It was an old 200A panel. Should have been able to handle the 250’s, but it looked a little tight.
Its a grey area for me on how much I will decline to work on something if there is a visible, but unrelated, issue. I’ve told many potential customers that I will not perform X project unless they are willing to fix Y. But some things that are obviously not as they should be, but have been in place for years, sometimes decades, I may inform them of the issue and let them decide what to do.
I declined a generator install the other day because there had been some issues with the placement of it while the home was being built, the owner had pulled it off the plans, and now wanted it installed. The owner wanted it right under two operable windows and 18” from a a series of flood vents that went directly into the garage. And set on top of free standing concrete blocks.
I told them if they ever wanted to explore other locations, give me a call.
As an aside, it was a brand new build, with solar, battery, and potentially a generator, and whoever the electrician was who wired it to begin with didn’t perform any prep for it, now there’s brand new concrete everywhere, and the owner doesn’t want to saw cut the SonOfAGun out of his brand new driveway. Kind of a bum deal all around. I understand the owners position, the county is almost worse than PG&E to deal with, but I’m not going to do something I can’t stand behind.