I don’t really mind doing the basic, room to room wiring but there a some issues that I would rather not deal with.
Last time I worked on this unfished house he wanted a few recepticles in the rooms and 4 outside lights on switches on each side of the house to deter thieves and such. He also had me run some of the wires to where the switches would be. He had no interior walls, so it made trying to run the home runs(the cable from the panel to each circuit) very difficult as you had to try to run on outside of walls and you would like run into foundation and such and totally had to rig how they got down to the panel in the basment. Drilling through areas ouside of the walls to bring them down. I did not like doing it but thats what he wanted and he said he will cover them up later.
Anyway, the point was mostly to get the outside lights working, so I obliged and it was accomplished.
Now, he made the second floor into one big room. Says the flooring is in and looks nice. I have not seen it but he says there is a small intererior wall that I can run home runs through.
Any heres what I dont like.
It’s been like 10 or 11 years since I have done electrical work on new houses regularly. Panel work makes me nervous now because I am so out of practice. I dont like sticking my hands that are not as steady as I used to be in there anymore. I just really do not want to do panel work anymore.
I got those other exterior lights and interior recepticles working ages ago. Like a year and a half. I may not have the worst memory for a person with schizophrenia, but eventually, he’s going to want to to finish off those rooms , and its going to be a ■■■■■ to try to remember how I wired everything up years ago. I’m probably going to have to try to figure it all out again.
Even though he says there is an interior wall on second floor, there still probably is not on first,so it will likely be a pain routing the home run to the basement again.
I don’t like doing this pieceemeal type work, a tiny bit at a time, all out of order, with lots of walls not up and nowhere to run wires, years apart, where I probably won’t be able to remember some things.
When I did new houses, they did things in a certain order. The way this is, its pretty much all over the place at almost random times.
Yeah sounds a nightmare for a working electrician so I think your ok to say no. Like I’d imagine he’s trying to get your work and effort cheap which is cool as it’s in family but anything up to spec I wouldn’t hesitate saying no if you feel it beyond your current circumstance.
I did a lot of helping out my brother in law years ago who had an electrical business. It was a nightmare some places running cable and such so it’s good you know your limits and the problems involved. It can be hard work and it sounds like it’s not a simple fix.
You can always go and have a look then say you can’t do it perhaps? Just can’t/ not up for it? or it’s too complicated for what you can do?
I am out of practice and not comfortable doing panel anymore.
He isnt doing things like they should be done. He isnt doing things in the proper order.
He is rigging things. Like making this huge upstairs into one room with no real interior walls. Putting cables through floors because cant get past foundation and there are no interior walls and such.
We are running all these home runs and connecting them one at a time to the panel so he can get things working a bit at a time instead of running them all down and then connecting them all at once. It’s going to get messier and messier the more we run.
The majority of the wiring isnt that hard…IF it were done all at once and it were not years apart so I forget whats what.
So the biggest issue is the home runs to the panel and no walls and such. And forgetting what Ive already done because of such huge gaps in time between working on it.
I hate to turn him down, but maybe I can just tell him I’ll run the rooms but he has to figure out the homeruns and panel. IDK>
Reason enough to be hesitant. I’d be loath to put my name on stuff that if you sold the place it would have to meet code. Your system is a little different to ours I think as we run to earth…you isolate or something. My brother in law explained it too me once but not sure what the differences really are.
Anyways. I’d be telling him your concerns and why he should either get someone in and why your loath to continue. I think you’ve explained it pretty well here.
Yes. it is making me nervous. This house is not a new house. It is a gutted old one. Most of the interior walls(frames of the walls, not drywall) were down on first floor last time I was there. The interior walls that were still up, i was told were coming down and couldnt be used for cables.
IF he would have got some carpenters in there to build interior walls prior to electrical work, everything would’ve went so much smoother and couldve mostly been done all at once. I dont know what he is going to do with the 1st floor now. It was divided into rooms by the walls that were coming down before, but I have no idea if they are going back up or what, but he is going ot have second floor as one giant room, I presume to avoid having to put up walls there.
You can’t very well make the floor with the kitchen, bathroom and living room into one giant room, I wouldnt think.
The whole thing is very chaotic and not very well thought out, IMO.
About 20 years ago we had some one take out a drop ceiling and make a cathedral ceiling with skylights in it. He did all the wiring and he wired our TV outlet with the lights in the ceiling. So if we wanted to watch TV The lights had to be on all the time the TV was on. We eventually stopped using the lights because they kept burning out and just leave it on all the time now with burnt out lightbulbs in the ceiling.
theres a live wire in the basement, hanging from the cieling with the wires bare at the ends and spread apart like a crows foot. i will soon turn off the panel and put a receptical on the wall and cap the ends of the wire, and stick it in the receptical. just havent done it since i bought the house in november because its been cold and i dont know if the panel will turn on again
Damn sounds like a problem Loli never knew you did electrical. It must be stressful. Electrical work must be stressful because you don’t wanna be held responsible for someone’s house burning down. Sound like a difficult job. I know electricians get paid a lot tho.
If he’s not doing things to code, you should say no. It’s best not to have your name on work done wrong.
I don’t know anything about this stuff, but I do know my dad was a master builder/carpenter and never would have been involved in a project not done right the whole way through.
Maybe it’s because he was also a Detroit Firefighter all his life, and has seen what can happen if electric work isn’t done right.
All I know is I’d stay far away from that project.
Yeah, the electricians that I’ve worked with wouldn’t touch most of this stuff, especially if it’s old construction in the Midwest, as a lot of it is a mess. My grandfather is still on fuses for his house, so you can imagine the nightmare that is his house when he’s had electricians over to his house to do work.
Furthermore, I hate core drilling into concrete just to put up a few receptacles and lamps. For newer construction I don’t mind it, as we are going by a blueprint, but this seems haphazard and not thought out well.
Also, are you doing the majority of the switches single pole, three way, or four way. The reason I ask is because for me keeping track of all of the travelers gets confusing if you don’t have a blueprint.
If you’re asking me, I would say that, if its in the basement, I would likely have run it through some EMT. It’s really not a good idea to have exposed romex not inside the wall running down it.
yes, this is a big reason why I don’t like doing this work years later. It is very difficult to keep track of the switching.
The proper boxes have been put up with the interior three ways in mind on the first floor but only the single pole switches and wiring have been run for the exterior lights.
It sounds like there will only be one 3 way on the second floor, but he wants 2 fan lights installed, I’m assumeing off two different boxes, with a switch for fan and light seperate.
I’m not 100% sure exactly how he wants it , though, because I havent been there in a year and a half, he just briefly commented via text.
