I remember an electrician our company used was working on live circuits in our data center and I asked him if he was worried about getting shocked and he said that never happens to a good electrician. I followed up with "so you've never been shocked?" and he replied "no I get shocked all the time."
As an IT guy, something that I've learned along the years applies to many other fields and it's funny to find the same here: When you build something, keep in mind someone will have to maintain it for years and years, long after you're gone. Make it easier on them.
@@GoodwillWright Or even just color coded zip ties that separate different bundles. Velcro one wrap (the double sided hook & loop tape) comes in a wide assortment of colors. I'm still using the thrown out extra rolls from before 2003 when I was active duty and a contractor installed 5 different colored networks. 3/4" wide and it just used constantly on cables, parts and anything else that I need to secure and unsecure frequently. If you get the 2" wide version you can suspend an entire person ... or a mower ... from the ceiling. (The person was a volunteer and only slightly drunk. And giggling the whole time)
My father was a Chief Electrical Inspector he always said, “Don’t build traps for someone in the future!”, this applies to anything worth doing well! Which brings me to another of Dad’s quotes! “If it’s worth doing it’s worth doing well!”
As an applieance repair technician, I remember one time going out on a service call pertaining to a domestic house-hold Drier. The customer stated that she had just bought the drier new approximaely 2 months prior, and the sales store delivery/set up crew had performed the installlation. However, the customer complained that even though everything on the drier functioned properly she would invariably get a moderately mild tingling sensation of an electrical shock throughout her body every time she set the timer and hit the start button (especially if she was either leaning up against or touching the washing machine located right next to the drier), but yet she stated that she would never get an electrical shock when the drier was in the normal shut-down/ off mode. When I arrived and checked it out - yes, I would also get the same type of electrical shock when it was operating but not when it was off. After performing several checks and tests where everything checked out I partially dismantled the drier and checked everything and all internal wiring and components for any possible electrical short. I even partially dismantaled the timer assembly to see if it had shorted out internally. Nope, Nadda, not a thing wrong. Everything was checking out factory new and normal. So Even though I had previously checked out the drier electrical outlet behind the drier, the drier pigtail, and the electrical wiring setup inside the house's main circuit breaker panel I decided to investigate deeper into the wiring circuit for the drier. Here is what I found. Originally the house never had a laundry room (area), built or installed when the house was built. The owner (or who-ever), later on down the road installed a Romex ( 12/3 with ground) , wiring circuit from the house main electrical circuit breaker panel box (on the west end of the house), out to the garage (on the far east end of the house), where they had installed all the necessary features and components for a laundry room. The total distance was approximately 75 to 100 feet. They ran that Romex in the crawl space under the house. Every so often they had installed large staples (non-insulated), for a farm fence under every 4th floor joist just to hold the romex wire up off the ground (each staple was basicallly every 4 feet). (other than not meeting national electrical code basically really not a problem). Well, here's the kicker. When they installed the wiring they ran out of wire approximately half way across the house flooring. It was not one continous Romex wire from point A to point B. Basicaly still not a problem. They strung the Romex wire from the main circuit panel box halfway across the floor to where it ran out and ended. They then strung the 2nd Romex wire from the drier outlet in the garage back to where the first Romex wire ended. Here is the real kicker....... But they "did not" mount and install a J-box at the point of where the first Romex wire ended, and where the 2nd Romex wire met the first. Their connection method between the two wires created the problem. They had just bent each wire into a J-hook and then crimped each wire to the other wire with a set of pliers. They then wrapped each set of main power wires and the neutral return wires up with black plastic electrical tape, leaving the ground wire bare, and then overall wrapped all wires together into a sort of harness with more black plastic electrical tape. Well,not codeworthy overall, but it worked, (at least for a while). Over time, the wires eventually incased themselves in a lot of corrosion from moisture. After spending considerable time trying to unwrap that mess in order to get down to nothing but bare wire, I eventually found that the 2 main 120 volt power supplying wires were still intact, as well as the ground wire still being intact too. However, the Neutral return wire had corroded itself in two and had seperated into two seperate wires (with a space approximately 1/4 inch between the two neutral return wires), at the splice point. This created a different method for the return of the electrical power back to the main circuit breaker panel. Rather than the current traveling along the neutral wire back to the main circuit breaker panel, the current traveled through the frame of the drier and then through the ground wire atached to the drier frame back to the main circuit breaker panel box. This set up the problem that when the human body touched the drier anywhere on the frame (and especially if the human body was leaning up against or touching the Washing machine right next to the drier), the electrical power also took a short cut through that human body as well. Needless to say, when that occurred, that human definately was getting a shocking experience about how electrical current flowed. After a J-Box was installed, and the wires were properly re-connected together to meet the proper electrical code standard that cured that little shocking problem. - True story.
Sometimes i feel like a unicorn when I'm trying to get people to use the ground screw, not use wood screws for everything, etc. Definitely I agree that it's good to see other conscientious electricians.
Yes. I'm doing a pre wire for this lady and the last electrician took her money and didn't do any work. And the couple things she did do, she screwed up. She had 3 bids that were less than mine, but she seen how clean my low voltage pre wire was and how I got it done and didn't best around the bush with her, so she hired me anyway. I kinda feel bad because the excavator got over on her and somehow the contractors board sided with them, so after the second time being screwed, she was weary of trusting people. Those are the people that give all of us tradesman a bad name..
When you mentioned laying down the blanket and catching any dust, etc... I call that "giving a shit". I use a drywall guy who "gives a shit" and puts up plastic sheeting and cleans up everything when he's done. You know what? He gets ALL of my business. And I don't care that he charges a premium for it. Good job man.
@@stpierresteve23 bwahahahaha! Oh man. I started out trimming electric. Your comment is so true. I don't do new construction anymore but your comment took me back to chiseling out mud with my screwdrivers so we could trim out the receptacles (Single gang? Nope, it's a quad)
As someone who has had to fix alot of problems from previous "builders" I have came to the conclusion that most people in our business are ONLY interested in the money that "builders" earn, very few are actually invested in doing something the RIGHT way the FROM THE START. I only pass work on to people who are more interested in doing it the right way than they are in how much money they can squeeze out of the job.
Great job. I have my own business doing drywall repairs. I find myself repairing ceilings and walls behind these situations. You would be surprised how many electricians and plumbers throw their trash in the walls and leave their messes on the floor. I commend you on your professionalism. Thank you and I hope you are well rewarded for your efforts.
They always taught us whilst doing our proper national apprenticeships in the UK that a good tradesman always carries a brush in his tool kit, i was amazed at what i saw in the USA. Once opened a high security vault in a Nuke plant and on top of a valve were a wrench and ratchet for all to see, left there from the previous outage 18 months before.
I hired a new electrician to rewire my house. The first day he left a big mess. I asked him to clean it up. He said I'm a professional electrician, we don't clean up after ourselves, that is what clean up crews are for. I fired him and hired one that cleaned up after himself. I worked in construction for years and we always cleaned up after ourselves.
Leaving trash inside the walls seems to be nothing new: My house, built in 1850 in a small village, was probably wired during the REA (The Rural Electrification Act of 1936). Inside the walls I've found the cardboard boxes the receptacls were packaged in, among other garbage... Though I sure can appreciate all the hard work done boring through the baseboards with hand drills.
I work on robotics and other systems in manufacturing and I can't tell you how useless the operators can be when trying to get information. The biggest problem seems to be the "I don't know" bug followed by the "I wasn't using it, I just came over" bug. The systems almost always have some sort of logging function in the software and they will often find the most generic of lines and read it over the phone. Something like "(Random number) not functioning, system stopped, contact service department." And the number would be a combination of the time code of the actual problem description in the log file. I'm sure most homeowners can answer the basics like house age and and recent work but I bet half of the time they have no idea about anything,
Yup. My house was built in 1979. I can confirm about the number of neutral wires bonded in an average junction box. Normally 4+ for a single pole light switch.
@@tstuff As a repair technician of 36 years, I always understand that the operator may not always be reliable for info. But I've also learned that listening to operators, can go a long way towards troubleshooting an issue. Sometimes, letting them talk, will reveal that it's just a training issue, and not a repair issue.
@@DouglasK Yes. That was a complete shocker for me one time. I am no electrician, but I did help the electrician do the wiring in my 1500 sq ft addition in 2003. He taught me a lot. Then I visited a cousin who was having a kitchen GFCI issue in her 1955-era condo. I popped the breaker, tested the voltage, and cut the wires on the GFCI. Suddenly, there was a big arc on the neutral and two rooms went to half brightness. Blew my mind. I Googled the symptom and discovered the magic of the (@$#@) shared neutral. What an amazing piece of scary shit. Since that was WAY above my pay grade, I popped a few more breakers until my heart stopped racing, restored the circuit as it was, and called a professional electrician. Since the entire complex was all the same age, I guess they were all wired more-or-less the same and he took care of it with no drama. This video brought back that memory. I love the way he explains stuff. Very clear.
@@tstuff I’m also in the service industry and I can confirm I try to ask questions and constantly get bs answers. Most of the time it’s because they had an accident and damaged the equipment but are scared I will tell. I couldn’t care less about getting them in trouble I just want a good path to go down for my trouble shooting!
This guy knows how to conduct himself properly when working in someone’s home. Any electricians or contractors out there watching this video. I beg you to please take this video’s advise and follow his examples when working in a customer’s home/ personal space. You should always cover up anything and everything that will potentially get dusty or have debris fall on it. The biggest takeaway from this is to always ask the homeowner for permission before you decide to start making modifications to their wall/ ceiling. That is a huge “pet peeve” of mine as well as every other homeowner’s. Having a contractor assume it’s okay to make modifications to something without asking before hand is just simply unacceptable! Thanks for sharing this great video I learned a lot from watching this!
so i used your stove top to cut vinyl flooring with a jigsaw and mdf with a circ. saw, what of it? by the way, your cooking smells like burning plastic and formaldehyde.
As a technician I'd completely agree with you on everything you said. Pretty obvious really. Now for homeowners though. If someone is going to be working in an area of your home, move your crap out of the way. We're on a time schedule and we don't really want to mess with someone else's personal belongings. Of course you don't always know where someone has to work, so you may have to move things after we tell you where we will be working.
Great video, simple rule you work on it as if it was your own, we had engineers working on $100K instruments using Vice grips rather than open end box wrenches because 2-vice grips lighter to carry. Had show them letter from customer saying company does not supply correct tools do job. Engineer was put on notice
Some people realize time is money and either they do it for us, clean, prep or have someone else do it. Always include the owner on what's going on with their property but that could be $75+ saved.
@@dissimulii I had a garden hose spigot replaced. It was fed from the laundry room where the plumber needed to work on it. He decided to lay out all his tools on our brand new washer and scratched it up. Is it that hard to put a towel down first?
As a fellow electrician , I enjoyed your story. I too enjoyed troubleshooting on jobs. It’s kinda like being a detective, as you go through the mind of the previous electrician , or handyman who did some of these things, and map out exactly how that circuit makes its way throughout the home or building. I’ve found my share of buried boxes, splices with no wire nuts , etc. keep doing what your doing. Good video .
I agree, this kind of troubleshooting always takes time. I like using recessed cans, as opposed to those LED inserts. The reason for that is simply because I like using bulbs. I can either continue using incandescent/halogen or LED bulbs. It’s being able to have the option that I like.
I never thought a 30min story about a hidden junctuon box would be so exciting. Honestly this was more entertaining than most things I see on Netflix. 👏👏👏
Was it nearly 30 minutes?!? I was fully invested & it didn't even seem long at all lol. I was too busy saying yup, that's how I would do it stuff like that 😁
I've got to ask. Is it common practice to tie in wall outlets with lighting? I always thought the two had to always be separate. Additionally, what are the rules with remodeling? Say for example this is a one story house. Home owners decide to convert the attic to a useable space. But, the ceiling has existing junction boxes. To be to code, does the existing wiring have to be redone to remove the junction boxes since the ceiling is now going to be a finish floor for the converted space? Or can it be left as is as it is not part of the remodel? But lastly, assuming tying in lighting to the wall outlets is legit, isn't that a sign somebody was cutting corners? Wouldn't have made more sense just to put in another separate line in the electric panel?
I always love a challenge. After a few decades you get a sixth sense and you pretty much know what's going on within a few minutes. The tough ones were always my favorite because they don't follow the rules.
Ditto .. Different field if you will, i'm I.T and Love a challenge so when i hear the ol "nobody seems to be able to fix this problem" , im the same way .. Game On! Cheers.
I'm not an electrician, but I found this video to be informative, enjoyable, and relevant. When a 30-minute video about diagnosing residential electrical issues has nearly a million views within six months of its posting, I think it says a lot about the quality of said video's content. At least IMHO, anyway. Liked and subbed!
My dad was an electrician and taught me a great deal. I upgraded my service to 200A and followed the code as my Dad taught me (of course I pulled a home-owner's permit). The inspector came out and looked at the service panel, saw my bending requirements were correct and everything was wired correctly. He asked, "How did you learn to do this?" I informed him my dad taught me. One of the things he taught (and I read in the code) was that junction boxes always need to be accessible. Also know that you can have a maximum of 3 120V circuits in a junction box, or one 240V. I am one of those weirdos that enjoys thumbing through the NEC. I really wish I would have gone into the trade because I enjoy doing my own electrical work at home. My hat is off to all of your professional electricians!!! And thanks for the video!
@@steven7650 technically yes it is all about box fill, in which a 4 square box max fill is 10 #12 THHN wires unless you use a 4 square extension. 10 wires doesn't seem like much for a box but it does make it easy to work on down the road. What's really great is when the last guy calculates out box fill and puts 5 extensions on a 4 square and its your turn to find one of their loose wire nuts. Great times.
