Electrical Changes Before Inspection

You need to hire an electrician to wire your new home or the addition to your present home.  He will wire it up to code and have his work inspected. 

 
Here’s a scenario:
While building your new dream home, there are many changes that you would love to have or forgot to put into your new home.  After the electrician finishes his job on the rough in and you have paid him, you stick a receptacle here or there and add another lights in a closet somewhere.  But you didn’t realize that the electrical inspector had not yet come.  So, he shows up and fails your electrical contractor.  Then your electrical contractor wants to charge you additionally for another inspection as well as to correct the mishaps you tried to install. Sound familiar?

Once your electrician finishes his rough in and has been paid, the homeowner, general contractor, or anyone else for that matter, should not add anything!!!  Did you hear me?  Not anything.  When you make changes or additions, you have messed up the job you just paid an electrician to perform.  Your receptacles may not work.  Your lights may not work.  And it will not be the electrician’s fault.

A licensed electrician can provide an estimate for his work and tell you how involved the job will become.  One time I had to give an estimate for installing a ceiling fan in a porch addition.  When I quoted the price for half a days work, the homeowner said no, thinking it was too expensive.  What the homeowner didn’t realize was that they wanted a ceiling fan hung on a switch, not a pull string, in an addition to an existing home.  In another words, there was no exposed walls to run the wire.  I would be feeding the wire to a switch and then to the ceiling fan.

There is a reason why you, as a homeowner, draw up plans before the house is wired.  Stick to the plans.  If you change the plans, let your electrical contractor know so he can make the additions.  For example, a microwave needs a circuit by itself.  If you move the microwave, you need to notify your electrician ASAP.  Changes can be made before the electrical inspector is called out.  Did you tell your electrician about your changes?