Wallpaper-Dry Wall-Electricity... How Dumb Am I?

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This is primarily directed to Demarpaint but I think you will all appreciate it. We finally got the wall paper removed in all 3 bathrooms. My wife would end up crying after woking all day removing it. I cried on the inside. We have this particular look called "knockdown stipple"

Found a great Dry Wall guy. He is matching the walls perfectly. On time, clean, loves our country, Christian, etc.

Well, I figured I'd be really smart and Sunday night my son and I figured out which breakers controlled which bathroom. We labeled them in the box as they were a little vague. Front bathroom, MIke's bathroom, Main bathroom. Feeling good. Commode tanks removed. Shower rods removed. Mirrors removed. I had to take my Mom to the Dr. yesterday so I was not gonna be home. He would work alone.

Dry wall guy shows up. He's impressed we are all ready for him. I proudly told me how we had explicitly labeled the breakers in the breaker box and all he had to do was go downstairs and trip the breaker when the got to the removal of the light strips in each bath. I was sorta patting myself on my back. You know, a little puffed up.

He turned to me, reached over to the switch on the wall and said, "Oh, I just normally flip the switch there on the wall and turn the lights off." He then turned the lights in the bathroom off.

I don't know if I can put into words the emotions I felt at that time. LOL

Especially when our eyes met. I had to look away.
 
LOL!
Blow it off and don't fret over it.
On to the next
smile.gif
 
Why do you beat yourself?

You label your panel the right way, not some smeared scribbling from 30 years ago.

You "clean" your bathroom, which also means you will put it back much quicker.

And you can pat yourself on your back in your brand new-ish bathrooms while taking a shower/long bath when he's done and painting finished.

And you had a good workout including some twisting and stretching...

And you will love it when your bathroom will not smell like paint and wall dust.

And he just teach you something (work lights use)

see?
 
It's still better to flip the breaker. Someone could bump into the switch and accidentally turn it on.
Or if the fixture is removed: Someone flips the switch, light doesn't turn on because it's removed, person thinks "oh yeah I forgot the light is removed" and person forgets to shut the switch back off. Drywall guy comes in later and touches the wire...
 
My Dad is a retired electrician and he clearly labelled each and every panel that he installed, along with the date that he installed it. Always.

It infuriates him as to how many electricians simply fail to do so, and there are many.
 
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
LOL. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.


I'm smiling. Knock down stipple it is....
grin.gif


I ain't beating myself up. I find it humbling to be able to laugh at your self.
 
I'm confused. What you did is correct and what he does is how people get injured. You never know when someone did some kind of hack job. It happens all the time. Even with things tripped, one should check to make sure there is no power at the fixture.

Having said that, I know that feeling you experienced. I chased an electrical problem on a tractor for a day, only to have someone come over to help and within a minute he asked "what's this wire unplugged from the fitting?"
 
Always better to turn off the breaker-how is he going to do the wall where the switch is? Plus, you never know when some doofus has switched the hot & the neutral-on old cloth wiring, it can be hard to tell what's what.
 
Best practice is to trip the breaker and kill all power. That being said, i would just cap the live and return wires after removing the fixture and leave the breaker alone. When it comes time to reinstall the light, just make sure the switch is still off then reinstall. A piece of tape over the switch can be a good reminder as well.
 
Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
My Dad is a retired electrician and he clearly labelled each and every panel that he installed, along with the date that he installed it. Always.

It infuriates him as to how many electricians simply fail to do so, and there are many.



Exactly- I find it rather disgusting when the panel has a few lines of scribble. Typical!
 
You were completely right. That painter might get zapped some day due to a incorrectly wired light. Plus, every outlet should be checked with a voltmeter. I’ve seen a room where one outlet was on a seperate breaker from the rest.
 
When I moved into my first home I drew a floor plan sketch with all outlets and fixtures labeled with the breaker number. I even color coded it. At a glance one can see which breaker to turn off without having to reset all clocks and TVs.

I always find labels at the box somewhat useless. It's not as though one breaker serves one room. Each breaker serves a smattering of outlets and fixtures.
 
Like the majority of other respondents, I too would always turn off the breaker rather than relying on the light switch. Depending on how the switch is wired into the circuit, there could still be hot conductors in the octagon box even with the switch off. Why take that chance?

And, as others have said, it's great to have a proper schematic of which circuit each receptacle and light fixture is on.
 
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