Breaker Box in a Bathroom

[faircdl]

Hello all,

I'm not an electrician so forgive me if this is a silly question.

Currently, I'm living in an old house (probably about 50 years old) that has had a good bit of add-on work done to it. The breaker box is now located in the bathroom directly above a bathtub with no shower. There is a shower within 3 feet of the tub. Is this against current electrical code? Has it ever been ok under an old code? If so, what year did it become against code? I had a home inspector take a look at it and said that it has never been in code for a breaker box to be in such a location. Is he correct?

Thanks much.

 

[Guest]

Re: Breaker Box in a Bathroom

240.24 Location in or on Premises: Not Located in Bathrooms: In dwelling units and guest rooms of hotels and motels, overcurrent devices, other than supplementary overcurrent protection, shall not be located in bathrooms as defined in Article 100.

Also, per 110-26(A) there would be clearance issues unless the bathtub was very wide (36-inch-deep clear working space required).

 

[ranger12]

Re: Breaker Box in a Bathroom

faircdl , a lot of times remodel's are done with no permits.Carpenters and homeowners do work and do not want to go to the expense of hiring a qualified Electrical Contractor.Common sense tells us that water and electricity do not mix well with one another.There is probably quite a bit of rust inside that panel.Unfortunately you are now stuck with fixing the problem.It is definitely in your best interests to get that panel moved to a suitable location.Start by getting a few bids.Go with the contractor who seems to genuinely care about your safety and who you feel comfortable with.Make sure there is a permit and an electrical inspection.Finally for the most part typical home inspectors are not electrical experts " I am being kind here" so i would take his advice here.He is correct. Hope this helps.Ranger. :roll:

 

[speedypetey]

Re: Breaker Box in a Bathroom

One possible solution is to have the panel turned around so the face is on the opposite side. Look to see what is behind that wall. A closet is not acceptable as a panel cannot be located in the vacinity of easily ignitable material.

 

[pierre]

Re: Breaker Box in a Bathroom

Panel boxes were permitted to be installed in bathrooms until either the 1990 or 1993 cycle. This installation although a poor choice was probably permitted at the time of installation.
There are ways for this to be remedied, but it is going to cost you.
Panelboxes are still permitted to be installed in bathrooms in 'other than' dwellings.

Pierre

[ December 05, 2003, 11:04 PM: Message edited by: pierre ]

 

[faircdl]

Re: Breaker Box in a Bathroom

Thanks guys.

You can see a picture of my specific situation at this link:

http://www.geocities.com/breakerbox13/index.html

I'm sort of in the beginning of a legal battle with my landlord. An electrician friend of mine said that the breakerbox is a violation of code and poses an immediate health risk. Therefore, it does not matter whether it was in code when it was installed. Is there any truth to this? It seems to me like this situation should have never been allowed in any electrical code version.

My landlord of course is saying there is nothing wrong with having the breakerbox where it is.

 

[coreyd]

Re: Breaker Box in a Bathroom

I'm fairly sure that the code has never allowed a panel to be installed in such proximity to a bathtub. Whether the tub or the panel came first is irrelevant. Your electrician friend is right, it needs to be moved. You spoke of a landlord. Is this a rental? If so, and the landlord doesn't think there's anything wrong with it, you're in for a battle. I would consider moving, because you could easliy force the landlord to have it moved, but then I doubt the two of you would be on very good terms from then on.

 

[faircdl]

Re: Breaker Box in a Bathroom

Yes, this a house I'm renting. I was afraid I would be in for a battle. Hopefully, with something like this, they will just let me out of the lease.

My electrician friend said that because this is an immediate health risk that the bathroom is uninhabitable (for lack of a better word). Also, this is the only bathroom in the house. Therefore, the property I'm renting has no "working" indoor plumbing facilities which is against the law. Any of you have any opinions on this?

Do any of you have any advice about the next steps I should take? Have any of you dealt with anything like this before from a legal standpoint? I'm wondering what kind of documentation I need that might possibly hold up in court.

Thanks.

 

[pierre]

Re: Breaker Box in a Bathroom

You are asking us if this is a health hazard, an answer to that cannot be given from the comfort of our computer terminals. Also you are asking for legal advice, and I say again this is not really the place. I would call an attorney for legal advice. Your electrician really has a better chance of responding to this than this forum can.
I can say that the 'potential' for a hazard exists, but that can be said for all electrical work.

Pierre

 

[iwire]

Re: Breaker Box in a Bathroom

Did you not know the panel was located there when you moved in?

Suddenly now it is something the landlord must change?

I would not like having a panel over a tub and would have thought of that before moving in.

 

[coreyd]

Re: Breaker Box in a Bathroom

Your local electrical inspector would get the ball rolling on making the landlord move the panel. Were he to come and look at it, he would definitely have concerns.

 

[jp_electric]

Re: Breaker Box in a Bathroom

I live in NEPA. there have been at least a dozen homes i've been in with panels in bathrooms. I think that was a normal practice. we also have many trailers with the panel's in the closet.i've only been a contractor for a lil over a year but im sure it was ok. in fact our inspectors are still on 1996 code

 

[speedypetey]

Re: Breaker Box in a Bathroom

I'm with iwire. If it's so terrible then consider moving.
Forcing you LL is crazy unless you plan on moving within a year. If I was the LL and you made me change it I wouldn't renew your lease next year.

Is it a risk? Yes.
Is there a potential for injury? Yes.
Is it uninhabitable? Absolutely not. Looks like it's been there quite a while. No different then standing in 3 inches of water in a dirt floor basement doing a service call. I'm sure alot of us have been there.

[ December 06, 2003, 09:10 PM: Message edited by: speedypetey ]

 

[Guest]

Re: Breaker Box in a Bathroom

Again, if nothing else there are clearance issues here. 30" width of clear space is required. Does your tub allow 30" of clear width?

I mentioned 36" before assuming the panel was on the back wall of the tub.

You might have better luck with the Housing Dept. of your city vs. the Building (electrical) Dept. The Housing Code can be more stringent regarding rentals than the building or electrical codes are.

Please don't send any of us a subpoena or copy/paste any of these posts into your legal pleadings Anything we post here is just an opinion, and nothing more. Even if we spout code, we are only allowed to express opinions here. Check the Rules & Disclaimers of this site for details.

It should be noted that any comments made in this forum are personal opinions and represent personal responses as requested. Any opinion must not be considered as a Formal Interpretation of the NEC? and is not to be considered as an official position of Mike Holt, Mike Holt Enterprises, Inc., the NFPA, the NEC? Technical Correlating Committee, any of its Code Making Panels, or any other company or organization.

 

[faircdl]

Re: Breaker Box in a Bathroom

Thanks everyone. I realize that even though you may speak the truth, everything on the site is an "opinion". I certainly wouldn't send any subpoenas. There are really a lot of other issues going on with the landlord besides this one. This whole panelbox issue was just sort of an "icing on the cake" kind of thing. The landlord is really just being a stick in the mud about fixing several other problems that really need to be fixed. So in an effort to get out of the lease, I thought that this issue certainly wouldn't hurt my side of the argument. In truth, I really don't see the landlord ever fixing the panelbox whether I get out of the lease or not.

I appreciate all of your opinions on this issue.

 

[renosteinke]

Re: Breaker Box in a Bathroom

That geocity site had a nice photo- too bad it flooded me with pop-ups & spam!
If that photo is similar to your situation, it could be worse! At least it's not IN the shower!