Yes,toooo many wire nuts

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ceb

ceb

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raeford,nc
I must share my day with ya'll ( h*** yes, i'm from the south) got to job this morning. simple, set new 200 amp meter combo,pull service cable get inspection and call for disconect of old 100 amp, connect new service. Home owner is a couple some where in their late 70's. I am unloading material and the lady come around the house ... ( its only 8:00 am and three cups of coffee) "come see the new hvac unit they installed yesterday",so with water running from my eyes I walk around the corner of the house there is the new hvac unit. she said those guys worked their butts off yesterday. Now as a applause to those guys they did do a days work tear out all old duct work in a house with a 28" max crawl space install all new duct and install and hook up new unit. however the lady said the only thing was their forman showed up late in the afternoon and one of the workers was smoking and he walked up to him and slaped the cig. out of his mouth and fired him. she said If I would have been that guy I would have given him somthing to fire me for. but while I am at the unit I notice a new disconect has been set by the hvac co. I open it up and there are the wires coming through the ko no connector to be seen, both sets of #10 in same 1/2" hole through brick with no sleeve. ( save this for inspector). Do my thing call for inspection, inspector showes up every thing ok. I point out disconect,we walk in side where the handy man is tearing out a wall (handy man drives a moped with milk crate straped to rear with his tools) handy man thinks he is saving homeowner money by moving two switch legs and installing them in new box.Inspector look at the wireing, looks at me, who is about to go into outer space and says "Rock (yes that is his given name) you do good driveing nails but leave the damn wires alone" he had spliced some old 10/2 uf that he found at the shed on to the 14/2 nmb wire. he twisted the wire and wraped tape around the splice drove a # 8 nail in and bent it over to hold the hot leg and the 2 switch legs to the stud ( I know now why he drives a moped) poco coming in the morning to do change over I look forward to seeing how tomorow goes. I think I"ll have a refreshment befor I turn in. Later

Edit to remove irrelevant information of a sexual nature.
 
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Ahh! Good ole handymen. Jacks of all trades, masters of none.

Sounds like you deserve that "refreshment".

But honestly, I recently ran into a situation like that disconnect. Some HVAC guys must have an aversion to connectors. Had a service call not long ago where receptacle in single gang box mounted directly to furnace for April Aire system stopped working. Opened up back of furnace to see #14 wires going into back of box- no connector. Worse yet, the hole they drilled in side of furnace behind KO was jagged with hot wire tight against it just waiting to go to ground. I had the HO call the HVAC guys to come fix their "handywork".
 
tmbrk said:
Ahh! Good ole handymen. Jacks of all trades, masters of none.
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You call them "handymen," I call them "job security"...or maybe "security risk" is better.

I went to a dry cleaners the other day to look at some problems needing addressed. I couldn't believe the mess that a "handyman" made of the mc whips for the lighting. There were no less than 20 open splices (NONE of the splices in the MC were in junction boxes). There was open wiring...one piece was about 6 feet long. Don't even think about strapping. It looks as if he had a pile of MC cable scraps laying around and decided to join them all together to run the length of the store. Most of the pieces were between 6 and 8 feet long, but one piece was probably only 3 feet long. Man what a sight!

"Handyman":roll:
 
LOL....good story, made my morning.

Hey, gasoline still at the $2 a gallon range and probably going up this summer. Ask that moped guy what kinda mpg he gets?

Have a nice day !!
 
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ceb said:
"Rock (yes that is his given name) you do good driveing nails but leave the damn wires alone" he had spliced some old 10/2 uf that he found at the shed on to the 14/2 nmb wire. he twisted the wire and wraped tape around the splice drove a # 8 nail in and bent it over to hold the hot leg and the 2 switch legs to the stud.....
Click to expand...

Well, that's one mystery solved. Next time you see Rock, tell him he got rave reviews for a job he did in Syracuse a few years ago.

http://tirebiter.net/hack_3.jpg

At least he's better now at driving nails, when he installed this one he couldn't even do that very well. :)
 
Hello,

There is a comment made in the original post about sleeving romex through brick. I've searched the code briefly in the past but couldn't find anything about sleeving cables through brick or concrete. Can someone shed some light on this?
 
dduffee260 said:
LOL....good story, made my morning.

Hey, gasoline still at the $2 a gallon range and probably going up this summer. Ask that moped guy what kinda mpg he gets?

Have a nice day !!
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Right on and can i get a conduit rack mounted to it?
 
mark32 said:
Hello,

There is a comment made in the original post about sleeving romex through brick. I've searched the code briefly in the past but couldn't find anything about sleeving cables through brick or concrete. Can someone shed some light on this?
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It needs to be protected from damage I will get the NEC ref in a bit don't know it off hand I'll edit later.
 
What sort of damage does the brick or block inflict on the sheath of a romex cable? I'm just curious. Mold? Some sort of insulation damage from the lye in the cement? . The way I always looked at it this is different than "embedding" the cable into cement, or mortar.
 
I believe no chase is fine.

the reason I'm writing is because of the referance to the nail.

ever see 2 wire nmb secured by driveing a roofing nail directly through the center?

I did, give or take about 75 feet worth through a basement.

Too funny. Not one short.

r
 
macmikeman said:
What sort of damage does the brick or block inflict on the sheath of a romex cable?
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IMO, the danger comes from the rough angled edges of brick chafing the sheathing of the NM over time. For example, an oft-used appliance in the back yard running at 9 amps for half an hour or an hour or so, and then put away. Repeat the use of the appliance once or twice a week, and you have the potential for the NM to move back and forth with each use.

The slight expansion and contraction of the conductors pinched against a sharp corner could result in damaged NM, IMO. I have no experience to back this up, it's just a hunch I have. It would also explain why embedding NM would be illegal. A big continuous sanding block in intimate contact with the cable.
 
George, the embedding part I do understand. I have had the raw materials used to make cement on my skin before. Gotta be bad for the cable jacket and wire insulation over time.
 
georgestolz said:
IMO, the danger comes from the rough angled edges of brick chafing the sheathing of the NM over time.
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What is more rough and angled, the edge of the brick or the edges of a push on non metallic connector? (the black ones). How about the back end of a romex cable clamp, that thing is like a razor. Given the same friendly arguement, that in the same conditions is even worse in my book.
 
macmikeman said:
George, the embedding part I do understand. I have had the raw materials used to make cement on my skin before. Gotta be bad for the cable jacket and wire insulation over time.
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I have no question that embedding in concrete is wrong but I have seen both NM and UF embedded in concrete for post lights in a residential setting that have been there for 30 years and are still there. I guess it the potential during the pour that can do damage as well as heat buildup.
 
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