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We do mainly service/panel upgrades to
100 or 200 amperes and perhaps a few hours of repairs or rewiring but only when
we do a service upgrade!
Jan. 20, 2009 - City Proposes Compliance certificates for
home buyers - $300.00 May 2009 - Manitoba
Hydro EFP financing plan rates are reduced to 8.5% from
11%. The following is only for your information -
it is not intended for you to call us quickly, because, due to hard competition
against all handy/men in this city doing electrical work, we may no longer
do rewiring or repairs type of work! Further, we only do an estimate to rewire a
home for customers who already have one estimate and such estimate indicates a
cost of $170.00 or higher per item! (meaning per light, a switch, a
receptacle etc. (This warning (about older
homes) updated here Dec. 4, 2009.) I receive calls of this nature almost every 3 rd day of the
week! When I look at the math. of me being 1 in 300 contractors - then
something is not right out there! Bying an
older home? Beaware of wiring done by the previous home owners or by their
associated handy/persons - especially if the home is up for sale!. Usually, most
of the time, it all looks "PRITTY". Most likely it has been rewired
or upgraded in some areas, however, the home electrical wiring (if done by a
hack) is more than 1,000 times more dangerous than it EVER WAS FOR OVER the last
60 YEARS! Why? - because someone TAMPERED with the ORIGINAL approved wiring done
60 to 80 years ago! It can be quite a disaster for NEW OCCUPANTS
because of the NEW DEMANDS the new owners may impose on the wiring system.
Repairs to such trashed rewiring job can add up to
thousands and much more when the knob & tube wiring is still ALL
OVER but well hidden especially feeding the light fixtures in
the first floor and all DEVICES in the 2nd and 3rd floors. Your home inspector
will likely tell you that there is ONLY 10% or 20% Knob & Tube wiring,
however, there may be well over 60% knob & tube!. Check with the
City for PERMITS relating to electrical or plumbing or structural work
done in such a home - if you do not check for such related documented
permits from the City - run! Further, don.t come to a conclusion that I am scaring anyone
off for my own gains so that anyone will call me up QUICKLY to look at their
situation - It is OBSULUTELY likely that I will advise you by tel.
the best action to take for your safety but very UNLIKELY that I am
ABLE TO DO ANY REPAIRS FOR YOU NOW OR IN THE NEAR FUTURE except only more likely
if a "service upgrade" is done at the same time. Further, to have your problem resolved, insure to call a
legitimate electrical contractor (including for a propper electrical inspection)
- NOT ANY HANDYMAN OR HANDYWOMAN AGENCY who will charge you aprox. $70 or
$90/HOUR - being more than most electrical contractors
will charge and THEY WILL SEND ONLY A HANDY/PERSON to do the
job! ______________________________________ Some initial give away clues to look for when
vewing an older home for sale: A home for sale "description" may say rec. room or finished
basement, however you go and check in the ASSESSEMENT document with the
City (in the internet) and it ONLY says "Basement yes, finished basement
No" Then you are getting an illegal, uninspected, unapproved rec.
room which you may have to tear it all up for certain repairs such as
plumbing and most certainly for the electrical installation. Also brand new light fixtures and 3 PRONG even
DECORA type receptacles all over the home and no TRACE of at least 10
or more new cables to a NEW panel. New receptacles and/or light
fixtures in a 1st or 2nd floor yet no evidence of NEW DRYWALL OR PAINT OR
OTHER MAJOR PHYSICAL RENOVATIONS TO WALLS OR CEILINGS! (how would
such new wiring had been ACCOMPLISHED?) Sometimes these well hidden
handy/man dangerous wiring problems take up to over 10 years to be discovered by
the new owners if the home has not yet burned down! An electrical
installation done by a hack works very well and anything wrong goes unnoticed
until the moment the sparks start a fire! Again, this summer as I had last summer, I
have seen a few handyman renovated homes for sale. I have seen dozens of wiring
repairs by such professionals - they think they did a great job!