@@richt5986 that would be what I would do. They make top hats for 4 squares as well now so using one of those you can neatly leave all of the wirenuts hanging out og the 4 square and just put that top hat on. For some people I would imagine it comes down to speed and convenience rather than doing the job right though. Not every electrician carries bigger boxes on their vehicle, or those top hats, so they cobble some half-assed junk together and mosey on down the road for the next guy to either fix or ignore.
Thank you for speaking out about cleanup! A few years ago I stopped using a certain plumber, in large part because he left stainless steel drilling shavings everywhere after installing an on-sink water filter.
Along with never using him again you might just mention to him what happened. May have been just a bad day for him. If he is not told he may be doing himself harm unawares. Just a thought.
Right on. I also hired a plumber to replace leaky stem valves with ball valves in a finished basement. No drop cloths, had his teenage daughter pick things up for him as he was too fat to bend over. After he "cleaned up" and left, every ball valve leaked and I found globs of solder on/in the carpet and on my desk. Called him before he had driven down the street. Reluctant to return. No apologies for anything but tightened the valves and drove off. After 5 minutes checked and still leaking. Called and was told he wouldn't come back and all I needed to do was use a wrench. Master plumber with 30 years experience, how he stayed in business is anybody's guess but lesson here is if a trades person starts any job without covering the work area ask to do so or leave. Should have stopped payment on the check but he subbd for a friend and would have been extra awkward. Good video, sorry to go off topic a bit.
Upon seeing the roasted wire nut, I exclaimed "DOH!" Years back I was helping a relative do an interior remodel. Upon removing some cheap wood paneling, I was greeted by a hidden wire splice. It was done with an automotive crimp-type butt splice! I told the relative that we needed to open EVERY wall in search of horror stories. Thanx for bringing the canless fixtures to my attention; they will be perfect in a spot in my kitchen that has minimal clearance.
I took down a light beside the bathroom medicine cabinet and found romex poking out of a 1/2" hole in the wall. Hmm. I pulled out the medicine cabinet too, and found two wirenutted splices in the cavity, no box, buried in blown insulation. Whoops.
Happened to my dishwasher years and years ago. The person who installed it initially didn't put the wire nut on properly and over time the arc melted the wirenut.
Same here DaddyBeam. I bought a house and eventually tore out the tub to make a large shower. Found a live 12/2 romex just buried in the wall insulation. I guess they had considered installing a jakuzi style tub when they wired the house, but changed to a cheap one. It’s on a bedroom circuit, unlike the other bathroom outlets - which is probably another code violation in itself - but I converted it into a GFCI outlet.
I haven't seen anything THAT bad, but when I got my house I did discover a couple of lights had been added with no j-box at all, they just drilled a hole and poked the wires into the cavity and wire nutted them to the romex. Thankfully it was easy to tell what had been added and what was original.
Pro tip: When cutting holes for recessed lights, you can use a circular hole saw on a cordless drill to get you a clean hole, but run the drill backwards so that the teeth on the circular saw doesn't catch the drywall and 'crawl' over the drywall, cutting it up. Also, you can use a hole saw accessory dust bowl that catches virtually all of the drywall powder/debris. Quick, easy, clean.
Bigger pro tip - Use a hole saw with the drill bit in the center instead of a cheap imitation lots of people try to get away using for this kind of work.......PLEASE spend the extra few bucks for the good tools.......
@@albertwashingtonjr2089 Absolutely - but even with a saw blade with a centered bit, the blade can get away from you as it grabs into the drywall and you're trying to control it above your head for ceiling lights. I still cut in reverse and find it is much more controllable.
@@vaska916 thanks for the tip, but when I cut the basketball the bang was super loud, scared me and the customer, and I fell of my ladder. I was asked to leave.
Towards the end of the video, it is a sign of a professional to leave the home as clean as you started. I wish more electricians were as thoughtful as you!
Been there done that. It's been illegal to hide a box for a long time, and it kind of pissed me off the couple of times that I've run into problems from idiots doing it. Installing the fixture was a nice solution. I will definitely add that to my toolbag.
I've seen open splices behind sheetrock...neutrals tied to hots..burnt receptacles behind big old clothes dressers thus causing hot/gnd reverse...etc..etc...so glad to see this...stress releaser. ⚡ 🕺
I had this in my house where the original owner hid them in his basement remodel. Then tiled it with the fiber squares. Then they also clipped all the grounds. :(.
Romex cable has a manufacturing date and lot number printed on it (at least here in Canada). Might be helpful in finding the schmuck who did it if any fire or equipment damage occurs.
@@josephdestaubin7426 You can't tell who purchased it (it doesn't have a serial number like a gun or computer), but if you find Romex dated after the current owner took possession of the house you're pretty sure the previous owner didn't put it in.
As a software engineer this was a lot of fun to watch. Your thought process and approach to the problem very much resembles the approach I take to tracking down and fixing bugs.
I did low voltage for many years. You are spot on with the way you do your diagnosis. Those toners can bleed and give you false signals though. However, if you are having problems finding tone, one trick is to ground the one toner lead and connect the other to the black. This causes an imbalance and forces the tone to bleed more. This can help you find wires that are really shielded, twisted pair, or just blocked by walls.
I used a similar technique to trace out a doorbell wire that had a short circuit in my landlord's basement. I put one side of the toner on ground and the other on the two wires connected together. Found the problem in five minutes there was a bad splice that was not insulated properly.
These service call videos are insights into how you troubleshoot, your thought process, your tools used, like that fancy toner. The crazy part is how full of energy about your work you are! Like me, except i'm not an electrician (YET!).
In all the repair videos I watch - electronics, car repair, etc - the really good presenters always emphasize first that the most important part is careful analysis and diagnosis.
@@grandpa6535 I like the Aegis ones better. My old boss who knew nothing about data and borrowed mine to trace out a PV cell but then shorted it out to verify the street lighting came on. It was only after I said "you do realize my f-set is still connected don't you" that the penny dropped. Bought me a fluke to replace it and I hated it. Stupid thing turns on too easily by accident and flattens batteries for one.
I have been electrician for the last 35 years and have seen all kinds of situation as well but i especially like your solution of putting a pot light for getting to the octogonal box, well done 👍
Electrical engineer here. Have to give electricians credit because all the circuits they need to troubleshoot are buried behind walls. I'll stick to my circuit boards lol
Fellow EE here but I also do the electrical work in our office at times - everything from taking care of our pick & place to our environmental chamber. Yeah, I agree... I'd rather be on the bench than up on a ladder or poking a hole in the wall.
Tool tip: Get an endoscope. They're cheap and can get way in to tight places and connect right up to your cell phone. One of the best tool i have for these types of issues. Btw, your solution was really great. Win both ways customer and you.
@@StanSwan I use mine a lot for motorcycle diagnostics. Usually poking it down a spark plug hole to verify that the piston did indeed meet intimately with the valves. But also sometimes to find that one body panel screw that fell into the abyss and didn't come back out. Mine has a really wide field of view so maintaining reference points is pretty easy.
Does not help if the wiring is hidden in rockwool, and unless it comes with xray vision it only helps to find the wires, not how they are connected. I got two of them.
@@wernerviehhauser94 interesting, obviously if the wall space is packed with insulation or other fill an endoscope becomes less useful, but i use mine to check wiring connections all the time.
@@paddle_shift I'm in Germany, and here hollow walls are rare. You would mostly find brick walls (we have a lot of different brick types in use), and most drywalls use some kind of filling material (rockwool, perlite, cellulose, ...), not necessarily for thermal but for acoustic insulation. The ways houses that are commonly built in the US or Canada are basically unknown here, maybe even not allowed by our construction codes.
Best part of this is where you thought to add a new can where the junction box was- consideration to the homeowner and future technicians, and the code guys... well done
It's funny, just today I was troubleshooting a house with weird voltages on random plugs but some plugs working, 4 hours going through junction boxes and taking out receps and switches looking for a loose neutral. Finally I found it was the main power coming in, reading 5.6 volts on 1 leg. We called the local electricity provider and it turns out a tree limb wore through the jacket on the power line lol
Always check main power and panel before taking things apart inside the house. Can save a lot of time over many service calls. Not everything is a circuit issue or a burned junction.
@@RobertMarts it was an 80 year old house with newer mains coming in, I never would of thought it would be anything but the old knob and tube wiring lol
I had the same thing. I first noticed it when I was in bed in front of a fan. It was a windy day and I heard the fan speed up and slow down. Turned out the drop was worn through where it passed through a tree.
Like you, I am also an electrician but I’m a Canadian electrician and you are right there are far to many poor tradesmen out there. Number 1 rule always take pride in your work and leave the job in a far better state then what you found it. I have even cleaned up after other so called electricians that couldn’t solve the problem and it does go a long way with owners or property managers. Stay safe young man, I know your parents are very proud of you and the job you do.
93% of job applicants lie. ("What colo(u)r is your parachute? "). 80% of employees are unsatisfied with their position. (ibid). Mommies: "Don't let anyone tell you that you can't be anything you want." You know the solution.
I’ve cleaned after plumbers, hvac, carpenters, the stucco guys, moved material in the way. It’s all part of the show. Worst is nice beautiful piles of lumber right where I need to be.
I had something very similar to this back in 2006. I had weird voltages and I eventually found a junction box in the ceiling of the garage which had been converted into a den, laundry room, and storage room. I ended up finding 3 or 4 "junctions"...without boxes...lying in blown-in insulation! 🔥 There was one junction box, but it didn't have a cover!
I'm a GC and have been in the construction industry for the last 40 years. I will say, "You are one of the most professional electricians I've run across". I generally sub out to two different electricians depending on the size and scope of the job and they've been good to me over the years. I especially appreciated the clean-up part!
Video endoscope for a few bills on Amazon! You can even record the video and show evidence to the client after or during the inspection. Love my endoscope it has huge potential. Cheers, #SeattleRingHunter
Pro tip : Use a battery operated smoke alarm to cover up to a 4" hole you cut. Add a Old work, cut in round box and smoke detector after you are done using hole. Good for hiding junction boxes and pull points as well on long wire pulls in finished houses.
@jvonrobbins3373 - What does that have to do with anything? You're not doing a rough in. Drywall is up and it's service work. The property should already have the alarm circuit worked out. We are doing the install to cover a hole and it's cosmetic.
Called open neutral at 3:00 based on description and plug tester, I was right :D edit: Weird voltage is the voltage Its traveling back thru lights and appliances down the line on the neutral trying to find a path to ground. That voltage changes depending on how many light and appliances its going thru to come back.
I won’t lie. I thought melted bus on the problem recep noted. Using the toner is an extremely helpful tool. Had a contractor bury LV doorbell wire in the wall. Found it with a toner no cutting necessary.
My thought exactly, have had this problem multiple times thanks to ac units and space heaters burning up back stabbed outlets. Actually made a comment saying pretty much the exact same thing you did before scrolling through the comments. Its nice to see that troubleshooting isn't a lost art. Been in the trade for 3 years now and am only 21 got a lot more to learn, but it's nice to see that i must be learning something.
As a retired fire marshal,...I have come across a myriad of electrical nightmares. One of my favorites was a junction box fashioned from an old coffee can, nailed to joist, above drywall ceiling. Had nothing to do with the cause of the fire, but we came across it. I wish I had gone through the trouble of saving all of these cool photos to a thumb drive.
when i fixed the electrical from knob&rubem i had one similar. no junction box. an outlet (no box) inside a wall plaster over it other one i had. romex wire plastered over it inside the wall on top of a joist. instead of drilling thru the wall joist and place the cable in it. it was over and inside the plaster. i almost had a hard attack when i demolished that wall with a jig-saw and pinched the wire (old building from 1925 plaster) also had romex 15 amp cable (white), going flush with the drywall. with plaster and painted over it for about 16 inch (2 joists away) embedded. connected to the electric plinth for heating and attached to a 20 amp/240v breaker. wtf was the previous owner thinking. it's a disaster waiting to happen.
Just stumbled upon this video but your presentation drew me in and I had to watch to the end. You are much more real and relatable than a lot of youtube instructors. I certainly agree with your attitude towards making sure you do it right, from testing every outlet to making sure you leave no mess behind. Class act.
Real life scenarios like this really help people think through electricity. Keep up on these videos because they do make a difference! Speaking from an industrial context, troubleshooting is a lost art.
I don’t know a thing about installing electrics but I gotta say I respect his attitude and ethics. I wish everybody was as professional and thoughtful as he is.
It is nice to watch a professional at work. I started off as an Electrical Officer in the Navy. Great experience. I know what I can fix, what I shouldn't try to fix, and when to call a proper electrician. It is a real experience to get bit by 440v shore power.
I was a troubleshooting technical analyst at an ISP for years before becoming an electrician (apprentice still) and service work is something I really enjoy. I get to use that old 'muscle' before. I like you question and answer approach with the homeowner. Skipping that process or skimming it could result in a lot of wasted time.
LOVE the troubleshooting, I think it really separates not that there's anything bad about them, the installers, assemblers from the fixers. I'm barely an installer so i can say that.
I am just a DYI-er with a house built in the 70's and recurring issues with legacy wiring, fixtures, and outlets. Before I'm done, I or an electrician will have replaced all the wall receptacles, mark my words. I've encountered taped junctions and wire nuts behind drywall! I'm in the process of swapping out a noisy contractor grade bathroom fan for a super-quiet bathroom fan and adding several LED ceiling lights as you described. This video was interesting and entertaining, but also validated my choice to create a J-box in the ceiling to extend the circuit to reach the LED light boxes. Thanks.
I was changing out a motor because the circuit breaker was tripping. I was told to change the motor, I did not diagnose. While there, I saw why things were tripping. Water had gotten into the conduit because the conduit came apart from the motor housing. Yep, corrosion for about 12 inches away from the motor. I fixed it! Yet another reason that if you are told to do something, take a couple extra minutes to make sure what you are told to do will fix the problem... I reckon that the only problem was the conduit, and the motor was never the problem.
