The Electrical System: Not Always That Simple
The Electrical System: Not Always That Simple
A home’s electrical system is complex, and a professional home inspector will always inspect the service connection before moving indoors to examine the main panel and other components of the system. Every overhead electrical service is required to have a drip loop in hot, neutral and ground wire. This prevents water from following wire down into mast head and eventually into your main panel.
Many times I have come across homes which have a 100 amp panel and service on the Real Estate listing but upon investigation I have had to inform the home buyer that they only have a 60 amp or less service. Some sellers will install a 100 amp rated panel but it will either only have a 60 amp breaker or it is connected to a fused switch box which is 60 amps or less. This is an important item for a purchaser as most insurance companies will not insure a cottage, never mind a residential home with less than a 100 amp service. Older homes may not even have 100 amp service from the local hydro service. The home owner would be responsible for upgrading wires to mast and service connection.
Older homes will often have knob and tube wiring as part of the homes electrical system. Once again insurance companies will often refuse to ensure a home with older knob and tube wiring installed. Unfortunately many home owners or electricians will only replace the easy to access knob and tube wiring and hope that what is remaining is not discovered. Recently I inspected a home in Georgiana Township which had the attic access from a dormer on the roof. The ceiling joists were older and under sized compared to today’s standards but there was a barely visible knob and tube circuit on the other side of the attic. I slowly ventured across the ceiling joists which moved when my weight was applied and got close enough to test the knob and tube with my electrical tester…and wow, what a surprise, there were two live knob and tube circuits and they had newer romex electrical cable being fed from them. So here we have a building where the electrical panel and lower wiring had all been updated but up in the attic out of sight someone made the decision to take a short cut!! Unless you look you just never know what you will find.
Basements are the scene of many “do it yourself” renovations. In Ontario any electrical changes or improvements requires a permit and inspection by the Electrical Safety Authority or the work must be performed by a Master Electrician who carries the proper insurance. When you go into a basement and find your typical cluster of electrical mistakes you can immediately assume that the work was not done by an electrical tradesperson or was there a building permit issued for the renovation. Some of the typical errors found are: reversed polarity on outlets; missing electrical covers; un-secured electrical cables at boxes and running across walls and ceilings.
One of the most expensive electrical repairs could be when a home owner builds a basement using steel studs and fails to use the proper grommets for insulation purposes. When you find a section of steel stud wall where the romex cable was just pulled through the holes I think it would be safe to assume the whole basement had been wired the same way. The fix for this would entail removing all the drywall to install wiring properly and in accordance with the Electrical Code in force for your area.
Aluminum wiring is another situation where insurance companies maybe reluctant to insure a property which has aluminum wiring installed. There are a lot of homes and cottages where there may have been originally aluminum in main floor installed but a later renovation was all done in copper, your insurance company may require the aluminum to be upgraded to copper prior to insuring property. Some home owners will have all the accessible aluminum wiring replaced but my attempt to hide the remaining aluminum. This is often done by using junction boxes or even as simple a subterfuge as inserting cable fully into fuse or breaker to make identification difficult. Fortunately aluminum wiring also has aluminum ground and neutral so a quick look at the neutral bar and ground connections will quickly identify any aluminum circuits. This is one of the reasons that the Barrie Home Inspector removes the cover from the main electrical panel and checks some of the visible junction boxes. This is just too expensive a problem to take a chance on information supplied by the seller.
As a home buyer you can protect yourself when purchasing a home with some minor wiring deficiencies by requesting a inspection certificate from the Electrical Safety Authority in Ontario and the Authority Having Jurisdiction in your area.