Regulating the wrong industry

We had to drive down the coast today to Pardington Ridge in Big Sur, we are wiring a 1400 sq. foot house that was burned down in the fires 2 summers ago. We had completed all rough in wiring and the inspector was out to give us the rough inspection. Everything was very good, he is a new inspector so he was opening every box looking in every panel. He had 1 electrical item and that was that we did not have an exhaust fan in the bathroom.

Heres where I feel the government has crossed a line, apparently the code in our area has changed and there has to be an electric exhaust fan installed in every bathroom. As I always understood the code that if you had a mechanically operated window in the bathroom you did not need a fan. Why do they think they can tell us that we must have a fan in the bathroom? Government regulation, in California construction through regulation they cost the contractor more money which in turn costs the homeowner more money. Here are a few of the regulations that bug the hell out of me:

1. For every watt of incandescent lighting in the kitchen you have, you must have one watt of flourescent lighting. They still dont allow LED lighting as high efficacy lighting, LED lighting is the most efficient lighting you can use.

2. All outside lighting that is not high efficacy(fluorescent)must be controlled by a dusk to dawn motion sensor. You can not decide if you want you lights on and off instead the animals can turn them on and off all night.

3. All bathroom lighting that is not high efficacy(fluorescent)must be controlled by a vacancy sensor, you turn it on, it turns off on its own for a measly $85 each.

Now you can add must have an electric fan in you're bathroom.

It amazes me that the banking industry can cause a total collapse of our economy with no regulation but the governments can find time to regulate the hell out of the construction industry, costing homeowners money as they watch their home values tumble due to no regulation from the government.

Now thats irony

Experience Pays Off

At work today, we pulled 600 mcm in a 3" conduit. We are upgrading an existing 200 amp panel to a 400 amp panel. It took 8 guys ultimately to pull it 80'. 600 mcm is about the radius of a silver dollar and weighs i would say 3lb a foot. I have had pulls with this size wire that we were not able to get through even going 20'. I used a lot of pulling lubricant and a lot of hands pulling while i was feeding. The last 10' we had to have 2 guys pushing and 5 guys pulling. It was a hard job but the relief I felt when the wire was finally pulled to the length required was enough to put a smile on my face.

After completing that wire pull I had the heating contractor find out that his thermostat wire was cut somewhere and he needed my assistance in getting a new wire from the thermostat to the furnace. We ran miles of wire and he figured I would be the best person to talk to about getting around, the walls are all done and the floors and the cabinets this is basically a finished house. I plan a route under the kitchen cabinet and drill down through the floor into the crawl space below. Neither one of them wanted to drill down so i drilled down just through the flooring and the sub-floor and then stopping to make sure i didn't drill into anything that might be hidden in the spray foam insulation. I then sent one of them into the crawlspace and pushed a metal fishtape down so the crawler could find the location. I then left it in their hands after solving their problem in 15 minutes that they have been working on for over a full day.

Thirty minutes later and at around 3:00 i walk up to see the heating guys standing at the wall with a fishtape caught down in the wall pulling up on it. Come to find out one of them had cut the wire to length and was not holding on to it and it went right down in the wall. It just so happens that fishing wires out of pretty much anything is on of my specialties so I took over, I cut a poiece of fishtape and went on my exppedition. I even had the contractor come by and tell me all the trout had been caught and I need to find a different way, cutting into toe kick and spending way to much time. I then expressed that patience is required in a situatoion like this and I was soon rewarded with pulling the wire up the wall 5' through a little 1" hole even though the wire had just 6" slack out of the wall.

Twenty five years of experience and I used every bit of it in my day today. If I wouldnt have had it I don't think I could have accomplished either of the tasks put before me today.

I had guys who have been in the trades for as long as me telling me I am the man today. Thats why I love doing what I do everyday.

Do something and do it to the best of you're ability everyday.