Kyle Kubs

I'd like to know who is using framing spikes to hang siding... and what else inside other areas of exterior walls has large nails sticking in it. [water/drain pipes, electrical cables]

Just for extra clarity, since there seams to be a lot of mincing of words here, this applies regardless of the plastic circulating piping that is a component of the tub. i.e. if the tub has copper pipe feeding the faucet AND a pump that is not double insulated, it must be bonded to the metallic water pipe. The circulation piping being plastic (I've never seen it otherwise), just means that pipe doesn't require bonding, it doesn't make bonding the Copper feed pipe unnecessary. And just for the record, water, normal household/city/well water, absolutely is conductive, unless you are somehow getting distilled water piped to your house. People do also have a tendency to use Epsom salts in their tubs as well, which raises the conductivity even more.

Even new motor oil, but especially used motor oil, contains serious toxic additives & combustion by-products. Wouldn't recommend that practice at all where people/pets might be walking barefoot. Never had Terra Cotta floor tile but I would think mineral oil, maybe Tung oil or any number of natural waxes would be much better options.

From what I can tell, Williamson is an off shoot or subsidiary (purchased by) of Weil-Mclain, who never made furnaces, just boilers and now has furnaces as well as green boilers with the Williamson name and all the trimmings of a Weil-McLain, including the CP# on a sticker someplace near the dataplate. Looks like this. Click to Enlarge 26.19 KB In this case, the QC sticker above is a giveaway but they aren't always there/visible. With the WM's they have a page on their website under the "Resources/professional tools" where you type in the CP # and get the date of manufacture. Can't find a similar page on the Williamson site but you should be able to call their tech support and give them the CP #. Nothing in the serial #'s correlates to the date of manufacture.

Curious what he was trying to achieve by running the grounding conductor back through the cable clamp on a plastic box.

From his first post "I flung it out of there with a piece of quarter round trim." Sorry, didn't see that. HE DID WHAT?!!!!!! In hindsight there was something I should have done but failed to. I should have asked the client to leave the area before clearing the object. I didn't waste much time with it. I looked at it for about 10 seconds and figured an upward and slightly outward flip would work. Fortunately, it did. What you really should have done is to have gone outside and pulled the meter before messing with it. Also the only remedy if it had made contact, something to have mentally imprinted so when it happens, you don't stand there trying to figure out which way to go. The glasses are great for protection from the hot flying metal but unless they are welders glasses they aren't going to protect you from the brighter than the Sun flash. My dad having built half of the generators in the assorted power plants of this and several other countries in his 40 years at General Electric, came home many times from the hospital instead of the job site. Besides the scrub down event when he was working at the Nuclear plant, the one that imprinted on me the most when I was a kid was when he pulled up as a passenger in his own car, bandages over both eyes and flash burns on his face. Took five days to get his sight back. I heard the idiot that didn't quite understand the "wait till I tell you to... and throw this switch" was still sore a month after that.

Hey Brandon, If the pipe was heated to a significant extent and then hit with water in the process of putting out the fire, it has likely had it's temper significantly changed/hardened, which would make it more brittle, especially at the threaded joints. I would imagine that somewhere deep in ASHRAE standards there is some range of hardness that the pipe is supposed to conform to. I would try contacting a pipe manufacturers association.

I seriously doubt the UL listing of the meter socket enclosure included circuit wire. If it is just a meter enclosure. Likely the only thing prohibiting it in service entrance raceway would be conduit fill limitations.

I've only seen them behind houses, most often just outside the back door from the kitchen. Where would you want it to be? In places where I've seen them in the past & knew that's what they were for, they were in front of the house close to the sidewalk or curb. Sometimes at the corner of the driveway & sidewalk. Still, it makes sense they could have been in the back. Just got back from a trip to Puerto Rico & the one neighborhood we drove through had them up & down the street at the curb. Nice, ornate, cast iron covers. Guess they don't like the cans flying around in the hurricanes. I remember that same thing in my hometown when I was a kid. Only last a couple years then the taxes went up, services disappeared and a trend was born.

I thought it could be something like that except it was all the way in the back of the house.. and not very big at all. Maybe a 14" opening.

Anyone know what this is for/from? It's an old house, 1920's and there wasn't anything under the cover but dirt. I have a vague recollection of seeing them once in a while when I was a kid but can't remember anything about them. This is the second house in this neighborhood this week that has turned on up. The other one has a lever to step on to raise the lid Which has me thinking it was a cover for a compost hole or something. Click to Enlarge 84.84 KB

Not on "that" computer at the moment but probably best to download the manufacturers install manual and use that for reference.

Dedicated transfer switch panels like this are different than a sub panel rigged for a generator. If it is a sub panel, then as Marc said, electrical code requires all circuit wire routed together. I also agree with the Twit assessment. Likely the sparky saying there is nothing wrong with it is the same one that installed it that way.

Hey. Sorry to question & drop out of sight, again... The extended weekend from HELL on top of being WAY too busy lately. Yah, Kurt, their all Stablok panels. Six of them actually. They won't be there much longer. Things weren't making sense to me about the relays cause none of the lights switches were low voltage switches, until I remembered the listing agent saying something about the house initially being set up for electric baseboard heat that was never finished, but changed to F/A which is the current heating system. There were electric/line voltage, thermostats in several rooms and that now makes a bit more sense. I'm not used to relays in residential construction. Use them plenty in electronics and high amperage industrial equipment, automotive electrical but they look a lot different than these. Marc, the Bul. # is 700. Click to Enlarge 64.87 KB

Your right, there are switch contacts on the top, but what could this be for? And what is the point if the signal wire and load wire are the same gauge? Nothing else anywhere in the house gave any impression of being other than a normal electrical system.