Home inspector Aluminum wiring

Status
Not open for further replies.
S

Stevenfyeager

Senior Member
Location
United States, Indiana
Occupation
electrical contractor
Home inspector asked for the Al wired house be code compliant. We replaced all devices to Al rated ones but haven’t done anything to light fixtures. 1972 house. They probably didn’t have Al wire nuts then....? Do we need to re - nut all the lights ? (Al rated nuts) Thanks.
 
Forgive if I understood you wrong.
Were you hired to do the HI's recommandations and decided to stop at the devices and not take care of the light fixtures? He might own it if he told the customer he is terminating all the aluminum wiring to current code standards or be code compliant.
 
LarryFine said:
In my opinion, screw terminals need remediation, wire connections don't.
Click to expand...
My instructor years ago told me I only have to repair a house for a home inspector to the date that the house was built, not up to modern day code. Did they make COALR devices in 1972 ? Did they make Al/Cu twist connectors then ? If not, I wonder if I needed to do anything other than recommend a complete re wire... ? Thank you
 
Stevenfyeager said:
My instructor years ago told me I only have to repair a house for a home inspector to the date that the house was built, not up to modern day code. Did they make COALR devices in 1972 ? Did they make Al/Cu twist connectors then ? If not, I wonder if I needed to do anything other than recommend a complete re wire... ? Thank you
Click to expand...

No, I wouldn't have done anything either, other than recommend a complete rewire. I don't touch any aluminum wiring because I don't want the liability if anything goes wrong.
 
Stevenfyeager said:
Home inspector asked for the Al wired house be code compliant . We replaced all devices to Al rated ones but haven’t done anything to light fixtures. 1972 house. They probably didn’t have Al wire nuts then....? Do we need to re - nut all the lights ? (Al rated nuts) Thanks.
Click to expand...

Stevenfyeager said:
My instructor years ago told me I only have to repair a house for a home inspector to the date that the house was built, not up to modern day code. Did they make COALR devices in 1972 ? Did they make Al/Cu twist connectors then ? If not, I wonder if I needed to do anything other than recommend a complete re wire... ? Thank you
Click to expand...

To ask that a house be code compliant is rather ambiguous. For a house to be code compliant you would have to know which code series. What code was enforced in that area in 1972?

Keck I know of plenty of areas where they didn't even have inspections in 1972. Who knows they may not have had any code adopted or enforced at that time.

As far as that instructor's advice about home inspections he was not correct. A home inspector can ask for anything but it's not a code inspection and not enforceable so no one has to do anything. You either find a solution that's acceptable to the buyer or it's used as a negotiating tools to lower the price or kill the sell of a home.

If you sign off on an item saying that it's repaired then you are responsible for that repair. If all you did was change out devices then say that and not that the house is now code compliant.
 
growler said:
To ask that a house be code compliant is rather ambiguous. For a house to be code compliant you would have to know which code series. What code was enforced in that area in 1972?

Keck I know of plenty of areas where they didn't even have inspections in 1972. Who knows they may not have had any code adopted or enforced at that time.

As far as that instructor's advice about home inspections he was not correct. A home inspector can ask for anything but it's not a code inspection and not enforceable so no one has to do anything. You either find a solution that's acceptable to the buyer or it's used as a negotiating tools to lower the price or kill the sell of a home.

If you sign off on an item saying that it's repaired then you are responsible for that repair. If all you did was change out devices then say that and not that the house is now code compliant.
Click to expand...
I’m sorry, I see now the wording of the home inspector was have an electrician check for proper installation of the aluminum wiring. (He didn’t use ‘code compliant ‘)
 
Stevenfyeager said:
Home inspector asked for the Al wired house be code compliant. We replaced all devices to Al rated ones but haven’t done anything to light fixtures. 1972 house. They probably didn’t have Al wire nuts then....? Do we need to re - nut all the lights ? (Al rated nuts) Thanks.
Click to expand...

every time you touch an aluminum conductor, pulling it out of a box, fiddling with it,
you are moving measurably closer to a broken conductor.

i won't work on aluminum house wiring for that reason. i'll rewire it, but if
i do any work in that house, and something goes amiss, i'll end up owning it.
try telling farmers subrogation that you didn't touch *that* box.

they don't care. tag, you are it.
 
Fulthrotl said:
every time you touch an aluminum conductor, pulling it out of a box, fiddling with it,
you are moving measurably closer to a broken conductor.

i won't work on aluminum house wiring for that reason. i'll rewire it, but if
i do any work in that house, and something goes amiss, i'll end up owning it.
try telling farmers subrogation that you didn't touch *that* box.
Click to expand...

That's the problem with AL wiring , there is no permanent fix. Even if you can get this home buyer to accept any repairs that you then when they start to sell the house in the future the whole thing starts again because it will be written up by any future home inspector.

The only thing that has a worse reputation than aluminum wiring is the plague.
 
growler said:
The only thing that has a worse reputation than aluminum wiring is the plague.
Click to expand...

Funny that you mentioned the plague in the same sentence with aluminum. In microelectronics and integrated circuits the aluminum of the bond pads can create intermetallics with gold bond wires and cause poor electrical conductivity. And the most recognized technical term for this in the industry is the "Purple Plague" or the "White Plague":

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold–aluminium_intermetallic
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top