Bob,

Sorry to hear about your unpleasant inspection. I recently wired our new
house and, thankfully, it went rather smoothly. The first words my
inspector said was "let's talk about electricity". So, I knew immediately
he was expecting a total homeowner botch job. But, I let him say his piece,
tried to pay attention and let him inspect my work. As he started looking
things over his comments slowly turned from grade school electricity to
"Wow! this is nice! I should bring the contractors out to see how it's
SUPPOSED to be done". I passed with flying colors the first time out.

My only real mistake was not running a separate ground wire in the few
metal boxes I had used. I figured they were grounded through the
tabs of the devices that had the grounds attached. My mistake. He let it
pass, but I fixed it after he left.

Several boxes were a little too small.

I hate cramped boxes, so I went as large as I could on everything, even if
it wasn't required by code.

The wiring is exposed NM-B

I didn't think NM cable could be left exposed? I thought it had to be
covered or else you had to run wires in conduit? Don't know for sure.

I have a staple gun that shoots 9/16" (I think) staples that
are UL listed for use with NM cable.

They may be UL listed but not necessarily NEC approved?

In any case, I wouldn't feel comfortable with wire staples, or even those
vinyl covered metal staples. Just my preference. I prefer the little
plastic straps with the two nails. Non-conductive, just in case...

seeing them all the time at HD and Menard's, and they're not allowed
by the electrical code.

I see stuff at Home Depot and Lowes all the time that I know is against
plumbing and electrical codes. Doesn't seem to prevent them from selling
the stuff?

Inspector says you can only have 2 wires on each side of the device

The best way to do this is to join all the wires with the appropriate wire
nut inside the box, with a pigtail running to the device. That way if the
device fails for some reason, the rest of the circuit doesn't go dead. And,
you aren't running the full circuit load through that device.

I'm supposed to move the ground electrode conductor to the neutral
bar -- not a big deal because it is long enough to reach. But why?

You got me on that one. My panel has specific lugs for the hots, neutral,
and ground connections, with a bonding screw to ground the cabinet, and a
bar to connect the neutral and ground bars.

He says I gotta pull that neutral wire out of there and run
a new one that is white or green end-to-end from the factory.

Haven't run across that either, but I use 4/0 copper service entrance
cables for my supply (three black wires, the neutral has a green stripe).

You might check with electrical supply stores in your area. They'll often
have the unique stuff that the box stores don't carry.

That's not all, but that's enough to make my point.

Right or not, the inspector is basically the final rule. I'm pretty sure
this is even stated in the electrical code.

Everyone has a bad day. Maybe you were just unlucky enough to catch him on
one of his. There may be "workmanship" issues that set off red flags to him
that made him take a closer look at the small stuff. Who knows...

In any case, it's all for your safety anyway, so even if it's not
necessary, humor the inspector and do whatever it takes to make him/her
happy. Sooner or later they'll run out of things to nitpick and you'll
pass.

Good luck,

Anthony