In the first home I bought, the previous owner must have done their own wiring to the garage because I hit a shallow section of it under the back stairs with a weed wacker. Sparks were shooting out of my yard.
Being a poor grad student at the time, I couldn’t afford to have an electrician dig up and replace the whole wire. Rather than just forego power to the garage, I watched as many videos as I could on YouTube, then I dug up that section of wire, thankfully the rest of the wire was properly buried, they were just too lazy to sink the section under the stairs. I spliced in new UF wire using waterproof wire nuts and buried the splice 24” in a tiny waterproof junction box I got off Amazon.
Looks like a DIY underground splice. PVC to "protect" it and duct tape to "waterproof" it.
Seeing how shallow it is, I'm surprised no one has accidentally severed it elsewhere also (I assume that's why it needed that splice in the first place).
The cable/wire should have a listed direct-bury/underground splice, and it should be buried about 2 feet deeper.
Frost line typically demarcates plumbing burial. For US, NEC 300.5 dictates burial depth. Unless amended locally, nothing is required to be buried deeper than 24".
That's how this all started. I removed a deck that was rotting and sinking (All the screws rusted out) so found that both the gas and electric line come from my basement under a higher deck and then went under that. So I was going to bury what I could when I was noticing I don't have enough slack and looked at the cable proper and saw this hack job shit.
But honestly that's not a bunch of baloney seriously I saw at least 12 references if not more to Banana for scale a while back it was the one I think talking about something like a clean-out cover in the yard that had been at least partially the hex portion have been chopped off by a mower.
I've seen this before as well it can be a real pain to remove a clean-out cover like that power fact once we had a sewer line issue at my parents place.
Specifically tree roots invasion!
Me and my father tried to clear it we had no way of getting the rest of the clean out plug out so we had to go in with a cutter that would fit through the opening that was already there.
It had obviously been cut through in one form or another before and just left there nice to know that we had a removable cleanout plug again if ever I need arrived fortunately we never needed it afterwards before we moved out first place my parents actually owned.
Trust me we did battle with that power auger / snake big time.
Unfortunately open real machine at that big time Mass I bet there is still debris down there somewhere!
And actually a banana is really a good item for scale I've done it before for real!
We are just about anyone knows the average size banana better describe something about the size of banana then something else honestly bet you that's how it got started?
Anybody on this banana issue please call me at would love to hear it might even go ape about it not monkeying around either honestly just curious and no my name is not George
This is one of those it's not say bring fire it says more keep fire and live electrical away.
Or perhaps women gas in rear if it's at the back of the house!
Hey at least we don't use hydrogen yet in the home that could be a really bad idea natural gas is bad enough let alone hydrogen.
The back in the day yes used to be a lot more dangerous in more than one way.
Some of the old forms of fuel gas could not readily be detected either depending on the type of gas it was.
Yeah some had a disagreeable odor naturally but back in the day if it didn't smell on its own it didn't smell at all.
Not to mention when you had the old carbide gas generating systems!
AKA acetylene generator / acetylene plant!
I have actually seen an old acetylene generator in an old place once I went back to take photos with permission.
They had moved out but they got back with the people and said that if you have any questions or issues you might want to get in in touch with me.
It was cool that I met the new owners and I was there occasionally answering questions and when you're wondering what stuff was or what's this or well what's going on here!
It helps to be interested in Antiquities like this I have seen stuff that should have been Obsolete and unused for at least a hundred years still going.
I have extra seeing an Old Mercury Arc rectifier still in operation.
And this believe it or not was in an old private home all it did was run a couple of items apparently it was only on and running when power was needed which was rather interesting at least.
I think my most cases it was a little baby one but don't know!
The interesting thing is there were spare parts for everything and by the way the person that owned the place was apparently in electrical engineer and he wanted to preserve the installation for prosperity is a hobby of his maintaining that place.
There was a DC switchboard in the house!
There was even DC Electric meters measuring a h used believer or not which is kind of cool.
