Private Residential Inspection: What to Check

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If it does indeed have aluminum wiring, have the owner check with his/her insurance company. Here in north Florida, some insurance companies will not insure homes with aluminum conductors of #12 and #10 AL. The use of Alumaconn connectors is necessary so you can provide a copper pigtail for all devices.
 
So, I did the inspection on Friday. The only aluminum wire I found in the panel was #8 for the stove circuit (the other silver wires were all tinned copper), but inside the panel this aluminum wire was spliced to a copper jumper that landed on the breaker. Splice was made with a regular #10-14 wire nut even though it was #8 aluminum to copper. Also inside the panel, there was a white wire being used for a line conductor. So, that's definitely sketchy. There was also a burnt out receptacle in the kitchen; I looked inside the box and the wires in the box were probably 4" long at most. The homeowner says that they think most if not all of the receptacles in the house are probably the same. Took a quick look in the crawlspace and found there was was some old MC cable that was just laying on the floor of the crawlspace, unsupported for probably 20'-30.'

I should have taken some pictures, but long story short, I told them that it would be an additional $300 to repair these items, and that while doing those repairs, I could do a more comprehensive inspection and maybe (probably) discover some more items that need to be fixed.

For repairing the shoddy aluminum to copper splices inside of the panel, the typical AlumiConn connectors that I've used before are only rated for #10 wire max, and the wires here are #8. Thinking about it, I'm not sure why I can't use any AL/CU rated multi-tap connector, something like this. Can anyone think of a reason why that wouldn't work?
 
Greg H said:
For repairing the shoddy aluminum to copper splices inside of the panel, the typical AlumiConn connectors that I've used before are only rated for #10 wire max, and the wires here are #8. Thinking about it, I'm not sure why I can't use any AL/CU rated multi-tap connector, something like this. Can anyone think of a reason why that wouldn't work?
Click to expand...
Space?
 
Greg H said:
So, I did the inspection on Friday. The only aluminum wire I found in the panel was #8 for the stove circuit (the other silver wires were all tinned copper), but inside the panel this aluminum wire was spliced to a copper jumper that landed on the breaker. Splice was made with a regular #10-14 wire nut even though it was #8 aluminum to copper. Also inside the panel, there was a white wire being used for a line conductor. So, that's definitely sketchy. There was also a burnt out receptacle in the kitchen; I looked inside the box and the wires in the box were probably 4" long at most. The homeowner says that they think most if not all of the receptacles in the house are probably the same. Took a quick look in the crawlspace and found there was was some old MC cable that was just laying on the floor of the crawlspace, unsupported for probably 20'-30.'

I should have taken some pictures, but long story short, I told them that it would be an additional $300 to repair these items, and that while doing those repairs, I could do a more comprehensive inspection and maybe (probably) discover some more items that need to be fixed.

For repairing the shoddy aluminum to copper splices inside of the panel, the typical AlumiConn connectors that I've used before are only rated for #10 wire max, and the wires here are #8. Thinking about it, I'm not sure why I can't use any AL/CU rated multi-tap connector, something like this. Can anyone think of a reason why that wouldn't work?
Click to expand...
Was this 8 solid or stranded and was it NM cable, SE cable, something else?

Chances are it was only 60C conductor which would only have an ampacity of 35 amps.
 
Greg H said:
So, I did the inspection on Friday. The only aluminum wire I found in the panel was #8 for the stove circuit (the other silver wires were all tinned copper), but inside the panel this aluminum wire was spliced to a copper jumper that landed on the breaker. Splice was made with a regular #10-14 wire nut even though it was #8 aluminum to copper.
Click to expand...
If you talking about a range circuit then #8 aluminum is probably not going to be large enough for most moderm ranges. What size breaker was used to protect this circuit?

Sorry Kwired. I didn't look to see if someone had already mentioned the size of the AL conductor.
 
growler said:
If you talking about a range circuit then #8 aluminum is probably not going to be large enough for most moderm ranges. What size breaker was used to protect this circuit?

Sorry Kwired. I didn't look to see if someone had already mentioned the size of the AL conductor.
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That's why I asked a couple other questions because if it can be used at 75C ampacity then 8 aluminum is ok for 40 amps.
 
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