On Oct 13, 7:40*am, "SteveB" wrote:
"RicodJour" wrote in message

...
On Oct 13, 8:01 am, wrote:



On Oct 13, 7:44 am, bob haller wrote:

On Oct 13, 7:38 am, "John Grabowski" wrote:

" Had a guy come in to help put up wood moulding in the kitchen. Must
have

hit a wire becaue it blew a breaker.
He pulled the nail out (small nail) and hammered it in elsewhere.
Flipped
the breaker back on. Said don't worry about it.

Now I lie awake at night fearing its a fire hazard.

Is it?

*In a 1920's house that has had some electrical improvements over the
years
it is possible to have wiring anywhere. This is the kind of thing that
will
surface as a problem weeks, months or years from now. By nailing into
the
wiring and causing a dead short some of the copper wire is probably
nicked.
The wire may only be connected at that point by a hair, more or less.
Depending on the load that travels over that point it can overheat and
if it
is in contact with combustible materials will burn whatever it
touches.
Eventually the wire will burn apart and whatever it is feeding will
become
dead. To answer your question: Yes it is a potential fire hazard.

For safety and piece of mind get an electrician in there and have him
take a
look.

EXACTLY! open the wall and inspect the damage. perhaps access it from
the other side.

its a real potential fire hazard- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Agree with John and Bob. I would also say the contractor is not
responsible for this. As others have pointed out, wiring is supposed
to be run far enough back that a finishing nail from molding can't
reach it or else have a metal plate covering it.

Yep. *Even if you had a contract, and the contract was any good,
there'd be a clause in there about "latent and concealed conditions".
The contractor doesn't have X-ray vision, and can't determine what is
behind a wall. *He has a reasonable expectation to believe that there
aren't wires too close to the surface.

If the contractor was using unnecessarily long nails - say 3" to
attach some trim - then there's some responsibility there, but it's
basically the owner's.

R

Say WHAT?

Steve

Seems clear to me......a reasonable statement of the "latent and
concealed conditions" concept that has be the "at issue" in 100's if
not 1000's of court cases.

Contractors are not expected to have x-ray vision but engineers are
supposed to be able to see into the future.

If the contract used a reasonably sized fastener and he reasonably
placed it and it hits a hidden wire that itself was poorly placed then
he is not at fault.

But if he used a grossly inappropriately sized fastener or placed on
poorly...then he is at fault.

Just an application of the legal concept of "a prudent
man" .....which btw seems to have died an untimely death back in 70's
when stupidity took took over as the reigning concept in jury
decisions.

cheers
Bob