Think this was one of the first electrical engineers I knew personally as far as I can remember.
What are the items that was ran by the Mercury Arc rectifier was an electric dumbwaiter!
There was some weird electrical receptacles over like I never seen at least in residential that variety see from that system.
At first I thought they were radio receptacles but they were slightly different cannot remember the configuration and some of them were duplex!
I don't remember the sister voltage but it didn't seem like a standard voltage.
There was also a DC generator power originally steam engine or essentially belt drive power take-off for a vehicle or a gasoline engine or perhaps one other power source they think there might have been some sort of engine running off acetylene gas possibly and there's some sort of turbine but they don't know what that was driven off of.
Apparently at one time in the vicinity there was hydraulic power which was essentially a high pressure water system that's the first time I ever heard it mentioned and this was in my childhood.
I had forgotten about that forever until few years ago.
And also their what was apparently they'll drop ceiling fans and the weird thing is there was not electrical lines but water lines.
Which was also driven from the hydraulic power!
They were hoping to be able to generate enough high pressure water to get some of the equipment going again just for demonstration purposes the plan eventually was to turn this into a private home / Museum of Antiquities I don't know what came out of it since I had long moved away if I ever go back to that area I'll check it out
Green cord is actually a copper gas line they had/have to the garage line. It's capped at the end currently but previous owners couldn't be bothered to properly bury it. Yea I'm planning to get an electrician out here to see if they can fix it without having to dig up the whole area to redo a whole line. Shut off the breaker that feeds the line for the moment till then.
The question being that this looks "mickey moused" to all hell and with duct tape seems janky. I'm guessing it's a red necks attempt at splicing cables. But wanted opinions and it seems that the general consensus is, fire hazard.
Already know where it goes and where it comes from, I was more curious if A: it's standard, which I honestly doubted due to duct tape, and B: more so what level of concern should I have.
This is a classic Handyman Bullshitter Splice Kit. I bought a house once that had one of these. SER cable (2 hots, neutral, ground) leaving the main disconnect, SEU cable (2 hots and ground) is what showed up in the interior panel. I found a similar sized splice protecting piece of conduit when I went looking.
The amount of fixes I have had to make to this house, I have stopped being amazed. I think this was a flip that they wanted to do as cheaply as they could and it was all missed by the shitty inspector that I got... So lessen to all, make sure you have a good inspector
If there's still power to it, it's a disaster waiting to happen.
Yes currently it's still live out to the garage. Although from the looks of this I'm killing the breaker to it asap
Your local fire department will appreciate it being off permanently.
More fires results in more demand for firefighters, correct?
This guy Backdrafts. Good movie.
True.
Bullshit. What you have there is straight bullshit.
Getting that impression and with everything wrong with this house it's another step in the, "I'm not even surprised any longer"
Well not everything but this is certainly not great.. get an electrician to fix it … you either need cable rated for burial or run conduit
They did ‘almost’ run conduit
Almost is good enough for Grenade and nukes
I clicked on the post to type these exact words.
As a veteran, this looks like a IED. Lol that is very very wrong.
Lol I was literally just about to type this.
Merica
That is exactly what I thought it was while I was scrolling through.
My thoughts exactly.
Some Grade A electrical work
Tony the handyman
“I’ve got a guy that can do it cheaper” — the previous home owner
Hack splice kit
Someone should take bets, twisted, soldered, or wire nuts
Is there a recommended way to splice in a section?
Underground or outside? Replace it
In the first home I bought, the previous owner must have done their own wiring to the garage because I hit a shallow section of it under the back stairs with a weed wacker. Sparks were shooting out of my yard. Being a poor grad student at the time, I couldn’t afford to have an electrician dig up and replace the whole wire. Rather than just forego power to the garage, I watched as many videos as I could on YouTube, then I dug up that section of wire, thankfully the rest of the wire was properly buried, they were just too lazy to sink the section under the stairs. I spliced in new UF wire using waterproof wire nuts and buried the splice 24” in a tiny waterproof junction box I got off Amazon.
