Just had a customer who almost got shocked because of an old splice

I was out in Riverside yesterday finishing up a new install and the homeowner pointed to this old junction box in the garage. Said he tried to move it himself and got a tingle off the cover. I popped it open carefully and there was a splice from like 15 years ago with no tape on the ground wire, just loose. Lucky he didn't get hit harder. It really made me wonder how many other hidden time bombs are out there in older houses. Has anyone else run into sketchy old splices that were barely holding together?

3 comments

3 Comments

williamm8210d agoMost Upvoted

Man that Riverside garage box sounds familiar. My buddy had a similar thing in Chino where the neutral was barely twisted under a wire nut from a old remodel. Idk maybe it's just me but I always thought the ground wire was the most likely to get left loose cause people figure "it's just ground." But yeah that tingle off the cover means something was definitely live going to ground which is basically a shock trap waiting for someone to lean on it. I'd bet the original installer just figured nobody would ever touch it again.

reeseperez10d ago

Dude exactly, found the same thing inside a jbox in Ontario last year. Wild.

lucasjackson2d agoMost Upvoted

Honestly I had the exact same thing happen at a property in Mira Loma last year. It was an older garage, and someone had swapped a light fixture but left the ground wire just kinda tucked behind the box with the wire nut barely on. I went to swap a outlet and got that same little tingle off the metal cover. Scared the crap out of me. Yeah people always seem to rush the ground like it's optional, but that's exactly how someone ends up getting bit. I spent an hour tracking down every jbox in that garage after that.