I was hoping to get some pointers on how to attack a few problems I have with a used house that I bought for a pretty good deal. The house was built in 1985 and has a 200 amp breaker panel and uses copper wiring. At a later point a secondary panel was installed and I believe it is a 100 amp box but I would need to check on that. This box has a 50 amp breaker that goes to a 70 amp box outside in the detached garage. The garage doesn't have its own ground and shares one with the main house ground so this needs to be corrected which is simple enough.
The problem stems from the house having an electrical remediation order put on it in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 for cultivation. Long story short the house was taken by the court as proceeds of crime and I ended buying it when the crown had it on the market. The growing was done in the garage out back and some of the rooms downstairs but it wasn't gutted although the electrical was messed with.
Problem 1: When you turn off the light in one bedroom the breaker would pop and would need to be reset. This was an easy fix that brought up another problem, something was done to the wiring and when it was repaired they wired the switch into the main hot/common wire going into this box as well as the light switch wiring. When the switch was off the light was on because it was connected to the live wire but when you flipped the switch to 'turn it off' you actually connected the hot to the common and the breaker would blow.
That problem is an easy fix, don't wire the hot to the common and you won't blow breakers, pretty shoddy fix because it could never have worked right. The problem I found is in this junction box there are 8 romex wires going into this little box and all of the hots are twisted together with a marrete and some tape and all 8 commons were treated the same way. These were all stuffed in one of the octagonal metal junction boxes commonly used for ceiling lights. This junction box was also used for a light fixture so it was pretty cramped inside.
Of the wires in the box there was the live wire coming from the 200 amp fuse panel about 5 feet away. The light fixture also has a switch so this accounts for another of the wires in this box. There are 6 more wires going somewhere that I am not sure what they do or where they go. The breaker box is labelled 'basement lights' so they probably go to some of the other lights which is another problem.
I have a few problems here, this is a finished gyprock roof so I can't see where anything is and I don't know if all of these wires are needed anymore. Looking at the amount of wires in this box without even checking the area I can see it would fail so I need to split these up. What is the best way to address this? My thoughts are to install another junction box close to the light fixture and then split the wires going into each box so it spreads the load. The roof was freshly painted and this is right by the fuse panel and considering the history of the home anything may have been done. I can fix anything I cut up on the walls and roof so what would you suggest the best way would be to correct this? I am fluent in DC electronics and have done a lot of research on AC and I had had no issues so far so I am confident I can fix home wiring with some tips.
Problem 2: I have a number of ceiling lights downstairs that do not work, I tested these before I removed all of the wiring from the previous problem. I removed the light fixtures and checked each one out and found the following. The light outside of the furnace area doesn't work and in the junction box above the light fixture there are two romex wires coming in and it is wired as it would be with a single switch. On this light I am not really sure where the switch is, I looked in the obvious areas and there are no switches and the ones further away that don't work seem to be a little far from this area.
I have a kitchen light that doesn't work and in the open area beside the kitchen there is a second light that also doesn't work. I look in the junction box in the kitchen and there are two wires coming into it that are marked red/white/back instead of the white/black, ground of all of the other wires. I have also looked at every switch box in the basement and not one switch uses a red/white/back wire. I believe the red/back/white wires are used with 2 way and above switches but I don't have any of these either. This one has me stumped, the ceiling in the kitchen also looks newly painted so who knows what is up there either. Any suggestions on how to address this? There is a switch right beside the kitchen that I am assuming is for the ceiling light and I can see if from the back of this wall going into the roof of the kitchen but it doesn't go that box.
The light over the open area beside the kitchen just has a single romex cable going into it so I assume this one should be wired the main kitchen light which it isn't.
Thanks for any tips or tricks in figuring this mess out. I have to buy one of those inductive power testers to see if there is a live hots in any of the mystery switches or the light fixtures which may help indicate where the problem is. Sorry for the long post, I am used to writing and figure too much information is better than none.
The problem stems from the house having an electrical remediation order put on it in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 for cultivation. Long story short the house was taken by the court as proceeds of crime and I ended buying it when the crown had it on the market. The growing was done in the garage out back and some of the rooms downstairs but it wasn't gutted although the electrical was messed with.
Problem 1: When you turn off the light in one bedroom the breaker would pop and would need to be reset. This was an easy fix that brought up another problem, something was done to the wiring and when it was repaired they wired the switch into the main hot/common wire going into this box as well as the light switch wiring. When the switch was off the light was on because it was connected to the live wire but when you flipped the switch to 'turn it off' you actually connected the hot to the common and the breaker would blow.
That problem is an easy fix, don't wire the hot to the common and you won't blow breakers, pretty shoddy fix because it could never have worked right. The problem I found is in this junction box there are 8 romex wires going into this little box and all of the hots are twisted together with a marrete and some tape and all 8 commons were treated the same way. These were all stuffed in one of the octagonal metal junction boxes commonly used for ceiling lights. This junction box was also used for a light fixture so it was pretty cramped inside.
Of the wires in the box there was the live wire coming from the 200 amp fuse panel about 5 feet away. The light fixture also has a switch so this accounts for another of the wires in this box. There are 6 more wires going somewhere that I am not sure what they do or where they go. The breaker box is labelled 'basement lights' so they probably go to some of the other lights which is another problem.
I have a few problems here, this is a finished gyprock roof so I can't see where anything is and I don't know if all of these wires are needed anymore. Looking at the amount of wires in this box without even checking the area I can see it would fail so I need to split these up. What is the best way to address this? My thoughts are to install another junction box close to the light fixture and then split the wires going into each box so it spreads the load. The roof was freshly painted and this is right by the fuse panel and considering the history of the home anything may have been done. I can fix anything I cut up on the walls and roof so what would you suggest the best way would be to correct this? I am fluent in DC electronics and have done a lot of research on AC and I had had no issues so far so I am confident I can fix home wiring with some tips.
Problem 2: I have a number of ceiling lights downstairs that do not work, I tested these before I removed all of the wiring from the previous problem. I removed the light fixtures and checked each one out and found the following. The light outside of the furnace area doesn't work and in the junction box above the light fixture there are two romex wires coming in and it is wired as it would be with a single switch. On this light I am not really sure where the switch is, I looked in the obvious areas and there are no switches and the ones further away that don't work seem to be a little far from this area.
I have a kitchen light that doesn't work and in the open area beside the kitchen there is a second light that also doesn't work. I look in the junction box in the kitchen and there are two wires coming into it that are marked red/white/back instead of the white/black, ground of all of the other wires. I have also looked at every switch box in the basement and not one switch uses a red/white/back wire. I believe the red/back/white wires are used with 2 way and above switches but I don't have any of these either. This one has me stumped, the ceiling in the kitchen also looks newly painted so who knows what is up there either. Any suggestions on how to address this? There is a switch right beside the kitchen that I am assuming is for the ceiling light and I can see if from the back of this wall going into the roof of the kitchen but it doesn't go that box.
The light over the open area beside the kitchen just has a single romex cable going into it so I assume this one should be wired the main kitchen light which it isn't.
Thanks for any tips or tricks in figuring this mess out. I have to buy one of those inductive power testers to see if there is a live hots in any of the mystery switches or the light fixtures which may help indicate where the problem is. Sorry for the long post, I am used to writing and figure too much information is better than none.