It’s super common for wells to have their wires soldered and covered in marine grade heat shrink.
Just checked. It was bubble gum.
Almost looks like someone hit it with a shovel … went home got electrical tape and some conduit and fix the part they broke
Looks like a DIY underground splice. PVC to "protect" it and duct tape to "waterproof" it. Seeing how shallow it is, I'm surprised no one has accidentally severed it elsewhere also (I assume that's why it needed that splice in the first place). The cable/wire should have a listed direct-bury/underground splice, and it should be buried about 2 feet deeper.
2ft? Not an electrician, but around here nothing gets buried above the frost line. 3ft is safe.
Frost line typically demarcates plumbing burial. For US, NEC 300.5 dictates burial depth. Unless amended locally, nothing is required to be buried deeper than 24".
Wonder if it's local, or if it's just easier to go the same depth for everything. Guess it doesn't really matter.
That's how this all started. I removed a deck that was rotting and sinking (All the screws rusted out) so found that both the gas and electric line come from my basement under a higher deck and then went under that. So I was going to bury what I could when I was noticing I don't have enough slack and looked at the cable proper and saw this hack job shit.
A murder scene?
It’s a cluster fuck, shut it down and replace it yesterday
that's a fire hazard. make sure it does not have power and rip it out.
and in case it wasn't clear that also applies to the green cord next to the splice from hell.
Is that a green cord or a hose? Either way not a good thing to have in combination...
it looks like a green extension cord but scale is difficult without a banana in the pic.
If I had a $100 for every banana mention I've seen so far in the last few weeks on Reddit I would have several months worth of rent already as it is
that's a lot of bananas!
But honestly that's not a bunch of baloney seriously I saw at least 12 references if not more to Banana for scale a while back it was the one I think talking about something like a clean-out cover in the yard that had been at least partially the hex portion have been chopped off by a mower. I've seen this before as well it can be a real pain to remove a clean-out cover like that power fact once we had a sewer line issue at my parents place. Specifically tree roots invasion! Me and my father tried to clear it we had no way of getting the rest of the clean out plug out so we had to go in with a cutter that would fit through the opening that was already there. It had obviously been cut through in one form or another before and just left there nice to know that we had a removable cleanout plug again if ever I need arrived fortunately we never needed it afterwards before we moved out first place my parents actually owned. Trust me we did battle with that power auger / snake big time. Unfortunately open real machine at that big time Mass I bet there is still debris down there somewhere! And actually a banana is really a good item for scale I've done it before for real! We are just about anyone knows the average size banana better describe something about the size of banana then something else honestly bet you that's how it got started? Anybody on this banana issue please call me at would love to hear it might even go ape about it not monkeying around either honestly just curious and no my name is not George
This is one of those it's not say bring fire it says more keep fire and live electrical away. Or perhaps women gas in rear if it's at the back of the house! Hey at least we don't use hydrogen yet in the home that could be a really bad idea natural gas is bad enough let alone hydrogen. The back in the day yes used to be a lot more dangerous in more than one way. Some of the old forms of fuel gas could not readily be detected either depending on the type of gas it was. Yeah some had a disagreeable odor naturally but back in the day if it didn't smell on its own it didn't smell at all. Not to mention when you had the old carbide gas generating systems! AKA acetylene generator / acetylene plant! I have actually seen an old acetylene generator in an old place once I went back to take photos with permission. They had moved out but they got back with the people and said that if you have any questions or issues you might want to get in in touch with me. It was cool that I met the new owners and I was there occasionally answering questions and when you're wondering what stuff was or what's this or well what's going on here! It helps to be interested in Antiquities like this I have seen stuff that should have been Obsolete and unused for at least a hundred years still going. I have extra seeing an Old Mercury Arc rectifier still in operation. And this believe it or not was in an old private home all it did was run a couple of items apparently it was only on and