Jacklegged Work

[jmellc]

Haven't seen this elsewhere yet, may be there somewhere. Doing lots of residential, I see lots of jacklegged work. Chased a lot of shadows yesterday from someone turning 12/2 into 12/3 by taping & energizing grnd wire. I came into it when exposed wire got damaged by string trimmer. Foolishly, I didn't check all along ckt. I rerouted exposed wire, set boxes, etc. Then started getting shorts left & right. Then asked customer about other switches, etc. & found 2 3 ways I hadn't suspected. Always ask ?'s, always check out 1 end to other. I could have been killed by that grnd wire. Worse yet; was supposedly done by an electrician. A reminder to me too, if I get tempted by desperation to short cut something; think it out and think ahead. Don't set up future traps for someone. Neccessity is the mother of invention, but desperation is the mother of foolishness.

 

[c2500]

Isn't this the exact reason they did away with the old reduced size grounds? Jack legs are abound in residential. Remember too....it can happen in new and newer construction. I have had to abandon a circuit in a house that was inspected a few years before...the morons had removed the ground due a short, took me the better part of a day to tell the HO I give up, and I will only fix this by running a new circuit. Fortunately the main panel outdoors had space, and the hacked in j-box the morons had installed gave me access to correct the problem. I am sure there was a covered j-box somewhere in the wall, I just could not find it.

c2500

 

[wireguru]

google "Isaac Lawrence" a kid killed by the exact same thing. An 'electrician' used the ground of some romex as a hot which energzed a metal garage door and killed this kid

 

[hurk27]

google "Isaac Lawrence" a kid killed by the exact same thing. An 'electrician' used the ground of some romex as a hot which energized a metal garage door and killed this kid

liability and criminal charges that could land you in prison is a good deterrent, but even then there are some who never think they will get caught!

It's the old "it won't happen to me" syndrome:roll:

 

[wtucker]

then there are some who never think they will get caught!

Then there are some who just plain never think.

 

[LarryFine]

It's the old "it won't happen to me" syndrome:roll:

The unfortunate part is that it's the customer's family, or an unsuspecting electrician, to whom it will happen.

 

[jmellc]

I fixed the last parts of this today & learned from HO it was her brother in law (of course) who did the work. He did electrical in service, then with mtnc dept of some co. here. I shudder to think of how many other traps he set up for someone.

Yes, I heard that was why they stopped reduced grounds. I knew of people doing it; this was 1st one I'd seem in a long time. Sure wasn't looking for it at the time. I'll have it happen again about time I stop watching for it. What I most commonly see is open joints, overfused wire & overbulbed lights.

 

[George Stolz]

One guy I used to work with actually bragged about doing it. Quick, easy, and no wall damage. I think a fourth adjective would be "asinine."

 

[LarryFine]

Not too long ago, I was asked to change a single-outlet AC receptacle from 120v to 240v. The white wire was used as the EGC and the reduced EGC had been used as the grounded circuit conductor. :roll:

My guess is that it originally was originally a 240v receptacle that was replaced in the past, probably by someone's BIL.

 

[LarryFine]

One guy I used to work with actually bragged about doing it. Quick, easy, and no wall damage. I think a fourth adjective would be "asinine."

Besides, everyone knows you're supposed to use the bare as the grounded conductor, and recolor the white as a hot.

 

[jmellc]

Forgot to Mention...

Forgot to Mention...

I forgot to mention when I started this, that I'd seen several cases of homowners replacing switches and connecting grnds to any old terminal on switch. Specially 3 ways, "3 screws, 3 wires". Had a lady wire her own disposal, grounded a hot to an ungrounded metal box. When running water at the sink, she would get a shock from the water once it filled the disp and got energized. She didn't understand why instructions didn't make all that clear. Seemed confused when I said some prior knowledge was needed.