Went to swap an old outlet in my living room and found no power... turns out the previous guy had buried a junction box behind the drywall in the basement. Took me from 7pm to nearly midnight to finally trace it back with a toner.
I was using the same cheap manual strippers for 5 years and finally tried the auto kind, and the difference was huge, has anyone else made that switch and noticed the same thing?
I got a call last Tuesday from a guy in Downers Grove who said his lights were flickering. I figured it was a loose neutral, no big deal. Popped the cover off his 30 year old panel and found so many double tapped breakers I lost count, like 8 or 9 of them. Some knucklehead had just crammed two wires under every single screw without using a pigtail. On top of that, the main lug was torqued down so hard it cracked the plastic. I spent the next 4 hours fixing all that junk and installing a new main lug kit. Guy watched me the whole time and kept asking if I was sure it was safe. Has anyone else run into old panels where the last guy just gave up on doing it right?
He just looked at it for 5 seconds, said it was a backstabbed neutral that wiggled loose, pushed it in and it worked, so now I'm wondering how many hours I've wasted chasing ghosts when I should just check the simplest thing first.
I had to choose between a full rewire or just a trim pull for this old house in St. Louis. I went with the trim pull to save the homeowner around $2,500. But now I'm finding cloth wrapped wire crumbling in the attic and some knob and tube hidden behind lath. The client is happy with the lower price but I keep telling them that next remodel will need a full gut job. Anyone else run into this kind of decision where the cheap fix just kicked the can down the road?
Pulled a ceiling fan down last week in a house built in 1968 and found a tattered handwritten chart stuck to the inside of the breaker box. It listed 14 gauge wire for 20 amp circuits - blew my mind because I thought that was a code violation for sure. Has anyone else run into old school wiring standards that don't match up with today's code?
I grabbed one of those fancy auto-adjusting wire strippers from a supply house in Denver last winter, thinking it'd save me time on a big commercial job. Turned out it mangled the insulation on 12 and 14 gauge Romex so bad I had to redo about 40 feet of runs. Anybody else get burned by a tool that looked like a time-saver but turned into a headache?
I kept snagging on the insulation no matter how I angled it, so I taped a strong little magnet to the end and guided it from the outside with another magnet. Took about 90 seconds instead of the usual 20 minute struggle. Anybody else got a weird trick for tight runs?
Was working on a rewire in an old house near Austin last Tuesday. The homeowner wanted a three-way for the hallway and stairwell. Took me three tries to get the travelers right on the first box, but once it clicked and the lights worked from both ends, felt like I finally understood what my journeyman has been saying about visualizing the circuit. Anyone else have a moment where everything just made sense on a basic setup?
Bought this fancy panel from some startup thinking it'd save me time on service calls. Thing just stopped communicating with the app and now I'm stuck with a dumb box that cost me triple what a normal one runs. Anyone else jump on a techy panel and regret it?
Bought one of those fancy auto-adjusting wire strippers from an ad online, took it home to strip some 12/2 Romex, and it just chewed up the insulation instead of cutting clean. Anyone else get burned by a tool that looked way better in the video than it worked in real life?
Grabbed one off the page with good reviews. Plugged it into a socket I knew was bad. It showed everything was fine. Went back with my old Klein and found a missing ground. Learned my lesson. Anyone else had a cheap tester lie to them?
Some dummy hadn't locked out the main breaker on a 480 volt system and I still get jumpy around disconnects now.
I was roughing in a kitchen remodel near Portland and my hammer drill punched right through some loose drywall. There was a junction box from the 60s completely buried with wire nuts just twisted on. Anyone else run into old work that should've been removed?
I swapped out a junction box on a 220v AC unit last month and used Wagos instead of wire nuts. The heat buildup was noticeable after 20 minutes, so I switched back to nuts and it stayed cool. Anyone else see this on high amp circuits?
Older guy on a job in Cleveland told me to stop using wire nuts on solid wire and start using Wagos instead. He said I was spending too much time twisting and taping. I switched about a year ago and I haven't looked back, saves me maybe 10 minutes per box. Any other small tool changes that made a big difference for you?
Warehouse in Charlotte, 30 foot ceilings. I needed to change out 12 ballasts. My gut said rent a scaffold but the boss said just use the ladder. I spent 4 hours moving that thing around, almost fell twice. The scaffold wouldve saved me 2 hours easy and my back wouldnt hate me today. How do you guys usually decide which one to use for high ceiling work?
I was stripping down a junk water heater from a 1980s house in Cleveland last Tuesday, and I decided to weigh the copper lines and valve assembly out of curiosity. It came to 4.7 pounds of clean copper, which at scrap prices is around $18 - way more than I expected from something that small. Has anyone else ever weighed the copper out of an old appliance and been surprised?
Had a service call last Wednesday at a strip mall in Gary. The main breaker on a 400 amp panel was arcing bad, smelled like burnt plastic soon as I opened the door. Turns out the 4/0 aluminum feeder was only hand tight on one phase from the last guy. I torqued it to 275 in-lbs per the sticker and rechecked the other two, they were way loose too. Anyone else find loose lugs on brand new gear or is it just the older stuff?
I know everyone swears by wire nuts, but after doing 15 panel swaps last month alone, Wagos save me so much time. No twisted copper, no tugging to check, just push and go. Anyone else switch over and not look back?
I was rewiring a house built in 1971 last month. Read online that the special AlumiConn paste would make splices safe. Applied it to every junction box. Two weeks later the homeowner called saying lights flickered. Opened it back up and found corrosion already forming on three connections. Learned the hard way that paste is only for certain conditions, not all. Has anyone else had this stuff fail on them?
I was on a job last week in an 1890s house and the homeowner wanted to rip out all the old knob and tube. I told him it's a fire hazard, standard advice. But then his 80 year old uncle showed up, retired electrician, and said knob and tube is fine if the insulation isn't cracked and it's not overloaded. He ran it for 50 years without a problem. Now I'm second guessing how quick I am to condemn it. Anyone else had an old timer change your mind on something?
I was putting in a 100A subpanel for my garage workshop and had to decide between copper and aluminum for the feed. Copper was gonna run me like $450 for the 50ft run, but aluminum was only around $120. I ended up going with aluminum since I could use the extra cash for more outlets and lighting. Just made sure to use Noalox on all the connections and torque everything to spec. It's been 2 months now and no issues at all. Anyone else use aluminum feeders for their garage or shop builds?
I pulled into the shop parking lot after my last job yesterday and checked my work phone. Turned out that was call number 1,000 for the year. I just sat there for a minute honestly. Started doing residential service work back in February and never really kept count. But seeing that number pop up made me realize how many kitchens and bathrooms I have been inside this year. From a lady in Santa Fe who had a light switch wired to her garbage disposal to a guy in Albuquerque who wanted three phase put in his garage for a CNC machine. It has been a lot of miles and a lot of panel swaps. Anyone else ever hit a weird milestone like that and feel kind of surprised by it?
Been dreading this job for weeks. Old 1960s Pushmatic panel in a downtown diner, had to swap it out before their health inspection next month. Took me and my apprentice about 9 hours total, but we got it done without cutting power to the kitchen for more than 45 minutes. The owner bought us lunch, a bacon cheeseburger that actually hit the spot. Anyone else have a panel swap that took way longer than you planned?