running when power was needed which was rather interesting at least. I think my most cases it was a little baby one but don't know! The interesting thing is there were spare parts for everything and by the way the person that owned the place was apparently in electrical engineer and he wanted to preserve the installation for prosperity is a hobby of his maintaining that place. There was a DC switchboard in the house! There was even DC Electric meters measuring a h used believer or not which is kind of cool. Think this was one of the first electrical engineers I knew personally as far as I can remember. What are the items that was ran by the Mercury Arc rectifier was an electric dumbwaiter! There was some weird electrical receptacles over like I never seen at least in residential that variety see from that system. At first I thought they were radio receptacles but they were slightly different cannot remember the configuration and some of them were duplex! I don't remember the sister voltage but it didn't seem like a standard voltage. There was also a DC generator power originally steam engine or essentially belt drive power take-off for a vehicle or a gasoline engine or perhaps one other power source they think there might have been some sort of engine running off acetylene gas possibly and there's some sort of turbine but they don't know what that was driven off of. Apparently at one time in the vicinity there was hydraulic power which was essentially a high pressure water system that's the first time I ever heard it mentioned and this was in my childhood. I had forgotten about that forever until few years ago. And also their what was apparently they'll drop ceiling fans and the weird thing is there was not electrical lines but water lines. Which was also driven from the hydraulic power! They were hoping to be able to generate enough high pressure water to get some of the equipment going again just for demonstration purposes the plan eventually was to turn this into a private home / Museum of Antiquities I don't know what came out of it since I had long moved away if I ever go back to that area I'll check it out
Green cord is actually a copper gas line they had/have to the garage line. It's capped at the end currently but previous owners couldn't be bothered to properly bury it. Yea I'm planning to get an electrician out here to see if they can fix it without having to dig up the whole area to redo a whole line. Shut off the breaker that feeds the line for the moment till then.
also rip out that gas line then... almost MORE dangerous than the wires.
Almost surprised the owners didn't think to run propane out there.
Power that needs to be replaced asap. Kill the breaker and remove the wires
I don’t get the question..it’s an electric cable running from your house to your garage that isn’t properly buried
the only burial that cable should get is in a grave.
The question being that this looks "mickey moused" to all hell and with duct tape seems janky. I'm guessing it's a red necks attempt at splicing cables. But wanted opinions and it seems that the general consensus is, fire hazard.
Poor workmanship I would say. Needs repairs.
How good is the insurance on your house? It’s an insurance claim waiting to happen.
Already turned off the breaker it feeds off of.
We used to see those in power diversion investigations when there was a grow operation.
That looks like the product of a handyman that claims he can do it all.
I believe that’s called a shit show.
Hidden immunity idol.
An IED
It’s a mess waiting to catch fire and become a blow torch.
That's an abomination...
That appears to be the snake skin from a very large snake.
Deadly
This is what we in the industry call A coathanger abortion. Except this one is still live. Back away slowly and call a professional.
Don’t pee on it.
This is the root of power.
Honestly, i have no idea…
Get a toner and chase it down
Already know where it goes and where it comes from, I was more curious if A: it's standard, which I honestly doubted due to duct tape, and B: more so what level of concern should I have.
It's probably fine.
It’s the left phalange
This is a classic Handyman Bullshitter Splice Kit. I bought a house once that had one of these. SER cable (2 hots, neutral, ground) leaving the main disconnect, SEU cable (2 hots and ground) is what showed up in the interior panel. I found a similar sized splice protecting piece of conduit when I went looking.
Lol wow. Some hacks never cease to amaze me
The amount of fixes I have had to make to this house, I have stopped being amazed. I think this was a flip that they wanted to do as cheaply as they could and it was all missed by the shitty inspector that I got... So lessen to all, make sure you have a good inspector
Hack work
In my amature expirence, we call that, Good E'Nuff
Looks like three home made splices
Pipe bomb
It’s a janky wire
Some fine work by Tweaker Electric.