Typical commercial service around here!

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hillbilly1

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North Georgia mountains
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Owner/electrical contractor
This is a typical commercial service around here! LOL! Most of the commercial buildings are built like houses, no fire walls, Sheetrock ceilings. Pretty hard to bid against this. At least now we have inspections, so it’s got better. Now we need a fire Marshall!
 

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hillbilly1 said:
This is a typical commercial service around here! LOL! Most of the commercial buildings are built like houses, no fire walls, Sheetrock ceilings. Pretty hard to bid against this. At least now we have inspections, so it’s got better. Now we need a fire Marshall!
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Sounds like you want more government. Careful what you wish for. I am happy with the way things are here in upstate NY: no/little licensing, 3rd party inspections, no/few permits. I dont see any more hack work here than more regulated places.
 
electrofelon said:
Sounds like you want more government. Careful what you wish for. I am happy with the way things are here in upstate NY: no/little licensing, 3rd party inspections, no/few permits. I dont see any more hack work here than more regulated places.
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It comes down to personal training and integrity. There wasn't much the way for inspections for a long time but Roman buildings lasted as did mideveal ones. It who build them and how they did. Lots of regulation where I'm at now but little training for anyone it's very odd to me. The permit thing I feel is like any law. The criminals will always break the law so why bother with certain ones when a decent person would never do the action anyway. Like laws against stealing are just to make a consequence for those who do the despicable act. You'll have to admit though the inspections do keep us on our toes and make us better electricians because we need to know the code as good or better than the inspector but we may have reason to disagree with some of it ect...
 
hillbilly1 said:
Most of the commercial buildings are built like houses, no fire walls, Sheetrock ceilings.
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What's wrong with that? It's allowed in many areas. And perfectly safe. You don't need to build a smallish one story building like it is a skyscraper.

As long as the building is small enough everyone can get out in case of a fire why would you need anything more?
 
petersonra said:
What's wrong with that? It's allowed in many areas. And perfectly safe. You don't need to build a smallish one story building like it is a skyscraper.

As long as the building is small enough everyone can get out in case of a fire why would you need anything more?
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This was built like a house, no firewalls. Sure, you can get over regulation. But there has to be a minimum enforcement. We have one voting precinct that has an exit sign to a covered porch that is 15’ off the ground with no way off. If there was a fire, people will die or be injured jumping from the porch.
www.11alive.com

Fire rips through several businesses in Downtown Blue Ridge

Fire crews were seen working the fire in the area of Danielle's Cafe, which is located at 611 E Main St.
www.11alive.com www.11alive.com
 
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electrofelon said:
Could be a a 230.40 Exception #1 install.
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That doesn't change the rule about the service disconnect being inside nearest the point of entry of the service conductors. Post 3 says the service disconnects are in each suite.
If the service conductors would run out of the bottom of the meters underground to each suite that would be compliant, but given the lack of conduits on the outside, that is not the case in the installation in the picture.
 
don_resqcapt19 said:
That doesn't change the rule about the service disconnect being inside nearest the point of entry of the service conductors. Post 3 says the service disconnects are in each suite.
If the service conductors would run out of the bottom of the meters underground to each suite that would be compliant, but given the lack of conduits on the outside, that is not the case in the installation in the picture.
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I agree it is unlikely the se conductors could come out the back and enter each suite nearest point of entry.

Note they wouldn't necessarily have to run underground into each suite, they could be routed on the outside of the building, and poke into each suite that way, if layout allowed.
 
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petersonra said:
What's wrong with that? It's allowed in many areas. And perfectly safe. You don't need to build a smallish one story building like it is a skyscraper.

As long as the building is small enough everyone can get out in case of a fire why would you need anything more?
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It is not allowed anywhere that enforces the requirements of the NEC. Specifically 230.70(A)(1).
230.70(A)(1) Readily Accessible Location.
The service disconnecting means shall be installed at a readily accessible location either outside of a building or structure or inside nearest the point of entrance of the service conductors.
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Since there are no underground conduits leaving the meters and post #3 tells us the service disconnects are in each suite, this is not permitted and not safe because of the amount of unprotected service conductors inside the building.
 
don_resqcapt19 said:
It is not allowed anywhere that enforces the requirements of the NEC. Specifically 230.70(A)(1).

Since there are no underground conduits leaving the meters and post #3 tells us the service disconnects are in each suite, this is not permitted and not safe because of the amount of unprotected service conductors inside the building.
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Petersonra was replying to "commercial buildings are built like houses" , not the specific electrical installation in the photo.
 
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Doesn’t lack of regulation kill legitimate contractors bids? How can you compete with the fly by night guy who just ganged six meter sockets together?
 
MattG0311 said:
Doesn’t lack of regulation kill legitimate contractors bids? How can you compete with the fly by night guy who just ganged six meter sockets together?
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My view is the client is welcome to get multiple bids, investigate the contractors, only hire one that has a good reputation and has insurance, require an inspection by an inspection agency, etc. People can and do hire fly by nights even in the super regulated areas.
 
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