In the trade we just call it "troubleshooting". It was my favorite part of being an electrician, new installations are easy, finding problems that defy the rules is a challenge.
Great video, very thorough and clearly explained. 2 jobs in a row, buried junction boxes and a ground wire being used as a hot wire. Both jobs resulted in expensive labor costs that the client obviously did not anticipate. They aren’t very happy but end up cussing whoever did the dirty unsafe deed in the past. BOTH jobs were flips at one time. I often find these blatant code violations, both in new and old homes. In new homes I often question the building inspector’s competence and diligence. Inspections are sometimes done AFTER the drywall goes up! I rarely get called out to correct a code violation, I usually find then as bonus charges as I’m installing or repairing something else.
Also good job with the logic. I remember as an apprentice having moment of panic not knowing how to trouble shoot. At least a guy gains confidence the more things you run into. Just last month I ran into two homeowner sub panels that had the bonding screw still in the sub panel (with a mainbreaker). In one case a kid got lifted pretty bade as he became a portion of the neutral.
In my electronics career so far (1964-USMC, on) I call it PAYDAY! Against all odds, it WORKS! Yay! The drug is several endorphins... Its' why I get up most mornings.
I concur some times locating a broke neutral like this one can be a nightmare especially on older houses still prefer Romex wiring versus old knob and tubing
love your commentary on keeping the space your working in clean - whether you're working in residential or even commercial environments. It was an early lesson I learned when I was an apprentice.
Agreed, not to mention the time it saves over all. I never understood people that make a huge mess only to have to clean up after themselves in the end.
i'm sorry but. this video is by far the best most well rounded video i've ever seen, not just for j boxes but basic electric information Electricians should be watching this as a learning video. straight up 100%
I've seen a fully lit led exit sign buried in a ceiling, they did not intend to remove it because there was another one a foot away at the proper height you would never know that thing was up there once they ceil it
I've seen that a lot before. Every year or two years commercial buildings need to be inspected for occupancy permits. And he failed the building because an exit sign that was buried in the drop ceiling was out. (He saw it because the had a couple tiles down for remodeling)
I went on a call one time to some apartments that were built in the 70's, tennant said all the receps on one wall didn't work. After checking every and anything electrical in the apartment, me and the J-man were stumped. It was then the tennant told us this problem started happening after the people in the apartment next door moved out. Uh oh. So we checked out that apartment, and surely enough, the power was off in that apartment, and we found out the receps were being fed from the panel next door.
A plug was dead on a back to back kitchen. What was odd was that the lights were on in the adjacent unit with no tenant. I found power in the empty unit so I figured the original wiring had been flipped during construction and no one ever noticed. It turned out that someone had nailed through the siding, severing the hot from unit 1 and puncturing the hot on unit 2. The nail was conducting power from one hot to the other.
Great methodical approach. Asking questions then interpreting the answers is so important in troubleshooting. Equally important is working efficiently so clean up is quick and easy so you're left with a job you can be proud of and the homeowner is happy to pay for. Bonus points for installing a new light in your access hole.
I used to get the 5 gallon containers that Pepsi shipped their flavoring in, to local bottling plants. They were quite thick plastic, and had a handle molded into the top. I cut a rectangular hole into several, near the top. I used them as a portable stool when working large job sites. You simply put any trash into them as you worked, so there was no cleanup. Very handy in schools or offices. Try troubleshooting brand new 16 layer circuit boards, with shorted power rails. None of his tricks would have worked,, and there was no one to answer questions.
Too many trades people DON'T listen to customers at all. It's a good idea to listen for the symptoms described by the owner. But take their suspected reasons with a grain of salt. What you do take limited notice of, is some untrained person who has entered fault details into a computer database. What they are entering is what they think the customer is talking about. It might be correct, but you could be looking for something unrelated.
Great breakdown of the steps to find the problem. Have a similar situation in a commercial setting and will have to return to cut into a restaurant bar to find a possible(probable) junction box hidden inside.
This video is most golden. Professional work, clean work, reliable work, repairs meet code, and professional production of video and audio. Also includes expert tips for the diy person.
I HATE when people use octagon boxes for J-boxes because they have a smaller box fill then same thickness square box. Yes you can add octagon box extensions to add more space, but a lot of the time it unnecessary if they just used a square box from the start. Great video dude!
Before I became an electrician I found out the hard way that extension rings existed, cramming wires back in a shallow box on a lighting circuit in a commercial building, I shook hands with 277 that day, instant respect.
Main reason, I got out of "Commercial", work, was "Fast food" restaurant, trouble calls, Manager would complain, when I found, "Hack Job" Installations, undersize wire to cooking equipment, ECT. I explained fix, run new wire, They would blow a "GASKET". Like It was my fault, they had a "HACK", do the work. I went to "Industrial", same thing, followed me. You just can't "WIN" as a conscience driven, ethical Electrician. I retired.
Great video. I have minor experience running cables as a network tech, but no experience as an electrician. What I found most fascinating were the similarities between what YOU described and what I have done in -multiple-different professions. Bottom line: be knowledgeable, be professional, be straightforward, be considerate. Kudos to you for representing all those qualities 100%, and also, thanks very much for sharing your experience and insights. Respect!!
i had one recently homeowner said "i went to bed woke up to no power in several parts of my house" (mostly lights) chased this circuit had both a circuit tracer and toner i also had the same problem it sent me on a wild goose chase finally found 3 j boxes in the attic under a floor that had a second floor over over it and the third box (last 1 i had) opened it and found a neutral with the screw in type wire nut with 1 wire not even stripped burnt and as you showed melted white wires together. and as a P.S. to your great video you could mention how neutral (l2) can kill
As someone who lives in a really old apartment building that's been converted and built up over and over again like some sort of lovecraftian horror show both with plumbing and electrical...I loved this.
Old apartments are bad. You get maintenance guys doing things they shouldn't. I just found a buried junction box behind a mirror that they had just put drywall mud in to fill in the box where the old light was. They had moved up the light for a bigger mirror and the wires had burned inside of that mud filled box.
Your house sounds like mine. The plumbers don't want to come back because they don't know where the pipes are going. There's pipes that don't do anything at all.
I've used that toner more this year than any other. It really helps locate the wires and devices a lot quicker without taking everything apart. I had an older house that was giving weird readings, but by touching the two wires together makes it make another sound verifying continuity. Great advice and workmanship.
Great video. "Old houses built in the 1970's or 80's" LOL. I bought my house in 1980, but it was built in 1923 with knob and tube wiring, with taped splices in the ceilings all over the place! And, of course, no grounds. The service panel was new, thank god, but each run of cloth covered wire ended in a junction box near the panel. I helped my handyman brother do some remodeling, and read extensively about home rewiring and taught myself. Over the next decade I rewired every room, one at a time. Got good with plaster and lath box retrofitting. (Removed ll the outside walls to insulate where I could). Also installed a new subpanel and ran two lines underground for the remote garage, so I could have 220 in the future. There was no internet back then, only instruction books and the NEC code book. I wish I had access to your vast knowledge at the time. Thanks again.
Great content man! I enjoyed watching this. As an IT professional I understand the need to follow procedures and code. This was awesome to watch and the troubleshooting part is so much like my field it is really crazy. 90-98% of the difficulty is USUALLY finding the issue.
I know of 3 men who were killed by 120v. One cut the ground pin off of his metal reflectored trouble light He crawled into a crawl space and was lying on damp soil when the hot contacted the reflector he was holding. Number 2 was working on a lighting, I do not know any details. Number 3 was working in a decorative pond with a submersible pump, again I do not know details.
Common Sense 101: Never work on anything that is hot (even 120v) unless there is absolutely no other way possible. If the contractor you work for doesn't like that rule because it will slow down the work and might cost them extra money in labor expenses, ask the stupid son of bitch you are working for how much will a lawsuit and funeral cost the company after someone gets killed?
YOU ARE AWESOME! I'm not a electrician. I'm a homeowner that occasionally changed out a plug or a switch. I just stumbled onto your video and got hooked in it because of your animated and enthusiastic presentation. What an amazing job of troubleshooting. I'll keep in mind the tips and tools you used, but if I encountered a problem like yours, I think I'd just burn the house down and start over.
yah you start asking questions, and the home owner starts himin, and hawin, and lookin at the ground, or giving you that innocent look about a recent re model. you know theres going to be buried box.
Just curios Brian . Are you Norwegian or Swedish ? As a Empathic type poet and writer, I have to try and follow- up on some questions. Thanks either way .
I really appreciate the format of your video. From tips to safety to codes to "cleanup" recommendations, this was really well thought out. Side note, "disposable" drop cloths with a felt like material on one side and plastic on the other are available at most hardware/farm supply stores for less than $20. They work great for protecting surfaces and also stop liquids to include paints and lacquers. Reusable as many times as you'd like, but cheap enough to toss if they end up catching a really incredible mess. You're absolutely right about people appreciating that extra step and it doesn't have to be expensive.
I just finished roughly 30 years as a GC doing remodeling and service work in some fine homes in the Boston area and I will assure you ( as this gentleman explained) that when you treat a persons most valuable spaces with consideration they will call you back every time just for that one reason. A clean drop cloth and one of the Minnie vacuums will win you more clients than anything else you may try. Just say’in…..
Working on some remodeling in my great grandparents house lead to some interesting wireing. Stuff like 3 2ft sections of different wire twisted together with friction tape to make a run from 1 outlet to the next. The electrician thought it was funny.
I don't understand why they would do that. Like how are you supposed to know it's there if you have to work on it or with it for some reason. Pretty dumb thing to do.
As an IT guy I really appreciate the breakdown here. I had a similar experience with a Wireless Access Point that my predecessor installed with no documentation. I was labeling everything and got to one access point that I have no idea where TF it was. I had rebooted and labelled every AP with it's room number and wire drop. Eventually I just waited until after hours and said "f*** it I'm going to find this thing". I shut off every other AP in the whole building and started walking around with my WiFi analyzer trying to determine where the signal was strongest. When I narrowed in on it it was a poor, sad looking AP that was covered in an inch of dust laying in a ceiling tile. No mount or anything. Just sitting there with a random Ethernet wire running to it next to a metal roof joist. Some people are a**hats and just do stuff without caring about the next guy.
Too many home professionals don’t give the first thought to cleanliness and how they’re leaving the environment afterward. Kudos to you for making it such a point and for doing an awesome job tracking down this problem and coming up with a nice solution.
On your tone and probe tool if you connect your red alligator clip and place it on the black wire and take your toners black alligator clips and put it on something metal it will only still send a tone down 1 wire
As an architect, I can not say enough how impressed I am with your professionalism, enthusiasm, class.....I would hire you in a minute! The fact alone that you also appreciate how to keep your job clean as you go is fantastic. Most electricians have the reputation of being prima donnas who just drop all the little wire cuts, insulation, etc. and leave it for someone else to cleanup.
Dude. Just stumbled onto your channel from the abyss of the TH-cam algorithm, and now you have a new sub haha. You’re the definition of a what electrician should be. Keep it up man.
My mother always said, if you can not be neat, clean up after yourself. It's a good life lesson. People who care deeply appreciate the fact that you took time to care about the little things. Kudos!
Awesome video, not even sure how I stumbled on it. I’m trained as an electrical engineer and worked for years as an Industrial Maintenance Manager with teams of electricians. I would have hired you with a 6 figure job easily. Great methodology and communication.
In the Chicagoland area- I've found weird boxes buried behind plaster...crazy old school wiring (not knob and tube) but just black and white covered in cloth insulation inside EMT that's serving as the ground. Apartment building, 2 levels plus a basement garden apt: replaced all the receptacles and light fixtures. On the 2nd floor there are still problems. Moved the bed and notice the plaster and drywall looking odd and weird smell coming from it- low and behold, a buried box behind half plaster and half drywall and joint compound (no tape or mesh) a box w/ a broken receptacle shoved inside of it, that someone decided to bury... 🤬
@@spol1622 Ugh, at that point I'd tell the homeowner that they need to swap to copper and new service panel. The upfront cost is worth the drop in homeowner's insurance and peace of mind! What did you end up doing?
Best hack I ever heard for when you know you absolutely have to cut the drywall to fix the electrical problem that is otherwise inaccessible -- install another light! Great stuff!
I bought me a few years back a toner that looks like that from either HD or HFT, I can't remember the store to find a conduit that was being tripped on a kitchen. someone that renovated the island in the middle had placed a metal junction box and it was short created a short due to just using electrical tape to isolate. After a few hours of really making sure all electrical tape was removed from a crap load of circuits. I fixed it, who does that? Using electrical tape that over time comes loose and possible create a fire or worse a death by just being cheap.
Weird voltages are almost always caused by loose neutrals. All the other items in the circuit are dropping the voltage and then it comes back to the broken wire. Also the loose neutral is a resistor itself. Sometimes induction causes voltages to appear when there is actually no powered circuit, but usually that is on long runs that share the same pipe.
The problem found at 22:28 in the video. Overall, great video, super diagnostic and troubleshooting process. Must have been very frustrating to have to hunt down someone else's problem.
My only concern was "why did that cap melt"? So, if I remember correctly, he had a counter top circuit, that went to a hall, then junctioned to the garage and a bathroom. The counter top circuits are dedicated for the counter top , a bathroom is to have it's own 20 amp dedicated, and the garage is to have it's own dedicated. The neutrals appear to be cooking at the junction. Did he see the condition of the neutral at the panel? Is it cooking?
