Home Improvement Today?

Good advice. I’m also looking into upgrading the doors myself. That seems pretty straightforward. The harder part would be the lazy Susan and drawer boxes.

 

Anyone know if it’s possible to hire an electrician to swap a panel where you as the homeowner do all the R&R of circuits? Or is it possible as a homeowner to swap a panel w permit without hiring an electrician? Asking for a friend (for real) as I already swapped my panel and I feel comfortable with the process but in this specific circumstance the old panel is 50+ years old and it seems like maybe it’d be smart to have the upgrade recorded. Meter and service look updated / new aluminum 2/0 gauge so that part has been done but the panel is sketchy old. With that said, not much of any visual trouble and all the wire looks great.

 

I'd imagine if it's up to code you're fine with a permit and doing it yourself. I think the potential issue arises if/when you sell and potential buyer gets cold feet. Of course, one could get a licensed electrician to inspect and sign off at that time.

 

So a homeowner can pull a permit himself? But how to disconnect the meter if doing it above board? Call the electric company once the permit is secured? I have no idea how the normal process would work here since I’d imagine everyone hires this out.

side note, I really like the Leviton load center and wifi breakers. Super cool concept.

 

I had my panel changed out about 3 years ago. I called my local utility (PGE) mostly to try and find out how big my service was and they gave me a list of electricians that they let do panel swaps that they let pull the meter and reset it w/o have to have one of their field service people do it

 

And $$$ too. But nice for sure. I ended up just going with a "stand alone" monitoring system for my energy use and just went with a standard panel.

 

I like the ability to turn stuff off remotely. Highly appealing. But that white likely looks pretty ugly after a few years unless it’s in some pristine enclosure.

 

Yeah thats why i was looking at them (for the wireless turn off). But then just decided ive lived my whole live without it...do i really need it lol. And the few things I would I can just use a wifi plug

 

every area is different. you'll really need to get an idea of the local code enforcement rules, and also be aware of insurance--doing it yourself could open things up as a liability standpoint. getting a licensed electrician to do it is the quickest path across all the channels, but many area's allow homeowners to do work as well, for lots cheaper.

pulling meters is always going to be a local utility/electrician thing. on the panels that i've swapped as an electrician, we always pulled the meter, and the utilities were ok with it. we rarely called for a power disconnect unless something was seriously wrong with the service, which did happen from time to time.

but with the newer electronic meters that have remote monitoring, some utilities that don't want electricians pulling meters will dispatch a crew, and potentially call the police if the meter is pulled without talking to them to schedule it. every area is different.

and as far as the R&R work-- i'm reminded of this sign


everyone has a different process to work, and trying to save money/time by altering any technicians process is generally going to cost more in both time and money, because their process isn't your process, and melding the two takes time.

 

i saw it a few years ago at a trade show. it's interesting. very european. but the part that concerns me is availability. as far as i know, everything about that leviton panel is special order. absolutely no one stocks them. which might be ok on the surface, but means that any emergency or failure will now be a minimum 1-week ordering process. whereas Square D multiple product lines, or Siemens products are generally accepted and stocked everywhere, with most electricians carrying stock on their trucks for emergencies.

in a new house, i'd be less opposed to using it, due to meeting newer electrical code, more things will be properly split up. but as a retrofit, i think it's a bad idea, as many older homes that met an older code cycle have many combined things that could present more issues to shutting down the entire circuit. that said, i've also seen many businesses use breakers for light switches, and they always seem to fail faster than just using a real light switch, and cost far more to replace.

i've also got issues with house-integrated devices "calling home", and the lack of long-term control over those devices--the electrical panel is an integral part of the house, most people don't update that for much of the life of any house, and what happens if leviton just up and decides in 2-10 years to shut down the service for any reason? far too many 'connected home' devices and companies have come and gone in the last 40 years that i know of to personally trust integrating something like that so deeply into any house.

for instance, GE had a cutting-edge low voltage light switch setup in the 1970's. where all the switches used low voltage from a doorbell transformer, and were ran back to a main cabinet that controlled all the lights. the idea was that one could more easily add switches for the same light, or control multiple lights throughout the house easier from one location--a common example was that the master bedroom would have a bedside switch that could turn off all lights throughout the house at once.

https://www.kyleswitchplates.com/ge-low-voltage-lighting/

the reality is that was 50 years ago, and GE abandoned that system somewhere around the 1980-90's. but it was extremely popular in my area, along with split-level/fully-finished homes. i've been in multiple houses where parts of the system are failing, but because there's no standard high voltage switches in those locations, the only options are to keep ordering the obscure and discontinued parts that keep ratcheting up in price from obscure and sometimes questionable websites like above, cut into every single wall throughout the house to re-convert it to the standard high-voltage system, which is basically a full house remodel, or just stop using the system, getting some floor lamps... all of the people that i dealt with that starting having major issues with it would get a quote to replace the system, freak out at the high price that still didn't include drywall patching, and then agree to just go without..

home automation is cool, when it works, and it always works at first. but almost no home automation system works for 20 years.

