Yes, I understand that. But if the locality requires a certified electrician (or plumber) to pull the permit, that effectively makes a lot of home repairs or remodeling out of reach of the owner doesn’t it? (Unless they are certified electricians or plumbers or whatever)
Are you saying your county requires a licensed electrician to obtain a permit just to replace an outlet or a switch? That seems crazy. I know we’re replaced both ourselves, without ever getting a permit. It’s not hard or dangerous, as long as you turn off the circuit breaker first.
Yeah, the rules for my county seem pretty strict. I was just wondering about the “Licensed electrician” has to pull the permit part. I always thought a permit could be pulled and then the owner could get a sign off by an electrician or inspector or something, but I can’t even GET the permit by myself. Kind of crappy for me actually.
I can’t imagine that if a light switch is defective that a homeowner is going to the trouble and expense of calling in an electrician, so I assume a lot of this goes on without ever getting the permit.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the SWAT team kicking in the door for removing mattress tags or changing a light switch. 
I’m not paying a electrician $125 to replace a light switch. Nope. That ain’t happening.
Yeah, I definitely would NEVER do that without a permit 
I was just curious about the permit pulling setup. Seems designed to force homeowners to HAVE to get a professional for almost anything.
Thanks for the answers.
If i were to guess, I would say this is probably the case in areas where tradesmen/unions have an excessive political influence.
Permit #1 issued. Starting easy; re-wiring and replacing receptacles in the bedrooms and consolidating on 1 circuit. AFCI breaker, tamper resistant receps. Adding receptacles where needed. Should be able to hit them all up from the basement.
I decided I will replace the panel (and upgrade service) but I’ll hold off. I’m afraid they wouldn’t approve it ( or horrors, pass it once installed and not allow P&L to hook me back up!!) because as soon as I try to hook it up a bunch if code requirements would kick in. So I’ll re-wire everything and switch once I don’t have to worry about iffy old stuff.
Thanks for the update.
Any thoughts of Cat 6 wiring while you are at it? After all, you are already making a mess…
Yes, now is the time to flood-wire your house with ethernet.
It hadn’t occurred to me, probably because I don’t currently need it. All of my devices that use a wired connection are in one corner of the house. Computer on the main floor, and X-Boxes and computer directly below in the basement. So I just drop down to it with network cable.
Plus I don’t think I’ll need to make a mess. I mean if it comes down to it and I need to cut horizontal runs above the baseboard, then it probably will be a good idea to pull Ethernet cable (why did it just automatically capitalize Ethernet? Weird). After more poking around in the attic a couple nights ago, I still believe that I can either fish up from the basement or down from the attic for everything.
So in the future if I decide to put a jack in one boy’s bedroom for their laptop or something, I wouldn’t anticipate it being a problem.
One catch to this…I did find after-the-fact that my homeowners insurance company does require licensed professional. So you could be just fine with the city/state, but make things difficult with your policy and future liability or claims.
Phase 1 complete: First rough-in inspection passed. This was replacing the receptacles in all the bedrooms. I was able to access almost everything from the basement with little trouble. I did spend a bit of time in the attic tracing wires and disconnecting a few of the existing outlets from there.
Bonus, they are going to let me use this permit to continue on with the rest of the house, then do one final inspection when the whole shebang is done.
Next step…consolidating lighting in the ‘back’ half of the house on one circuit. Also replacing all of the boxes in the bedrooms to support ceiling fans. More attic time for me! Gotta get that done before summer hits.
Got curious how much this is costing. Best I can tell, I have about $1200 in to it so far.
The bad news is I’m two circuits in…the GOOD news is that the expensive stuff is out of the way. Most the fixtures, AFCI and AFCI/GFCI breakers, fancyass switches and timers, new ceiling fan, exhaust fans for the bathrooms and a few tools.
Still need to purchase a new panel, a few fixtures like lights for outside the garage door. I can see myself getting out of this for under 2k.
