Making Electrical inspections

Do Home Inspectors and CMI’s make electrical inspection’s based upon any other other doucments besides the NEC?

When their list is developed, are the defect statements taken from any other documents beside the NEC?

I believe that most of the defect items discovered are covered by the NEC and believe that the Home Inspector must be aware of those rules, understanding that they don’t quote the NEC, do you agree?

Joe,

As you know I have followed you for many years and have used your material in the classroom. Although we don’t always agree on some things without doubt your knowledge surpasses that of most in the field.

That said the one thing that we have always agreed on is the safety issues involved in the electrical field and the need of knowledge of the NEC.

A good Home Inspector has to have knowledge in a lot of different fields. They don’t have an easy job. Although they don’t quote code they need to have knowledge of the codes in order to make good calls when doing inspections.

Over the past few years that I have been teaching I have had Home Inspectors that would monitor some of my classes and a few have even signed up to take a few of my classes.

So to answer your question in my opinion yes a good Home Inspector needs knowledge of not only the NEC but all the codes that regulate the building trades.

OK that’s good, Mike please send me the pictures you have that were posted by me, I have many, but some are better than others. I was hoping to hear from the HI’s and CMI’s on this question.

The IPMC is much closer to the typical home inspector SOP than the NEC is.

Just a bit, probably should have mentioned NFPA 73. Here’s the document you mentioned.

Also the IEBC, CEC, CBC, CPSC and other related documentation.

We’re not just looking for installation problems. We are inspecting relatively new installations, aged systems, components that have had documented failures, etc., etc…

The NEC is just one of many reference sources we need to be familiar with.