 

Worked all week (wrapped up yesterday) on repairing this 17yr old shed. Tree limb fell on it during those ice storms earlier in the year. I have great customers as they waited all this time for me to do it.

Cleaned the moss off the north side of the roof (used 30% cleaning vinager as they have dogs). Applied it last Friday, let it do it's thing for a few dry days. Worked great.
Jacked up front right corner of the shed as the doors were way out of alignment and only one would open (that was pre-existing). Limb damage was both structural and superficial - replaced 2 rafter tails, sheathing, fascia, soffit, etc. (both front and back). Replaced the aluminum fascia wrap, drip edge and roof shingles (where needed). Gave the whole shed a cleaning before leaving yesterday (that was a bonus surprise).

Customer was beyond thrilled.

 

Alright don't light me up. We moved the washer and dryer. The washer is now tied into my sink drain.

Well it was backing up. So I tried a bladder thing and a snake. Got the snake through but still had some backup so I tried the bladder again. The bladder broke in my drain with quite a bang.

Chances the pipe bust? Cause I cut a new cleanout tee in at the other side of our basement and can get the snake through and see. No water comes through the pipe though.

 

most likely. i mean, water doesn't just vanish.

ideally, i'd be trying to run an inspection camera down the pipe from each side to the point where the bladder was to try to inspect things before tearing into it to verify the extent of what needs to be replaced. but more than likely, you'll end up needing to know where it blew up as a starting point to where the pipes are most likely damaged, and what needs to be cut open to access that point.

 

I don't know how the utility company would allow a electrician pull a meter. Not saying they don't, just how. Way, way back in the day I worked for the utility company and every meter was sealed with a numbered tag that was assigned to the account. If anyone broke the seal, except the utility, there was hell to pay. None of the hell was safety related. It all revolved around the shenanigans people did to not pay their utility bill. One customer was so bad that they finally put his meter on the pole. Every month he had to pay extra so a lineman could climb up there to read the meter.

 

for the two main utility companies, most of the numbered tags don't mean anything in my area. during a friendly emergency shutdown with one of the utility guys while we waited for a different crew to complete a task, he gave me about 100 of the tags so i could also properly re-lock the meters if needed.

there's also ways to clip the tags off and make them look un-altered after reinstallation.

there's really only one utility about 2 hours away that i've ever had issues with, where the meter got pulled, and a service truck showed up in 10 minutes to see what happened...

otherwise, they have meter locks that get installed on the real serious bypassers/non-payers. most usually seen on rental properties where utilities aren't included by the landlord. i've also cut my fair share of those off as well, after going through approval from the boss and customer, as the utility likely can't get out there for weeks or months due to their mismanagement...

maybe it's different by me, the companies own the meters, but everything that touches the customers house is considered customer property and not something that the utility deals with, so it's really never been a problem messing with the 'customer property' side of things.

 

I think it was only 5 ft from where I was inserting it.

I've ran the washer and finally starting to get water out the other end of the pipe. Maybe the ground is saturated now. No idea.

Have a plumber coming Monday. What a pain.

 

Mounted new drawer glides for kitchen cabinet. Final coat of paint on kitchen cabinet drawer.
Cleared out heavy duty plant shelf plus plants and moved for deck framing painter.
All before noon! Hey, big job for an old fart of 71

 

Some deck posts, 10' and 14' beams (double 2x8's) and long 20' joists (also 2x8's) for a multi-level, multi-directional decking, partial wrap around pool deck. Connected to the existing deck. Joists are changing direction on that beam on the end. Tying into the last 20' double/band joist. 2 more posts, a 10' beam, joists and some blocking are all that's left for the structural support. I may be doing a set of stairs that'll run to that lower patio on the side.

 

Shop frame leveled and squared ready to pour ground anchors.