Lynden Home Inspector (King of the House): Unsafe Wiring

 In the blog just before this one, I wrote about why re-inspecting a home to make sure all repairs were done by qualified parties, in a workmanlike manner, can be high in liability. I was browsing some photos and thought this would be a good example. These were live 120V wires in a crawl space. They were cobbled together. Obvious problems, no junction box, but clearly a sloppy job especially when down in the crawl space where it is wet and you really do not want to make contact with any bare live wires. Now, if an electrician comes in he is going to, like the inspector, know that this wiring really needs some scrutiny and using that specialized knowledge check the panel, the grounding/bonding, etc. On the other hand, you get the handyman in, who knows way less about wiring than the inspector, and he will try to jam these wires inside a junction box someway somehow. When he is done, those wires might be in a junction box but the system is likely to have numerous other problems that were beyond the scope of a home inspector but would have been caught by the electrician. that is an example of why you want the licensed and qualified person doing the repairs, not someone who can work but does not understand ramifications or the big picture.

Thanks for looking.

Steven L. Smith

www.kingofthehouse.com