AsktheBuilder.com News - June 30, 2019
Dear ,
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I'm Like You
You may think everything at my home is unicorns, rainbows, and unending servings of mocha chip ice cream. Everything is perfect, nothing breaks and all is good.
BAH!
<RANT>
A month ago, out of nowhere, the electric line feeding my outdoor post lamp at the street, a security spotlight, and a branch to my outdoor shed started to throw a DEAD SHORT.
This means that as soon as you try to turn on a circuit breaker, it POPS with a nasty spark. Dead shorts are DANGEROUS.
The IDIOT builder who built my house - I didn't build it - allowed the electrician to put in buried electric lines outdoors that are NOT in CONDUIT.
This is but another example, in my opinion, of how many codes, including the National Electric Code (NEC) are a set of MINIMUM standards.
Building or installing something to code doesn't prohibit you from investing a small amount of time and money to do a BETTER JOB. Often installing something to code is like getting a 70 percent on a test. You just pass by the skin of your teeth.
Using my self-taught electrical skills, I was able to trace down the part of the line where the short is in just minutes. The short is located in the line that runs from the house up to a junction box attached to an oak tree on the other side of the driveway. The line branches here to go to the shed, post light, and to the security light.
I'm sharing this story to BEG YOU to ALWAYS INSIST that all buried electric lines around your home be placed in slightly oversized approved conduit. The conduit protects the line from frost heaves, heavy delivery trucks that drive on soggy soil, errant gardening shovels and spades, etc.
When the conduit is installed at your home, make a simple drawing of your house footprint, driveway, sidewalks, etc. and show the conduit(s) in a different COLOR in relationship to things you can see after the house is built.
Put this drawing in a ziplock bag clearly marked that it's a plan of buried conduit. Staple it next to the electrical panel. A future homeowner/electrician will thank you.
</RANT>
P.S. I'm also dealing with a cranky sliding screen door that's jumping off the track every third day. She Who Must Be Obeyed is none too happy as she uses the door multiple times a day to feed the birds and water plants.
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Remove Oil from Concrete
I recorded a new Stain Solver video this week. I tackled one of the TOUGHEST jobs you might ever take on:
Removing oil or grease from concrete
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