Five months ago in a home I was working in,
I was removing a staple from a BX metal cable close to a fluorescent fixture in
the basement and happened to touch the metal of the fixture and the steel
covered cable at the same time beside it with my plyers. There were sparks
all over and a fuse blew! Why? it had a bare connection inside the
fixture touching the outer metal of the fixture. - the special handyman
professional never grounded the light and forgot to put a cap (a marrete)
on the splices he made inside the fixture!. Important: Don't fully trust home
inspectors. Some may know less about an electrical installation than you
do. I have seen new 3 prong receptacles INDICATING THAT THEY ARE
GROUNDED, however, a closer look or using propper testers (not the plug
in one which lights up) it has been found that they MAY NOT BE
GROUNDED AT ALL! Such misdiagnosed condition can be a few hundred times worst
for electricution or a fire! All metal eaves troughs, metal siding, metal
pipes, stucco mesh etc. can be energized "live with electrical
current" twice in 39 years I have found stucco on the outside wall of homes
warmed up by electricity! It acts like a toaster on a low setting!.
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The following is the previous content in this specific
web page (unchanged - written about one year
ago)
As repeated in my
"electrical nightmares page"
Beware of the beautiful recent renovations done
(in many homes being sold) covering and hiding ALL DEFICIENCIES such as -
Cracked basement walls, galvanized plumbing, bundles of electrical cables and
single opened electrical wires spliced all in the open and shoved inside the
wall all taped up and hidden all over incliding above the rec. room's new
ceiling and especially BEHIND ALL THOSE BEAUTIFULL NEW LIGHT FIXTURES in
the 1st, 2nd or 3rd floors. In the summer of 2007 I saw 5 out of 12 older homes
partly rewired by amateurs that way!
If you just bought an older home (with no apparent
legitimate substantial wiring renovations) expect from $6 - $9 or even well over
$14,000.00 to have your home's electrical upgraded nearly to current standards!
The realstate people would be likely the last to tell you about it!
The home insurance will likely not publicise the fact
that a home owner may not get even a red penny for fire losses etc. if caused by
ANY UNAPPROVED WIRING by amateurs, especially if it was done under your
ownership!
However; I have also heard, if such claims are to be resolved
extensively & legally, the SELLER - even 20 years ago - may be
responsible for his rewiring adventures!
If the previous home owner ever
obtained a PERMIT (very rare) to do his rewiring or renovations, then the
insurance may have no choice but pay up in case of such a
loss.
Further, do not expect the realter to inform you about getting to know if permits were taken for any seen renovations or if they were ever approved. From their point of view, the gravy train would slow down dramatically!
Along with
all realters business cards displayed, usually, on the kitchen table
of a home being sold, there should be COPIES of permits or any
other revelant documentation papers covering all ligitimate, recent
renovations done by the home owner.
Are we talking about
dollars or the life safety of a whole family?
Most City Inspectors only know how to check out
about 5 or 6 things! Most City home inspectors are not electricians.
Would someone say "oh the wiring I did myself is safe because it was
inspected!".
The City allows homeowners to take out permits. In Quebec,
no home owner is allowed such a previlledge. In our one horse town city of
Winnipeg it is allowed! It will take a related disaster and loss of life to have
them change the bylaws!
Up date
- January 2009 - The City may have come to terms (still undecided)
with some of the problems which unapproved renovations can cause and may require
a ' Compliance Certificate' which should be the responssibility of the
seller to pay for it, not the buyer! Onother problem is that the
City charges $50.00 for anyone to check if permits were taken to do renovations
in a certain property. That is quite a money grab for a few minutes on a
computer!
I have stated here some problems a home owner
purchasing an older home may face. It is not meant to call me quickly to
ckeck out the wiring, unless it is strickly for an estimate of a
panel/service upgrade - it is a free estimate.
For chequing out the intire wiring installation, before it is too late, insure that you call A QUALIFIED electrician.
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