Jeff, Sounds like your advice is about right. Unfortunately I am in Tucson, and I do not know any electricians up there in PHX. One suggestion is to ask at a local supply house, an independent, not a big chain like Graybar etc. They will usually have some recommendations on some honest, small shop guys who could help you out without breaking the bank.

Good luck to you, Brian

Hi Brian,
I am also in the Phx area (Peoria). I've been a reader of the NACHI electrical forum for a few years and see your posts, and know that you know your buisness. I haven't been on the site here for a good while, but if memory serves me, you are an electrical contractor?
A friend asked me for a reference to find an electrician that can do some work at an older home in the Camelback/Central Ave area.
I am not an electrician, but have some knowledge in the field and do my own work and sometimes a little for a friend. Anyway, I went by as a favor to see what was needed at this house. The homeowner is a 78 yr old senior citizen, in a 1945 built home. She apparently lost her long time husband recently, and she has concerns about the saftey of the electrical because they did add-ons over the years which were not done with building permits/inspections, and they tried to save a few bucks by using mexican illegals that were supposed to be "good." The result was a lot of slipshod work and things were stolen from them. I was asked my a mutual friend if I would takle a look and see what I thought it needed. I walked around today with her (Teddy) and her brother (Louis) to give them my impressions.

It appears the main panel was changed out at some point in the past, to a Murray from the faded sticker inside. NM cable running around to boxes outside with no covers. The only other panel I saw was a very old small Westinghouse just inside the house that looks original. Someone had changed out the receptacles to 3-prong but the several ones I checked with a tester showed open ground, and one indicated hot-neutral reversed. She said at least one switch is installed upside down. The house has no GFI receptacles. The service drop appears to be single phase (two insulated conductors with a neutral). A couple of outdoor light fixtures have stopped working. I asked her when the work was done by the "good" electricians, and she said in 1961-1962!

I told them that if I was her, I would have a qualfied Electrician check out the main service panel and plug a couple openings, install GFI receps in the kitchen and bathrooms, put blank covers over open boxes in the garage and the patio, and do a general safety check of the system for mis-wired receps, and maybe some trouble-shooting to find why the light fixtures won't come on. I told her that where the NM cable is running around, it should be conduit, but if they wanted to save money, they might want to leave it and just get the boxes covered, but one or two may need to be changed to weather-tight. The brother later called me and said someone had told her before to have an electrician check the wiring for the A/C condenser outside, as it seemed inadequate in some way (I didn't look at this as they forgot to mention it while I was there.

Are you interested in checking this out? If not, can you recommend an honest, reasonable Electrician for her?
Thanks,
Jeff Speer