A code in the head
That's Dennis putting in a gang-switch box -- it turns out the electricians were at the house on Tuesday, but late, and only to deliver some supplies -- and on Wednesday Dennis, his Dad, Matt, and the helper, Steve, were all hard at work.
Brantley, back from Savannah and his daughter's wedding, was sweatin' with Ref on the front of the house, straightening boards and such to get ready for the painters. Ref had given his sore shoulder the holiday off -- for which hooray; you can lift a nail gun only so many times before you feel the fireworks.
But on matters electric, in a few frantic hours, we resolved where the breaker box was going (I'm surprised the building code doesn't require that it be on a free-standing pedestal in an otherwise empty 9-by-12 space), where the code said the outlets had to go on the kitchen counter, what the code mandates for the kitchen island, where the code wants outlets to be on walls, and a few other issues. So they started stringing conduit, cursing the plumbers (gently) for hogging in-wall space in the kitchen and determining that yes, indeed, we could have recessed lighting just about anywhere we wanted it (despite other new codes).
Thursday, there's an early meeting with the HVAC guys, and we get to move from conduits to plenums and ducts and grates and even more . . . codes.
3 comments:
yes, electrical code craziness is only equal to the justification for going to war in Iraq - gotta do it because WE said so - it's for your safety and to spread electricity to all freedom loving peoples. suprised they didn't require you to light the panel on the pedestal in the 9 X12 room with a recessed down light that they later wouldn't allow you to put in unless it had a motion sensor, timer, and dimmer installed by Haliburton. (of course they would have to tell you the exact height of the switch AND require that it be located exactly where the window is in the room - no exceptions) welcome, dear John, to my world! cobbmtn
Ref assures me that we can have it all in place, even the motion sensor, till we get our Certificate of Occupancy. Halliburton? We've retained one Edgar Halliburton, from Pigeon Key, to sign the drawings.
Then after Code Enforcement flys by on its broom and paints COO in the sky in smoke, we'll tear everything out and make it the opium den spec'd on the blueprint.
Good to know you're keeping a good eye on this.
ah yes, the old switcheroo! Done this on more projects than I care to mention. I've often thought a great biz would be to have all the ugly energy saving lighting and trickle shower heads that are "rented" out to home builders prior to the COO. That way they don't buy them and trash them later. (seems less wasteful to me) Here in CA we have something called Title 24 which dictates energy use, water use, the % of windows, type of windows, location of windows, type of appliances, and on and on. Pile on local planning and environmental health and you just about go daffy designing something that works AND looks good.
Post a Comment