Electrical Wiring Why do people do this stuff?

[dougspair]

And then there's really scary. My last job, I was hired to do the maint-mech-welder-electrician at a 44,000 foot commercial building. A whole lot of this stuff on the 1,000 amp 480.

6 dry 480/208 trannys at 75-100 KVA. about 25 different 42 slot 480/208/120 panels. rubber SO cords with twist-locks for 480 3 phase to shop macines, few grounds in any 1 or 3 phase EMT runs. Then about 250 or so, 4 foot, T-8 fixtures with 277 volt single voltage ballasts, connected to 208 and T-12 lamps.

[sk8er4ever0101]

mainly work on the walls, but can just as easily replace outlets/switches. Just replaced one today not attached to the box, but wired into an entertainment center and taped... i lold, not even the courtesy to throw some electrical tape around the damn thing.

[DISTURBEDINTEGRITY]

on one 12 /2 wire and had covered it all up . truly i reported him and am glad i still believe in safe wiring enough to keep a family safe

[DISTURBEDINTEGRITY]

i was wiring a house every thing was wired right i used arc fault breakers in bed rooms and although its not required to in children's rooms i use a added gfci in case they stick some thing in it every thing past the pre inspection then when i came back to the house i was working on the home owner de sided that he was going to change my work and dry wall over it so the inspection would not show his short cuts he had cut a bunch of the lines out and scrap the wire and run his bath and 3 bedrooms

[WizzRacing]

The switch box is the best. Lets use the 14ga ground for the switch leg and see if we can kill someone, cause we bought 12/2 and not 12/3. I don't know how people can screw up 3 ways. There is a damn picture on the box! Just remember the damn line side neutral goes to fixture. The rest is simple to figure out.

[NorthTheMaker1]

his wording sucks ....all he does is slam and degrade ...its obvious its done wrong

[TreyMhn]

the jod went on today this old hosue I have 7 Electrical Panel and Turn off the main only one room wnet off and the Rest of the hosue stay on I got go back tomere take some pic for you take care

[sparkyUonline]

@TreyMhn Cool,look forward to seeing them!

[easterlingderek34]

Totally know what he means. Some of these are Bad but i bet he has had worse. I Frame houses but my Great uncle is a qualified Electrician. We learned a lot from family about it and we do wiring on occasion. We repaired a switch in a closet and when i pulled it out. It blew me a way that the house was still standing. They had stripped the Hot 2 inches and then took a second wire and laid it beside it and wrapped it with electrical tape. I wish people do it right as well.

[michaelalanlee]

Some amazing examples here. I enjoyed watching. I have seen a lot of weird wiring in old houses and I am not even a professional. The main point is not that the previous work was stupid or careless, but that it was unsafe does come through in the video but perhaps could be emphasized more. Wiring to code may be a pain sometimes, but 98% of the time, the result is safer and lasts forever. Helps a person sleep at night.

[dachroof]

I think your videos are great. You show what everyone ele's work looked like before you arrived. Why not show what it looks like after youu are done. Lets get a side-by-side comparison of before and after. We know what WRONG looks like. Show us what RIGHT looks like.

[sparkyUonline]

@dachroof I don't always complete the work my self,so I am not there when it is completed. I have been uploading a few how to's on some new work that I have done.Look for more "new" work videos soon. I've been busy working on a project out of town this last moth so I really don't get a lot of computer time.

[VideoMenu]

You know, I'm one of those who voraciously read & watch before attempting a new skill (it might be the army in me). I've been reading about electrics recently & even at my inexperienced level my head was about to explode looking at that switch box.

I'm a rookie & I know box sizes correlate to the amount of wire it can hold. Wire nuts correlate in size to the numbers/gauge of wire it will contain. Then there's the correct way to twist wire.

These people burn down neighborhoods--MY house.

[TheSyncopator]

It amazes me how home owners attempt to screw with electric but they will call a plumber for the smallest leak in a pipe.

Careless plumber= wet

Careless Electrician = Death

[VideoMenu]

@TheSyncopator

I hear you on that one. I will get drenched, but get antsy thinking about messing with electricity.

[FUNKEINYOURFACE]

story of my life dude i have plenty of picks from australia after watching your vid i think i should share them with you guys jo blo does alot around here and some sparkys cant even get i right. most days i shake my head because someone had no idea HOW DARE THEY PUT US AT DANGER.

[pmgodfrey]

Soooo.... What's wrong with adding a sub panel? It saves wiring hundreds of feet of wire. I have two 125 amp sub panels -- one in the garage and another 40 feet from the main panel for all lighting and outlets in the basement. Both run off of a 60 amp breaker.

My main 200 amp panel is full to capacity. I did all the wiring and it's all done correctly. It would pass code.

[sparkyUonline]

@pmgodfrey If a person does their due diligence and gets load calcs then ok. I run into homes and commercial buildings where they just keep adding on till the panels get overloaded.

[VideoMenu]

@pmgodfrey

I think his point is about people who do it wrong--the workmanship not the idea. I always like when people take these things so personally when it's not about them. ;)

[WizzRacing]

@pmgodfrey Well for one the total rated amps for 2-125 amp sub panels is 250 amps. The main is rated at 200 amps not including what is being used in your main service. You might want to check the wire size at your weather head. The total rated amps "can not" exceed the line side wiring size feeding all of it. Even if you only use 200 amps, you have the "ability" to use 250+ amps, thus the main service has to be sized correctly. Not including any motors or compressor's start up loads being added.

