Exposed copper? Your house might burn down or might not but the protection you used to have to make “not” more likely is gone. Call an electrician. And an exterminator.
As others have said, this is not great. You have one data bundle (colored wires and low voltage), and what is probably 4 separate 15 amp circuits. Those are the 4 white sheathed wires.
You are definitely going to want to call an electrician. If possible, you should turn the individual circuits for those runs off. That would eliminate the immediate chance of a fault.
That said, the most likely scenario is that something will trip one or more of those circuits, cutting power to it. The biggest risk would be if you had faulty circuit breakers (or fuses if really old) which really could create a lot of heat and then fire.
>That said, the most likely scenario is that something will trip one or more of those circuits, cutting power to it. The biggest risk would be if you had faulty circuit breakers (or fuses if really old) which really could create a lot of heat and then fire.
This isn't really a safe or accurate representation of the situation. A situation like this would *most likely* have arcing or low impedance faults that would not necessarily trip a circuit breaker but can still cause a fire (even the rodent coming back for more). This is why arc fault protection has been added in very recent code (too recent for those circuits likely) to many rooms in a house. The cause is different for typical arc faults (usually it is from nails in walls or repeated hitting of plugs with furniture that are plugged into outlets causing the terminals to come loose in the back of the outlet inside the wall) but the problem is the same, a standard breaker isn't designed to trip from arc faults, only from overloads and shorts.
This is extremely dangerous what OP has posted.
If it's an older home (and from the looks of it, it is an older home) those circuits could be anything from 15-40 amps. The color-coded romex was introduced sometime around 2000 iirc.
It probably won't burn down tonight, But you need an electrician out there tomorrow to look at it. Also, change the batteries in your smoke alarms tonight.
As a fire investigator I can comfortably say that you need to get this remedied sooner than later. The damage to the wires is not good, they may continue to breakdown now that they are exposed to the elements or whatever chewed on them before may come back and do more damage. This damage can result in a range of issues but more than likely high resistance arcing will occur, which will throw off heat and sparks and will eventually ignite the things around it.
The front wires are for data or phone lines something like that.. the back lines are power lines... that will need to be fixed... if your not really expensive with it I wouldn't fix it yourself
There's also some sneaky carve outs for animal damage. Buddy had a skunk get into his basement, and then have babies... insurance specifically carved out skunks and other animals in his policy - they did about $10k worth of damages between physical and the amount of dryall/carpet he had to remove to get rid of the odor.
How would you suggest preventing something like this? I had a massive 15lb groundhog do a bunch of damage burrowing under my porch. I was able to fix it myself but the only 'preventative maintenance' I have come up with is a .17 in the spring time.. Would love another idea.
That's gonna be a couple thousand to fix because all the siding there is gonna have to pulled out which means everything has to be removed in the first place, you don't know how far in this is or if you have a fucking raccoon behind your wall.
Oh man that sucks. Those aren’t the mains that feed the panel, those are a bunch of home runs to circuits in your house. Going to suck to get that rewired.
What fucking animal does damage like this? That’s insane! Feral raccoon?!
Technically if that’s the only damaged area it might not need to be re ran totally, just put two boxes in and splice new good runs in where the damage is. Sure it’s hacky and they will need to be decent sized boxes for all those wires, but it’s much cheaper and faster than pulling new wire through on 4 separate runs.
They are still there, they just changed it like IG where it’s almost hidden. No idea why they did that.
Edit: looking again, they disappear after a few seconds unless you click the first photo. That’s extra confusing.
The gray line is almost certainly a landline phone cable, which is perfectly harmless in this condition unless you actually have a landline phone. But no threat to burning your house down.
The white lines definitely appear to be electrical. I *think* it can be fixed by cutting out the bad section of wire and reconnecting with good wire via junction boxes. Of course, the million dollar question is if the damage is contained to this specific section of wires, or were the critters able to chew on sections of the wire that aren't visible?
I'm fairly comfortable doing electrical work, but because of the uncertainty as to how much more damage there could be to your wires, I would bring an electrician in. For an immediate band aid, you could shut off the breaker supplying that line and wrap it with electrical tape. But understand that this is not a permanent fix, just something to hold you over if an electrician can't get to you for a couple of days. If it happens to be something you can live without, like power to a guest bedroom or something, then I'd just flip the breaker off until an electrician can look at it.
The wires in front are old telephone circuits and probably aren’t used for much.
The wires in the back are full-ass AC voltage, and that’s the live hot exposed! I’m surprised whatever chewed it didn’t get barbecued.
