Let's get someone killed.

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donf

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Yesterday, while I was dismantling the electrical system for an above ground pool I ran into two strange things. The was no ground or grid attached anywhere around the metal frame.

But the scary part was the above deck receptacles. They were installed on a 20 amp circuit. 12/2 UF fed the first receptacle and then 14 AWG conductors were back-stabbed to feed the second receptacle at the outlet.

One of the 14 AWG hot conductors insulation had melted completely off of the conductor and was a ground fault. They fixed this failure by running an indoor extension cord under the deck to the opposite side of the pool and connected it to the 14 AWG side of another receptacle outlet.

If I did not know better, I'd swear this was DIY work!

To make matters worse, I saw the approved permit for the pool electrical work.

Fortunately, The inspector has retired. The current owner complained of getting shocks but no one could find the problem, so he decided to pull the pool out.
 
Many contractors will brag about how well they are known by the inspectors and that the inspectors don't even get out of the car at their jobs and just sign the job card. Those inspectors are not doing you any favors.

I wouldn't sign off my best friends work with out looking at it first.
 
knoppdude said:
Probably was DIY work, and what happened to the GFCI protection, or was there any? Good thing no one was killed.
Click to expand...

I have no idea what happened. I metered all of the feeds outside and all were hot, so I guess at some point in time a homeowner just reset the GFCI and it did not fail again since they started using the extension cord.

All I can say for sure was that the initial GFCI in this circuit was hot. As well as the other three receptacles in the daisy chain were tested with a meter and were all hot. No voltage was present at the failing outlet. It is also possible that as a result of the GF, the back-stabbed connection failed and killed the receptacle.

The only other speculation I can make is that the circuit GF'ed and then whatever bound the conductors either burned off or separated.

Your guess is as good as mine, actually it may be better.
 
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I thought the title of this thread was the new HomeDepo slogan :roll:

Names have been changed to protect the guilty
 
petersonra said:
Are you by any chance a Chicago building inspector? :)
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Actually the just busted two of them "next door" to us. Guy making $95K+ a year takes $6,000 in bribes on a federal housing project. Look at what he's facing. Here's the latest:

Daily News Wire Services
Posted: 05/05/2011 01:37:32 PM PDT
Updated: 05/05/2011 01:44:23 PM PDT
LOS ANGELES - One of two Los Angeles building inspectors charged with taking bribes pleaded guilty today to accepting thousands of dollars to approve work at construction sites in South Los Angeles without making the required checks.
Raoul Joseph Germain, 60, of Altadena, entered the plea in Los Angeles federal court to one count of bribery involving programs that receive federal funds.
Appearing before U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder, Germain acknowledged taking $6,000 in bribes between November 2010 and January 2011 from an undercover agent who was posing as a contractor, then signing inspection forms for four houses, even though he never set foot on two of the properties.
Germain faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and restitution payments at sentencing Sept. 19, Assistant U.S. Attorney Cheryl L. O'Connor said.
The prosecutor told Snyder that Germain had "cooperated and confessed his involvement in the scheme."
The second defendant, Hugo Joel Gonzalez, 49, of Eagle Rock, pleaded not guilty April 25 to the same charge and is set to face trial June 14.
Gonzalez is accused of accepting $9,000 in bribes in exchange for permit approvals on residential construction projects, court papers show.
According to criminal complaints in the case, the FBI began an undercover investigation of the inspectors last summer after an informant reported that city of Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety inspectors took cash bribes
 
$6000?

$9000?

They are kind of pricey crooks. But maybe in LA it tzkes a little more. Most of the time for minor services as described in the articale a Chicago BI would be happy to do it for $500.

Not too long ago there was a bit of a dust up over a Chicago inspector that signed off on a building. Turned out the contractor never bothered to install the sprinkler system in part of the building. You might guess where the fire started.

A CTA inspector approved a whole series of repairs made to elevated structures. Turned out the repairs consisted mostly of painting over the rust. Fortunately, a chunk fell off onto a car parked underneath leading to a closer look and some real repairs.
 
Mysteries solved.

Mysteries solved.

Ah, ha!

Okay, the HI is off the hook! You just have to love DIY folks.

Turns out this pool was originally installed in a neighbor's yard. At some unknown space in time, the neighbor decided to go with an in-ground pool.

At that point, the neighbors got together and dismantled the pool and then moved it to its current location.

It appears to me that they counted on the contact of the pool to earth to be the required ground, however over the course of time, the bottom of the pool sides seriously corroded and the ground connection.

I know this now because I just finished demo-ing the entire pool and deck!
 
DIY work!

DIY work!

Ah, ha!

Okay, the HI is off the hook! You just have to love DIY folks.

Turns out this pool was originally installed in a neighbor's yard. At some unknown space in time, the neighbor decided to go with an in-ground pool.

At that point, the neighbors got together and dismantled the pool and then moved it to its current location.

It appears to me that they counted on the contact of the pool to earth to be the required ground, however over the course of time, the bottom of the pool sides seriously corroded and the ground connection was lost.

I know this now because I just finished demo-ing the entire pool and deck!
 
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