Making some changes to your home should best be left to professionals
When looking to purchase a home, part of the fun is imagining put your personal touches on the house. Like changing out that hideous lime green carpet for a much nicer shade of fuschia. No question, home improvement is an extremely individual form of expression.
Seeing decorating train wrecks or just plain dated motifs is part of the usual landscape for a home inspector. Occasionally these glaring style faux pas are mentioned during the buyers initial conversation with me on the phone. I politely point out that “ugly” has no impact what so ever on the job I am there to perform.
Well that’s not entirely true. Ugly to me, the home inspector, has different connotation. I tend to admire good or exceptional workmanship. I’m certain a client or two has wondered about my over enthusiastic raving regarding the “beautiful” electric panel or new boiler’s plumbing. As it’s been said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
What I find offensive to my sense of style are unprofessional alterations to the home’s equipment. For example the electric service panel.
From my experience, most people tend to shy away from getting their hands into or around electrical components. Especially the service panels. I believe most people understand and have the good sense to know that messing around with electricity can get them killed or at the very least start a fire.
Most people.
There are those rare individuals who seem to believe that they possess the skills and great knowledge along with their access to YouTube to perform electrical tasks that a licensed electrician has spent years to learn. Or more to the point, knows better than to attempt.
Looking at a two family house recently, I found the usual identical electric panels. Well not entirely identical. Being that this was an older house, the panels themselves were small by today’s standards, having few places to install breakers.
So what’s a person to do when there is no room in the electric panel for a range circuit?
Make custom alterations of course.
I’m guessing the homeowner or a handy friend or Uncle, take your pick, made the decision to cut the panel cover and insert a double pole breaker where none is allowed. I will say the cut was rather neat.
Logic should say, if the cover, the panel does not have a designated space for a breaker, then forcibly installing one is not permitted.
Some homeowner’s go a bit too far in making customized changes.