This isn’t really pit-worthy, but I’d just like to complain about Baltimore County’s (MD) permitting laws that require permits for ALL electrical work that involves new installation or moving of old installation, including low voltage wiring. From the Baltimore County website:
*Q. Do I need a permit to do electrical work in my own home?
A. A permit (PDF)is required for all electrical work except for persons making minor repairs and replacements to existing wiring in their own home. Generally, this exception applies to replacing an existing switch, receptacle, or light fixture, but not to extending or installing circuit wiring. Working without a permit is a violation and subject to a civil penalty of $1,000.00. Further information can be obtained by calling Electrical Inspections at 410-887-3960, Monday through Friday, between 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.
<snip>
* All types of electrical installations, including low voltage wiring, are required to be installed by a contractor licensed in Baltimore County.
* Permits are not required for ordinary maintenance of existing electrical systems
* Proper permits must be obtained prior to the commencement of any work.
* Electrical permits are required for all new installations.*
You have to be a licensed contractor to request a permit, and you need to do a multi-year apprentice/journeyman type of training to become a licensed contractor.
Here’s where my real beef is. I’m an electrical engineer. I work in a jack-of-all-trades type environment where I deal with circuit board level components all the way up to megawatt generators and energy storage systems that power 70,000 pound capacity cranes. Are you telling me that I can’t install ethernet or a new 120 outlet in my own house? The same problem exists with non-structural wall construction. You can’t do it without a permit and, again, you can’t have a permit unless you’re a contractor.
I’d love to make some changes in my house and one day design a theater room in the basement but I want to build it, not just pay someone else too much money to do it for me.
What types of work are you allowed to perform in your own homes?
You have a legit beef here. In one generation the U.S. went from guys who could do anything (often without a permit ) to Nobody does anything without a license. Failure to get a permit will bite yer ass one way or 't other down the road.
Permits and licensing have their place but the freedom removed was homeowner discretion.
One of the former owners of the house I owned in Chicago was an electrician. Apparently he did a lot of electrical work on the place while he was living there. Some of it was good; all of the outlets in the basement were two to three feet off the floor in case of flooding, for example. But when I had the house inspected, I was told that a lot of it was not according to code. This did not affect me directly, as I was grandfathered and not responsible for correcting any of it unless I had work done on the wiring in question.
What fascinated me most was that the house had two fuse boxes, plus another box with two fuses in it that IIRC was for the detached garage. The inspector had looked at that and just shook his head.
As far as I know, we can do anything. We’re supposed to get a permit when the work goes beyond replacing an existing light switch (like you), but I haven’t heard of any requirement to be a contractor. It appears that people do occasionally get permits when they’re supposed to do so, but the rule of thumb seems to be more along the lines of “if it’s visible from the road or the air, get a permit”.
My house was built by the man who’s buried in the woods out back. A neighbor on my north built his house. Another neighbor just finished a project adding another floor to his house; he did all the inside work (with permits): electrical, HVAC, plumbing, insulation, etc. (I assisted with the stuff that was easier to do with two people, but he did 99.44% of the work.) We both got a huge laugh out of the ‘inspection’. The guy got out of his car, stuck his head through the front door, looked at the stairs leading up to the addition and approved all the work in the addition.
In Maryland, local jurisdictions are allowed to make minor modifications to the International Building Code (IBC) and the International Residential Code (IRC). Here’s a link: http://mdcodes.umbc.edu/dhcd2/bcodes-new.htm
Whiteknight, while you may be perfectly able to do some of the electrical work, a great many of people who also think they are capable are actually not. Im order to protect them, their neighbors, and the general public there are limitations placed on what work can be performed with a permit and what work requires professional certification (a contractor’s license).
Plnnr - Director of Community Development and supervisor of quite a few permit reviewers.
