Houston Home Inspections

After the Flood – If You have Floor Plugs©
By: Fred Willcox
TREC Professional Inspector #160
www.willcoxinspections.com

If your house has floor plugs and your house flooded, please read the following.

The electrical cable (wiring) that supplies electricity to the floor plug(s), in the vast majority of cases, will be damaged by water. There is some controversy about whether or not the electrical cable to the floor plug must be water resistant wiring. The building codes do not, in fact, require the cable to be water resistant if the cable is in conduit (pipe).

Almost all of the electrical cables that supply power to floor plugs are what you would call Romex© wiring. Romex© is actually a registered trademark. Unless you know for a fact that the cable is Romex© the correct term is non-metallic sheathed conductors, known as NMC. NMC will be used in this article.

The electrical wires in a NMC cable are not water resistant. Incidental, quick contact with water is not likely to damage the conductors. Submersion will damage the conductors. Further, flooding means that the conduit will be filled with, and will hold, water.

Water damaged NMC wiring is very likely to fault and may catch fire. If your electrical wiring, in the floor or in the walls have been submurged, the wiring needs to be replaced before it is used to conduct electricity.

The electrical receptacles, plugs and switches, that have had water in them also need to be replaced.

If you overlook or fail to address the defects in your electrical system, your next problem may be that your house catches fire.

www.willcoxinspections.com

Nice compliment and a warning about Realtor referrals

See the new article on safety concerns with the installation of new natural gas smart meters at www.willcoxinspections.com