sparky 134
Senior Member
- Location
- Joliet, IL
I'm trimming out a house I roughed in Nov/Dec 2007. The homeowner was doing most of the interior work hence the delay in finishing the project. Anyway, he fancies himself an electrician and took it upon himself to add additional openings (lights, receptacles, etc) inbetween the time I roughed it and now. He also moved some of my junction boxes.
Well, I guess he didn't follow the wiring diagrams for his brand new, two sided gas fireplace. I had left a whip for the fireplace and instead of calling when it was time to set the fireplace he took it upon himself to wire it. Yesterday, I turned on the living room circuit, heard a very loud bang, the breaker tripped out so we went to investigate. Didn't take long to figure out where the problem was since the smoke wafting out of the fireplace was kinda' a giveaway. I'm guessing he tied the low voltage controls to the 120volt circuit and blew up the control box.
Next, another circuit was tripping when I flipped a 3way switch. After spending an hour opening up cans/switches I found a gray #14 spliced to the can hot and the circuit hot. Thinking my guy made a mistake I proceeded to start fixing it when I noticed the yellow switch leg was missing. Once again, Mr. Homeowner played electrician and moved the can down so he could build a drywall arch. The yellow switch leg was too short so he spliced a 6" piece of gray onto the yellow switch leg, wrapped it with tape and buried it inside the EMT. He did this with the hot wire also.
So, I am scheduling a final inspection for Thursday even though the homeowner is not done with his electrical work. I also informed the building department what was happening and they suggested I create a list of the work that was not performed by me and send it to them.
I asked the homeowner if he modified anything else and of course the answer was no. My vindication is knowing he will be replacing the fireplace controller. He asked me if I could fix it but I declined.
Well, I guess he didn't follow the wiring diagrams for his brand new, two sided gas fireplace. I had left a whip for the fireplace and instead of calling when it was time to set the fireplace he took it upon himself to wire it. Yesterday, I turned on the living room circuit, heard a very loud bang, the breaker tripped out so we went to investigate. Didn't take long to figure out where the problem was since the smoke wafting out of the fireplace was kinda' a giveaway. I'm guessing he tied the low voltage controls to the 120volt circuit and blew up the control box.
Next, another circuit was tripping when I flipped a 3way switch. After spending an hour opening up cans/switches I found a gray #14 spliced to the can hot and the circuit hot. Thinking my guy made a mistake I proceeded to start fixing it when I noticed the yellow switch leg was missing. Once again, Mr. Homeowner played electrician and moved the can down so he could build a drywall arch. The yellow switch leg was too short so he spliced a 6" piece of gray onto the yellow switch leg, wrapped it with tape and buried it inside the EMT. He did this with the hot wire also.
So, I am scheduling a final inspection for Thursday even though the homeowner is not done with his electrical work. I also informed the building department what was happening and they suggested I create a list of the work that was not performed by me and send it to them.
I asked the homeowner if he modified anything else and of course the answer was no. My vindication is knowing he will be replacing the fireplace controller. He asked me if I could fix it but I declined.
