Water damage because of fire.

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Pat75

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Location
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Electrician
A GC sent me an email to look over for a job. Home had a fire.. Part of the scope of work is to examine all circuitry and receptacles in the house for "sign of fault or water damage". For those that have run in to this before......? Do I megger all the circuits? Do I call in a 3rd party testing company?
Do I say.. its not tripping? What definition of damage are they using?
Anyway I'm not sure how to proceed while at same time keep liability low.
Thank you
 
Pat75 said:
A GC sent me an email to look over for a job. Home had a fire.. Part of the scope of work is to examine all circuitry and receptacles in the house for "sign of fault or water damage". For those that have run in to this before......? Do I megger all the circuits? Do I call in a 3rd party testing company?
Do I say.. its not tripping? What definition of damage are they using?
Anyway I'm not sure how to proceed while at same time keep liability low.
Thank you
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Here is a link that may be helpful! https://cms2.revize.com/revize/koch...-Water Damaged-Electrical-Equipment-Guide.pdf
 
I had such a job and I consulted with the insurance company and the local AHJ. I wrote down what I would do as far as checking things and what I couldn't check or be responsible for. Basically I just checked what the insurance and AHJ said to check. I made no guarantees of anything and stated so. I ended up with the job to repair/replace things after my report. No, I didn't have E&O insurance.
 
Little Bill said:
I had such a job and I consulted with the insurance company and the local AHJ. I wrote down what I would do as far as checking things and what I couldn't check or be responsible for. Basically I just checked what the insurance and AHJ said to check. I made no guarantees of anything and stated so. I ended up with the job to repair/replace things after my report. No, I didn't have E&O insurance.
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Thanks, sounds like a good way to go.
 
IMO, assuming the wiring method is NM cable I don't see how the cable could get water damage. Receptacles and connection points, yes, I would change them out. But NM cable, again, I wouldn't worry about it.
 
I would not trust the old cloth type type NM cable if it got wet even if I used a megger set for 500 volt at least one minute test. The first few boxes of 14/2 & 12/2 romex that I purchased around 1967 had the fabric type covering & when it got warm from pulling thru several joust you would get tar on your hands. Around that time my local electrical supply houses had 250' boxes of guess it might be called thermoplastic outer jacket for only 50¢ more per coil. Good old days could pick up a box of 14/2 & a 12 /2 for less then $20. The very informative link that Heydog was kind enough to supply states to replace wet type NM cable.
 
garbo said:
I would not trust the old cloth type type NM cable if it got wet even if I used a megger set for 500 volt at least one minute test. The first few boxes of 14/2 & 12/2 romex that I purchased around 1967 had the fabric type covering & when it got warm from pulling thru several joust you would get tar on your hands. Around that time my local electrical supply houses had 250' boxes of guess it might be called thermoplastic outer jacket for only 50¢ more per coil. Good old days could pick up a box of 14/2 & a 12 /2 for less then $20. The very informative link that Heydog was kind enough to supply states to replace wet type NM cable.
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I would trust that stuff a lot more than what is sold today.
 
don_resqcapt19 said:
I would trust that stuff a lot more than what is sold today.
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The old fabric and up to the early 1980's Romex only had insulation that believe was only rated for 60 degrees C. Always appeared to me that the white & black conductors only had a so so Type TW insulation . By around the mid 1980's they started using far superior insulation that was rated for 75 degrees C that appeared to be type THHN insulation. Was told the 60 degree wire insulation was a problem in hot attics especially down south.
 
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