Mind Your Safety

Kill the Permit, Not the Homebuyer

During the electrification of Canada, there weren’t enough electricians to go around and a system of homeowner permits was created which persists today. My father and uncles, all skilled mechanics, able to solve electrical problems on machinery, would readily state they “don’t know a damn thing about A/C” and wouldn’t think of doing their home electrical work.

Most people now have been through classes explaining electricity, are experienced connecting computers and are willing to install electrical devices. In my non-electrical worker arc flash courses I asked how many have ever installed plugs, lights, etc. At least 80 percent said they had, while 30 to 40 percent admitted to wiring basements and more. As I teach how easily electrical fires are caused, many are surprised.

I believe we should either eliminate homeowner permits or seriously upgrade the standard to obtain them because too many people don’t know what they are doing. If you buy a house with a basement finished after that house was built, the homeowner likely wired it. I have heard too many descriptions of accidents waiting to happen that would be an insult to a first-year apprentice.

The insurance industry should be taking note of this. If somebody buys a house in good faith with a finished basement, who would realize it was wired by some crappy handyman? A young fellow I know installed some of his own receptacles.

When I asked if he made good connections, he claimed, “It hasn’t been burned down yet!”. When I replied “No, they never do right away,” he looked at me and tried to determine whether I was joking. When he saw that I wasn’t, it was clear he did not know what to say.

An acquaintance purchased a home in Calgary and checked the electrical panel to ensure the house was wired with copper wire. Imagine their chagrin later to find aluminum wiring to the devices. Some rat bag SOB wired it entirely in aluminum except for the home runs where there would be numerous copper to aluminum connections. How many thousands of houses have been wired like this by other rat bag SOBs?

We have hundreds, if not thousands, of homes with glowing connections throughout Canada based upon the crappy handiwork of skinflints discounting the value of trained electricians. We run our cars to failure–the brakes until they squeal and the alternator into darkness–but running home electrical systems to failure can mean fire and tragedies.

There is an opportunity for residential electrical contractors to develop a home electrical inspection package which insurance companies should embrace, CSA should support, and inspection branches should adopt. This should be a condition of insurance on change of ownership or every 10 years; as for the homeowners permit, it is time to either send it the way of the dodo bird or force the crappy triers to prove competence.

Until next time, be ready, be careful and be safe.©

NOTE: If you are a residential contractor or insurance company and support developing a home inspection package, please contact the author. We can petition CSA to create a committee to develop a home inspection standard, and that will only save lives and losses.

Canada Training Group has been providing consulting services to industry since 1980; Dave Smith, the president, can be reached at davesmith@canada-training-group.ca