Inspected a house that is 27 years Old Town home with a garage on the lower level. I know it is typical to find that the exterior receptacles and all the bathroom receptacles are protected and reset in the garage. Today I found that the lower bathroom and all the lights and fan in that bathroom are also protected by the same circuit.
Found
This and the past and electricians said it was a problem and fixed it. Today different electrician is saying it’s okay.
Any thoughts
Not a problem.
Bathrooms have two general options, the entire bathroom (lights, receptacle, fan, etc.) all on one circuit OR only the receptacles in one or more bathrooms on a circuit.
I know some inspectors call this condition out as a deficiency. I for one do not. I don’t really see an issue with the light being on a GFCI-protected circuit.
I did call it as an issue back in the day and then was advised by more than two or three Builders which may not mean a lot that that is how things are done now I looked into it and did not seem to be a code fault so I don’t call it out anymore
I can see HI’s not bothering to call it out but it still a code violation to have the lights and receptacles from different bathrooms on the same circuit.
The inspectors (including myself) are not calling them out because they are on the same circuit. They are called out because the wiring method causes the lights to extinguish when the GFCI trips. They can still be on the same circuit (single bathroom) and not go out when the GFCI trips. It has nothing to do with code. It is simply a safety issue.
Yep. You might be in the dark in a small, familiar room. Kinda like when the bulb burns out.
The majority of elderly falls occur in the bathroom. If you’re ok with those odds do what you want, must never have looked after aging relatives.
Hardly, that is a bulb (device) failure; this is an electricians (human) failure. One is preventable the other is not.
Probably has more to do with the water and slippery surfaces than the lights going out because the GFCI tripped.
You must be a genius! So let’s lower the odds, maybe we can get it to happen more often!
What Bob said!
Thanks for the reply everyone, kind of fun to see so many different options.
But i do agree it is not right, if it was a common practice i would think the other 3 bathrooms would be the same and it would be seen more often in the field. This is the 3rd time finding this in 9 years always rehabs or home owner work.
I do agree that It’s a safety issue due to the lights going out and I do agree that there’s only two ways that should be done like robert said.
Told my client to keep the electrician’s number who looked at because if GFCI keeps triping after you move in call him not me.
And if anybody has a reference where this was a common practice please forward it to me.
Thank you and stay safe
Patrick and Natasha Hammond,
360 Home Inspections (maryland)
Why do you expect the GFCI to keep tripping?
Just because there were 9 receptacles originally from build being protected by the GFCI in the garage. Now that they added a bathroom on the lower level and spliced into that circuit there are 4 basement receptacles and all the power to the bathroom added to it.