Electical code - repair question conduit to meter
 

We are selling our house. We had the foundation done in April. When they jacked the back corner of the garage up, the conduit pulled out of the bottom of the meter so there is 1"-2" of exposed wiring. As part of the inspection on the house, the guy saw this and the buyers want it fixed. I'm wondering if the meter could be disconnected and then a short piece of conduit 2" long stuck between these two. Or is there another good fix that isn't expensive or involved?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1407121452.jpg

Since it involves the meter it may be something you need to get your utility company to deal with.

Maybe they'll fix it for free.

Doesn't hurt to ask.

Yeah, that would be nice, but the inspector said that wasn't the case, but he could be wrong. Doesn't hurt to ask.

You know, you could really put your foot down on the intentional of elelctrical codeds, Im a EE engineer.


get the conduit, cut it up the middle in half, fittings and all, then encase the sandwiched fittings and PVC pipe glue them together, add a couple of stainless steel clamps to make the new owner feel better..........don't be scared to challenge the inspector or codes, often they are "guidelines" not black and white.

either way, cheap fix really.

Where does that conduit go? Take another pic farther away for me will ya? It should an easy fix. I would just pay an electrical to get it fix. 30-40 min tops if its what I am thinking from the pic.

The metal conduit goes a couple of feet down into the ground. I'm not going to cut on a pipe with my power feed in it. One wrong move and I'd be a crispy critter.

Here you go. It's a little blurry

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1407128687.jpg

clearer and closer.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1407128796.jpg

How many wires are coming in from the ground? Is that 2 or 3? code may require to have a single piece of conduct without break or connection. Ours are one piece without break coming from overhead. I call your local electrician. It should not be too much money.

There may be stress on the feed wires (can't tell from the photos) Have the power company turn the juice off. Relocate the meter base low enough the fit onto the conduit. You'll have to move the outlet to the breaker box.

Logically that would be a possibility.

Just hire an electrician. I doubt you are looking at $200 to fix it correctly. Then the buyers will be happy and the house will be sold!

First, don't do what rusty heap said, if for no other reason way too much work.
Also, not sure about your area, but the run from pole or transformer generally belongs to you. An electrical contractor is needed, not the power company.
As wdfifteen said, the end of the conduit could be pulling on the cable. It hasn't cut into it too bad, else it would've blown.
Dig out around the conduit and check. You may be able to lift the conduit up enough to get the locknut back on it inside the meter can.
You may have to pay a resealing fee to the power company as you'll have to cut the seal to get inside the meter can.

This is a real easy fix, as long as you're an electrician, not an "EE engineer". Whatever that is...

Carter (Yes, I am a Journeyman Electrician)

^1 on 71scgc suggestion.

The house we purchased had some landscaping settled around the area of our meter panel and it exhibitied a similar issue. I was able to dig and loosen the soil enough to raise the conduit around our panel by an inch or more.

Any type of repair to split a pipe and clamp/glue it back in place will not pass inspection.

You can schedule with the Utility company, they will shut off power so you can do the repair. Looks like rigid conduit, you can get a threaded coupling, couple of lock nuts and bushing, and a piece of running thread or close nipple from supply house to extend the pipe, as long as the wires are long enough.

That is before the meter so shutting it off is going to be a little complicated.

Don't all those wires belong to the power company?

With you trying to sell the house, whatever you do, use a licensed professional willing to sign a work invoice with his license number on the repair ticket. Put that with the paperwork for the house.

Interesting...I work for the local electric company and we are responsible for anything up to the meter, after the meter is on the customer. You might want to make sure the electric company won't fix it. Unfortunately they might do it at their own pace.

In my area, owner is responsible for everthing after it leaves the splice at the pole, curb.

NJ works both ways, it may be the customer's, it may be the power utility. Depends on the contract at installation.

In any event, start with the utility co.

This, no reason to drag your feet and let the buyers get cold feet on it. I'd get an electrician out there today and get the process moving forward. Your RE agent will thank you!

I wouldn't see it as a big deal and I'd do the splice over with SC 80 conduit bit as well. Way not worth all the trouble of possibly pulling the old conduit up and back into the can. The local power company probably will not fix this on your property. They may, however, disconnect the line so that you could pull the conduit up where it belongs if you don't want to go the route of splicing over it.

BTW, the home inspector missed the not being allowed to have phone interface attached to conduit... I'd remind him of that. NEC 300.11 (B)

That's more then a couple of hundred bucks around here for a fix like that if you hire a lic. electrician. A handymandelux will do it for a hundred or even less. hell they wouldn't even have to talk to you because they can't speak to you.

I caught that too, but it looks like its sitting on top of the big honking conduit? Still, no bueno.