Because wire nuts aren't foolproof. Especially when there are more than 3 wires jammed into one. I have seen a few melt down from most likely one of the wires not being held tightly enough. Loose connections make heat. When I did commercial wiring, I avoided using wire nuts where ever I could. Especially in higher current circuits. I used properly crimped terminals and terminal strips. More work, but never had a problem. The biggest wire nut issues were where someone used them to connect stranded wire to solid wire. The joys of working on stuff in a 45 year old factory, with varied maintenance skills/changing codes over the years. The plus is you learn a lot, of what not to do...
Look up WAGOs it's a wire connector we use in the UK just push the cable in they are actually used as non maintenance connectors and then fit into a non maintenance WAGObox.
@@chrisardern4594 I've used a few times. Neat and tidy units. Good for fault finding in appliances like fridges being able to disconnect one wire at a time. Bit on the pricey side still and have to carry too many types...and a bit bulky. I'll stick to BP's (Blue Points) and keep putting them though the washing machine from them always being in my pocket.
@@bill6960 We all know we're supposed to twist the wires together tightly with pliers, nip the ragged end, and THEN screw on the wire nut. But people get careless and try to let the wire nut do the job without first twisting securely.
Well done! I’m a retired electrician from Lynn, MA. Great video…keep them coming.😊 Sometime between 1975 and 1980 I had a similar situation in Chelsea, MA on the second floor of a three family, 3 decker, no attic above. The problem was the kitchen light was flickering and at the moment not working. When I walked by the bathroom heading to the kitchen I noticed the bathroom had been recently renovated. I asked the occupant if their use to be a ceiling light in the bathroom where their currently wasn’t one. They replied yes…. I then asked if she had a broom… got a funny look with that request. I tapped the center of the ceiling in the bathroom with the broom and the kitchen light came back on. I then explained to her that the electrician who worked on the renovation buried the old ceiling light box and that I’d need to cut a hole in the new ceiling in order to repair the problem. We’ll she said, I’ll need to wait for my husband to get home and explain the problem him before I can give you permission to proceed. We left and I never got called back and I’m hoping she called the company that did I the renovation back to fix the problem. These older buildings were wired with BX running ceiling light to ceiling light and the fixture had only pull chain switches. The BX was installed using shallow ceiling plates secured onto the bottom of the floor joist, horse hair plaster and wood laths style construction. When you remove the fixtures the old cloth covered conductors we’re crispy and the insulation would fall off caused by age and high wattage lamps being used. Electricians nightmare to say the least.
One thing that I think is worth mentioning with regards to safety during diagnosis on live circuits: If you're diagnosing a problem, you can't assume things are wired correctly. Things that are normally grounded and safe to touch may in fact be live. Hot may have shorted to an ungrounded junction box. Things that would normally be safe just by turning off a switch may actually stay live. A switch wired backwards can still deliver hot all the way to the fixture. Make no assumptions.
As a journeywoman in Canada my entire apprenticeship was tough... I mean the 2 companies I worked for held me to a higher standard than the boys. Never picking out the mistakes of them but my workmanship was nitpicked... as unfair/sexist as it was I do believe it made me a better electrician. As a 3. and 4. year I even got my own service van issued and my main job was troubleshooting all my journeymens crap work. I had to learn all the different guy's decades of wiringmethods etc so I could efficiently fix their mess. As a result most coworkers didn't like working with me because I guess I made them look bad... since in a man driven industry us girls are often held to a higher standard or we have to work 3times as hard to earn the old geezers respect. So for me it was always sticking to code...( no Mickey mousing on my part, that way they couldnt complain about my physical strength lacking because my stuff was always 100% every time )and to the point that when some apprentice had a code question they were told to ask Kat, she knows all codes.... lol
Good for you ! Nothing wrong in being good at your job, I have a feeling those before were not proper electricians! The way we learn in the UK is to change companies often because I found many got into a rut, plus some specialise, so its good to change and have a wider scope of electrical installations. I worked most of my life as an industrial Electrical Technician(Foreman). Often abroad and now retired! Never really got into "house bashing" Mostly industrial.
I grew up doing HVAC and have officially been doing it for about 15 or so years, and I love seeing women in the trades! There was a girl who worked for a plumbing company that we did a lot of jobs with. She was always respectful of people's homes (something many guys forget to do - like mentioned in video, they have to live there when you leave) and never once did she have a "Fuck it, can't see it from my house" attitude so many guys have with questionable or shoddy work. Other than a few exceptions, like carry the old water heater up basement steps, there's not much a guy could do that she couldn't. But anyway, women who aren't going to college should stop settling for min wage jobs, they should learn a trade!
It should be that the number of dangly bits (one between the legs or two on the chest) doesn't matter, only how well that squishy bit between the ears works.
Dude!!! This is the best "Electrical" video I have seen in life!! This totally validated what I do to solve problems, myself being a service electrician for the company I work for and especially my sidework in homes! Everything from gathering as much info as possible from the customer to coming with that smart idea of installing that recessed light where that hidden j box was to make it accessible. I truly enjoyed this video. I noticed you used a keyhole saw to cut the 6 inch hole...have you thought about investing in the adjustable drill attachment that comes with a bowl to cover the cutting area to get the dust? I personally use Milwaukee but they're made by other companies as well. Fast,efficient and clean; that's my only suggestion. 👍🏼
Good video. i have been doing low voltage work for nearly 40 years and over that time i applied some of my troubleshooting skills for diagnosing 110 volt circuits issues. So I was able to follow your methodology easily. I have used my low voltage toner to track Romex just as you did (not live circuits), and because one of the leads is on the neutral wire, (and they are all common,) the toner will "bleed" everywhere. I recently picked up a 110 volt toner made by Klein that works well, but the circuit must be energized for the toner to work. Great for tracking down which breaker is operating a circuit. Thanks for an entertaining video.
As an Electrician with 40+ years of experience it was interesting to watch your video. I anticipated your every move, even adding the can light. I’ve worked on every imaginable type of construction and without a doubt residential wiring is the worst. I’m sorry if I’m insulting the few good residential wiremen but most are doing the bare minimum to pass inspection and many inspectors are doing bare minimum only looking for obvious violations. This means that a brand new house already has electrical gremlins. Then you get multiple homeowners and contractors with little to no electrical experience changing things. Diagnosing electrical problems can be challenging and rewarding. A bit of advice to the homeowner, answer the questions that are being asked by your hopefully qualified Electrician and don’t overwhelm them with other non important information and your speculations. If you do that then you take what is already a difficult problem and turn it into the story problem from hell. Just like going to the Doctor, give them your ailments and let them diagnose you. I’m currently renovating my house that was built in ‘86 and I’ve encountered numerous buried boxes and live wires and every splice is loose or done improperly. Good luck, be safe and enjoy the hunt for the elusive electrical gremlins. Retired I.B.E.W. Electrician.
Last new house I bought in Peoria Az was a disgrace, company that built it was Mattamy Homes, would not trust them to build a Lego house, cheap, most likely illegal unskilled labor was used, I watched them build around me as we were one of the first in. Electrical wiring was zip tied to the gas supply to the water heater, frightening.
Recently bought my home. Started remodeling kitchen thankfully. Found in the attic a j box not screwed down, no cover, under insulation, no box connectors, too many wires for a 4x4 j box single stack, and best for last- no wire nuts. They just twisted the wires together and wrapped with electrical tape. Wow, found 1 other up there the same way. Fixed all that now.
Luxury! In my recent remodel we found an "extension" made by twisting two wires together, taping them up, and drywalling over them. Lucky we pulled up that flooring, because the job wasn't intended to touch the ceiling below.
I've been redoing the electrical in my house as I do the renovations, aside from the standard cloth wire sketchiness, there is a junction box for every socket and light fixture and a few thrown in for no reason I can divine, as well as an old screw type fuse panel for the garage, but I've found 2 bare live hanging wires encased in the walls so far, I now turn off the power to rooms I'm demoing otherwise known as fun with sheetrock over plaster and lath so thick it takes minutes just to get a tiny hole though it so I have to use a magnet to locate the screws holding the drywall on so I can get it off the wall and go at the rest with a sledgehammer, about the only thing I haven't seen is knob and tube that's in use thankfully although there is a few remnants of it in the house. In just the attic I pulled 30 junction boxes out, I think whoever wired it was getting a discount on junction boxes and screws/nails but the screws/nails is another matter all together, just imagine if you will a piece of plywood on the floor that you have pull up which is nailed down to the tongue and groove subfloor with 1.75in ring shank nails which are precisely spaced 1 inch apart from the others over the entire area of the plywood. I spent a week pulling up one 4x8 sheet of plywood.
Ugghhh.... I once had to install a houseful of new downlights and in-ceiling speakers in a grand old home with lath and plaster ceilings.... NEVER AGAIN. Found a fair few dodgy old j-boxes along the way too.
Worked as a drywall guy at a remodeling company for a while (was supposed to be Tiling apprentice...) The electricians we worked with made my job a nightmare. Constantly cutting long diagonal lines along the ceiling. Cutting right along studs and beams without even leaving us room to nail the patches in... Made so much extra work for me. I'm so glad there are electricians out there that aren't cut happy and actually care about making things easier for everyone involved and for people further down the line.
I had a good one. A customer called about an arc-fault breaker that would not stop tripping. I thought, "Oh boy, here we go!" I go to pull the breaker out, water started flowing out of it! I do not know how, but water trickled into the panel and only filled this one top right breaker. Damnedest thing. Brand new service, with PVC riser, everything sealed, no plumbing nearby.
Tone tracing in older school buildings when a 25 pair cable gets involved... hope that was the last time. They had witched to IP phones years prior, but still had fax, elevator, SIP 911 running all over on the "old tech" with grounds willy nilly.
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I remember an electrician our company used was working on live circuits in our data center and I asked him if he was worried about getting shocked and he said that never happens to a good electrician. I followed up with "so you've never been shocked?" and he replied "no I get shocked all the time."
Lol
Good one 😂
🤣🤣
My first electric 240 Volts“ shock aged sixteen serving my apprenticeship in the uk, happy days though !!!
Thats good old blue collar humor lol
As an IT guy, something that I've learned along the years applies to many other fields and it's funny to find the same here:
When you build something, keep in mind someone will have to maintain it for years and years, long after you're gone. Make it easier on them.
When you have to maintain a comms cabinet and they didn't color code the cables...
Service loop for the win!
@@GoodwillWright Or even just color coded zip ties that separate different bundles.
Velcro one wrap (the double sided hook & loop tape) comes in a wide assortment of colors. I'm still using the thrown out extra rolls from before 2003 when I was active duty and a contractor installed 5 different colored networks. 3/4" wide and it just used constantly on cables, parts and anything else that I need to secure and unsecure frequently.
If you get the 2" wide version you can suspend an entire person ... or a mower ... from the ceiling.
(The person was a volunteer and only slightly drunk. And giggling the whole time)
My father was a Chief Electrical Inspector he always said, “Don’t build traps for someone in the future!”, this applies to anything worth doing well! Which brings me to another of Dad’s quotes! “If it’s worth doing it’s worth doing well!”
That somebody may be yourself too
As an applieance repair technician, I remember one time going out on a service call pertaining to a domestic house-hold Drier. The customer stated that she had just bought the drier new approximaely 2 months prior, and the sales store delivery/set up crew had performed the installlation.
However, the customer complained that even though everything on the drier functioned properly she would invariably get a moderately mild tingling sensation of an electrical shock throughout her body every time she set the timer and hit the start button (especially if she was either leaning up against or touching the washing machine located right next to the drier), but yet she stated that she would never get an electrical shock when the drier was in the normal shut-down/ off mode. When I arrived and checked it out - yes, I would also get the same type of electrical shock when it was operating but not when it was off.
After performing several checks and tests where everything checked out I partially dismantled the drier and checked everything and all internal wiring and components for any possible electrical short. I even partially dismantaled the timer assembly to see if it had shorted out internally. Nope, Nadda, not a thing wrong. Everything was checking out factory new and normal. So Even though I had previously checked out the drier electrical outlet behind the drier, the drier pigtail, and the electrical wiring setup inside the house's main circuit breaker panel I decided to investigate deeper into the wiring circuit for the drier.
Here is what I found. Originally the house never had a laundry room (area), built or installed when the house was built. The owner (or who-ever), later on down the road installed a Romex ( 12/3 with ground) , wiring circuit from the house main electrical circuit breaker panel box (on the west end of the house), out to the garage (on the far east end of the house), where they had installed all the necessary features and components for a laundry room. The total distance was approximately 75 to 100 feet. They ran that Romex in the crawl space under the house. Every so often they had installed large staples (non-insulated), for a farm fence under every 4th floor joist just to hold the romex wire up off the ground (each staple was basicallly every 4 feet). (other than not meeting national electrical code basically really not a problem). Well, here's the kicker.
When they installed the wiring they ran out of wire approximately half way across the house flooring. It was not one continous Romex wire from point A to point B. Basicaly still not a problem. They strung the Romex wire from the main circuit panel box halfway across the floor to where it ran out and ended. They then strung the 2nd Romex wire from the drier outlet in the garage back to where the first Romex wire ended.
Here is the real kicker....... But they "did not" mount and install a J-box at the point of where the first Romex wire ended, and where the 2nd Romex wire met the first. Their connection method between the two wires created the problem. They had just bent each wire into a J-hook and then crimped each wire to the other wire with a set of pliers. They then wrapped each set of main power wires and the neutral return wires up with black plastic electrical tape, leaving the ground wire bare, and then overall wrapped all wires together into a sort of harness with more black plastic electrical tape. Well,not codeworthy overall, but it worked, (at least for a while).
Over time, the wires eventually incased themselves in a lot of corrosion from moisture. After spending considerable time trying to unwrap that mess in order to get down to nothing but bare wire, I eventually found that the 2 main 120 volt power supplying wires were still intact, as well as the ground wire still being intact too.
