Home Inspection Questions – Electrical (Part 2)
This is the second part of a series focused on questions to cover with your home inspector. Check out the first post on home exteriors here. Often the problems we can’t see with our eyes are the toughest to locate and solve. These are some important electrical points to cover on inspection day.
Electrical Inspection
The electrical setup of a home is very important. Loose or faulty wiring is a dangerous fire hazard and a poor installation will be a constant source of frustration. Be careful whenever working with electricity. Mishandling can lead to electrical burns or even be fatal.
1. See what kind of wiring has been installed. Older homes may have aluminum or knob and tube wiring. Aluminum does not conduct electricity as well as copper and both can easily overheat. These are potential fire hazards and your best bet is to avoid them. (edited 4/9/2008)
2. Know how to identify ground-fault circuit interrupters (GFCI). These interrupters will break the circuit when it detects an unsafe current. You should find them installed for all outlets in bathrooms, garages, unfinished basements, wet-bar sinks, boathouses and outdoors. Your inspector should check each one to see that it functions properly.
3. Make sure you’re familiar with the electrical panel. The main breaker should have service for 100-200 amps (200 amps is better suited for todays needs). See if there is space for more breakers. Generally, any space that is not knocked out is free to put in another breaker. Double check that major appliances have their own circuit.
4. Check for frayed or damaged wires. Usually you can find exposed wires in the attic or unfinished basement. Fraying can occur when wires overheat and and the insulation cracks. Light bulbs that draw more watts than specified on the base are a common culprit.
5. Electrical wire comes in different gauges. Thicker wire (lower gauge) can handle more electrical current. One big danger is using improperly sized wire. If the wire you use is too small, it can overheat and short.
6. Check all outlets and switches to make sure they function. Don’t be shy. Try each one. An electrical must have is this handy receptacle tester
What do you think? Anyone find poor wiring after the purchase? How did you find the problem? Have you even had to rewire your home?
Image courtesy of James Emery
Comments & Conversation on this Article...
9 Responses to Home Inspection Questions – Electrical (Part 2)
Wait! Got a question on your own project?
Ask your question in our Home Improvement Help Forums.
Otherwise, leave a note here!
April 16th, 2008 9:48 am
Ooohhh! The dreaded knob and tube. The bane of our existence, though not for the reasons you’d think. A few of the things I know about it, cause I think it gets kind of a bad rap… Knob and tube is actually made of copper– the 1950s stuff is the crappy aluminum. In fact, our K&T was of the appropriate gauge and was of a purer copper than modern wiring– in other words, it conducted better. The problems with overheating only come when they’ve been covered with insulation or the like; the wires air cool and too much covering too close to the wires causes the problem. The overheating also happens when the gauge is too small for our modern appliance load.
Since we knew that it is actually a great system if taken care of properly, we hired an inspector familiar with older homes– he’s actually a neighbor. Every house he’s ever lived in had K&T, and he was a very DIY kind of guy. (BTW– I’d definitely do that again– it was a huge benefit to hire someone with knowledge of the neighborhood, of living in older homes, and of the DIY mentality). Our K&T was in good shape, but due to a number of problems with the city inspectors (I won’t go into the details, they’re on the blog!) we had to rewire the whole house– NOT because it was K&T, but because we had exposed some of the wires when we took out the kitchen plaster and they have squirrely definitions of 50% of the wiring.
We didn’t want to rewire, but our electrician hates the city and was sympathetic to our financial constraints; he made it known to us what kinds of things might make his job easier and cheaper. Also, most cities have some provisions for grandfathering in a lot of things that would be difficult to bring up to code (and code isn’t always a safety issue– sometimes it’s a way to keep the industry employed). So we got out of the deal paying less than half the cost of the other estimates we had received.
Overall, it’s nice to know we can plug everything in safely and never have trouble with insuring the house or selling it down the road. Seeing other things the POs did, I wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d done a lot of these no-nos! All worked out in the end. (Sorry– very long comment! But a subject very near and dear to my heart…and my pocketbook!)
April 16th, 2008 9:55 am
Sorry! One more thing…Electricians who do older homes and who LIKE older homes are great. The guys who do new construction hate jobs like rewiring an old house, so you’re lucky if they even call you back; and if they do call back, they’re going to quote you so high, you won’t want to use them.
April 16th, 2008 10:45 am
Amalie,
Thanks for the feedback. I’ll update the post with your information. Sounds like you have a good deal of experience with K & T wiring.
April 16th, 2008 10:56 am
I was terrified when I found out that our house had K&T and a rewire was quoted in the $14k range…so we did a lot of investigating. Romex is certainly preferable, and you never know what POs have done to a house, but it’s not always as bad as its reputation. The trouble with insuring a K&T house can be enough to rewire, though! It took us a lot of calling around.
April 16th, 2008 5:17 pm
Like Amalie, I too was terrified of the K&T wiring that came with our house. I remember the first time I plugged in the vacuum. I think I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes. We’ve since replaced it all, but we are leaving some non-working artifacts that we’ll leave exposed. They’ll be historical conversation pieces.
April 16th, 2008 7:28 pm
Why S,
I like the idea of show-casing some for history. Did the cost seem in line with the quote Amalie reported?
April 18th, 2008 3:07 am
I think the total cost to update wiring on the whole house was around $9k. He didn’t do it all at once though. He came in for about 3 or 4 different periods over 5 years. We have a smallish house, under 1200 sf. And my husband did a lot of the less drastic work himself, after the pro laid the groundwork. Plus, we had a lot of copper wire that we inherited from his DIYer step-dad. So it’s tough to compare.
April 18th, 2008 10:28 am
Our $14k estimate was the top end. There was also a $7-10k estimate from the guy we went with, depending on what the city demanded. And these were the ONLY 2 guys to call us back out of probably 10. We ended up paying $5k for rewire, a few new circuits and a breaker box. We went ahead and stripped the old fixtures and boxes ourselves…Our house is about 1450 ft2, but it was going to cost more because all our exterior walls are brick and mortar– they’re not hollow, so a big chunk of cost would go to drill bits to bring up to code. In the end, the inspector grandfathered our floor outlets. So tough to compare us too!
April 18th, 2008 11:34 am
Why S, Amalie,
I guess it is tough to compare. It depends on the size and type of your home. Along with how much work your willing to tackle yourself. Thanks for all the great feedback.