Electrical Safety

By far one of the most dangerous and common safety issues that a home inspector finds on an inspection is an electrical safety issue. Electricity can be a deadly force of not property installed and maintained.

While we do not want to pick on the DIY weekend warrior too much, we often see electrical safety issues come from homeowner work. Electrical work should be left to a qualified professional only. Why do we say that?

Consider this, according to The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, electrical receptacles alone are responsible for about 5,300 house fires in the US every year. That is just a receptacle - not the panel, branch wiring, bad breakers, aluminum wiring, or anything else.  All of those other issues account for even more fires every year. 

But many of these fires are due to errors made by professional electricians - people with years of training and experience. And then many of them were inspected by a professional electrical inspector as well. So if experienced professionals with other professionals checking their work make mistakes that cause fires or hurt people - then what are the chances of even the most experienced homeowner making those mistakes? Pretty good.

So the best way to stay safe with electrical work is to leave it to a quaified professional.

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