However, the Neutral return wire had corroded itself in two and had seperated into two seperate wires (with a space approximately 1/4 inch between the two neutral return wires), at the splice point. This created a different method for the return of the electrical power back to the main circuit breaker panel. Rather than the current traveling along the neutral wire back to the main circuit breaker panel, the current traveled through the frame of the drier and then through the ground wire atached to the drier frame back to the main circuit breaker panel box.
This set up the problem that when the human body touched the drier anywhere on the frame (and especially if the human body was leaning up against or touching the Washing machine right next to the drier), the electrical power also took a short cut through that human body as well. Needless to say, when that occurred, that human definately was getting a shocking experience about how electrical current flowed.
After a J-Box was installed, and the wires were properly re-connected together to meet the proper electrical code standard that cured that little shocking problem. - True story.
That was educational. Thanks!
Thanks for all the detail in your comment. It's been helpful.
Great comment. I’m sure this will help me out someday in some random situation. You never know what you’ll see out there😂
While I was reading I had the entire visual in my head lol Great descriptive writing
Was ground and neutral bonded at the subpanel? Sounds like a ground fault should have been triggered?
It’s so encouraging to know there r like minded craftsmen out there who really care about quality honesty and integrity.Thank you!
Couldn't agree more! Tradesmen are a dying breed...HONEST ones are even more rare!
Sometimes i feel like a unicorn when I'm trying to get people to use the ground screw, not use wood screws for everything, etc. Definitely I agree that it's good to see other conscientious electricians.
They should regulate this stuff
It’s funny reading this comment after 7:20 in the video lol.
All jokes aside, I agree though. I am super thankful for all of the information he gives.
Yes. I'm doing a pre wire for this lady and the last electrician took her money and didn't do any work. And the couple things she did do, she screwed up. She had 3 bids that were less than mine, but she seen how clean my low voltage pre wire was and how I got it done and didn't best around the bush with her, so she hired me anyway.
I kinda feel bad because the excavator got over on her and somehow the contractors board sided with them, so after the second time being screwed, she was weary of trusting people. Those are the people that give all of us tradesman a bad name..
When you mentioned laying down the blanket and catching any dust, etc... I call that "giving a shit". I use a drywall guy who "gives a shit" and puts up plastic sheeting and cleans up everything when he's done. You know what? He gets ALL of my business. And I don't care that he charges a premium for it. Good job man.
I am a drywall guy with that same work ethic. I'd love to meet your guy and talk. I am glad to hear that I'm not alone.
@@BenderOMetal We are lucky if we can locate our boxes after drywall guys come in here. lol
@@stpierresteve23 bwahahahaha! Oh man. I started out trimming electric. Your comment is so true. I don't do new construction anymore but your comment took me back to chiseling out mud with my screwdrivers so we could trim out the receptacles (Single gang? Nope, it's a quad)
As someone who has had to fix alot of problems from previous "builders" I have came to the conclusion that most people in our business are ONLY interested in the money that "builders" earn, very few are actually invested in doing something the RIGHT way the FROM THE START. I only pass work on to people who are more interested in doing it the right way than they are in how much money they can squeeze out of the job.
@@ryoung6730 what is this "right way" you speak of?
Great job. I have my own business doing drywall repairs. I find myself repairing ceilings and walls behind these situations. You would be surprised how many electricians and plumbers throw their trash in the walls and leave their messes on the floor. I commend you on your professionalism. Thank you and I hope you are well rewarded for your efforts.
They always taught us whilst doing our proper national apprenticeships in the UK that a good tradesman always carries a brush in his tool kit, i was amazed at what i saw in the USA. Once opened a high security vault in a Nuke plant and on top of a valve were a wrench and ratchet for all to see, left there from the previous outage 18 months before.
I hired a new electrician to rewire my house. The first day he left a big mess. I asked him to clean it up. He said I'm a professional electrician, we don't clean up after ourselves, that is what clean up crews are for. I fired him and hired one that cleaned up after himself. I worked in construction for years and we always cleaned up after ourselves.
@@raulthepig5821 yes, always leave your work area cleaner than you found it
Leaving trash inside the walls seems to be nothing new: My house, built in 1850 in a small village, was probably wired during the REA (The Rural Electrification Act of 1936). Inside the walls I've found the cardboard boxes the receptacls were packaged in, among other garbage... Though I sure can appreciate all the hard work done boring through the baseboards with hand drills.
@@raulthepig5821 DITTO
30 years trade experience. Asking questions is critical for troubleshooting. I always ask age of the house and work that has been done. Great video!
I work on robotics and other systems in manufacturing and I can't tell you how useless the operators can be when trying to get information. The biggest problem seems to be the "I don't know" bug followed by the "I wasn't using it, I just came over" bug. The systems almost always have some sort of logging function in the software and they will often find the most generic of lines and read it over the phone. Something like "(Random number) not functioning, system stopped, contact service department." And the number would be a combination of the time code of the actual problem description in the log file. I'm sure most homeowners can answer the basics like house age and and recent work but I bet half of the time they have no idea about anything,
Yup. My house was built in 1979. I can confirm about the number of neutral wires bonded in an average junction box. Normally 4+ for a single pole light switch.
@@tstuff As a repair technician of 36 years, I always understand that the operator may not always be reliable for info. But I've also learned that listening to operators, can go a long way towards troubleshooting an issue. Sometimes, letting them talk, will reveal that it's just a training issue, and not a repair issue.
@@DouglasK Yes. That was a complete shocker for me one time. I am no electrician, but I did help the electrician do the wiring in my 1500 sq ft addition in 2003. He taught me a lot. Then I visited a cousin who was having a kitchen GFCI issue in her 1955-era condo. I popped the breaker, tested the voltage, and cut the wires on the GFCI. Suddenly, there was a big arc on the neutral and two rooms went to half brightness. Blew my mind. I Googled the symptom and discovered the magic of the (@$#@) shared neutral. What an amazing piece of scary shit. Since that was WAY above my pay grade, I popped a few more breakers until my heart stopped racing, restored the circuit as it was, and called a professional electrician. Since the entire complex was all the same age, I guess they were all wired more-or-less the same and he took care of it with no drama. This video brought back that memory. I love the way he explains stuff. Very clear.
@@tstuff I’m also in the service industry and I can confirm I try to ask questions and constantly get bs answers. Most of the time it’s because they had an accident and damaged the equipment but are scared I will tell. I couldn’t care less about getting them in trouble I just want a good path to go down for my trouble shooting!
This guy knows how to conduct himself properly when working in someone’s home. Any electricians or contractors out there watching this video. I beg you to please take this video’s advise and follow his examples when working in a customer’s home/ personal space. You should always cover up anything and everything that will potentially get dusty or have debris fall on it.
The biggest takeaway from this is to always ask the homeowner for permission before you decide to start making modifications to their wall/ ceiling. That is a huge “pet peeve” of mine as well as every other homeowner’s. Having a contractor assume it’s okay to make modifications to something without asking before hand is just simply unacceptable! Thanks for sharing this great video I learned a lot from watching this!
so i used your stove top to cut vinyl flooring with a jigsaw and mdf with a circ. saw, what of it? by the way, your cooking smells like burning plastic and formaldehyde.
As a technician I'd completely agree with you on everything you said. Pretty obvious really. Now for homeowners though. If someone is going to be working in an area of your home, move your crap out of the way. We're on a time schedule and we don't really want to mess with someone else's personal belongings. Of course you don't always know where someone has to work, so you may have to move things after we tell you where we will be working.
Great video, simple rule you work on it as if it was your own, we had engineers working on $100K instruments using Vice grips rather than open end box wrenches because 2-vice grips lighter to carry.
Had show them letter from customer saying company does not supply correct tools do job.
Engineer was put on notice
Some people realize time is money and either they do it for us, clean, prep or have someone else do it. Always include the owner on what's going on with their property but that could be $75+ saved.
@@dissimulii I had a garden hose spigot replaced. It was fed from the laundry room where the plumber needed to work on it. He decided to lay out all his tools on our brand new washer and scratched it up. Is it that hard to put a towel down first?
As a fellow electrician , I enjoyed your story. I too enjoyed troubleshooting on jobs. It’s kinda like being a detective, as you go through the mind of the previous electrician , or handyman who did some of these things, and map out exactly how that circuit makes its way throughout the home or building. I’ve found my share of buried boxes, splices with no wire nuts , etc. keep doing what your doing. Good video .
Electricians are useless how about cleaning up after your done
I agree, this kind of troubleshooting always takes time. I like using recessed cans, as opposed to those LED inserts. The reason for that is simply because I like using bulbs. I can either continue using incandescent/halogen or LED bulbs. It’s being able to have the option that I like.
I never thought a 30min story about a hidden junctuon box would be so exciting.
Honestly this was more entertaining than most things I see on Netflix.
👏👏👏
Was it nearly 30 minutes?!? I was fully invested & it didn't even seem long at all lol. I was too busy saying yup, that's how I would do it stuff like that 😁
You must watch some boring shit then
Even "Cuties?"
👏👏👏bravo
I've got to ask. Is it common practice to tie in wall outlets with lighting? I always thought the two had to always be separate.
Additionally, what are the rules with remodeling? Say for example this is a one story house. Home owners decide to convert the attic to a useable space. But, the ceiling has existing junction boxes. To be to code, does the existing wiring have to be redone to remove the junction boxes since the ceiling is now going to be a finish floor for the converted space? Or can it be left as is as it is not part of the remodel?
But lastly, assuming tying in lighting to the wall outlets is legit, isn't that a sign somebody was cutting corners? Wouldn't have made more sense just to put in another separate line in the electric panel?
I love it when a customer says the last electrician could not solve his problem. Then it's game time !
I always love a challenge.
After a few decades you get a sixth sense and you pretty much know what's going on within a few minutes.
The tough ones were always my favorite because they don't follow the rules.
Ditto .. Different field if you will, i'm I.T and Love a challenge so when i hear the ol "nobody seems to be able to fix this problem" , im the same way .. Game On! Cheers.
I hear ya brother !!! Give me the fucking ball with only seconds to play. I’ll fix it. I love mind-bending electrical problems
Or they say “I couldn’t figure it out, so i dont know if you can”
Im usually just like, I’ll try my best! But in my head I chuckle.
Time to charge more money as well
I'm not an electrician, but I found this video to be informative, enjoyable, and relevant. When a 30-minute video about diagnosing residential electrical issues has nearly a million views within six months of its posting, I think it says a lot about the quality of said video's content. At least IMHO, anyway. Liked and subbed!
My dad was an electrician and taught me a great deal. I upgraded my service to 200A and followed the code as my Dad taught me (of course I pulled a home-owner's permit). The inspector came out and looked at the service panel, saw my bending requirements were correct and everything was wired correctly. He asked, "How did you learn to do this?" I informed him my dad taught me. One of the things he taught (and I read in the code) was that junction boxes always need to be accessible. Also know that you can have a maximum of 3 120V circuits in a junction box, or one 240V.
I am one of those weirdos that enjoys thumbing through the NEC. I really wish I would have gone into the trade because I enjoy doing my own electrical work at home. My hat is off to all of your professional electricians!!! And thanks for the video!
You can have way more than 3 circuits in a box. It's about the box fill % relative to the wire size.
@@steven7650 technically yes it is all about box fill, in which a 4 square box max fill is 10 #12 THHN wires unless you use a 4 square extension. 10 wires doesn't seem like much for a box but it does make it easy to work on down the road. What's really great is when the last guy calculates out box fill and puts 5 extensions on a 4 square and its your turn to find one of their loose wire nuts. Great times.
@BEWARE OF SEEKER FRIENDLY CHURCHES JESUS IS COMING wtf are you doing man
@@R0me0316 lol why not just use a deeper 4 square or a different box all together.
@@richt5986 that would be what I would do. They make top hats for 4 squares as well now so using one of those you can neatly leave all of the wirenuts hanging out og the 4 square and just put that top hat on. For some people I would imagine it comes down to speed and convenience rather than doing the job right though. Not every electrician carries bigger boxes on their vehicle, or those top hats, so they cobble some half-assed junk together and mosey on down the road for the next guy to either fix or ignore.
Thank you for speaking out about cleanup! A few years ago I stopped using a certain plumber, in large part because he left stainless steel drilling shavings everywhere after installing an on-sink water filter.
Along with never using him again you might just mention to him what happened. May have been just a bad day for him. If he is not told he may be doing himself harm unawares. Just a thought.
Right on. I also hired a plumber to replace leaky stem valves with ball valves in a finished basement. No drop cloths, had his teenage daughter pick things up for him as he was too fat to bend over. After he "cleaned up" and left, every ball valve leaked and I found globs of solder on/in the carpet and on my desk. Called him before he had driven down the street. Reluctant to return. No apologies for anything but tightened the valves and drove off. After 5 minutes checked and still leaking. Called and was told he wouldn't come back and all I needed to do was use a wrench. Master plumber with 30 years experience, how he stayed in business is anybody's guess but lesson here is if a trades person starts any job without covering the work area ask to do so or leave. Should have stopped payment on the check but he subbd for a friend and would have been extra awkward. Good video, sorry to go off topic a bit.
everything this guy does or says is stuff we deal with on the daily exactly. great videos, great advice, great electrician.
Upon seeing the roasted wire nut, I exclaimed "DOH!"
Years back I was helping a relative do an interior remodel. Upon removing some cheap wood paneling, I was greeted by a hidden wire splice. It was done with an automotive crimp-type butt splice! I told the relative that we needed to open EVERY wall in search of horror stories.
Thanx for bringing the canless fixtures to my attention; they will be perfect in a spot in my kitchen that has minimal clearance.
