I know a little about electrical having exchanged a light switch or converting a 2 to 3 prong outlet. But when it comes to have it done by a professional, the township requires there be a permit. First you get the permit, then the work is done, but not exactly completed the best I can guess by what I was told, and then the inspector comes out to give their approval.
What I don’t get, if the work is already done by the electrician, so what is the point of inspecting it if they can’t really see all the work? Furthermore, I have watched the electrical inspector they send out and he doesn’t take out any sort of test equipment to make sure things are connected properly or if there is ground.
I’m all for safety and doing things by the book, but this inspection seems barely useful. It would be like inspecting a car to validate a break job by just looking at it without physically testing anything.
Am I missing something here? The oddest part of all this, is that they allow a clueless homeowner to do their own electrical without inspections for most things and that doesn’t require a permit. How as a homeowner am I more entrusted to do electrical work than if it’s done by a professional which they require a permit and inspection for?
Every so often you hear of a terrible fire and it’s blamed on electrical. It makes me wonder, was the work done by the home owner or by a professional and the inspection wasn’t thorough enough?
I’m pretty sure the homeowner is supposed to have a permit for certain types of electrical work and get an inspection. Certainly a lot of homeowners just do their own thing and no one ever finds out, but if you called the inspection office they’d likely say the homeowner still needs an inspection.
The inspector usually knows what to look for, so maybe they can visually spot problems. I’m pretty sure if no inspection was required, the electrician would get away with whatever he thought he could to cut corners and save money.
The electrical inspector has to make sure the work authorized by a permit was done correctly. Even professional electricians screw up once in a while. In my town if the inspector knows the electrician he’ll just ask for pictures of the work. If he doesn’t know the electrician I hear he’s not getting out of his car to look at anything anyway because he’s 80-something years old. When I had the wires put underground I called him and he asked me who the electrician was, I gave him the name and he said everything was fine since he knew the electrician’s father. I think they’re generally more concerned with DIY work and making sure new construction follows code.
They are not there to make sure the wiring works, they are there to make sure it doesn’t work for a month or a year, then cause a fire.
Things they will check:
-Breaker appropriate for application
-Wire gauge appropriate for breaker
-Grounds used, and of sufficient gauge.
-Only one tie (at service entrance) between ground and neutral.
-No aluminum wire…or appropriate equipment if there is, and it is allowable.
-no connections outside boxes. Boxes large enough for application.
-Required number of outlets, light fixtures, etc. per room.
On new construction they will typically do a check at “rough in” … all wires pulled to boxes, but no outlets or switches installed. They are looking at wire gauges, and how things are run. Next they want all the outlets and switches installed, but the cover plates off. There may be a final quick check to make sure all the cover plates are installed.
You are hiring a licensed person to perform work the expectation is it will be done according to applicable codes thus be safe and work as intended. The inspectors job isn’t to go over ever aspect of the job. It is to keep the licensed professional honest. It is for the benifit of the home owner to have someone knowledgeable enough to catch mistakes.
The system is certainly fraught with nepotism, some consider that a feature not a bug. Companies that don’t usually work in the area or have had a history of poor workmanship certainly receive much greater scrutiny than companies with longer local histories that have gotten to know the inspectors.
For my well drillers license there is very little actual inspection of my work. The boards of health and local inspectors are quite familiar with my companies work and record. My grandfather set the standards for the code they use today in some of the towns I work in. Usually for inspections they assume I’m compliant with the code and pretty much just want to collect a check for the permit a means of revenue.
I’m also a licensed electrician but rarely do my own electrical work. One of the top reasons is I don’t know the inspectors and don’t do enough electrical work to establish a repetioure with them. Any work I do is subjected to closer scrutiny and it’s near impossible to get the inspectors to work with my schedule. I instead sub in an electrician who can do the work and has a good enough relationship that the inspector might not even step foot on the site.