I never said it wasn’t “code compliant”. We know it is not but it is not worth the argument.
If you tell people that something is not code compliant, where does it stop? Then if you fail to tell them one thing is not, are you liable?
They will simply tell you that the house was not code compliant right after it was built because they changed the code. Unless a house has just been built in the the neighborhood, neither is anybody else’s in the neighborhood. It is just better not to have that conversation. Of coarse if you are a code inspector and when you win you will still loose.
We are talking about the repair John, not the whole home. The repair, must be up to the existing code. A “licensed” electrician should know that. When speaking with licensed tradesmen, I try to “speak their language”.
We just had this situation with a four-point. The washing machine was directly in front of the distribution panel, and the condensing unit was right in front of the main disconnect.
The electrician said, “The distribution panel was OK…if they moved the washing machine, which they did”. I said OK, what happens when they move the washing machine back? He said, “It wasn’t there when I was there”!
The upshot is the client got money to relocate the washing machine and condensing unit and the electrician sent me a release stating the two items in question were code compliant.
I know what we are talking about, the client may not.
When the house burns down because of an extension cord, I would hope that if you mentioned code, you would have mentioned everywhere there was not an outlet every six feet.
I am just pointing out you can save hassles and arguments if you call things out as, unsafe, unprofessional, not to manufactures specification and incorrect, ect. When a client asks about code I simply tell them yes or no and that we do not do code.
Here’s a good example using a before and after. Recent 4-point in the keys…
One picture shows an electrical panel covered and not accessible and the next picture after the client made the corrections. She originally said to me that her last inspector simply peeled back the overhang to take the picture. I told her that when the overhang went back, she had a violation and it wasn’t just about making it look “okay” for the picture. So, she had someone cut out the section of overhang covering the panel.
What that tells me, is no permit was pulled for the installation of the “overhang”…but we don’t want to get into code issues, do we? :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
