Wiring codes and selling houses

[oneway]

I would like to add one thing. If the breakers are Zinsco you are better off replacing the panel.

I just went through this. I had a 100 amp main breaker go bad, and after doing some research found out Zinsco breakers are about the worst type that can be in your house. The breakers are also very expensive too replace. A 100 amp Zinsco breaker is about $150

The replacement panel, breakers and misc. parts cost me about $200. I paid a friend that's a licensed electrician to do the job. It took him about five hours or so.

Absolutley on canning Zinsco...

Zinsco was used extensively in the late 60's and early 70's and they are by far the worst on the planet...

If you live in an area that had lots of Zinsco used you will find the breakers stocked at your local ACE or other supplier...and they cost an arm and a leg...

You can swap out 100 AMP Main box with all new breakers for the cost of a few Zinsco replacement breakers...

Zinsco bites huge donkey balls

Oneway

[oneway]

One more thing to consider is contacting your local Fire District...

In my neck of the woods, the FD requires an external main service disconnect, and any upgrade via the permit process for any reason catches this, along with strapping the water heater, making sure the door from the garage into the house has an auto closer on it etc...

In most cases the service disconnect is associated with your electrical meter. Typically the "glass" is part of a exterior panel that has a single service breaker that in turn feeds the sub-panels in the house...

If the code in your area requires an external disconnect on upgrade...then demand it as a condition of sale in your offer. Make your offer contingent upon the seller having a simple meter (glass) panel put in with a main disconnect feeding your existing main there by turning it into your sub-panel

Seeing as your considering making an offer, do your home work with the local fire guys...its worth a shot...make sure you couch the offer in terms such as:

My friend is a fireman and he said I will have to upgrade the service drop (overhead) panel with a main disconnect...though this is a minor expense...our offer is going to request that your client (the seller) take care of this as a condition of sale. Here is a copy of the current regulations you can provide your client.

Oneway

[Meatwad]

Talking with the inspector it is code to have a main disconnect with a breaker panel that has over 6 breakers (which standing currently there is NO main disconnect without pulling the meter).

Water damage to the master bathroom due to shoddy installation of a shower which has been leaking for some time and greatly damaged the flooring in the bathroom. Getting to the point where the floor is starting to dip so the floor needs replaced. Hopefully they can take care of it as I dont plan on spending this much money on a house just to completely tear out a rotton floor and replace it

[morfiend]

 Long term water damage is bad!

 You might want to reconsider your options.

   

[Babalonian]

Long term water damage is bad!

 You might want to reconsider your options.

   

After hearing about the half-arsed electrical job and now the half-arsed plumbing - cut n' run on this one if you can afford to keep looking.

[smoe]

Another thing to check is the maximum power the house had used. This is done by looking at the electrical meter. If the meter is the old analog/mechanical kind look for the large needle. This needle (not the small KW/hr dials) will tell you the maximum power the house has consumed in KW's at a given time. This needle is usually only reset manually. Divide that KW reading (aka. maximum demand load) by 220VAC. I.E., a duplex house with two A/C units will pull up to 12KW or 12,000 Watts of power. So 12,000/220 = 55 amps total for a duplex house. You should be ok with a 100 amp box, but please do check with an inspector.