In article , "mike hide" wrote:

I guess I have mixed feelings here, I recognize the dangers but have serious
problems with electrician's high hourly rates in particular when the
required job skill level is so low . Basically in this region their only
claim to fame is the fact is they can sign off that the job is in fact to
code regardless of their crappy work.

In my opinion if their rates were reasonable far less people would be doing
basic wiring themselves.

I'm afraid I have to disagree with you on a couple of points. IMO, the reason
so many folks go the DIY route has less to do with the hourly rates charged by
electricians than with the widespread misperception that "the the required job
skill level is so low."

It's *not* a low-skill job.

Almost any fool can install residential wiring so that it works. Installing it
so that it works, *and* is safe, isn't quite so simple. I've encountered, and
corrected, these problems (among others) created by the previous owners of my
various homes:

+ light switch in the neutral instead of the hot
+ 14-2 BX made to do the job of 14-3 by using the cable armor as a conductor
+ 3-way switches installed with 12-2, using the ground conductor as a traveler
+ hot and neutral reversed on a receptacle
+ outdoor outlet unprotected by GFCI
+ 20A breaker on a circuit with 14ga wire
+ 30A fuse on a circuit with 14ga wire
+ Romex run through an ungrommeted hole in a steel cold air return duct
+ aluminum wire connected to copper with copper-only wire nuts
+ aluminum wire connected to copper-only receptacles
+ cross-connected neutrals in two junction boxes on different circuits
+ Edison circuits not identifed as such and having no common disconnect
+ 100A overcurrent protection on a circuit dedicated to a 1/2 HP well pump
+ abandoned live wires in circumstances very similar to the one Swingman
described (though without the "pretty colored lights")
+ 60A subpanel fed from another subpanel with 10/3 Romex ...
+ ... attached to the *hot* side of the lugs (so that the only overcurrent
protection for the 10-ga feeder was the 200A service disconnect)

All of these things "work". Not one of them is safe. But because they function
as expected, the idiots who installed them probably didn't give them a second
thought.

I think any person of normal intelligence and mechanical ability, who takes
the trouble to familiarize himself with the proper materials and methods of
installation, and with the applicable portions of the NEC, is capable of
installing residential wiring safely. Trouble is, there are a LOT of people
who don't even know that there IS a National Electrical Code, let alone have
any idea WHY.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.