Sometimes people double up on the breakers if they run out of space in the panel,I dont like it but still the breaker provides protection-the one thing I do not scrimp on in particular is ,bonding and grounding,lived around the old 2 wire circuts too long(with the attendant jolts and tingles) a properly grounded service entrance seems to help with damage in the event of a lightning pulse also,so If the Home you live at doesnt seem to be properly “earthed” ask why-Kevin (after all our forum is called general discussion)
I can add a personal WTH from when I bought my home: My garage has two side-by-side doors and two openers. They are old Genii openers from the 70s by the looks of them, with the big, clunky remotes, of which only one worked. I set out to remedy that first.
I discovered that the entire garage wiring consisted of 2 ungrounded 16-gauge conductors running from the house to the garage. Upon entering the garage, spliced with lots of tape, the wiring branched off to power a pair of motion-sensor spotlights, then using scavenged ancient knob n’ tube wiring (with no knobs or tubes, but using nails and staples as guides, and bare in a couple of spots), went to a single wobbly duplex outlet, with the box secured to the garage wall by one nail. Into this outlet was plugged a very long 16-gauge extension cord, which looked like the cheapest thing you could buy from China, no UL rating that I could find. Think worse quality wiring than you used to get with those cheap plastic light up jack-o-lanterns or some Christmas lights. There was a lot of extra wire, so the cord went up into the rafters and zig-zagged through the steel scaffolding (like a big erector set) that mounted the openers, pulled tight against sharp edges. One opener was plugged into this, along with a second identical extension cord, which fed the other opener, also with about 12’ of extra wire wrapped around the steel structure. Words don’t do justice–I can post photos if anyone is interested. Amazingly, both openers worked, and the garage was still standing, though the wiring explained why the openers were a tad slow.
Another fun thing was discovering why the doorbell on the house didn’t work–all of the wires were attached to ONE terminal at the doorbell. Amazingly the transformer still worked after correcting this.
@ Oblivion,all I can say is WTF,wonder why the motors didnt burn out on those openers,hope the house wiring is in better shape-Kevin
The house still contains a small section of untouched knob n’ tube wiring, which is professionally spliced into the rest of the house wiring with the appropriate connectors in a junction box. The electrical was professionally upgraded with a new Square-D box in 1992 well before I bought the house.
Just remember on the Square D panels,there are two different types of breakers and they wont interchange-Kevin
karl sieger A Coke can in the quarter panel is totally believable. I worked at a Buick dealer in 1975/1976. Quality control from the factory was pretty much non existent. I recall a full size station wagon that was one of the worst. It rolled off the transporter missing a hubcap. Various interior trim pieces were falling off. The interior door panels on the passenger side had a different pattern and the color was a shade off. They were identified as belonging in an Oldsmobile! WTH! When the lot boy drove it around to the shop he noticed a clunking sound in the rear. For some reason I had pretty good luck locating rattles so I was tasked with this one. I thought it would be easy as the lug wrench, jack, and spare wheel were stored in the passenger side quarter panel and were probably just loose. “Spare wheel” is not a typo. There was supposedly a tire “shortage” and vehicles were being shipped from the factory without a spare tire leaving it to the dealer to have one mounted! WTH! I was surprised to find the wheel, wrench, and jack properly installed. Since the wheel had to come out anyway I removed it and noticed something extra under the jack. I removed the jack and there she was. A lovely, empty, long neck Budweiser bottle! WTH! I reached down and rolled it from side to side. Clunk! Clunk!
@sgtrock21, you are correct in that I have no problem where the thread has gone. It’s been a blast. I was cracking a joke back there - and, of course, then added one of my homeowner stories.
I could add more of those. I bought the house from a builder who bought it at a tax auction after the house had been set afire by its previous owner and sat for about 10 years unoccupied. The builder did “ok” with restoring the house, but did cut a lot of corners. My electrician brother was horrified to find that the electrical panel was the original, and it plus a lot of the breakers had been there for the fire. The home inspector wasn’t disturbed by that, but of course they’re really on the sales team more than the buyer team. Anyway, luckily my brother is an electrician, so we replaced the panel and - bonus - added a legal tie-in for my generator which comes in terribly handy.
I painted the whole downstairs of his house when he finished his basement. Barter is so much easier among family, especially because you don’t worry about strict accounting.
Seeing where this has gone, a few for entertainment:
Half bath in my house hangs off the rear, with an outside-exposure crawl space. This is in NJ, and it gets cold here at times. Plumbing to the half bath in my house was ‘fixed’ at some point with some form of rubber tube I never identified. Looked like it needed a few aneurism clips when I bought the place.
Same room, outlet (missed by code inspectors- gotta have that at time of sale here) face up on the floor, under the toilet supply line. No GFCI, of course.
These wern’t why the inspection failed with ‘unfit for habitation’, nor were they the worst in the house.
Needless to say, before I moved in , a lot of work got done. Best comment from an inspector after I got it ready (not done, but done enough) was “you did this yourself, didn’t you.” “Ya, why?” “None of the contractors do it this well”
Automotive: One of my old bikes had been “Professionally Restored” prior to my buying it. When It wouldn’t run a week later, it took a few minutes to narrow it to fuel delivery. Pull the carbs. Open them. Apparently, the pro that did the full resto broke the float mount pins (Mikuni’s) off. He put then back on with wood glue…
So, a full teardown later, I had a really decent, safe classic bike
WTH is Arthur? Looks like friggin rabbit/dog/money.
@ILikeCars: In the spirit of this post, WTH are you talking about?
Arthur is pretty weird looking. Having to stand on two legs seems to have pulled him out of shape. I doubt he’ll pass a code inspection (he drags us back to the