One for the electrians

[Au revoir, Gopher]

Getting ready to make some changes in the basement (we bought this place in June 2023). I need to re-route some wiring. I start taking a light switch apart and find this! I've taken apart a couple switches here before, for whatever reason the guy always used 3-way switches (not one 3-way circuit). The wire's polarity is "correct", so yes, the light socket was always live and the neutral was switched (in a very bizarre fashion).

ARG

[fishunter327]

In my 40 years in the trade I have never seen that one before.

[Pekan]

You might want to have a look at some of the other devices. That's the sign of a guy who has no business doing electrical.

[Dylan15]

I've built 3 houses, as well as 2 renos I lived in, and pulled homeowner electrical permits. Had help/oversight from a journeyman buddy. 1 reno I had a pile of things wired like this, or similar. I wasn't comfortable with everything until I took every plug, switch, and appliance apart to inspect. I found some things that could've burnt house down if certain scenarios popped up, so likely worth your time to take covers off and peek in. By no means am I an expert, but that is not ideal.

[Supergrit]

Lot of times home was built by contractor and basement was not finished. The owner pulls a permits or doesn’t and finish the basements themselves. See a lot of shady stuff with electrical in the basements.
That is definitely bad wouldn’t hurt to do some checks in other parts of house

[Au revoir, Gopher]

I had already decided not to leave any of his electrical work in the basement, finding this just cemented that decision.

I'm not too worried about the rest of the house, it is a modular so he wouldn't have had much chance to work on things himself. What I am worried about is the detached garage and the shop.

ARG

[elkhunter11]

I didn't work residential during my career, but I did get asked to look at things in friends/co workers homes, and it's shocking what some peoople will do.

[-JR-]

I have never done a two way switch,but this looks like the light always has power and it turning a light off by turning off the neutral ??
Not sure what the ground wires are wrapped around ,is that a green screw head ?

[Au revoir, Gopher]

Originally Posted by -JR-

I have never done a two way switch,but this looks like the light always has power and it turning a light off by turning off the neutral ??

Correct, but not quite how you are thinking the neutral is being turned on/off.

Not sure what the ground wires are wrapped around ,is that a green screw head ?

The two white wires in the picture are connected to the "traveler terminals". In a properly wired three-way circuit, those terminals connect the two switches together. The third terminal is the source (power from the panel) on one switch and the load (the light socket) on the other switch. The third terminal is always connected to one of the traveler terminals, i the switch is down, it connects to the first one; if the switch is up, it connects to the second one.

What happens in the mess I found is that when the switch is in the "off" position the ground is connected to the neutral from the panel... weird, but no harm done. When the switch is in the "on" position the ground is connected to the neutral to the light socket, thus completing the circuit and turning the light on.

ARG

[TheIceTitan]

Originally Posted by fishunter327

In my 40 years in the trade I have never seen that one before.

You know it's bad when...

[walker1]

Originally Posted by TheIceTitan

You know it's bad when...

Yeah you said it right there!!!

[Stinky Buffalo]

It’s almost like they figured the Black screw was for “ground” and the white wire was “Power”

Looks like the handiwork of the same individual who wired the basement of a house I lived in.

I took apart every switch, fixture and outlet after finding the first one.

Apparently had no strength in his fingers too, since every marrette was loose and some fell off in my hand when I would open the box.

[Pekan]

The way it's wired the ground is the common wire with neutrals as travellers.
From an electrical theory point of view this works (ground and neutral are bonded in the panel).
But in practice the main issue with this is that a person shuts off the light to work in the light fixture box and possibly get a shock (if the box is grounded from another wire, or from a metal object like a duct or copper pipe the person may be touching). That's why we don't switch neutrals.

Many moons ago I was an electrical contractor in the Toronto area, one man in a van kinda thing. I've seen lots of this work in houses and small commercial buildings. My first thought when seeing this picture was- "new Canadian" renovation contractor.

The saddest part to me is, we've had youtube for how long now? And Google. It would take all of 5 minutes on youtube to get shown the proper way to do this.

Zero Facs given by this guy....

Thanks for posting this, it's a good departure from rants about Trudeau or whatever else!