[TheOldkid888]

I am not an electrician,but have dabbled in changing a switch or plug.Nothing major by any means.

You must shake your head when you see this kind of work.

I guess when it gets right down to it; do it nice or do it twice!

I don't think people realize how electrical fires can easily start from this kind of work.

Thanks for sharing!!!

Keep it up!!!...Al

[sparkyUonline]

@TheOldkid888 Yep,my head hurts for sure! :-)

[bnew241]

I like this video, but I would like to see before and after photos.

[sparkyUonline]

@bnew241 Most of the time I don't get a opportunity to take the after shots. Sometimes I'll have some one else do the work and other times I get in a hurry and move on to the next project.

[stratdude83]

the neutral jumping was just ridiculous...

[TheSfaith]

How to troubleshoot a toggle switch?

[bryan1282]

love your videos, great job!! im a diy electrician and i know my limits, i do alot of work around my house and some mistakes i can hide with spackle and caulk, but my god, never would i screw with electricity and do something hacky, its just not worth it. i dont want to burn down all the other nice work i did, lol.

[ThePregnancySlaves]

Licensed electricians do the lion's share of slipshod wiring. 

[kcarroll64]

We call them JACK-LEGS around here, they definately give qualified people and mechanics a bad name.

[stripes5150]

I'm a jman too and I've seen some shit in my day...I should have taken pics along the way too. Great video bro.

[hotshotkmg]

NON UNION RATS !! THATS WHAT YOU GET TO SAVE A BUCK !

[bluehappyscrap]

the people who do this are non electricians.

[mnkystyle]

cant hear you, please speak up

[MrKillowatt1]

Begging your pardon, sir. This may be years of heavy metal music talking, but speak up! lol It sounds like your whispering.

[mcpug10]

All work performed by non union contractors. True

[triggertuite]

ha ha like the 3 gang switch i was on a job where the original guy had 13 loop phases at a switch wired in 5 different types of cable 

[YARDNHALF]

was the bus bars in that panel for real!!!! i'm not a house basher but an enginner and i see crap like this all the time. and when you tell companies it needs stripping out and starting again, they turn around and say it always worked so why!! people jus dont understand. good vid ;)

[pokesomi]

Holly crap. Why do DIY's think they can get away with this crap?? I am going through an Electrician program that is 7 months long and this is bad. Just wow. would love to see the end result of your work.

[crazydeals78]

Check out my new site

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[wildwoodtop]

I’m remodeling a kitchen and disconnected the range wire in the panel box - noticed  the ends of wire are black, so I cut it back a couple inches and it was still black, cut some more and it’s still black - is this normal?

[wildwoodtop]

Also I cannot tell what Gage wire it is - the wire is like a frayed cloth material type (7strands of aluminum wire on each leg) Should I replace this wire? have it gaged? Or clean the ends of the wire and apply that connection lubricant and it be OK? Any information you can give me on this would be appreciated.

[sparkyUonline]

@wildwoodtop Replace the wiring from the outlet box back to the panel.

[BluesmanFraser]

@sparkyUonline

hire an electrical contractor to do this work and then get them to sign it off, because if there were to be a problem with the wiring and you're house burns down, the insurance people will start asking questions.

[binchplus]

Awesome video! I thought your voice was perfect for the video because it made it even funnier. I was killing myself laughing and lost it at 4:09 "and then took the nuetral and tied it in...umm... not sure where it went on this one..." lmao

[watching538]

it is very hard to hear on your videos can you speak louder?

[sparkyUonline]

I now have a new computer and microphone so the audio in my newer videos is much better.

Thanks for commenting.

[mufc1970ok]

@sparkyUonline , im a sparky i often think about just giving it up forever , no money would pay at times

[fitbiker36]

1uneek you just a dumbass hes doing it to show you how muhc poeple are dumb and dont understand what there dealing with

[1uneek]

I dont even know why you waste your time telling us how ppl fuck things up. To me, its negative and its not for the general public. How do I know as a homeowner what fucked up things look like?. Why dont you show us how to do it right instead. My electrician was really good but he complained about other ppls work all the time. I was tired of hearing how bad work was done. Just like you are doing. Make videos on how good you are and show us retarded ppl how its done.

[eightSevens]

3:00ish...loving the splices in the panel!

[tslabjr7]

i am def and can hear this man almost perfectly clear!

[mikeeshaq]

I cannot hear you either

LOUDER PLEASE!!!!!

[SilentServiceCode]

Please increase the volume of your audio when you upload your video... I cannot hear you.

[huston33]

AND UMMM!!! lol great video

[sparkyUonline]

I see some pretty crazy stuff.You have to wonder what people are thinking when doing this type of work!

[Northern206]

I know what they're thinking... "let's save us a few bucks and do it this way, it's easier!" People are idiots, I was shocked by cutting copper pipe which in turn touched a hot junction box underneath a building, it feels terrible, in the sense that you can't do anything. It turns out the guy who wired it just completed the circuit by wiring the wires to the junction box metal, making it hot, but completing the circuit, which was "easier" and cheaper...