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An average day

The panel on the right is the original GE ?amp. It apparently had a bunch of breakers with no main disconnect. A solar contractor has installed the panel on the left. It is fed by the 50 amp in the original panel. The solar contribution from an inverter passes through the new panel and lands on the 20 amp breakers in the old panel.

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I have no clue as to the rating of this bus. The backfed breaker is right next to the point of connection from the utility.

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starting with 1975 NEC, min 100A for service equipment on new single family homes. Double check the meter feed bar (insulated) to buss bars; looks like the connector machine screw is missing the head.
 
It is a bootlegged 400 square foot bedroom addition with a full bath. Flipper requested a foundation inspection. He also exposed framing because....well that's what my office told him to do.

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We forgot to tell him to disconnect the wiring. Of course he swore that it is dead.....and other than 120 volts it is..dead or is it deadly?

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And that foundation? He was relieved to discover that there is one....or at least half of one. Okay so maybe there isn't any steel....who knows? He offered to cut it open and take a closer look. He did that without any prompting from me. He was trying his best to demonstrate how cooperative he is.

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Then a good thing happened. Flipper asked me for my opinion of what he should do.

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It's solar. Need I say more? The knucklehead got testy. Wants a code section.

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Today was the fourth time that inspection was requested and nothing has changed. I got a little testy and want a re-inspection fee.
 
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You want code sections? give me your code book & C10 contractor's ID pocket card. OH, you don't have either, well when you do, let's talk. (paraphrasing someone else's snarky post on another thread)
 
jdfruit said:
starting with 1975 NEC, min 100A for service equipment on new single family homes. Double check the meter feed bar (insulated) to buss bars; looks like the connector machine screw is missing the head.
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You might be right but it looks sorta like a rivet. The one on the right is barely visible and looks like it is the same diameter. I asked them to start over with a service upgrade. They complain a lot so I'll probably have to return before they do the work. If so I'll get a better picture.

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MASSDRIVER said:
Do you have a pic of a properly crimped connection?Brent.
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It is possible. I'll look for one. There's about a bunch of wrong crimps on this job and at some point they will be done correctly...I can get a picture of that.
 
These are pay stations for a tunnel car-wash. Initially there were no bollards. I was with the owner and the contractor for the car-wash equipment. The plans show an island with nothing on it. I asked the contractor if he forgot bollards and he said that bollards are an option. A few months ago I asked for a plan that showed the pay stations. Everybody, including my office manager said that it wasn't necessary. Why put them through the expense was what I heard.

Each pay station cost $70,000.00....that's just for the blue box....no concrete or labor. I asked the contractor what he showed the owner as part of the sales pitch. Is there a picture of a pretty girl standing next to the blue box.....with bollards? I told him to exercise the option.

So here they are coring the concrete to install bollards. These are bollards that I can't require because there is no code that would back me up. And there is no plan showing bollards.

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I guess they figure on being busy 'cause they bought two pay stations. I also figure that they don't drive cars 'cause they bought two bollards.

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Here's something I always ask for. Years ago I opened one of these vaults and found it full of water. It was at a cemetery.

This is how I found this one.

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This is how it looks now. The empty conduits are spares.

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There's only one circuit at 120 volts and the rest is low voltage control wiring.
 
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"Mommy, why does it smell funny in my bedroom?" "Mommy, I think Billy has been pooping in his closet again." Oh Billy, they're gonna remember that for a lifetime. If you hated those shoes that much, you should have said something.

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The contractor left me a ladder. Somewhere on that roof there is a condenser needing inspection.

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"Condenser needing inspected"? Maybe the contractors next door, getting a massage? ;)

pc1
 
There was a note on my desk this morning from a contractor wanting to know if they could stucco around a service upgrade. I hadn't done an inspection yet so the answer would be no. Around 8:30 a woman called wanting a time that I would get to the inspection because her plaster guy is standing by to finish the job. I told her that I would be there between 10:00 and 1:00. She didn't like that. She said that she had him there at 6:30 am to install the lath and he can't wait all day to plaster. I told her that the lath would have to come off for inspection. She liked that even less.

Ten minutes later a man called and said I was off base because he called my office yesterday and was told that it would be okay to lath before inspection. I said, "No you didn't" He says that his work always passes inspection and he has never had to get it inspected prior to lath. I said, "Sir, I apologize for the inconvenience but the lath must be removed". I went so far as offering to cancel the inspection in case he needed more time to think about it.

Five minutes later the lather called. He just wanted me to know that I am ridiculous.

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This is from the old service and doesn't reach the new panel. What do you bet that they will try to fool me. So they will wrap around the house to get here.

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It is hard to tell from the picture but the service entrance conduit has no hub. I think that it is just stuck through a KO.

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Of course the job is a solar project.
 
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Another solar contractor doing a service upgrade. This is one I have never seen before.

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Here's the other end of the conduit.

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As luck would have it, they did another thing that I have never encountered. The white and red wires pass in front of the bus through an area normally occupied by breakers.

I didn't know if this is a violation so I wrote a correction saying that you can't do that. It won't matter much as these people always get plenty of corrections.

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For the uninitiated I will point out that the two green wires in one terminal is not legal. The lug is not listed for two wires and if it were, the wires must be the same gauge.

Quite often there are a multitude of violations shown in these pictures and it is a concern that people might see this as okay other than what I have mentioned.
 
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I wonder if anyone has made it all the way through this thread.
 
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i have been following it from the beginning, Ii fiend it interesting, being form the east coast, w you do a lot differently on the the west coast starting wiht combined inspectors
 
post #1341, looks like the wall cavity is open to the attic lacking a fire stop.

third pic, that's a good catch, you have to stand on your tippy-toes to see that one, no hubby!

fourth pic, have't seen that one, looks like dog crap!, that contractor's cousin will most likely will be in my neck of the woods soon with the gooberments solar initiative.

sixth pic, I've seen that were hardly any breakers were installed prior to rough-in inspection but have't seen that before, saved dollar I bet in materials by cutting across the breaker area.

#1343, when I got bored one day, I look through all the threads,

NOT!

pc1
 
ICE, I sent the LB to meter transition picture to a great electrical guy here and he thought there was no way that could be real....I told him about all of the stuff you post and that it is just par for the course...
 
P

Pcinspector1 said:
post #1341, looks like the wall cavity is open to the attic lacking a fire stop
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Wouldn't you know, I didn't write that correction when I was there. I saw it in the picture and had to call the contractor. Thankfully they had gone for the day and I left a message. They have another request in for today.
 
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