I took down a light beside the bathroom medicine cabinet and found romex poking out of a 1/2" hole in the wall. Hmm. I pulled out the medicine cabinet too, and found two wirenutted splices in the cavity, no box, buried in blown insulation. Whoops.
Happened to my dishwasher years and years ago. The person who installed it initially didn't put the wire nut on properly and over time the arc melted the wirenut.
Same here DaddyBeam. I bought a house and eventually tore out the tub to make a large shower. Found a live 12/2 romex just buried in the wall insulation. I guess they had considered installing a jakuzi style tub when they wired the house, but changed to a cheap one. It’s on a bedroom circuit, unlike the other bathroom outlets - which is probably another code violation in itself - but I converted it into a GFCI outlet.
I recently installed these, they are flush mount! So you can install them directly against studs
I haven't seen anything THAT bad, but when I got my house I did discover a couple of lights had been added with no j-box at all, they just drilled a hole and poked the wires into the cavity and wire nutted them to the romex. Thankfully it was easy to tell what had been added and what was original.
Pro tip: When cutting holes for recessed lights, you can use a circular hole saw on a cordless drill to get you a clean hole, but run the drill backwards so that the teeth on the circular saw doesn't catch the drywall and 'crawl' over the drywall, cutting it up. Also, you can use a hole saw accessory dust bowl that catches virtually all of the drywall powder/debris. Quick, easy, clean.
You can also cut a basketball in half and stick it around the bit to catch all the dust
Bigger pro tip - Use a hole saw with the drill bit in the center instead of a cheap imitation lots of people try to get away using for this kind of work.......PLEASE spend the extra few bucks for the good tools.......
@@albertwashingtonjr2089 Absolutely - but even with a saw blade with a centered bit, the blade can get away from you as it grabs into the drywall and you're trying to control it above your head for ceiling lights. I still cut in reverse and find it is much more controllable.
@@vaska916 thanks for the tip, but when I cut the basketball the bang was super loud, scared me and the customer, and I fell of my ladder. I was asked to leave.
Its an old tip not a pro tip...to many pro tips today, as if we didn't do shit like this 60 years ago?
Towards the end of the video, it is a sign of a professional to leave the home as clean as you started. I wish more
electricians were as thoughtful as you!
Been there done that. It's been illegal to hide a box for a long time, and it kind of pissed me off the couple of times that I've run into problems from idiots doing it. Installing the fixture was a nice solution. I will definitely add that to my toolbag.
I've seen open splices behind sheetrock...neutrals tied to hots..burnt receptacles behind big old clothes dressers thus causing hot/gnd reverse...etc..etc...so glad to see this...stress releaser. ⚡
🕺
I had this in my house where the original owner hid them in his basement remodel. Then tiled it with the fiber squares. Then they also clipped all the grounds. :(.
Romex cable has a manufacturing date and lot number printed on it (at least here in Canada). Might be helpful in finding the schmuck who did it if any fire or equipment damage occurs.
@@marc-andreservant201 There is no way to trace such a thing.
@@josephdestaubin7426 You can't tell who purchased it (it doesn't have a serial number like a gun or computer), but if you find Romex dated after the current owner took possession of the house you're pretty sure the previous owner didn't put it in.
As a software engineer, I really appreciate your debugging and problem-solving skills. Good job on finding the problem.
As a software engineer this was a lot of fun to watch. Your thought process and approach to the problem very much resembles the approach I take to tracking down and fixing bugs.
I did low voltage for many years. You are spot on with the way you do your diagnosis. Those toners can bleed and give you false signals though. However, if you are having problems finding tone, one trick is to ground the one toner lead and connect the other to the black. This causes an imbalance and forces the tone to bleed more. This can help you find wires that are really shielded, twisted pair, or just blocked by walls.
I used a similar technique to trace out a doorbell wire that had a short circuit in my landlord's basement. I put one side of the toner on ground and the other on the two wires connected together. Found the problem in five minutes there was a bad splice that was not insulated properly.
These service call videos are insights into how you troubleshoot, your thought process, your tools used, like that fancy toner. The crazy part is how full of energy about your work you are! Like me, except i'm not an electrician (YET!).
I like that YET
Awesome attitude to have!
Keep going and don't let anything get in your way!
He was using a fluke... it's a 100 dollar life saver.
...and older homes are a pain because of those neutrals
In all the repair videos I watch - electronics, car repair, etc - the really good presenters always emphasize first that the most important part is careful analysis and diagnosis.
@@grandpa6535 I like the Aegis ones better. My old boss who knew nothing about data and borrowed mine to trace out a PV cell but then shorted it out to verify the street lighting came on. It was only after I said "you do realize my f-set is still connected don't you" that the penny dropped. Bought me a fluke to replace it and I hated it. Stupid thing turns on too easily by accident and flattens batteries for one.
@@TheDegan79 I've not seen the ageis.
I have been electrician for the last 35 years and have seen all kinds of situation as well but i especially like your solution of putting a pot light for getting to the octogonal box, well done 👍
Electrical engineer here. Have to give electricians credit because all the circuits they need to troubleshoot are buried behind walls. I'll stick to my circuit boards lol
I worked in automotive for 40 yrs. everything is hidden . I could tell some stories lol.
Lmao, it's so true though.
In the factory I deal with freaking everything 🥵 mains to 5vdc, comms, networking, air, motors, bearings...
Fellow EE here but I also do the electrical work in our office at times - everything from taking care of our pick & place to our environmental chamber. Yeah, I agree... I'd rather be on the bench than up on a ladder or poking a hole in the wall.
Also EE, and all of my circuits extend no farther than my test leads.
Tool tip: Get an endoscope. They're cheap and can get way in to tight places and connect right up to your cell phone. One of the best tool i have for these types of issues.
Btw, your solution was really great. Win both ways customer and you.
Never had any luck with them. Nothing is in context, all you can see is a tiny spot in a dark wall, useless really.
@@StanSwan I use mine a lot for motorcycle diagnostics.
Usually poking it down a spark plug hole to verify that the piston did indeed meet intimately with the valves. But also sometimes to find that one body panel screw that fell into the abyss and didn't come back out.
Mine has a really wide field of view so maintaining reference points is pretty easy.
Does not help if the wiring is hidden in rockwool, and unless it comes with xray vision it only helps to find the wires, not how they are connected. I got two of them.
@@wernerviehhauser94 interesting, obviously if the wall space is packed with insulation or other fill an endoscope becomes less useful, but i use mine to check wiring connections all the time.
@@paddle_shift I'm in Germany, and here hollow walls are rare. You would mostly find brick walls (we have a lot of different brick types in use), and most drywalls use some kind of filling material (rockwool, perlite, cellulose, ...), not necessarily for thermal but for acoustic insulation. The ways houses that are commonly built in the US or Canada are basically unknown here, maybe even not allowed by our construction codes.
Best part of this is where you thought to add a new can where the junction box was- consideration to the homeowner and future technicians, and the code guys... well done
It's funny, just today I was troubleshooting a house with weird voltages on random plugs but some plugs working, 4 hours going through junction boxes and taking out receps and switches looking for a loose neutral. Finally I found it was the main power coming in, reading 5.6 volts on 1 leg. We called the local electricity provider and it turns out a tree limb wore through the jacket on the power line lol
Always check main power and panel before taking things apart inside the house. Can save a lot of time over many service calls. Not everything is a circuit issue or a burned junction.
@@RobertMarts it was an 80 year old house with newer mains coming in, I never would of thought it would be anything but the old knob and tube wiring lol
@@RobertMarts yessss...been THERE
I had the same thing. I first noticed it when I was in bed in front of a fan. It was a windy day and I heard the fan speed up and slow down. Turned out the drop was worn through where it passed through a tree.
always check the supply first...
Like you, I am also an electrician but I’m a Canadian electrician and you are right there are far to many poor tradesmen out there. Number 1 rule always take pride in your work and leave the job in a far better state then what you found it. I have even cleaned up after other so called electricians that couldn’t solve the problem and it does go a long way with owners or property managers. Stay safe young man, I know your parents are very proud of you and the job you do.
93% of job applicants lie. ("What colo(u)r is your parachute? ").
80% of employees are unsatisfied with their position. (ibid).
Mommies: "Don't let anyone tell you that you can't be anything you want."
You know the solution.
@@bob-ny6kn 100% of the statistics in this comment are made up. And what is the solution??? Tell me!!!!
@@Justin-vr5zn You, obviously, do not read outside TH-cam.
I’ve cleaned after plumbers, hvac, carpenters, the stucco guys, moved material in the way. It’s all part of the show. Worst is nice beautiful piles of lumber right where I need to be.
Every job is an autograph, sign your name in pride
I had something very similar to this back in 2006. I had weird voltages and I eventually found a junction box in the ceiling of the garage which had been converted into a den, laundry room, and storage room. I ended up finding 3 or 4 "junctions"...without boxes...lying in blown-in insulation! 🔥 There was one junction box, but it didn't have a cover!
I'm a GC and have been in the construction industry for the last 40 years. I will say, "You are one of the most professional electricians I've run across". I generally sub out to two different electricians depending on the size and scope of the job and they've been good to me over the years. I especially appreciated the clean-up part!
I love my borescope for these things. makes looking down inside walls, above ceilings, where ever so much easier.
@Aaron Hicks I believe that is prevert. But I digress.
Video endoscope for a few bills on Amazon! You can even record the video and show evidence to the client after or during the inspection. Love my endoscope it has huge potential. Cheers, #SeattleRingHunter
Pro tip : Use a battery operated smoke alarm to cover up to a 4" hole you cut. Add a Old work, cut in round box and smoke detector after you are done using hole. Good for hiding junction boxes and pull points as well on long wire pulls in finished houses.
You sir. . . are an evil genius.
What if you can't connect that new smoke to an existing old an smoke? Then that added smoke won't go off when all the others do and visa versa
@jvonrobbins3373 - What does that have to do with anything? You're not doing a rough in. Drywall is up and it's service work. The property should already have the alarm circuit worked out. We are doing the install to cover a hole and it's cosmetic.
@@jvonrobbins3373 just don't put a battery in the detector just a quick easy way to hide a hole
Called open neutral at 3:00 based on description and plug tester, I was right :D edit: Weird voltage is the voltage Its traveling back thru lights and appliances down the line on the neutral trying to find a path to ground. That voltage changes depending on how many light and appliances its going thru to come back.
Great explanation Aaron.
Quality electrician, right here ☝️
I won’t lie. I thought melted bus on the problem recep noted. Using the toner is an extremely helpful tool. Had a contractor bury LV doorbell wire in the wall. Found it with a toner no cutting necessary.
My thought exactly, have had this problem multiple times thanks to ac units and space heaters burning up back stabbed outlets. Actually made a comment saying pretty much the exact same thing you did before scrolling through the comments. Its nice to see that troubleshooting isn't a lost art. Been in the trade for 3 years now and am only 21 got a lot more to learn, but it's nice to see that i must be learning something.
@@crazygameplays1519 learn something every day! Won’t ever get better if we don’t.
As a retired fire marshal,...I have come across a myriad of electrical nightmares. One of my favorites was a junction box fashioned from an old coffee can, nailed to joist, above drywall ceiling. Had nothing to do with the cause of the fire, but we came across it. I wish I had gone through the trouble of saving all of these cool photos to a thumb drive.
when i fixed the electrical from knob&rubem
i had one similar. no junction box. an outlet (no box) inside a wall plaster over it
other one i had. romex wire plastered over it inside the wall on top of a joist. instead of drilling thru the wall joist and place the cable in it. it was over and inside the plaster.
i almost had a hard attack when i demolished that wall with a jig-saw and pinched the wire (old building from 1925 plaster)
also had romex 15 amp cable (white), going flush with the drywall. with plaster and painted over it for about 16 inch (2 joists away) embedded. connected to the electric plinth for heating and attached to a 20 amp/240v breaker. wtf was the previous owner thinking. it's a disaster waiting to happen.
"not the cause of the fire but probably some other DIY repair was I assume.
Question: Was the coffee can Folgers or Maxwell House? Could be germane to the electrical problem issue.
Coffee can. Good, good. But can you beat a tin of chewing tobacco turned into a j-box. (Buried. Of course)
@@davidgoossen113 I'm surprised at you Dave. You didn't even mention Sanka-a Caffeine free alternative. Sheeeeesh.
Just stumbled upon this video but your presentation drew me in and I had to watch to the end. You are much more real and relatable than a lot of youtube instructors. I certainly agree with your attitude towards making sure you do it right, from testing every outlet to making sure you leave no mess behind. Class act.
Real life scenarios like this really help people think through electricity. Keep up on these videos because they do make a difference!
Speaking from an industrial context, troubleshooting is a lost art.
I don’t know a thing about installing electrics but I gotta say I respect his attitude and ethics. I wish everybody was as professional and thoughtful as he is.
It is nice to watch a professional at work. I started off as an Electrical Officer in the Navy. Great experience. I know what I can fix, what I shouldn't try to fix, and when to call a proper electrician.
It is a real experience to get bit by 440v shore power.
I was a troubleshooting technical analyst at an ISP for years before becoming an electrician (apprentice still) and service work is something I really enjoy. I get to use that old 'muscle' before. I like you question and answer approach with the homeowner. Skipping that process or skimming it could result in a lot of wasted time.
LOVE the troubleshooting, I think it really separates not that there's anything bad about them, the installers, assemblers from the fixers. I'm barely an installer so i can say that.
I am just a DYI-er with a house built in the 70's and recurring issues with legacy wiring, fixtures, and outlets. Before I'm done, I or an electrician will have replaced all the wall receptacles, mark my words. I've encountered taped junctions and wire nuts behind drywall! I'm in the process of swapping out a noisy contractor grade bathroom fan for a super-quiet bathroom fan and adding several LED ceiling lights as you described. This video was interesting and entertaining, but also validated my choice to create a J-box in the ceiling to extend the circuit to reach the LED light boxes. Thanks.
