Thread: Want to see something really stuipd?

I did an end of warranty inspection on a new house. The owners had been in it for almost a year.

I found one of the electrical outlets absolutely filled with expanding foam. It bridged all of the wires and screws on the plug.

I asked the homeowners how the heck this happened. They told me that they had complained about air intrusion coming through the sockets after they moved into the house. The builder sent a repairman, probably a "handiman," to fix the problem.

They watched him bend the edge of the electrical box, squirt the foam to the wall sides of box and then close it up. Apparently it expanded into the box as it did its job.

I'm not sure, but I doubt these expanding foam products are rated as electrical insulators. It just galls me that builders like this would endanger people just so they could spend $1.49 instead of doing the job that they were paid to do. Ugh!

You can use the foam around the exterior of the electrical box but the foam should never be in contact with any exposed copper or the terminal screws.

All of those receptacle box should be removed and replaced.

I came across this once also. On another house, someone had done the same thing with fiberglass insulation. The worst I've seen was a subpanel that had a bookcase built over half of it and was stuffed with newspaper to seal missing knockouts on the interior and cover.

Just to go along with the title of this thread I offer the following.

Rick--
Is that done so the drunks using the sidewalk think they are walking a straight line?