Garage caught fire >:-o

Yep.... we were all in the house and we heard a pop, and our electric flickered. Come to find out our 220V outlet off the dryer exploded and started a fire in the wall. Matt and I had to knock out the wall after we flipped off the breaker...... Matt hurt his arm trying to break out the wall - poor guy! He tried to throw a 30 lb dumbell through the wall but he forgot to let go lol. ETA: 50 lb dumbell

We got the fire out, but we've learned we have to re-do ALL the electrical in our house now... talked to 3 of our electrician friends and they said our house is rigged up ghetto and should have burned down a long time ago.

If we had not been home, the house would'a burned down for sure. When I went out there, the stud in the wall was red hot

Pics are uploading

Thanks to Jason and Rob for your help over some freaking out phone calls!

OVER 50 LBS PUNK broke the wall and leaped a fence with a garden hose....need meds for arm

Crazy...

Glad to hear everyone is safe.

thats sucks, this week i have actually been doing a side job re-wiring a house that caught fire. It has the most jacked up wiring. When i tore out the old burnt up wiring i couldn't believe the stupid crap people do with electrical.

wow that is crazy!! at least you guys are home. you might check your home owner insurances; and property inspections discrepancy when you bought the house about 1 year ago. if they missed notes electrical problems and signed off it was up to code you can sue the sh-- out of them and get them to put all new wiring in the hole house. for free. might have to talk to a home inspections lawyer type to make sure you contact the correct people before fixing it yourself.

maybe you could have them wire in a couple extra breakers for the shop. for air compresses and welder on the side with your tool box.

heck if insurance lets your license contractor do the work whats to say the shop/garage didn't already have that done. hehe

Wow fricken crazy. Glad to here everything is ok. I think Jeremy is right look through your inspection payperwork and get those bastards!

Thanks guys...

Jeremi - the inspector did let us know that the electrical in the house was jacked up... so no issues there.

The house was bank owned, so we can't really blame anyone for 'not telling us'.

Really, we know our electrical is jacked up - but I never guessed it'd just explode. I never understood when my dad told me (cuz he says he told me this) that the fridge and the washer and dryer shouldn't all be on the 220 breaker/circuit. Apparently the fridge and washer are spliced into the 220V circuit (cuz it's all on the same breaker) and we're lucky it didn't happen sooner.

Justin - that's what we're going to have to do if we want to sleep well at night. Definitely going to have to rewire the whole house.

I'm going to see if our home warranty will cover it, and if it doesn't, I'll see if the insurance will do it. I think the home warranty is more promising than insurance though... will let ya'll know when I get through to someone on Monday.

Well, looks like home warranty covers electrical fires - from what I can find on the website, so I'll be calling them either tomorrow or Monday and seeing what it would take to get a contractor out here. They *might* fix it for just our co-pay fee ($60) but we'll see

BIG

Don't even call the ins company.. They make notes on inquiry's and most, I have heard, will drop you if used 1 to 2 times. If it is small enough, try to only use warranty or fix it your self, if you can, unless it is a huge amount.. Sorry to hear. I am glad everyone is alright. If you don't, please get some smoke detectors...

Hopefully the home warranty works out. I've used mine 2x now, and mine has been awesome! It hasn't been anything near as big as this, but who knows!

Something to think about, if you have to rewire the house, or part of it, find out how much the electrician may knock off if you run the wires for them yourself. None of the hookup, but just running the wire.

When my dad installed his hot tub, he saved $100 or so just by running the cable from the panel in the garage under the house to the back porch himself. He didn't do any of the hookup, just saved the electrician the work of getting under the house, and dealing with the ducting and stuff under there.

Hopefully you won't have to to worry about it, and you're warranty will take care of it all!

Well Pete came out and checked it out for us yesterday. He discovered that the outlets were not in fact spliced into the 220 circuit - YAYYYY!!!! So now he says it's just a matter of moving a few breakers around, replacing a breaker, and replacing the 220 outlet. So it looks to be under $100 fix... not really worth paying for a $60 inspector for the home warranty.

thanks to pete for coming out and looking at it. also letting us know what we are going to need to fix it. Thanks also to Rob and Becky for letting us use there washer and dryer to complete our laundry that day.

FFC wrote:Well Pete came out and checked it out for us yesterday. He discovered that the outlets were not in fact spliced into the 220 circuit - YAYYYY!!!! So now he says it's just a matter of moving a few breakers around, replacing a breaker, and replacing the 220 outlet. So it looks to be under $100 fix... not really worth paying for a $60 inspector for the home warranty.

Check how your warranty works, and make some phone calls to clarify if you have to. Better to pay $60 to an electrician who will fix it all, and take on the liability, then pay closer to $100 and do it yourself, taking that liability on yourself.

On my warranty, its a $50 service fee, but whatever needs to be done is taken care of, regardless of the end all price.

Ex: If my furnace goes out, I pay a service guy $50 to come look at it. If he determines it needs replaced, it gets replaced, with me paying only the initial $50.

FYI, if your house starts on fire, and the insurance co. can prove that it was faulty wiring that you did, then they don't have to pay out, because you're not a licensed electrical contractor. Its bullshit, but the insurance companies are devious bastards, they don't like paying out.

I'm all for doing work on your own house, but if this is a warranty issue, thats what you paid for the warranty for. Might as well use it right?

Good point Jason.... I'll talk to Matt 'bout this and see what route he wants to take.

if you paid for a home inspection and they said "no electrical problems" and even if the house is bank owned. the home inspector could be legible to pay everything and more. for not finding this problem.

example if they don't tell you the roof on your house leaks then after you move in you find a leaks in your roof they are held responsible for not telling you and can be liable for fixing or rewriting there report to make sure its up to code.
at least that is how it was explained to me when I was buying a house. that is y u pay for your home inspection or electrical and bugs pluming and roof.

Jeremi

Jeremi - you are correct. But we did pay for the home inspection - and they did warn us about the electrical.

oh OK that makes more sense !!! my bad (sorry)

anyway hope it didn't mess up your clothing dryer!! if the fire did I have one for you its 29" wide sears Kenmore make you a deal on it.

it wont fit in my hole of 27" old construction home laundry room.

hope you have a better day.

Jeremi