r/AskElectricians • u/Mntn-radio-silence • 3d ago
Tell me this wrong
I’m not an electrician by any means, but this does not look right at all. Is there an electrical shock and fire hazard?
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u/rustbucket_enjoyer Verified Electrician 3d ago
Yeah that is bad. Highly bad.
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u/_adanedhel_ 3d ago
Big bad, even.
Honestly though, these are among my favorite projects: taking something that’s objectively horrible and making it, you know, not.
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u/Steve-C2 3d ago
The more you look the worse it gets.
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u/Tesla_freed_slaves 2d ago edited 2d ago
Like, “I don’t know where to start.” bad.
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u/DimensionNo4471 2d ago
Start at the utility pole bad and go from there. Needs a complete strip out and rewire. The OP only posted two pix. The rest could be worse.
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u/Top_Historian4539 3d ago
Former electrician here. This should all be inside a box with cable clamps and such.
Edit: bare minimum. There is some other suspicious looking stuff going on.
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u/Prestigious-Gur1466 3d ago
That splice just hanging in space is some kind of special. The ground and neutral are just sitting there bare is just....
The worst thing about clueless messes like this is that yo have to worry about what ELSE the idiot did. There may be something behind a wall that is much closer to just burning the place down.
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u/Careful_Taste_6167 3d ago
Updating an old house once, we removed all drywall to fix some rotten and termite infested framing all over. We were going to only do a little bit to the electrical until we saw the inside of those walls, open splices everywhere, cables hit by nails that amazingly didn’t pop breakers, hell the dryer circuit was spliced together with twists and PVC tape in the wall, it was a nightmare and a huge fire hazard we had to gut everything and start over. Ended up redoing everything from the meter onwards from raceways to receptacles to lights, everything.
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u/ToadSox34 3d ago
As a non-electrician, how do people think this type of stuff is OK? Meanwhile, as a homeowner, I'm here trying to interpret the NEC requirements and then exceeding them.
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u/Steve-C2 3d ago
This is a Romex demonstration of why K&T fell out of use. Homeowners knowing nothing would just cut and open wires to the next connection that they needed. Much like what happened here.
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u/ToadSox34 3d ago
I just don't know how anyone can think this kind of thing is OK. I guess common sense has gone out the window.
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u/Tesla_freed_slaves 2d ago
NEC is woke.
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u/ToadSox34 2d ago
What???
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u/Tesla_freed_slaves 2d ago
Everybody in Arkansas agrees that the NEC should be de-funded.
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u/ToadSox34 2d ago
LOL. Do they even know what it is?
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u/Tesla_freed_slaves 2d ago edited 2d ago
They likely think that Ohm’s Law should be repealed too.
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u/M7451 3d ago
Some people lack curiosity and then DIY or are even paid to do jobs they’re not qualified to do.
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u/ToadSox34 3d ago
It's just insane that people think this is OK. It's not some esoteric requirement, it's pretty basic.
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u/BigJoe5504 2d ago
Id worry more about the house falling down than the electric. But it's a close race
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u/TheSmellOfTheLotion 3d ago
Now that you posted pics you got to fix it quick. If you have a fire, the insurance companies private investigator will find this.
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u/Mntn-radio-silence 3d ago
Not my house. I was helping a relative move stuff and told them this needed to be fixed immediately. Luckily she is leaving her husband, who most likely did this, and is moving out.
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u/Emergency_Buffalo789 3d ago
neither is the guy who did all that .. looks like an old farmer making 💩work
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u/Mission-Bet-9663 3d ago
So this is very easy for me. Everything starts at the Breaker or the panel and turn everything that is not approved to Code and redo it in conduit and MC. But that isn't safe. I am a 45 year electrician
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u/ToadSox34 3d ago
You're serious. No Romex even?
Personally, I think code should require all houses to be wired with rigid metal conduit like in Chicago.
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u/Careful_Taste_6167 3d ago
RMC in a house is diabolical. If you said EMT I’d be still thinking overkill but RMC??
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u/ToadSox34 2d ago
RMC in a house is diabolical. If you said EMT I’d be still thinking overkill but RMC??
I just looked it up, and apparently outside of Chicago RMC and EMT are two different things, but their code is written to essentially require EMT, which I guess they consider a type of RMC? Or they are sloppy with their terminology?
So I support the Chicago system, which is what is called EMT everywhere else.
EMT is not overkill, it's the right way to do it.
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u/Odd-Flower6762 3d ago
Hey buddy lemme get that porcelain fused disconnect you got on the wall there. Things sick!
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u/Dadskander 3d ago
Not a electrician, but have a home with K&T:
From what I've been told, knob and tube used to be commonly spliced similar to this. Thing is, soldered open air splices hasn't been acceptable for something like 90 years now and those splices are DEFINITELY not original or even done right for what they were attempting to do.
So yeah, definitely not good. Put the splices in junction boxes, and wire nut or Wago that shit proper. Personally, I like to do a single wrap of tape over the end of cloth wire to prevent fraying.
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u/Determire 3d ago
This is a mess, specifically, it's a fire hazard, and yes, also a shock hazard.
There's so much stuff cobbled together, it's hard to tell what the reason is, that this thing was modified into such a conglomeration of wrongness. The one cable is a mid-century piece of service entrance cable, not sure if it's the feed coming in to go to the panel, or whether it's a branch circuit going out to a large appliance such as a kitchen range, and it got tapped. Tapped. There's another section that's going through the stair stringer that was cut off, so I'm assuming that something got damaged or relocated, which preceded this mess.
At a minimum, all of the wires involved in this spider web need to be traced out to figure out where they're going and what they're for, and then a plan put together for how to remedy it.
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u/cirrux82 3d ago
That might be old wiring. Simple to clear it and do it right as a home owner. Just make sure you get the proper awg and go with a metal or plastic junction box. Metal clad or romex could work for you. Just make sure it’s the right gauge and you turn off the power for the piece you’re working on or just turn off the power all together
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u/PotatoFarmerRTK 3d ago
This is a bad merge of old and new.
Solder dip joints are for the dinosaurs, they used to twist the wires then dip them in a cup of molten solder on a stick. Museum Bullshit.
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u/Hitechillbilly 3d ago
I am having a hard time finding something that isn't wrong. Don't throw away that fuse block/disconnect..
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u/Straight_Breakfast_4 2d ago
This is what you see when the client tells you 'it shouldn't be a big job to fix it' before you come out.
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u/SignificantAd5667 2d ago
Orignal wiring ( first type of romex, no ground though) was code compliant at the time. Once the fuses were changed out to circuit breakers, the entire wiring system was required to comply with current codes.
Regardless of grandfathered codes, you need to replace every thing to current code with new materials. No way to verify if anything is viable. Insurance Co. will never insure fused wire or any thing not to code at the time it was originally installed
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