And NO to the response of codes being "guidelines".... Adopted code is law, law broken get citations.
2 reasons this may be a required fix.... 1 if the conduit was used as a means of grounding/bonding the equipment. 2 if not having that conductor covered was seen as "subject to physical damage".
I see the second as the only possible in this case. Therefore, covering with Sch 80 conduit would be fine.

Either direction is fairly simple... If you really want this buyer and it's that close to a deal either call an electrician to pull the conduit up or if you're feeling "thrifty" contact the electrical utility and ask for a disconnect so you can pull it up yourself.
My guess is the conduit probably goes down 3' or so and may have a "slack box" at the end. Pull meter, dig out conduit,pull up, re-attach fitting, re-tighten clamps holding conduit to house, Juice it ....
Wouldn't take more than a couple of hours so even ice cream won't melt in the fridge

It is, and they are very motivated. They want closing by Aug 19.
Supposedly, the foundation guys had the bottom of the conduit exposed when they did the foundation and tried to move it up and it wasn't moving easily. It has been in there for nearly 50 years.
Yes, the foundation guys said the conduit goes down several feet into the gound. I'd be surprised if a block of wood and a large hammer wouldn't move it up, but that would definitely entail digging a big hole.

I'll probably just call someone and at least have them give me a quote. If it's <$500, I'll probably just let them do it. If it's more, I may start digging.

When I sold my last place there were a couple of code issues that needed to be addressed.

We wrote it into the contract that we would address them and left cash in escrow to guarantee performance.

It's an option if time is a factor for closing as it was for us.

Unfortunately it looks like they tore out the oversized knock out in the panel so the feed will need to be disconnected to repair properly. Other than that, just dig down to the sweep and then back 5-10' and that should be able to be jacked into place. Can't blame the buyer for wanting that fixed, I would have never even put it on the market until that was done.

Get a quote and have the buyer fix it and refund them the money at the close of escrow. This way, you are not under the gun for the fix and they know you mean well. You agent should negotiate that easily if they really want the house. Show the estimate to them.

I've got an electrician coming by tomorrow to look at it.

I should have written it clearer. Refund the money to fix the issue at the close of escrow to the buyer so they can fix it themselves after closing.

no, I understood. I had proposed that to my wife when we got the list of things to fix on the house. I'd been working on the house every weekend for a while before we put it on the market to get it ready to sell. I'm ready to not work on anything any more, but I'm sure the allowance that we would have to give them to fix things would be much more than it would cost for me to fix several of the little things. I'll be getting pros to do a couple of things. I've already done several myself.

Oh yeah fix the easy stuff and have someone do the PITA things you absolutely hate, if not, make a deal. Are you moving to a bigger house? you are willing to leave all the custom wood work bahind and start all over again?

All that digging seems like a lot of work to me. I would simply remount the meter base so the conduit reaches it. As 356racing pointed out, you may have to repair the torn-out hole in the meter base.

A specific washer usually fixes that problem. I have never had to replace a big one like that. If they are torn really bad, I usually just convince the owner to just replace it and deal with the liability of fixing a clapped out panel. Its just not with it to me.

Out of curiosity I asked a technician with our local electrical utility. He said our electric company would come out and put in a new meter base. The line is their responsibility up to the meter and they don't want the liability of any f-ups.

Thanks all for all of the advice. The electrician came out this morning and looked at it. He said that the best route would be to move the meter down on the wall so it meets the conduit and then change the conduit between the meter and breaker box to a dog leg. He also said that the meter box looks original and so they would probably replace that because it's not unusual for the places where the power connects to bend due to the house being lifted. He also said that it would entail almost an entire day with no power in the house...

in Houston...

in August.

Oh, hell no.

I thought we could schedule the work after we move out, but before the closing. Previously, I had considered offering an allowance to the buyers so they can get it done, but I've been able to fix 6 or 7 of the things that they wanted fixed and only have 2 or 3 things left. I think we are going to offer them an allowance so they can get the rest done themselves. Honestly, I doubt they'll get any of the stuff fixed because it's all pretty minor. I would assume the biggest possibility for issues from this particular item is that lizards or something could crawl up inside the meter. I've seen them inside the breaker box over the years, so they could probably already get into the meter.

The utility co doesn't give a rats ass about your need to do this quickly and hopefully not too expensively. I would just call an electrician. But is that direct burial cable?

Rusty Heap's suggesting is looking pretty good right about now.....heh.

I forgot to say, the guy said the cost would only be 450-550 or so. Which to me, doesn't sound that bad. The worst part about getting the work done is having 12-24 hours of no power (and therefore, no AC which is unthinkable this time of year) I suspect the buyers will jump at us giving them a little money so they can get it fixed. They are very eager to move in before the 25th. Honestly, I'd be surprised if we could manage that anyway, but I'd like to get moved soon too.