I'm going to preface this by saying I didn't do any of this!
So a few weeks back I decided to demolish our "sheetrock bathroom". It was moldy, gross and needed to be dealt with sooner than later. We just bought our house and had no idea about what lurked beneath.
I ripped off the wall that had the light switch; this is what I found:
Whoa! Okay, okay no need to panic. So what if someone wrote, "HELP" on that piece of wood. I got this...just need to clean it up right?
WRONG
I found this hidden gem when I demolished the ceiling. Not only are the wires badly frayed but the junction box is hidden, and there was an exhaust fan up there in that mess.
There is also a vanity light and it's not any better trust me.
All the wiring is 14/2. I'm sure that would be okay (well maybe not) if the circuit breaker had the correct amperage...yeah right it's on a 20 amp breaker along with fifteen other items. I moved as many items as I could to circuits that weren't so loaded but it was difficult. I feel like it's a fire waiting to happen. If the bathroom was wired with 14/2 I'm willing to bet my knuckles the rest of the house is too.
I called the electrician and he quoted me close to 1500.00 just to address the problems that I knew of at the time. At the time I didn't know about the wiring and I certainly didn't know about the surprise in the panel. Oh, and there is two hots squeezed in where there is only supposed to one.
I feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants here and we just bought this house so funds are a little tight. I will get my own permit and do the work myself but I'm a little uneasy. So I'm stuck. Do I wait this out to save money for the electrician to do it or is this within the scope of something I can do myself considering the (potentially dangerous) situation. I have really been studying this; I just didn't find this out yesterday and decided to fix it today. I have a pretty good understanding of basic wiring and I'm confident I understand it.
So, what should I do?
So a few weeks back I decided to demolish our "sheetrock bathroom". It was moldy, gross and needed to be dealt with sooner than later. We just bought our house and had no idea about what lurked beneath.
I ripped off the wall that had the light switch; this is what I found:
Whoa! Okay, okay no need to panic. So what if someone wrote, "HELP" on that piece of wood. I got this...just need to clean it up right?
WRONG
I found this hidden gem when I demolished the ceiling. Not only are the wires badly frayed but the junction box is hidden, and there was an exhaust fan up there in that mess.
There is also a vanity light and it's not any better trust me.
All the wiring is 14/2. I'm sure that would be okay (well maybe not) if the circuit breaker had the correct amperage...yeah right it's on a 20 amp breaker along with fifteen other items. I moved as many items as I could to circuits that weren't so loaded but it was difficult. I feel like it's a fire waiting to happen. If the bathroom was wired with 14/2 I'm willing to bet my knuckles the rest of the house is too.
I called the electrician and he quoted me close to 1500.00 just to address the problems that I knew of at the time. At the time I didn't know about the wiring and I certainly didn't know about the surprise in the panel. Oh, and there is two hots squeezed in where there is only supposed to one.
I feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants here and we just bought this house so funds are a little tight. I will get my own permit and do the work myself but I'm a little uneasy. So I'm stuck. Do I wait this out to save money for the electrician to do it or is this within the scope of something I can do myself considering the (potentially dangerous) situation. I have really been studying this; I just didn't find this out yesterday and decided to fix it today. I have a pretty good understanding of basic wiring and I'm confident I understand it.
So, what should I do?