Electrical Fire

[seansy59]

I would post it here, but it was a PITA to upload the pics, and organize it. So the link is here. You may leave comments in the thread below. This was my post (seansy59 username), but not my news story, although I took the pics myself.

http://www.diychatroom.com/f18/electrical-fire-121182/

[joe_347V]

  That first picture is just scary, that's one of the problems with older electrical systems though over time people tend to modify and alter stuff and some of their work it just a scary. It's a shame really this had to happen though.

PS I quoted the post for you. 

[seansy59]

Yeah. There was alot of that small wiring running things like that. The one wire (1st pic) was running 4 of those fans and a light! Then taped to an old spiced cord, and plugged into another extension cord that ran to the other side of the store. Same thing with an old (preheat) shoplight and a few lamps. If I ever go back, I will take alot of pics) if it's still all there. Its a long ride though.

PS: Thanks for inserting it into the thread! 

[Mike]

That's just scary.

[joe_347V]

Your description sounds even scarier than what the pic shows.

[don]

I've been asked to repair wiring many times. Some of the stuff I see is downright terrible. One of the problems is that older homes are many times under-wired since the demand for power was less than it is now. Someone will try to add on to existing wiring and wow...nightmare time! Nothing grounded, solder instead of wire nuts, everything you can imagine.

 When my brother bought his house...and it's a nice house, the wiring was so bad I was getting shocked off of the garage door and heating ducts. I at least made it safe until he got an electrician to redo the panel. I managed to fix outlets and get take some of the old PH 40w fixtures and replace them with new ones (I kept the old ones). One of the old PH fixtures had a bad ballast that shorted to ground, but since it wasn't grounded, I was getting shocked touching the fixture...ouch! Also, the ballast blew out the filaments of a nice vintage westinghouse bulb. Anyway, electrical stuff is nothing to joke around with.

[Mike]

Yeah. Some of the stuff used to make "repairs" to houses is crazy.

[joe_347V]

I've seen some crazy repairs done in some older stores too. O_o

[Mike]

I can home from my uncle's house and his garage's lights are wired to indoor extension cords and plug into an outlet!!! The actuall garage door lights and door motor are properly connected thankfully. He has two incandescent JB lights and a four lamp T12 wrap light in there- UNGROUNDED! And he REFUSES to get it wired properly!

[joe_347V]

Have you offered to at least ground his lights by replacing the cords on them?

[seansy59]

I can home from my uncle's house and his garage's lights are wired to indoor extension cords and plug into an outlet!!! The actuall garage door lights and door motor are properly connected thankfully. He has two incandescent JB lights and a four lamp T12 wrap light in there- UNGROUNDED! And he REFUSES to get it wired properly!

I used extension cords to wire my lights. But they are 3 wire grounded at least.
I now use 3 wire replacement 16ga. stranded cord at home depot. Its $0.50 a foot, and then I wire a grounded plug on there. Its the stuff mostly used for tools, appliances, vacuums, etc. That makes it code compliant, safer, and sometimes its cheaper.

[Mike]

Once his mind is made up, there's NO way to change it. We'll have to wait for his garage to burn down with his new car inside to change his mind unfourtunatly. The good thing is, if he does agree to get it fixed (if he does he surely won't let me do it ) the outlet is grounded so it is possible to add grounded wiring. I'll draw him up a diagram on how it would ideally be, and how he can get it to code.

[joe_347V]

Depending on how the garage is you might have to use conduit to meet code.

[Mike]

The garage is unfinished inside, but in good structural condition. Good variety of spider webs too.

[joe_347V]

Check up with the NEC or Jace but I BELIEVE that you can use romex in unfinished garages under certain circumstances.