Probably saving myself 6k doing it myself. It’s a heck of a time investment; this weekend I was supposed to pretty much complete the rough in of a lighting circuit, but between other things popping up, commitments, and feeling like crap today I have 1 exhaust fan housing installed, only the home run from the basement to the attic run, and none of the old boxes replaced.
Oh well, showering by flashlight for at least another week.
I probably should have just started a blog.
ETA: the other bad news is that an equal sum give-or-take was supposed to buy a concrete patio this spring. Priorities I guess; ugly deck won’t burn down my house.
Well as of rough-in inspection today, with the exception of the oven, cooktop, and A/C, there’s not a scrap of old wire connected in the entire house. The only reason I left those is because they’re dedicated and I’m able to inspect almost the entire run.
This has been a really great experience, actually. I mean, I didn’t so much enjoy all the time (hours and hours) I spent in my dusty attic, wallowing around in old blown cellulose insulation, but I am liking the end results. In addition to adding receptacles all over the house where needed (or where I just wanted on on a whim), I have added exhaust fans to both bathrooms, added an additional GFCI receptacle to one of those, added another ceiling light in the living room, a motion sensor/swithced light in the soffit over the garage door, motion sensor/switched light outside the garage entry door, new controls for the whole house fan, created two small appliance circuits for the kitchen, adding a total of 4 receptacles to the pre-existing two, LED shoplights all over the basement, moved the switch for the back porch light to actually be beside the back door instead of 10’ away across the room, created a split switched receptacle in the living room (switched from the front door). Umm…maybe that’s all so far.
The next step is a new panel. I’m keeping the 100-amp service but upgrading from a 20- to a 30-space panel. Talked with the inspector today, and verified that for them to pass it all they need to see is that the panel is installed and grounded properly. That’s a relief, because I was afraid I’d have to have all the circuits re-attached for them to pass it.
After that, I’ll just have a few things left; replace the circuit for the dryer, add a dedicated circuit for the sump pump, add receptacles for an office space in the basement, exterior receptacles in front and back, receptacles in the garage, and hard-wired smoke detectors. I’m thinking since I’ll have room to add a dedicated circuit for the chest freezer also.
I honestly lost track of how much I’ve spent on this, exactly. My best guess is now probably around $2500, but I guessed high on some things. I was surprised by how quickly it added up, a little here and a little there.
Anyway, just felt like bumping a year-old thread today.
Reminds me of a story told by local jazz player and educator Dr. James Polk. When he played with Ray Charles, he walked into the studio control room. “James! Is that you?” Polk followed the voice and found Ray under a console. Charles was holding two cut wires and held one up. “Is this red or black?” Polk answered. “Good,” Ray replied. “Hand me my soldering iron.”
Bumping again.
Replaced my panel today. P&L pulled the meter at 9:30, got my inspection (only connections to the box) at 12:30, and mostly finished up at 7:30 this evening. Didn’t upgrade my service, don’t think I need to. I expanded from 20 spaces on the old box to 30. Now that I have all of the circuits that I added installed, I have 3 spaces left :eek: I anticipate using those when I remodel the bath for in-floor heat, and when I finish the kitchen for a dedicated circuit for a portable induction cooktop.
Now, I’m pretty much done. Have to install recepts for my sump pump, dining room, and chest freezer since those were new circuits, and put recepts for the laundry and dryer since I replaced those, and install my smoke detectors. Oh, and install 4 can lights in the kitchen…but apart from THAT, I consider this 2 1/2 year project pretty much done.
I wish I had taken more before pictures, but here and here are a couple pictures of the almost-finished product.
I started on the left side, which was the ‘hard’ side. If I had to start all over again, I’d do some things differently to make it neater. I also would have given myself a little more room above, I’m not particularly happy with what I had to do to get everything stapled.
Still, I don’t think it’s too bad for a dumbass framing carpenter. :dubious:
Pretty nice lay-in for an amateur. I was always a stickler for neatness in a panel box.