Plumbers Mistake

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electricman2

electricman2

Senior Member
Location
North Carolina
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
Went on a service call today to a house with electric ceiling heat. HO says there are wires hanging from the ceiling. The upstairs bath had developed a leak in the drain piping. Plumber takes his trusty sawzall and cuts a 3 foot square hole in ceiling. Thermostat was off at the time however it is a single pole T-stat so some of the exposed wires were live. I disconnected circuit in thermostat box. HO says that when he made the hole water was dripping from ceiling. Ceiling heat is not too common around here. Bet he is still wondering what all those wires were. :eek:
 
Re: Plumbers Mistake

Just went through that this summer with an air conditioning installer. They cut all the supply's in the ceilings (ranch house) and cut through the radiant ceiling heat in every room.

I had another fire job in which electric ceiling radiant heat was specced to go back into the one room in which the ceiling was destroyed. It was big trouble for me finding that type of heat cable in this day and age, and bigger trouble for them finding a plaster man that's famaliar with covering that stuff.
 
Re: Plumbers Mistake

That ceiling heat stuff is really lame!

I remember it was in my parents house. Very inefficient if you ask me. You could stand on a chair and notice a Huge change in temp. with just 8' ceilings. (The floor would be cold and the ceiling would be cookin... if you were standing up your head was warm at least!)

I have to admit, I have NEVER checked a ceiling for heat strips before I cut a hole!
I'm glad they are not very common!
 
Re: Plumbers Mistake

Re-tiling my bath and re-flooring the kitchen, I'm installing "warm floors." They included stickers to warn future craftsmen about the imbedded electrical heat tracers, though I have no idea where I should stick them. Luckily, each comes with a floor-temp sensing probe which connects to a programmable t-stat, and they all have built-in GFCI's.

But to do this on a ceiling seems... well... silly.
 
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