Bad Inspection

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bpk

Senior Member
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Northern Minnesota
The company I work for had a new building built and all the electrical was contracted out. Our electrical department is now going to do some additional work. There are so many obvious code violations you dont really even have to look, such as wires trippled up under 1 breaker lug, neutrals from the normal utility power crossed into the generator panel, I looked in one panel and the lugs had never been tightened at all, loose set screws everywhere, no straps, ect. It kind of ticks me off because the inspector put his sticker on the whole job as finaled. I know the permit must have been over 1k. Would you guys say something to the inspector or just suck it up. My main concern as being a maintenance electrican is all the problems I could be fixing down the road.
 
Stand tall with the ball. No really. Don't b afraid of the inspector. This is absurd. It's obvious the town needs a new inspector.
 
bpk said:
The company I work for had a new building built and all the electrical was contracted out. Our electrical department is now going to do some additional work. There are so many obvious code violations you dont really even have to look, such as wires trippled up under 1 breaker lug, neutrals from the normal utility power crossed into the generator panel, I looked in one panel and the lugs had never been tightened at all, loose set screws everywhere, no straps, ect. It kind of ticks me off because the inspector put his sticker on the whole job as finaled. I know the permit must have been over 1k. Would you guys say something to the inspector or just suck it up. My main concern as being a maintenance electrican is all the problems I could be fixing down the road.
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The life you save could be your own. I would make your higher ups aware of the conditions and move on to getting them fixed. And hold the EC that did the work responsible.
 
Going thru the same thing with a metal prefab building. No grounding, no bonding of building steel, no water service and meter jumper.

Passed inspection with no comment by inspector.

It has not passed our final punch list and will not be released for final payment till the corrections are made. The GC is pissed at us, he should be pissed at his EC as it is his work holding up the final payment.
 
bpk said:
Would you guys say something to the inspector.
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massfd said:
It has not passed our final punch list and will not be released for final payment till the corrections are made.
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Can you say"Final punch list"? Normally there is a hold on final payment until the punch out is completed. There may a hold on a final ten percent for up to a year to cover things like this.
 
Wow I had just the oppisite yesterday. Went to the job two days in a row and the guy wasn't ready and didn't even have all the fixtures on site and called and complained, because I keep writting him a correction notice.
 
You boss had a new building built? And he had no oversight into the electrical work.

Seems mistake number one.

He made the final payment for this work, seems mistake two.

He let someone else do work he could have done, add this to mistake one and two=three - a thousand
 
cowboyjwc said:
Wow I had just the oppisite yesterday. Went to the job two days in a row and the guy wasn't ready and didn't even have all the fixtures on site and called and complained, because I keep writting him a correction notice.
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Your just being mean. Why should you need the job done before you inspect LOL
In many areas they double the reinspect fee if same item fails twice. Hope you give him the 2 hour inspection he deserves.
 
brian john said:
You boss had a new building built? And he had no oversight into the electrical work.

Seems mistake number one.

He made the final payment for this work, seems mistake two.

He let someone else do work he could have done, add this to mistake one and two=three - a thousand
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1. His boss probably knows nothing about electrical, is probably plant manager or other executive.

2. He probably made final payment after the inspection and figured the inspector knew his job.

3. He said their electrical department was going to do additional work when the problems were discovered. That sounds to me like they are not electrical contractors but primarily a maintenance and smaller installation department at a facility or for a particular companies facilities. Larger installs are probably often contracted out.

Lowest bid is not always best bid.

Inspectors are not always competent.

Try to get installer to fix the problems at his cost - then never use them again or consider it a lesson learned and fix it yourself.

Go the inspectors supervisor, if no competence here either go to lawmakers that created this AHJ department and get other electrical professionals involved or you will never get anywhere on correcting the inspection program.
 
Jim W in Tampa said:
Low bidder is often the guy who missed something the others didn't.
Not sure about all states but here we must stand behind the job for a year
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Low bidder is often the guy that does not know what he is doing either or does not have a problem taking shortcuts even if he knows that it is a code violation.

Does your warranty have to cover code compliance or just the fact that if owner turns switch on that the controlled device operates and other similar instances? Especially after an inspector approved the installation supposedly for code compliance.

As has been said before passing inspection does not necessarily remove any liability from the installer. Owner modifications can certainly void any warranty also.
 
Has the electrical contractor or general contractor been paid? If not then see about holding up payment till it is fixed. If so then call a lawyer and pursue a lawsuit against the electrical contractor. Contact the inspectors department and see if you can get another in depth inspection. I would also investigate having the state lift the contractors electrical license. I don't think there is a time limit in WA for doing work that is unsafe or violates code. Pretty sure it sticks with the contractor and the installer like glue.
 
Say something!

You will regret it if you don't. I'm currently working on an outbuilding with an identical situation: I'm redoing work the EC was payed good money for.

No ground rods.
No building steel bond.
Feeders double-lugged.
The rigid is pulling off the building where it goes underground because they didn't use expansion fittings.
I'm afraid to even open the transformers.

What a waste of my time and the companies money.

-John
 
Payed or not you can go after both inspector and EC for code violations. Inspector won't pay but looks bad on him and he will pressure the EC. If needed file law suit and go after the license. I seriously do not think it needs to go that far.
 
Jim W in Tampa said:
Your just being mean. Why should you need the job done before you inspect LOL
In many areas they double the reinspect fee if same item fails twice. Hope you give him the 2 hour inspection he deserves.
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That's exactly how he was acting. I even told him on the first inspection that wed don't do partial above t-bar, either it's done or it's not.:grin:

Back to the original post, turn them both in. One to his boss and the other to the license board.
 
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