Ya just never know what us DIY electricians are gonna do.
I was working on replacing some old outlets in my kitchen Sunday. Trying to get all the old K & T wiring updated, along with replacing some older outlets and such.
I needed to run new wiring from the basement up through an interior wall. So I got down in the basement with a 1/2″ by 18″ drill bit in my Milwaukee drill. Gotta go theough the subfloor, bottom wall plate, and several inches of plaster that’s caked in the bottom of the wall.
I driled through the bottom plate, and was shortly covered with sawdust and plaster dust. about the time I thought I should be through all the plaster I heard a breaker trip. A quick tug on the drill and I figured out I must be wrapped up in some wires. I had to reverse the drill and wiggle it around some to back the bit out of the hole.
I went upstairs and found an outlet on the other side of the wall from where I’d been working. When I pulled it out, this what I found.
My Son thought is was hilarious. He went and got DW and said: “Hey Mom! Come and see what Dad screwed up!”
Replies
As our friend Homer would say.."DOH"..you were lucky buddy.
"I wasn't LYING, I was writing fiction with my mouth"
Homer Simpson
du-du happens... 1 step forward, 1 step back.
Most impressive! "You the man!"
Love those digital cameras. Record and share life's little moments. Nice tight twist there. To paraphrase someone, "That's why I hate old work."
One of our troops, with Rotozip set on Viagra did manage to cut quite a few conductors back in the boxes, but there was no power. Had there been, he might have cut less.
Sparky was happy. Time and materials. That will be one Lexus payment, please.
ToolBear
My girlfriend (at the time) told me her folks had a problem with a motion sensor light and asked if I wanted to fix it. As I was just getting a new remodeling business off the ground I said sure and went over to see what I could do. The house, a turn of the century two story farm house had been worked on too many times to count including a very poor vinyl siding job. They'd just bought the place and were still learning about the place. The motion sensor light was 15' up the back wall of the house so I got up on a ladder and pulled the light off to inspect the inside of the box. What I found had me shaking my head and wondering what else I'd find. There was a 16 gauge extension cord wired into the light. After seeing the general direction of the wire, I traced it down the wall between the sheathing and the vinyl siding to a hole just outside the kitchen. I went inside the kitchen, opened the base cabinet door beneath the sink and looked against the back wall where I saw the cord entering the under sink area. It was hooked up to a plug and plugged into the garbage disposal outlet. As it was near dark, I buttoned everything up and called the folks into the kitchen and had the girlfriend go outside near the motion detector to wave her arms at my signal. Her folks were puzzled until I had them stand by the window as I flipped the disposal on at which point the light came on. The next day I went back and re-worked and replaced everything to comply to code. That job lead to two years working almost exclusively for numerous members of her family and friends of them who also had old houses with 'issues'.
Sounds like you should be, 'Housewrong'
I never met a tool I didn't like!
I guess we need to add *COD*, current owner's doings to *POD* previous owner's doings. Just remember, wisdom is the ability to recognize a mistake as you are doing it again.
FWIW, my old black and decker drill caught fire as I was trying to drill diagonally through a pair of sistered old growth fir 2x8's. The bit was stuck, the drill smoking, and no chuck key in sight. HELLO! On a positive note, I got a new Milwaukee drill out of that, plus another drill driver since they were on sale.
Hi Boss.
Hate to tell you, but you must have forgot that you had already updated that outlet once before....seeing how that wire was romex and your goal was to replace some knob & tube. Ha! ha!
Just glad you are "A" OK...electric can bite ya pretty hard at times.
Davo
Hey Boss,
I got zapped just last week.....
Was doing a remodel for a customer.....large home, built in the 70's....very plush house.
Anyway, kept noticing in the basement that all wiring was left exposed in their respective junction boxes...no cover plates. Upon further inspection, all leads had taped splices...no wire nuts, or other crimping devices of any kind holding these wires together.
My job involved mostly drywall work and paneling, but I was to install some additional overhead lighting . Owner tells me to include these additional lights onto same circiut as existing light switch...all lights to be operated by this switch. This I did, and I cut out the tape splices at the junction box where I made the circuit connection.
I pointed out to the owner that overall, his house wiring had some code violations and whatnot...he told me he was going to upgrade entire house in a few weeks and had already contracted with an electrician friend of his to do the re-wire work...told me not to concern myself. Well, I bought cover plates for the exposed boxes that were located in the room I was remodeling...thought I'd put on the plates and just walk away until other electrician arrives....very first dang set of wires I go to stuff up inside box and ZAP! wires cut thru tape, hit side of metal box and spark big time. I'm on a step ladder...situation takes me by surprise to which I let go of everything and jump off backwards! Wrenched my knee a bit, but otherwise OK. At least grounding was in place...circuit immediately tripped.
Needless to say, after a few minutes of some much needed cursing, I cut out the taped splices in that box and re-wired it correctly. I decided to leave the other boxes alone and in plain site with their exposed taped splices, so that the incoming electrician would not miss them.... Hope it gets fixed soon. Owner tells me he's paying 9 Thousand Dollars to have whole house upgraded....unbelevable I say. Heck, I could have done it easily for half that price.
Davo