Who'd a thought electrical forensics could be so exciting? Compelling, I watched right to the end, haha. Well done!
I was changing out a motor because the circuit breaker was tripping. I was told to change the motor, I did not diagnose. While there, I saw why things were tripping. Water had gotten into the conduit because the conduit came apart from the motor housing. Yep, corrosion for about 12 inches away from the motor. I fixed it!
Yet another reason that if you are told to do something, take a couple extra minutes to make sure what you are told to do will fix the problem... I reckon that the only problem was the conduit, and the motor was never the problem.
Yea it's pretty fun. Especially when you get out of houses and into factories and process plants.
It's the kind of problem solving they don't show you in school, at least they didn't in mine
@@cdgonepotatoes4219 They can't teach problem solving when they actually are better at creating problems than solving them.
In the trade we just call it "troubleshooting".
It was my favorite part of being an electrician, new installations are easy, finding problems that defy the rules is a challenge.
Great video, very thorough and clearly explained.
2 jobs in a row, buried junction boxes and a ground wire being used as a hot wire. Both jobs resulted in expensive labor costs that the client obviously did not anticipate. They aren’t very happy but end up cussing whoever did the dirty unsafe deed in the past. BOTH jobs were flips at one time. I often find these blatant code violations, both in new and old homes. In new homes I often question the building inspector’s competence and diligence. Inspections are sometimes done AFTER the drywall goes up! I rarely get called out to correct a code violation, I usually find then as bonus charges as I’m installing or repairing something else.
Also good job with the logic. I remember as an apprentice having moment of panic not knowing how to trouble shoot. At least a guy gains confidence the more things you run into. Just last month I ran into two homeowner sub panels that had the bonding screw still in the sub panel (with a mainbreaker). In one case a kid got lifted pretty bade as he became a portion of the neutral.
The moment you actually diagnose a problem like this, up to the point you first flick the lights and everything works properly... that's like a drug
That's very true - and applies to anything you can fix, be it cars, plumbing, small electronics...
Let there be light! and there was, and it was good!
Yes, even on open rough ins, start from scratch and the house or commercial space fires up. Thats what got me hooked
In my electronics career so far (1964-USMC, on) I call it PAYDAY! Against all odds, it WORKS! Yay! The drug is several endorphins... Its' why I get up most mornings.
I concur some times locating a broke neutral like this one can be a nightmare especially on older houses still prefer Romex wiring versus old knob and tubing
love your commentary on keeping the space your working in clean - whether you're working in residential or even commercial environments. It was an early lesson I learned when I was an apprentice.
Agreed, not to mention the time it saves over all. I never understood people that make a huge mess only to have to clean up after themselves in the end.
i'm sorry but. this video is by far the best most well rounded video i've ever seen, not just for j boxes but basic electric information
Electricians should be watching this as a learning video. straight up 100%
I've seen a fully lit led exit sign buried in a ceiling, they did not intend to remove it because there was another one a foot away at the proper height you would never know that thing was up there once they ceil it
Seen the same with emergency lights
LOL, the Fire Marshall loves that kind of stuff.
I've seen that a lot before. Every year or two years commercial buildings need to be inspected for occupancy permits. And he failed the building because an exit sign that was buried in the drop ceiling was out. (He saw it because the had a couple tiles down for remodeling)
I went on a call one time to some apartments that were built in the 70's, tennant said all the receps on one wall didn't work. After checking every and anything electrical in the apartment, me and the J-man were stumped. It was then the tennant told us this problem started happening after the people in the apartment next door moved out. Uh oh. So we checked out that apartment, and surely enough, the power was off in that apartment, and we found out the receps were being fed from the panel next door.
That’s a bummer, now his electric bill is going to go up
@@ndusrnm lol
That's where you plug in the space heater
A plug was dead on a back to back kitchen. What was odd was that the lights were on in the adjacent unit with no tenant. I found power in the empty unit so I figured the original wiring had been flipped during construction and no one ever noticed. It turned out that someone had nailed through the siding, severing the hot from unit 1 and puncturing the hot on unit 2. The nail was conducting power from one hot to the other.
@@obsoleteprofessor2034 wow!
Great methodical approach. Asking questions then interpreting the answers is so important in troubleshooting. Equally important is working efficiently so clean up is quick and easy so you're left with a job you can be proud of and the homeowner is happy to pay for. Bonus points for installing a new light in your access hole.
I used to get the 5 gallon containers that Pepsi shipped their flavoring in, to local bottling plants. They were quite thick plastic, and had a handle molded into the top. I cut a rectangular hole into several, near the top. I used them as a portable stool when working large job sites. You simply put any trash into them as you worked, so there was no cleanup. Very handy in schools or offices.
Try troubleshooting brand new 16 layer circuit boards, with shorted power rails. None of his tricks would have worked,, and there was no one to answer questions.
Too many trades people DON'T listen to customers at all. It's a good idea to listen for the symptoms described by the owner. But take their suspected reasons with a grain of salt.
What you do take limited notice of, is some untrained person who has entered fault details into a computer database. What they are entering is what they think the customer is talking about. It might be correct, but you could be looking for something unrelated.
Great breakdown of the steps to find the problem. Have a similar situation in a commercial setting and will have to return to cut into a restaurant bar to find a possible(probable) junction box hidden inside.
This video is most golden. Professional work, clean work, reliable work, repairs meet code, and professional production of video and audio. Also includes expert tips for the diy person.
I HATE when people use octagon boxes for J-boxes because they have a smaller box fill then same thickness square box. Yes you can add octagon box extensions to add more space, but a lot of the time it unnecessary if they just used a square box from the start. Great video dude!
Before I became an electrician I found out the hard way that extension rings existed, cramming wires back in a shallow box on a lighting circuit in a commercial building, I shook hands with 277 that day, instant respect.
Main reason, I got out of "Commercial", work, was "Fast food" restaurant, trouble calls, Manager would complain, when I found, "Hack Job" Installations, undersize wire to cooking equipment, ECT. I explained fix, run new wire, They would blow a "GASKET". Like It was my fault, they had a "HACK", do the work. I went to "Industrial", same thing, followed me. You just can't "WIN" as a conscience driven, ethical Electrician. I retired.
preach it
if the are fraanchise owners then they are responsible for repairs, cheap fucks dont want to pay for a rewire even if they are violating fire codes
@@Lewdacris916 or a roach behind fry station...🏃🐜
Yes, thats why I stay away from service work. Lol
@@ndusrnm trouble shooting 101
Great video. I have minor experience running cables as a network tech, but no experience as an electrician. What I found most fascinating were the similarities between what YOU described and what I have done in -multiple-different professions. Bottom line: be knowledgeable, be professional, be straightforward, be considerate. Kudos to you for representing all those qualities 100%, and also, thanks very much for sharing your experience and insights. Respect!!
i had one recently homeowner said "i went to bed woke up to no power in several parts of my house" (mostly lights) chased this circuit had both a circuit tracer and toner i also had the same problem it sent me on a wild goose chase finally found 3 j boxes in the attic under a floor that had a second floor over over it and the third box (last 1 i had) opened it and found a neutral with the screw in type wire nut with 1 wire not even stripped burnt and as you showed melted white wires together. and as a P.S. to your great video you could mention how neutral (l2) can kill
As someone who lives in a really old apartment building that's been converted and built up over and over again like some sort of lovecraftian horror show both with plumbing and electrical...I loved this.
Old apartments are bad. You get maintenance guys doing things they shouldn't. I just found a buried junction box behind a mirror that they had just put drywall mud in to fill in the box where the old light was. They had moved up the light for a bigger mirror and the wires had burned inside of that mud filled box.
Your house sounds like mine. The plumbers don't want to come back because they don't know where the pipes are going. There's pipes that don't do anything at all.
I've used that toner more this year than any other. It really helps locate the wires and devices a lot quicker without taking everything apart. I had an older house that was giving weird readings, but by touching the two wires together makes it make another sound verifying continuity. Great advice and workmanship.
Great video. "Old houses built in the 1970's or 80's" LOL. I bought my house in 1980, but it was built in 1923 with knob and tube wiring, with taped splices in the ceilings all over the place! And, of course, no grounds. The service panel was new, thank god, but each run of cloth covered wire ended in a junction box near the panel. I helped my handyman brother do some remodeling, and read extensively about home rewiring and taught myself. Over the next decade I rewired every room, one at a time. Got good with plaster and lath box retrofitting. (Removed ll the outside walls to insulate where I could). Also installed a new subpanel and ran two lines underground for the remote garage, so I could have 220 in the future. There was no internet back then, only instruction books and the NEC code book. I wish I had access to your vast knowledge at the time. Thanks again.
Drop cloth was a good "Pro Tip".
Except it's on the floor and he then goes on to talk about crap falling on the tables and worksurfaces which were unprotected!
@@mfx1 In case of the new hole being above those, which this one wasn't.
@@mfx1 I thought the same thing but he has the right idea. Try to be clean.
@@mfx1 In his case, it wasn't, but his tip was to put one over stuff like that if it is.
i'm not sure about you but i'd rather sweep up the floor than have to pay $150 to $200 extra for him to clean ! just me !
Great content man! I enjoyed watching this. As an IT professional I understand the need to follow procedures and code. This was awesome to watch and the troubleshooting part is so much like my field it is really crazy. 90-98% of the difficulty is USUALLY finding the issue.
Thank you for that final note on keeping everything clean. It really makes such a difference.
I know of 3 men who were killed by 120v. One cut the ground pin off of his metal reflectored trouble light He crawled into a crawl space and was lying on damp soil when the hot contacted the reflector he was holding. Number 2 was working on a lighting, I do not know any details. Number 3 was working in a decorative pond with a submersible pump, again I do not know details.
Good thing he left out the water in the killer equation of “electricity + water = 💀
Common Sense 101: Never work on anything that is hot (even 120v) unless there is absolutely no other way possible. If the contractor you work for doesn't like that rule because it will slow down the work and might cost them extra money in labor expenses, ask the stupid son of bitch you are working for how much will a lawsuit and funeral cost the company after someone gets killed?
@@smithn.wesson495 Yeah Verily
YOU ARE AWESOME! I'm not a electrician. I'm a homeowner that occasionally changed out a plug or a switch. I just stumbled onto your video and got hooked in it because of your animated and enthusiastic presentation. What an amazing job of troubleshooting.
I'll keep in mind the tips and tools you used, but if I encountered a problem like yours, I think I'd just burn the house down and start over.
yah you start asking questions, and the home owner starts himin, and hawin, and lookin at the ground, or giving you that innocent look about a recent re model. you know theres going to be buried box.
Just curios Brian . Are you Norwegian or Swedish ? As a Empathic type poet and writer, I have to try and follow- up on some questions. Thanks either way .
@@undernoillusions1448 what are you talking about dude?
@@everythingpony you can ask questions..but cannot answer any. Well; that's ...fairly normal, actually.
I really appreciate the format of your video. From tips to safety to codes to "cleanup" recommendations, this was really well thought out. Side note, "disposable" drop cloths with a felt like material on one side and plastic on the other are available at most hardware/farm supply stores for less than $20. They work great for protecting surfaces and also stop liquids to include paints and lacquers. Reusable as many times as you'd like, but cheap enough to toss if they end up catching a really incredible mess. You're absolutely right about people appreciating that extra step and it doesn't have to be expensive.
I just finished roughly 30 years as a GC doing remodeling and service work in some fine homes in the Boston area and I will assure you ( as this gentleman explained) that when you treat a persons most valuable spaces with consideration they will call you back every time just for that one reason.
A clean drop cloth and one of the Minnie vacuums will win you more clients than anything else you may try.
Just say’in…..
I'm a retired handyman. Lots of my work was in older homes. I've seen wiring conjunctions hidden in walls more times than you can imagine.
Working on some remodeling in my great grandparents house lead to some interesting wireing. Stuff like 3 2ft sections of different wire twisted together with friction tape to make a run from 1 outlet to the next. The electrician thought it was funny.
I don't understand why they would do that. Like how are you supposed to know it's there if you have to work on it or with it for some reason. Pretty dumb thing to do.
As an IT guy I really appreciate the breakdown here. I had a similar experience with a Wireless Access Point that my predecessor installed with no documentation. I was labeling everything and got to one access point that I have no idea where TF it was. I had rebooted and labelled every AP with it's room number and wire drop. Eventually I just waited until after hours and said "f*** it I'm going to find this thing". I shut off every other AP in the whole building and started walking around with my WiFi analyzer trying to determine where the signal was strongest. When I narrowed in on it it was a poor, sad looking AP that was covered in an inch of dust laying in a ceiling tile. No mount or anything. Just sitting there with a random Ethernet wire running to it next to a metal roof joist. Some people are a**hats and just do stuff without caring about the next guy.
Too many home professionals don’t give the first thought to cleanliness and how they’re leaving the environment afterward. Kudos to you for making it such a point and for doing an awesome job tracking down this problem and coming up with a nice solution.
On your tone and probe tool if you connect your red alligator clip and place it on the black wire and take your toners black alligator clips and put it on something metal it will only still send a tone down 1 wire
As an architect, I can not say enough how impressed I am with your professionalism, enthusiasm, class.....I would hire you in a minute! The fact alone that you also appreciate how to keep your job clean as you go is fantastic. Most electricians have the reputation of being prima donnas who just drop all the little wire cuts, insulation, etc. and leave it for someone else to cleanup.
Dude. Just stumbled onto your channel from the abyss of the TH-cam algorithm, and now you have a new sub haha. You’re the definition of a what electrician should be. Keep it up man.
My mother always said, if you can not be neat, clean up after yourself. It's a good life lesson. People who care deeply appreciate the fact that you took time to care about the little things. Kudos!
