Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
8,309 posts, read 38,782,175 times
Reputation: 7185
Quote:
Originally Posted by DanBev
Why wasn't this looked at thru inspection before purchase?Usually in purchase agreement there is clause about work done without permit.
I think the OP may have said that this work was concealed by wallcover and, unfortunately, even the most thorough inspection will not catch everything. I would love to get Coldjensens opinion about potential bad-faith in this case.
Thanks for the help everyone. The previous owner bought this house, fixed it up and flipped it, so I don't fault him for not knowing about the problem. Before that I think it was a foreclosure.
What I think I will do is replace the 40-amp breaker with a 20-amp breaker. I will then take out the 8-gauge wire and replace it with 12-2 cable with ground. I will then replace all the wiring in the garage with #12 wire. Since I probably won't be using more than one power tool at a time out there, it will be sufficient for my needs.
Thanks for the help everyone. The previous owner bought this house, fixed it up and flipped it, so I don't fault him for not knowing about the problem. Before that I think it was a foreclosure.
What I think I will do is replace the 40-amp breaker with a 20-amp breaker. I will then take out the 8-gauge wire and replace it with 12-2 cable with ground. I will then replace all the wiring in the garage with #12 wire. Since I probably won't be using more than one power tool at a time out there, it will be sufficient for my needs.
A single 20A breaker won't protect the 14-gauge circuits. The 8-gauge wire is not the problem, the lack of a panel is the problem.
If you don't know how to fix this, hire someone who does, in meantime I would strongly suggest you just lock out the breaker till it's fixed.
If this is what I think it is, there is not much wrong with the *wiring* as such, it's just the lack of a breaker panel.
Taking the 8-gauge wire out would be wasted effort, what you need is a breaker panel between the 8-ga and the smaller wires.
That said, this was done so wrong I would wonder what else they screwed up.
Running the #12 wire would give me a way to tie the ground into the rest of the house. All the wiring in the garage is exposed and easy to access, so I would essentially be rewiring the whole thing with #12 wire. I don't need a breaker panel as the whole thing is small enough to fit on to one circuit. I would basically be replacing the mess I have with a brand new 20-amp circuit.
I guess if you replace all the 14-gauge wire with 12-gauge, and are OK with the limitatations of a single 20-A circuit, there is nothing technically wrong with that. If most of the 14 and 12 gauge wire you have currently comes to a central point where it joins the 8-gauge in some way apparently not sanctioned by code, it would seem to me that putting a breaker box there would be easy enough and would let you stay at a higher amp capability (IIRC 8-gauge is good for 40A - don't trust my memory on that though!)
Depending on the length of the wiring run you may or may not be satisfied with a single 12-gauge circuit in the garage. It has about 1.5 ohms per 1000 feet, sure you are not running 1000 feet but if you are close to 100 feet the .15 ohm will degrade motor performance and make your lights dim when you use a power tool. 8-gauge is only a little more than 0.5 ohm per 1000 linear feet.
I don't know how much you know about wiring, nor am I looking at the mess you currently have, so I can't say what you want to do is wrong.
The book linked to below is handy, I have one and refer to it whenever I am working on electrical.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
8,309 posts, read 38,782,175 times
Reputation: 7185
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfields82
Running the #12 wire would give me a way to tie the ground into the rest of the house. All the wiring in the garage is exposed and easy to access, so I would essentially be rewiring the whole thing with #12 wire. I don't need a breaker panel as the whole thing is small enough to fit on to one circuit. I would basically be replacing the mess I have with a brand new 20-amp circuit.
Bear in mind that you can't run romex underground, even in conduit. You'll need to run color coded THHN. Don't throw out that 8 gauge, I may have a use for it.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
8,309 posts, read 38,782,175 times
Reputation: 7185
Quote:
Originally Posted by jimboburnsy
Bear in mind that you can't run romex underground, even in conduit. You'll need to run color coded THHN. Don't throw out that 8 gauge, I may have a use for it.
When I say "THHN" I really mean "THWN" and run a tag line with it just in case. Also, you may be able to fit a pair of "skinny breakers" in the slot occupied by the 40A breaker. I would think about running two circuits if possible. Are you competent to bond the new circuits to the ground bus? If not or if in doubt, get an electrician. You have a lot of work to do.
and I still think you need an audit, by the way...
Thanks for everyone's help. I finally got everything straightened out. I rewired the garage entirely with #12 wire, putting in 3 new GFCI receptacles and one other receptacle for the garage door opener. I also replaced the switches for two fluorescent light fixtures and replaced an outdoor fixture. I replaced the #8 wire in the conduit with #12 THWN wire (now including a ground wire). I had trouble with this at first as the old wire would not budge when I tried pulling it out. I was afraid for a while that I was going to have to dig another trench for a new conduit run, which I was dreading. However, I took out the last elbow in the conduit which lost some of the friction and gave me a better angle to pull it out, and I was able to pull the new wire through. All in all, it cost me a little over $200 to fix. And I even got $39 back for recycling the old wire!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
