neighborhood safety conundrum

[Poindexter]

In every home I have ever lived in long enough I have found something that wasn't up to current code. At one place most of my stuff was still on the moving truck on move in day.

My general idea would be to let the neighbors know you found such and such a thing and not get carried away setting the county on fire. Whatever minimum you have to do in this area to sleep good at night, do that.

 

[Ashful]

Thanks for this. I think some people (including my wife) think I'm being a bit alarmist. Like many gov't wesbites, I find this one incredibly difficult to navigate. Could you send me a link to the lust of ceiling fan accidents, if it's in your history somewhere ? The link you sent is for one incident.

The quote apparently comes from these folks at Electrical Safety Foundation International, and is repeated all over the interwebs, but I didn't dig down to the original source myself:

Homepage - Electrical Safety Foundation International

The Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI) is a 501 (c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting electrical safety in the home, school, and workplace through education, awareness, and advocacy. Over the past 20 years, ESFI has reinvigorated how electrical safety is addressed through...

www.esfi.org

Yes, the OSHA link was for a specific case, as I had anticipated some might ask "who the hell is Electrical Safety Foundation International?" Everyone knows OSHA.

 

[fbelec]

with all the things that they (the government) make us do, it should be reported to the inspectors or fire dept. or who ever does that in your area. if there is no one find out who the builder was and demand payment for the job and he is to be expected to get calls from your neighbors. who knows how many houses this man has put up. one of these buildings could be one of those osha reports. here in massachusetts that code has been around to put a fan on a fan box for more than a decade. not sure when it was put into code but it's been quite awhile. maybe even 20 years. i have seen the fan fall out of a regular light box and usually they just strip the screws on thread at a time. just because this man might know someone doesn't give him the right to do something like that. the home owner that bought it new expected no problems and that everything was done to code. in massachusetts they make us pull permits for everything and the contractor has to have liability insurance or we can't pull a permit. some towns up here won't even let the home owner pull a permit for work that he is doing if it can take a life. if the electrician is caught working without a permit that job will be a triple charge for the permit that he has to pull after his all stop work order. and if it happens again they pull the license of that electrician.

i personally hate seeing work like that. it makes us all look like idiots.

 

[RustyShackleford]

i have seen the fan fall out of a regular light box and usually they just strip the screws on thread at a time...

Yeah, and THIS situation is WAY worse than just using a non-fan rated box.

I personally hate seeing work like that. it makes us all look like idiots.

You probably won't like this, but it makes ME go "why the hell should I feel bad about DIY'ing work that most people think you should hire a pro for, if THIS is the kind of crap a supposed pro did !"

 

[RustyShackleford]

here in massachusetts that code has been around to put a fan on a fan box for more than a decade. not sure when it was put into code but it's been quite awhile. maybe even 20 years.

Well, this house was built a little over 20 years ago, and it's in rural North Carolina; so if you think it MIGHT have been code in Massachusetts 20 years ago, I'll give you good odds that it wasn't here. But I've tried to google it and can't really find out for sure.

But I have replaced two more of the fans here (they're tacky as hell and wife demanded it) and they were both in regular boxes too; but at least they were held up by a proper bracket and not by the sheet metal trim piece !

 

[fbelec]

rustyshackleford you are doing a good job the cheap tacky fans are usually light in weight, normally when things are replaced in todays world things usually get lighter but not with ceiling fans. i've got the same job to do here. the old owner put up this fan in the kitchen on a old regular box it is slipping down threads so i know what is happening. cheap tacky fan also. the boss said we should change it, so that means do it. todays job was replace the bathroom faucet. let's just say i HATE doing plumbing. i am improving tho. only one trip to the hardware store this time