Yeah, it’s screwed up here where I live too. You’re supposed to get a permit for anything out of the ordinary you’re doing, then get an inspection, but for the most part, people don’t even worry about them. And here where I live, you don’t have to be a contractor to get a permit. I went down and got a permit when I built my 12x20 shed in my back yard. They were supposed to come inspect it when I was done, but that’s been a year ago, and I still have yet to see any of them. YMMV, and it obviously does.
MT
Agreed. I completely see the reasoning behind restrictions like this, I’m just lamenting my personal position. I admit that I am not a professional electrician and there are certain tasks for which I would hire a contractor. The irony, however, is that I bet I would do more to make sure that my work meets code than some licensed contractors around here, at least based on my review of some of their work in other people’s houses. I’m ok with doing some very minor stuff here and there permit-free (and technically illegally), but in the case of the home theater I’m just not comfortable tackling a project of that scale sans permit. I’m sure that it would come back to haunt me somewhere down the road.
I’d love it if I could just do the work and then have a proper inspection by an licensed official. I realize that most “inspections” are casual at best but I’d actually be willing to pay more to have someone come in and legitimately approve my own work.
I guess what it boils down to is that I’m extremely frustrated that the great joy of my home theater dream is that I would design and build it myself. Right now I don’t see any way to do that without moving to another jurisdiction.
When I was replacing a switch and a ceiling-mounted fixture several years ago, I was told in so many words by the Mecklenburg County People in Charge of That Stuff that anything more than replacing a light bulb required a permit, which could only be pulled by a licensed electrician.
I laughed and said, “Seriously, though …” and received stony silence as my reply.
Must be tough to be a telephone installer or cable TV tech if they have to pull a permit to hook up Class 2 signal circuits.
That’s just insane though. I thought Chicago was nutty for requiring Class 2 stuff like doorbell wire to be in metal conduit, but requiring a permit to pull cable TV or ethernet cable is just crazy.
As a point of reference, my county has a $500 threshold before permits are required, which made it possible for me to spend about $450 to install a new electrical subpanel in the garage without spending the added $120 for a permit. I’m at least smart enough to have done the project with a friend who is a licensed electrician who doesn’t mind being paid in beer.
Are you sure about this part? I used to work in this area (building codes, not Baltimore) and most jurisdictions have some sort of exemption for homeowners to do their own work. They might require you to show proof of ownership or to sign some sort of statement that you won’t be bringing in an unlicensed person to do the actual work. If you haven’t called the permitting agency and asked, I would suggest doing so. If that gets you nowhere, I’d call my city councilperson (or whatever they call them there.)
Forgive me, but that sounds remarkably sensible. Either in the case that a piece of equipment fails or in the case of a lightning strike. When we strung an ethernet cable between two buildings we had to have lightning protectors at both ends.
Could you find a contractor who has the proper license and who would let you work with him? That way you still get the joy of building it and you don’t have to worry about the bureaucrats. It’s a bit of an unorthodox arrangement, but it might be worth looking into.
I can do anything short of building a new structure. I built, wired, + plumbed my own house and built + wired 2 sheds. Building the structures required building permits from the town, and a phone call when finished so they could do a drive-by “inspection” and send a certificate of occupancy. Connecting the driveway to the road required a driveway permit that didn’t actually exist. The law said it was required, but no one actually bothered to make the form.
You need to ask at the building and safety department if there is some type of exemption if you are doing communication work. I have a hard time envisioning how stringing a cat 5 cable could endanger your life or property. (assuming you don’t connect one end to the main bus bars in your circuit breaker panel)
I plan to do that, but I’m not too optimistic. They have a whole category of “restricted” electrical licenses that cover a number of specific tasks, one of which is low voltage alarm/communication wiring. Maybe I can see if any of the old timers at work here are licensed electricians and perhaps would vouch for my “training under a master electrician” time that would allow me to get my own license. What really bugs me is that all of the counties around me seem to have provisions for homeowners who, at most, have to pass a basic test before applying for permits.
