My New House & Workshop

[Jim Oaks]

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Got my new vanity light mounted and used paint I had left over from the kitchen. This was the only mirror I could find in the dimension I wanted. It was originally silver. I painted the frame 'Oil Rubbed Bronze'.

 

[Uncle Gump]

LOL.

Where's people sense of humor? I can't believe anyone would think I would commit insurance fraud. Especially since the ideas were so clearly ridiculous.

 

[Blmpkn]

Yeesh.. someone among us must not be very fun at parties..

 

[Roert42]

It looks like part of the issue is Jim is spending all his money/time making the inside of his house look nice.

Need to get your priorities straight. Anything beyond a working refrigerator and toilet is superfluous.

 

[Rick W]

There is one in every crowd.

& I apologize to you guys, sincerely, I have a very special perfected talent for pulling them out of the woodwork...

 

[1990RangerinSK]

It looks like part of the issue is Jim is spending all his money/time making the inside of his house look nice.

Need to get your priorities straight. Anything beyond a working refrigerator and an outhouse is superfluous.

FIFY

 

[Roert42]

FIFY

Depends on how close your neighbors are.

 

[1990RangerinSK]

Depends on how close your neighbors are.

Just tell them not to go inside. Any time I've used an outhouse, I didn't notice the smell until I opened the door.

 

[Jim Oaks]

I guess someone didn't feel that these connections needed to be in a junction box:

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At least wiring is in a box:

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This wiring is in the front original part of the building. The wiring I posted before is in the rear part of the building which was an addition.

The 12-3 (black with red) in the first two pics power the lighting. The wires in the junction box power a couple of outlets, the pull chain light in the bathroom, and the propane wall heater.

At this point I'm going to remove all the wiring and rewire it. The only thing I'm not sure of is how I'm going to run wiring to the very front part of the building. It's 30+ feet. Not sure if I want to open the ceiling in spots or use a fishing rod for wiring. I feel like the distance is to far.

Question: Can I run wiring over the top of ceiling joists, and does it have to be stapled to the joist?

I also need to work on installed the 36x48 window in the front. I can see that the cinder blocks under the rotted 2x8 are hollow:

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Question: Am I suppose to just Tapcon down in to the edges of the block? I feel like they'll crack.

 

[sgtsandman]

Drill a hole first before you run the tap cons in. That should eliminate any worries about cracking the block. You will need a hammer drill and masonry bits if you don't know about those already.

 

[Jim Oaks]

Drill a hole first before you run the tap cons in. That should eliminate any worries about cracking the block. You will need a hammer drill and masonry bits if you don't know about those already.

I used a masonry bit and tapcon to mount the door rough in. But the blocks well all filled with mortar. I learned then that I had to install the tapsons with a screwdriver and be careful not to over tighten them.

 

[Curious Hound]

The wiring is supposed to be stapled every 4 ft if I recall plus within 12” of any box or device. In a non-accessible attic that’s not going to be inspected, I wouldn’t worry about it. The wire can lay on top of the ceiling joists.
As for fishing the cable through the attic, I think you will want to open a few access points. There are hundreds of ways to fish it. Fishing pole, long sticks, tape a string to a ball and throw it, then use the string to pull the cable back, etc. There are gizmos you can buy. But they aren’t really any better than using simple stuff you have laying around.

 

[franklin2]

What is the very front part going to be used for? A shop? You can run conduit exposed and pull regular wire in that if you wanted to. It's not hard and looks good for a shop. And makes it easy to add on since the boxes are exposed on the surface. You can run 3/4 around the wall and pull several circuits in the one conduit.

 

[Jim Oaks]

I finally got the new window installed in the front of the shop. I drove 1.5 hours to get a 48x36 window, and when I went to install it, I realized that someone had laid a 36x48 window on it's side in the spot where the 48x36 windows went.

So after another 3+ hour round trip I finally had the right window. I'll post pics of it tomorrow.

I think the next thing I want to do is deal with the electric. I've never hired an electrician before. Most stuff I do myself. When I finished out my walk up attic and added two bedrooms my father came over and helped with the electrical.

I decided to replace the (2) 230 volt outlets for the A/C units with regular dedicated 115 volt outlets. After researching A/C units I discovered that a 115-V Dual Inverter unit is actually more energy efficient than a 230 volt unit.

I also discovered that a 120 volt 140 Amp Lincoln Welder will handle what welding needs I have, so I don't need a 220 outlet for a welder either.

I feel like hiring an electrician to completely rewire the building would be expensive.

I feel confident enough to run all the wire and install new outlets and light fixtures using the circuit diagram suggestion posted here by @ericbphoto. I even feel comfortable installing the circuits in the breaker panel.

Concerns:

NOTE: The electricity to the building is not turned on. There's power at the meter, but no power from the meter to the breaker panel.

This building was wired with a subpanel fed directly from its own meter, so there's no main breaker.

My concern is wiring the power to the panel from the meter.

I have wire coming in from the meter that has a Red wire, Black wire, and White wire. It seems like in examples I see there's (2) black wires and not a red wire. I realize that the black and red are hot, but I don't know if they're a proper gauge. I want to replace the old Federal Pacific subpanel with a 100 amp breaker panel. I don't want to have a 100 amp main cut off switch if the wire coming from the meter can only handle 60 amps. I'm also hoping that these wires going in to the subpanel are long enough to reach where they need to connect in the 100 amp panel.

The other problem is the ground. As mentioned and shown before, the grounding strap coming from the meter is broke just above the grounding rod. So the meter needs grounded, and I need to know how the new panel is grounded, or serves as a ground when it's wired with 12/3 wire that has a ground wire. Does a ground need to run from the new panel to an earth ground?

Also, the power from the meter comes through the block wall in to the bottom of the subpanel, and it's not in any type of conduit.

Options:

I've wondered if I should:

• Go broke and let an electrician wire everything
• Wire all the circuits and have an electrician make all the connections in a new panel and address the wiring from the meter and ground
• Wire all the circuits in to a new panel and just pay an electrician to make the connection from the meter to the new panel
• Go ahead and just wire everything in to the new panel including the wire from the meter providing it's a proper gauge for the 100 amp panel

It's possible that I may find that I need an electrician to replace the wire from the meter to the panel with a larger gauge for the 100 amp panel. Would it be possible to replace the 100 amp main breaker with a 60 amp main breaker if the wire coming in to the building is only rated for 60 amps?

Is it correct that 100 amp service should have at least #4 copper wire coming in?

 

[Curious Hound]

I recommend choice #3 above. Let him deal with the meter base, and everything associated with it right up to the main breaker in your new panel. There's probably more there that needs work than you realize. He will probably have to build a whole "new service" for 100amps.

I'll address some of the rest of this over the next day or so. I was at work past 11:00 last night. Today's gonna be a bad brain day.