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Home Electrical Inspection

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Summary: An inspection of your house electrical wiring system can help you identify problems before they turn into a possible tragedy at your home.
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Correcting Home Electrical Violations to Prevent Hazards


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This inspection begins with checking for some of the most essential safety devices where occupants use electricity on a daily basis.
These are areas with close proximity to water and grounded devices such as bathrooms and kitchens. I also look for the installation of a dual voltage hardwired smoke alarm system.


The master bathroom and guest bathroom do not have GFCI protected outlets or circuit protection at the electric panel.

The presence of a battery operated smoke detector system was noted because the mounting brackets are in place but the smoke detectors are not. I highly recommend series hardwired system with battery backup.

The kitchen outlets do not have grounded receptacles in place and none of the kitchen outlets were protected by GFCI. I recommend the installation of a ground wire to the existing circuit and an additional new circuit be installed then installing GFCI outlets as needed.

In the utility room there is a variety of electrical conditions that I highly recommend be corrected.
1. Install a locknut on the water heater power supply flex connector.
2. Install larger junction boxes and add any required circuits. There is at least one instance where spliced wire sizes do not match in a junction box.
3. Remove abandoned wiring and install loose wiring into junction boxes as required.
4. Replace crimp splices with approved wire connectors.

 

Areas of romex that are loose or anchored using bent nails should be corrected using approved romex staples.

The main panel is a GE 100 Amp Electrical Service. I recommend upgrading to a 200 Amp electrical service which is essential for additional electrical circuits being considered for the home.
The 240 volt circuit serving the kitchen range has been badly scorched and heat damaged possibly due to an overloaded condition where the circuit could have been attached to an oversized circuit breaker in the past. The integrity of the wiring for this circuit has been damaged and I highly recommend replacing it because this condition has the potential of starting a fire.

The back of the home has a few exhaust vents and possibly make-up air intake vents which are on the same side of the house where the roof snow load will slide down and eventually pile up against these vents and could block them. I once rewired a home with a similar condition where blocked vents caused a fire with the heating system which destroyed half of the home. You may consider protecting this area somehow to keep the vents exposed.

This deck area would benefit from an outside light fixture or two providing safety and security.

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