Beginner electrical questions in new house

[PossumDog]

Hey guys

I have recently moved into a home built in the 1970s. It is my first house.
I have been looking at the electrical and thinking of making some changes an also raising my eyebrows so was hoping to run some thoughts by you.
Some of it relates to the garage so I guess it's kinda on topic.

I have found some questionable things I can point out.

I had an outlet in the garage not working.
Looking in the attic I see some splices that are just wrapped in tape.
Most perplexing is the wiring to the whole house fan. It has four wires. Three are from the standard cable with black, white, and ground. Then the fourth white wire seems to be borrowed from another cable and is just running alone to the fan. The single wire comes up through the attic floor in a separate place than the other cable.
I think that's why I have a non functional outlet in the garage but I need to investigate further.




The garage door opener is plugged into a metal box that's pretty wobbly mounted to the ceiling. It is on a GFCI breaker. My harbor freight tester indicates an open ground. That is the only receptacle in the house with any abnormal codes.



Here is a picture of the breaker box. I don't see anything alarming but I'm no electrician. It was taken by the home inspector. I have not taken the cover off. I can take better pictures if you need to see something closer.



I read about disposals and dishwashers on the same circuit and looked under the sink expecting to see a half-switched outlet. Instead I just see cable poking through the wall. The disposal is on the left and the dishwasher is on the right. The cables are unsupported. Also there is an oversink light on this circuit.



So far I've traced all the lights and outlets and labeled the breakers. I'm making plans of changes I'd like to make and things to correct. I do plan on having work inspected. I am on the 2011 NEC.

I know standards change so maybe some of this stuff used to be ok but wouldn't be allowed anymore.

I just want an opinion as to how these rate on the spectrum of 'dude, you're living in a death trap' to 'it's not ideal but it's acceptable' or somewhere inbetween.

Thanks

 

[wyliesdiesels]

The splices in tape are wrong. They need to be in j boxes.

Can u take a pic of the motor with the wire cover off?
Hard to say what they were doing there without seeing how its connected.
Does the fan work?

The missing ground could be as simple as a grounded box without a self grounding outlet, though its a GFCI, and Ive never seen one that wasnt self grounding. Also, could be a ground wire not hooked up inside the box.

Main service panel pic is blurry but i dont see anything off the bat.

Does the NM-b run straight to the D/W and D/P? Those should be cord and plug connected to a coasted(split) outlet.

 

[Mustang51js]

Where does the single wire go from the fan,prob a 2 speed fan. Could also open up a vent on the side of house

 

[PossumDog]

The whole house fan works properly.
I took a picture at the motor without the plate.



It looks like the questionable solo white wire connects to the terminal with the "C".

I feel like if the whole house fan had four wires - black & red (high and low speed), white (neutral), and ground - that would make sense.
What doesn't make sense is that the one white wire comes from who-knows-where and one of the whites is serving the purpose of a red.

It has a switch with a timer for 0-12 hours and a HI and LO setting.
I will take off the plate to examine the wires at the switch and will report back when I get it figured out.

I have an unworking outlet around the corner and in the same wall cavity as the switch so I'm assuming that's related. The outlet was actually my priority but tracing all the cables in the attic is getting difficult.

There are so many splices in the attic that it might be better to run new cabling than have so many junction boxes.

Undersink: the romex goes unsupported directly to the disposal. I can't confirm the same for the dishwasher without pulling it out but I see no evidence of a plug.

The garage door with a ground issue will have to wait for some free time. There are multiple other outlets on the same circuit without the problem.

Thanks

 

[checkthisout]

Your whole house fan wiring, not even gonna speculate there.

The garage outlet was probably added after. Probably a 2 wire extension cord or something.

Your wiring for the disposal and dishwasher is probably fine. Seen lots of 70s houses with the cable coming right out of the drywall. Pretty sure that's fine. Usually the disposal cable is armored while the dishwasher cable sometimes is or isn't.

 

[Mustang51js]

The white has to go to the switch if it's connected to red,or else the two speed won't work. Otherwise it may be the neutral tapped off a different circuit and the 2 wire romex used for the speeds. You should run a 3 wire from switch to motor to do it right.

 

[PossumDog]

So I took off the switch cover for the whole house fan and think I have it figured out.

There is just a single hot black wire coming in with no ground or neutral.

I think in the attic the romex was split with the black going down the wall to the switch and the white going to the fan as a neutral. If there was a ground it's just sitting there in the jacket.

That also means that although the ground wire from the fan and the switch are tied to each other, neither one is actually tied to the system ground.

I took some pictures but I don't think they were helpful so I tried to make a diagram.



As for my non working outlet I found the source cable in the attic and traced it to the nearest junction which was a ceiling mounted pullchain light. The light had 4 cables. I'm thinking that's just too many cables for a small box.



Since the light was functional and the other three cables were functional I decided to unmount the fixture and look at the wiring. It's hard to see in the picture but at the 1-2 oclock position all of the black wires are twisted together and the wirenut has slipped off, leaving exposed copper. I guess there are five wires, one for the light and four from the cables. I'm not sure if they are 12 or 14 gauge.



Any tips for fixing that are welcome. I first assumed I should replace with a larger box. But now I wonder if it would be better to reroute some cables and not have so many splices in one box in the first place.

Thanks

 

[sberry]

This can become a real problem. I just wired a house where I started out to fix a couple things and ended up pulling all new wire. If I was to do it again would start out that way and make a few minor changes in routing.
We uncovered some mistakes that worked, I couldn't trust any of it. Also the 70's codes have been improved mostly in kitchen and bath, some of these circuits are pitifully overloaded, many have been worked on, I tend to want to sweep right around them and pull new for countertops first thing.
As I said, just did one that had the bath, all counters, fridge on one along with a light fixture.

 

[sberry]

Buy 2 new rolls of 12 and do one piece at a time so you don't have the whole place tore up, collect a few tools as you go and fish a new wire as you figure it out. Laundry needs one, garage, counters and bathroom for a good start.

 

[Mustang51js]

The wires in the ceiling box are fine, you just need to get better wire nuts,because those ****, and twist the wires together better than they are.