Residential Electrical Repair

[new_ee]

Is the NEC invovled here? Let's say you had an electrical problem that needed to be repaired. It's an older home thats not up to todays adopted NEC. Would the electrician have to bring anything he worked on up to today's code?


An electrical engineer friend of mine had some of his outlets and lighting stop working. After a little snooping around he seems to think almost his whole house (receptacles and lighting) is on one circuit! He also noted quite a few other code violations that he saw. Would an electrician even want to touch that? I would think not because of the liability invovled. If they fixed the problem, but left all the other code violations could they be held liable? I've never really thought about this topic much being a new engineer, but what about commerical properties? When you do a renovation or does the whole job have to be brought up to code or just the new part?

[ November 14, 2005, 04:34 PM: Message edited by: new_ee ]

 

[petersonra]

Re: Residential Electrical Repair

Very old electrical work is often unsafe. The question you have to ask yourself is not do I "have" to fix it, but rather is it in my best interest to do so.

The answer to that question is not always obvious nor easy to come to.

in most cases if you do any substantial remodeling, you will be required to bring up to current code the area where you did the remodel work. that does not mean you will have to do the rest of the house at the same time, but the cost might be lower now than waiting until a better time.

 

[bphgravity]

Re: Residential Electrical Repair

In my jurisdiction as well with most in Florida, you can repair work to its existing state without having to bring anything up to code. Any new installations or replacements would have to meet current enforced codes.

 

[new_ee]

Re: Residential Electrical Repair

Originally posted by bphgravity:
In my jurisdiction as well with most in Florida, you can repair work to its existing state without having to bring anything up to code. Any new installations or replacements would have to meet current enforced codes.

So its more of a AHJ requirement than an NEC requirement?

 

[bphgravity]

Re: Residential Electrical Repair

Its a partnership, but starts with the determination of the AHJ as to when existing work needs to be brought to code.