fascia, gutters

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stevebea

Senior Member
Location
Southeastern PA
Had a service call yesterday to a small mom n pop business. I got the the call because they were getting shocked off the front door which has an aluminum frame. When I put a DMM on it I had 105V to ground. After poking around awhile and discovering the aluminum soffits, fascia, gutters and downspouts were also energized I traced the problem to a old mercury vapor light mounted on a 4" rigid conduit. Some hack had poked a romex through the fascia and stapled the romex to the fascia for about 4ft. before it ran up the pole. There was a nick on the romex where it had been stapled way to hard to the fascia energizing all the aluminum on the exterior of the building. After 25 years in the trade it still amazes me what some people will do to save a buck.... either trying to do it themselves or getting their brother in law who wired their own addition 10 years ago to do work for them. Code compliant installations are still cheaper than off hours service calls!
 

480sparky

Senior Member
Location
Iowegia
Sometimes it takes 25 years for a hack installation to manifest itself. When it was installed, "It works, and the breaker stays on!" equated to "It's perfectly safe!"
 

infinity

Moderator
Staff member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Journeyman Electrician
I once had a similar problem. Customer called and swore that he had gotten a shock from an aluminum ladder leaning against the gutter. Went over and found that the soffit and gutter were energized with 120 volts. Seems that all of the work on a big addition was done by the HO and not inspected. All the boxes had the grounds cut off in the NM cable, panel was in the bathroom, no GFCI's, etc. I found that the siding guy had attached a metal blank cover to an electrical box under the metal soffit with a 3" dry wall screw and it had gone right through the hot leg energizing the entire metal soffit. You can't make this stuff up.
 

stevebea

Senior Member
Location
Southeastern PA
I once had a similar problem. Customer called and swore that he had gotten a shock from an aluminum ladder leaning against the gutter. Went over and found that the soffit and gutter were energized with 120 volts. Seems that all of the work on a big addition was done by the HO and not inspected. All the boxes had the grounds cut off in the NM cable, panel was in the bathroom, no GFCI's, etc. I found that the siding guy had attached a metal blank cover to an electrical box under the metal soffit with a 3" dry wall screw and it had gone right through the hot leg energizing the entire metal soffit. You can't make this stuff up.

Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction!
 

Cavie

Senior Member
Location
SW Florida
I once had a similar problem. Customer called and swore that he had gotten a shock from an aluminum ladder leaning against the gutter. Went over and found that the soffit and gutter were energized with 120 volts. Seems that all of the work on a big addition was done by the HO and not inspected. All the boxes had the grounds cut off in the NM cable, panel was in the bathroom, no GFCI's, etc. I found that the siding guy had attached a metal blank cover to an electrical box under the metal soffit with a 3" dry wall screw and it had gone right through the hot leg energizing the entire metal soffit. You can't make this stuff up.

And people here think there is no need to bond downspots within 5' if the pool.
 
Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
Had one with K&T wiring and blown in cellulose insulation. When it rained the insulation would get wet and thus the K&T. Energized the AL storm door. Fortunately the wood deck provided some degree of isolation. Wasn't long and the house was used as a practice burn for the local FD.
 
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