Question is about electricity. I have just purchased an old house that had a half-a$ed remodel done on it.

Question

The electrical inspector checked the house, living space, told my idiot electrician to rewire the kitchen and a small bedroom and the rest was garandfathered in. "Complete this and we'll put fire on it and test it", he says. My question is, in the attic where all the wiring is run, can I use a handy-box off the bedrooms and homerun new wire to the panel for arc faults, as the older wiring is kinda all over the place. If I'm tripping anything I want it localized. This is a new quandary for me as usually with this particular inspector it's either been "rip it all out", or "rip it all out;)" Any advice would be welcomed!

Answer 1

Agree you need a new electrician -- licensed, insured. A real company, not a guy in a truck who works on the side.  

Answer 2

Sounds like your inspector knows your "idiot electrician".  Maybe your should find a new one.....like one that will rewire your house correctly the first time?  If your running new homeruns for a bedroom and installing arc fault detectors....you should replace the wiring inside the walls also, not just the homerun.  As for Jboxes in the attic......as long as the Jboxes are "accessible", then you're fine.  Accessible means "easy to get to".  In my neck of the woods, that means if you can walk up to it, it's accessible.  If you have to crawl to it, it's not.  Maybe you should "rip it all out" and start over and call it a "lesson learned"?

Answer 3

as long as the box is sized right and kept accessable also youll probably have to dead head the old wires  as for kitchen keep in mind that gfci s are required with in so many feet of water source your best bet would probably be to use a gfci circuit breaker as ssome of the old boxes make fitting a gfci outlet  very tight