Awesome video, not even sure how I stumbled on it. I’m trained as an electrical engineer and worked for years as an Industrial Maintenance Manager with teams of electricians. I would have hired you with a 6 figure job easily. Great methodology and communication.
In the Chicagoland area- I've found weird boxes buried behind plaster...crazy old school wiring (not knob and tube) but just black and white covered in cloth insulation inside EMT that's serving as the ground.
Apartment building, 2 levels plus a basement garden apt: replaced all the receptacles and light fixtures. On the 2nd floor there are still problems. Moved the bed and notice the plaster and drywall looking odd and weird smell coming from it- low and behold, a buried box behind half plaster and half drywall and joint compound (no tape or mesh) a box w/ a broken receptacle shoved inside of it, that someone decided to bury... 🤬
I used to own a house build in early 50's. Original wires were aluminium in cloth insulation.
@@spol1622 Ugh, at that point I'd tell the homeowner that they need to swap to copper and new service panel. The upfront cost is worth the drop in homeowner's insurance and peace of mind!
What did you end up doing?
Best hack I ever heard for when you know you absolutely have to cut the drywall to fix the electrical problem that is otherwise inaccessible -- install another light! Great stuff!
I bought me a few years back a toner that looks like that from either HD or HFT, I can't remember the store to find a conduit that was being tripped on a kitchen. someone that renovated the island in the middle had placed a metal junction box and it was short created a short due to just using electrical tape to isolate. After a few hours of really making sure all electrical tape was removed from a crap load of circuits. I fixed it, who does that? Using electrical tape that over time comes loose and possible create a fire or worse a death by just being cheap.
Weird voltages are almost always caused by loose neutrals. All the other items in the circuit are dropping the voltage and then it comes back to the broken wire. Also the loose neutral is a resistor itself. Sometimes induction causes voltages to appear when there is actually no powered circuit, but usually that is on long runs that share the same pipe.
The problem found at 22:28 in the video. Overall, great video, super diagnostic and troubleshooting process. Must have been very frustrating to have to hunt down someone else's problem.
The way you analyze and explain things is what set you apart. Blessings!
My only concern was "why did that cap melt"? So, if I remember correctly, he had a counter top circuit, that went to a hall, then junctioned to the garage and a bathroom. The counter top circuits are dedicated for the counter top , a bathroom is to have it's own 20 amp dedicated, and the garage is to have it's own dedicated. The neutrals appear to be cooking at the junction. Did he see the condition of the neutral at the panel? Is it cooking?
Because wire nuts aren't foolproof. Especially when there are more than 3 wires jammed into one. I have seen a few melt down from most likely one of the wires not being held tightly enough. Loose connections make heat.
When I did commercial wiring, I avoided using wire nuts where ever I could. Especially in higher current circuits. I used properly crimped terminals and terminal strips. More work, but never had a problem.
The biggest wire nut issues were where someone used them to connect stranded wire to solid wire. The joys of working on stuff in a 45 year old factory, with varied maintenance skills/changing codes over the years.
The plus is you learn a lot, of what not to do...
Look up WAGOs it's a wire connector we use in the UK just push the cable in they are actually used as non maintenance connectors and then fit into a non maintenance WAGObox.
@@chrisardern4594 I've used a few times. Neat and tidy units. Good for fault finding in appliances like fridges being able to disconnect one wire at a time. Bit on the pricey side still and have to carry too many types...and a bit bulky. I'll stick to BP's (Blue Points) and keep putting them though the washing machine from them always being in my pocket.
@@chrisardern4594 We have them here in the US, too. We also have other variants like Ideal's In-Sure.
@@bill6960 We all know we're supposed to twist the wires together tightly with pliers, nip the ragged end, and THEN screw on the wire nut. But people get careless and try to let the wire nut do the job without first twisting securely.
Well done! I’m a retired electrician from Lynn, MA. Great video…keep them coming.😊 Sometime between 1975 and 1980 I had a similar situation in Chelsea, MA on the second floor of a three family, 3 decker, no attic above. The problem was the kitchen light was flickering and at the moment not working. When I walked by the bathroom heading to the kitchen I noticed the bathroom had been recently renovated. I asked the occupant if their use to be a ceiling light in the bathroom where their currently wasn’t one. They replied yes…. I then asked if she had a broom… got a funny look with that request. I tapped the center of the ceiling in the bathroom with the broom and the kitchen light came back on. I then explained to her that the electrician who worked on the renovation buried the old ceiling light box and that I’d need to cut a hole in the new ceiling in order to repair the problem. We’ll she said, I’ll need to wait for my husband to get home and explain the problem him before I can give you permission to proceed. We left and I never got called back and I’m hoping she called the company that did I the renovation back to fix the problem. These older buildings were wired with BX running ceiling light to ceiling light and the fixture had only pull chain switches. The BX was installed using shallow ceiling plates secured onto the bottom of the floor joist, horse hair plaster and wood laths style construction. When you remove the fixtures the old cloth covered conductors we’re crispy and the insulation would fall off caused by age and high wattage lamps being used. Electricians nightmare to say the least.
There is a purgatory, and the worker who shoved a j-box hidden in a wall or ceiling is residing in said location.
Biblicaly though, purgatory is non existent. You're either saved by Jesus and His Gospel, or you're not.
likely not a sparky, like he said, carpenter's assistant...
@@kylelikeskjvbible Except for Lazarus in Luke 16v22
@@craigsymington5401 agreed! And corrected.
@@kylelikeskjvbible Agreed. It was a figure of speech.
Feel like he would make a great instructor. He has great qualities and qualifications for that position.
One thing that I think is worth mentioning with regards to safety during diagnosis on live circuits:
If you're diagnosing a problem, you can't assume things are wired correctly.
Things that are normally grounded and safe to touch may in fact be live. Hot may have shorted to an ungrounded junction box.
Things that would normally be safe just by turning off a switch may actually stay live. A switch wired backwards can still deliver hot all the way to the fixture.
Make no assumptions.
As a journeywoman in Canada my entire apprenticeship was tough... I mean the 2 companies I worked for held me to a higher standard than the boys. Never picking out the mistakes of them but my workmanship was nitpicked... as unfair/sexist as it was I do believe it made me a better electrician. As a 3. and 4. year I even got my own service van issued and my main job was troubleshooting all my journeymens crap work. I had to learn all the different guy's decades of wiringmethods etc so I could efficiently fix their mess. As a result most coworkers didn't like working with me because I guess I made them look bad... since in a man driven industry us girls are often held to a higher standard or we have to work 3times as hard to earn the old geezers respect. So for me it was always sticking to code...( no Mickey mousing on my part, that way they couldnt complain about my physical strength lacking because my stuff was always 100% every time )and to the point that when some apprentice had a code question they were told to ask Kat, she knows all codes.... lol
Good for you ! Nothing wrong in being good at your job, I have a feeling those before were not proper electricians! The way we learn in the UK is to change companies often because I found many got into a rut, plus some specialise, so its good to change and have a wider scope of electrical installations. I worked most of my life as an industrial Electrical Technician(Foreman). Often abroad and now retired! Never really got into "house bashing" Mostly industrial.
I grew up doing HVAC and have officially been doing it for about 15 or so years, and I love seeing women in the trades! There was a girl who worked for a plumbing company that we did a lot of jobs with. She was always respectful of people's homes (something many guys forget to do - like mentioned in video, they have to live there when you leave) and never once did she have a "Fuck it, can't see it from my house" attitude so many guys have with questionable or shoddy work. Other than a few exceptions, like carry the old water heater up basement steps, there's not much a guy could do that she couldn't. But anyway, women who aren't going to college should stop settling for min wage jobs, they should learn a trade!
It should be that the number of dangly bits (one between the legs or two on the chest) doesn't matter, only how well that squishy bit between the ears works.
Was it sexist though?
I'd be happy to work with you. I also had it tough as an apprentice but it paid off and now I can pretty much work any job I want. Good job!
Dude!!! This is the best "Electrical" video I have seen in life!! This totally validated what I do to solve problems, myself being a service electrician for the company I work for and especially my sidework in homes! Everything from gathering as much info as possible from the customer to coming with that smart idea of installing that recessed light where that hidden j box was to make it accessible. I truly enjoyed this video.
I noticed you used a keyhole saw to cut the 6 inch hole...have you thought about investing in the adjustable drill attachment that comes with a bowl to cover the cutting area to get the dust? I personally use Milwaukee but they're made by other companies as well. Fast,efficient and clean; that's my only suggestion. 👍🏼
Nice job, You're the only electrician I've came across that laid a drop cloth on the floor and cared about cleaning up after himself.
I’ve never seen an electrician that cleaned up after himself..good job bro!
Went out and bought that fluke probe today woulda saved me hours of trouble shooting on my last few jobs
Good video. i have been doing low voltage work for nearly 40 years and over that time i applied some of my troubleshooting skills for diagnosing 110 volt circuits issues. So I was able to follow your methodology easily. I have used my low voltage toner to track Romex just as you did (not live circuits), and because one of the leads is on the neutral wire, (and they are all common,) the toner will "bleed" everywhere. I recently picked up a 110 volt toner made by Klein that works well, but the circuit must be energized for the toner to work. Great for tracking down which breaker is operating a circuit. Thanks for an entertaining video.
As an Electrician with 40+ years of experience it was interesting to watch your video. I anticipated your every move, even adding the can light. I’ve worked on every imaginable type of construction and without a doubt residential wiring is the worst. I’m sorry if I’m insulting the few good residential wiremen but most are doing the bare minimum to pass inspection and many inspectors are doing bare minimum only looking for obvious violations. This means that a brand new house already has electrical gremlins. Then you get multiple homeowners and contractors with little to no electrical experience changing things. Diagnosing electrical problems can be challenging and rewarding. A bit of advice to the homeowner, answer the questions that are being asked by your hopefully qualified Electrician and don’t overwhelm them with other non important information and your speculations. If you do that then you take what is already a difficult problem and turn it into the story problem from hell. Just like going to the Doctor, give them your ailments and let them diagnose you. I’m currently renovating my house that was built in ‘86 and I’ve encountered numerous buried boxes and live wires and every splice is loose or done improperly. Good luck, be safe and enjoy the hunt for the elusive electrical gremlins. Retired I.B.E.W. Electrician.
Last new house I bought in Peoria Az was a disgrace, company that built it was Mattamy Homes, would not trust them to build a Lego house, cheap, most likely illegal unskilled labor was used, I watched them build around me as we were one of the first in. Electrical wiring was zip tied to the gas supply to the water heater, frightening.
Recently bought my home. Started remodeling kitchen thankfully. Found in the attic a j box not screwed down, no cover, under insulation, no box connectors, too many wires for a 4x4 j box single stack, and best for last- no wire nuts. They just twisted the wires together and wrapped with electrical tape. Wow, found 1 other up there the same way. Fixed all that now.
Luxury! In my recent remodel we found an "extension" made by twisting two wires together, taping them up, and drywalling over them. Lucky we pulled up that flooring, because the job wasn't intended to touch the ceiling below.
frakkin YIKES!!!
I am an apprentice and I enjoy watching how you explain things. Thank you for doing these videos. Keep it up.
Love the floor plan display. Very cool!
I've been redoing the electrical in my house as I do the renovations, aside from the standard cloth wire sketchiness, there is a junction box for every socket and light fixture and a few thrown in for no reason I can divine, as well as an old screw type fuse panel for the garage, but I've found 2 bare live hanging wires encased in the walls so far, I now turn off the power to rooms I'm demoing otherwise known as fun with sheetrock over plaster and lath so thick it takes minutes just to get a tiny hole though it so I have to use a magnet to locate the screws holding the drywall on so I can get it off the wall and go at the rest with a sledgehammer, about the only thing I haven't seen is knob and tube that's in use thankfully although there is a few remnants of it in the house. In just the attic I pulled 30 junction boxes out, I think whoever wired it was getting a discount on junction boxes and screws/nails but the screws/nails is another matter all together, just imagine if you will a piece of plywood on the floor that you have pull up which is nailed down to the tongue and groove subfloor with 1.75in ring shank nails which are precisely spaced 1 inch apart from the others over the entire area of the plywood. I spent a week pulling up one 4x8 sheet of plywood.
Ugghhh.... I once had to install a houseful of new downlights and in-ceiling speakers in a grand old home with lath and plaster ceilings.... NEVER AGAIN.
Found a fair few dodgy old j-boxes along the way too.
Worked as a drywall guy at a remodeling company for a while (was supposed to be Tiling apprentice...) The electricians we worked with made my job a nightmare. Constantly cutting long diagonal lines along the ceiling. Cutting right along studs and beams without even leaving us room to nail the patches in... Made so much extra work for me. I'm so glad there are electricians out there that aren't cut happy and actually care about making things easier for everyone involved and for people further down the line.
I had one of these ghost situations a few weeks ago. It turned out to be a breaker that large black ants were occupying.
I had a good one.
A customer called about an arc-fault breaker that would not stop tripping.
I thought, "Oh boy, here we go!"
I go to pull the breaker out, water started flowing out of it!
I do not know how, but water trickled into the panel and only filled this one top right breaker.
Damnedest thing. Brand new service, with PVC riser, everything sealed, no plumbing nearby.
@@tailgunner2 powerwashing season.
@@tailgunner2 Was there a properly installed drip loop on the weather head?
@@jefferytownsend7787 yes.
Funny enough, it was water getting into the old service that prompted the homeowner to have it replaced.
@@tailgunner2 I never used pvc as a riser, only as a underground feed...
Tone tracing in older school buildings when a 25 pair cable gets involved... hope that was the last time. They had witched to IP phones years prior, but still had fax, elevator, SIP 911 running all over on the "old tech" with grounds willy nilly.