More pictures for your viewing enjoyment

Merry Christmas
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peter d

peter d

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New England
Some pics from some recon missions I've been on in the past year. :D

Here's the feed end of this panel. Hmmmm....the insulating foam could be an issue down the road.

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Way less than an 1.25" here:

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Kinda hard to tell but that's 3 runs of cable down the side of a 2x4. Again, 1.25" of clearance doesn't seem to be taken seriously. Typical throughout this house and all the rest in the development.

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Who ordered spaghetti?

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The Cancer of California aka Zinsco. This was exactly like this when I opened it - deadfront missing.

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I have noticed in most of the pictures that have been posted on here, people use one piece steel staples, everyone around here uses the insulated style that have two small nails and a plastic strap, is there some advantage to the all steel? seems to me that the plastic ones would be less likely to damage wire.
 
If you know how to staple a staple, there is little risk of damage. Peter, are there no stackers used in these houses?

Man I wish these open web trusses were in use when I wired houses... there's hardly ANY drilling! And are those trusses 24" o.c?
 
LawnGuyLandSparky said:
Peter, are there no stackers used in these houses?
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I never saw a single one, and I've been going on vacation in this area for the past 10 years and have never seen one on any of my recon missions.

LawnGuyLandSparky said:
Man I wish these open web trusses were in use when I wired houses... there's hardly ANY drilling! And are those trusses 24" o.c?
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Yes, all 24" oc. This is west coast framing - all douglas fir, earthquake resistant, many sheer walls, and very solid all around.
 
LawnGuyLandSparky said:
If you know how to staple a staple, there is little risk of damage.
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I guess Im wanting to know the advantage of the one piece staple, are they less expensive, easier to use, only thing avaliable in the area? Im not knocking them, just never see them in this area and curious....
 
They're cheaper. And as mentioned before, if you know how to staple correctly, you don't damage the cable.
 
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fishing for nails

fishing for nails

ultramegabob said:
I have noticed in most of the pictures that have been posted on here, people use one piece steel staples, everyone around here uses the insulated style that have two small nails and a plastic strap, is there some advantage to the all steel? seems to me that the plastic ones would be less likely to damage wire.
Click to expand...

the biggest problem (other than price) with those little plastic/nail staples is when you put them in your pouch you end up spending more time fishing for the little nails to put them back into the plastic piece because they always fall out.

Not a problem with the one piece staples.
 
on the photo #4 [ who order the spatti ? ]

one thing it kinda bother me one bit why they leave the wire on the flat 2by4's and one thing if some dolts have oversized drywall screw it can hit the wires there

and the other thing that the plummer forget to put a nail plate for .5 inch copper tubing for water pipe i am sure if someone hit that it will really ruin someone else day.

Merci,Marc
 
cowboyjwc said:
In pic #1 the insulation foam is required by the California Energy Code.
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Its pretty standard practice for new home construction in Indiana also, I think certain loans require it. I have seen them use expanding foam, and the red firestop stuff also.
 
ultramegabob said:
Its pretty standard practice for new home construction in Indiana also, I think certain loans require it. I have seen them use expanding foam, and the red firestop stuff also.
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That's required in our area as well to accomodate the energy codes, but the insulation sub takes care of that for all the trades.
 
True/false?

True/false?

Metal staples tend to cause false GF device tripping.
 
cowboyjwc said:
In pic #1 the insulation foam is required by the California Energy Code.
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I'm aware that it's a building code requirement in many states, however, I think that's a pretty clear violation of 334.80.
 
Lxnxjxhx said:
Metal staples tend to cause false GF device tripping.
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Yeah, right. I not only disagree, but I feel pretty good about saying that you're just plain wrong.

Overdriven staples of any sort can cause this, not metal staples.
 
iwire said:
Marc do you know why?

Is copper exposed?

I agree it happens I am just not sure I know why.:-?
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I almost never see the copper exposed through the jacket, but the actual conductor insulation is split and contacting the ground inside the jacket. It's rare that I get to actually salvage the offending piece, but when I do, this is what I find. Typically I can just measure that a piece is bad, but it's abandoned behind the building's finishes. 3-wire cable is a bigger offender than 2-wire cable. On very rare occasions I have found the jacket split too, and I have to doubt the qualifications of the person who installed the staple. Some guys whack in staples like they're chopping cord wood. Insulated staples would be a good idea for installations being done by the less skilled.
 
ultramegabob said:
I guess Im wanting to know the advantage of the one piece staple, are they less expensive, easier to use, only thing avaliable in the area? Im not knocking them, just never see them in this area and curious....
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The company i work for would buy them by the 5 gallon buckets when they were doing larger scale homes.

I'm suprised that the inspector did'nt hit the contractor on supports into the panel box. Even with the wrap of tape, they were off on the 12" rule.
Rick
 
peter d said:
I'm aware that it's a building code requirement in many states, however, I think that's a pretty clear violation of 334.80.
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Let me think. The NEC is a state law and the Energy Code is a state law, I have never been audited by the NFPA, but I have been audited by the California Energy Commission. I think I will continue to have them foam the holes.
 
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