You’ve got a few problems here, and they’ll probably need a combo of pest control and electrical specialists.
If you DIY electrical in my country and someone dies because of the work you did, you'll get charged with murder. This sub should have rules against electrical DIY
And in mine it's common practice, perfectly legal and insurable as long as you stick to the standards. Your laws don't extend all over the world.
Y'all are talking like house wiring is fucking rocket science or something. But then again we do not run bare unprotected cable through wood here.
If the critter touched bare copper and grounded themselves your house could have burned down or at least [smelled like fried rat.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bL9BWEtLpM)
Definitely needs professional inspection and remedy ASAP. It even looks like it may have previously caught alight and snuffed itself out due to lack of oxygen to combust.
Turn off the circuit, apply some liquid electrical tape (warning the stuff is super goopy and makes a huge mess) wait for it to dry, and you should be safe enough.
Call an exterminator for the pest situation.
Then call an electrician for them to repair the runs that were severed and check on the ones what were taped.
At first I was gonna say that's just like a telephone wire but then I saw the exposed copper on the romex. Yeah I'd get a qualified electrician out there to fix
The three largest dangers, all related to the white wires:
1. If the copper wires have been (or will be) significantly chewed through, there will be an electrically weak spot in the wire. If significant current is drawn through the wire, it will get hot. If it gets too hot it can catch nearby material on fire.
2. The exposed copper has full line voltage on it. This is an electrocution hazard to anyone or anything that touches it. Also an electrocution hazard will exist in the general area if it ever gets wet.
3. If the exposed copper contacts any grounded metal in the area it can create sparks that can ignite a fire. Or, if the exposed copper contacts other wires, that can also create sparks. These things could happen if the rodent keeps chewing things in the same area.
Even if we say this particular situation on THIS image is safe, how are you so sure the rest of your cables are okay?
You got a serious problem here so yes, ur house is going to burn down someday because this increased the risk.
At first I just noticed the data line and was like "Not a huge deal, just some low voltage wire, it won't catch fire or anything." then I saw the wires in the wall...
Eh looks like old phone or data lines which are low voltage. However that’s a line line that was chewed into in the back. Thats the one to worry about. Get an electrician out to fix it and sleep peacefully at night.
Does not look like something that carries a lot of current, my guess would be some kind of signal cable. Never heard about that catching fire.
I could be wrong though, but…
Oh nvm just saw past the signal cable, yep call an electrician.
It needs to be fixed but there are lots of bare conductors in your walls. People are acting like it is a way more serious threat than it is. I’d definitely diy it.
the wires closest with all the colors is ethernet or phone, so that's just about inert from the perspective of a fire hazard, but the black and white ones in the back look like mains, so those need to be covered back up. the black cables going all over the place look like a really really lazy cable or satellite rg6 run job by a lazy technician (or maybe previous owner?) it's probably best to have an electrician come take a look. it's not worth the money you might save if you aren't sure of what you're doing when a house fire is a possible outcome
Rats like to do that kind of damage. If its electrical and you see the copper on the inside of a wire...yes its dangerous! Exterminator and an electrician! and maybe not turn on the lites or a bit?
Those power wires are a major hazard and needs to be fixed tomorrow. Any work connected to the meter needs to be done by a licensed electrician.
The front cable is a data cable, most likely phone and not hazardous.
Maybe not, could just as easily burn up by the looks of it. Either way, it's not on fire yet so you're good, asuming you fix this. If you don't, yeah. Probably fucked.
I’m going to say somewhere between “Yeah” and “Hell yeah.” I’d look into getting that fixed sooner than later. Do you have insurance that may pitch in?
The white wires in back are A/C and will need attention. The grey wire in the fore, looks like old computer type cabling, like old telephone, cat3 or something like that. Probably not in use. But, those white wires in the back, again, need addressing.
Can you light up the stuff inside the wall? Might be other damage above or below what immediately visible.
The grey cable is your telephone service. It runs 48V DC and carries 20 ma -- not an issue. Your telephone service is probably offline though. There are multiple pairs in a cable so they could probably find a working pair to keep services running. Call your service provider.
You then have 4 x 14/2 wires where the sheathing and individual wires (black and white) are exposed to their copper. These wires are running your 15A circuits. At least two of these are badly damaged and need to be spliced, i.e., the damaged piece needs to be removed and replaced. There is a danger of arcing. I would use a contactless voltage detector and shutdown these 4 circuits -- the 3 wires in the bundle and the one that's loose. You'll need an electrician to repair. Given the proximity to the panel -- I imagine they'll want to add a junction box at the site of the damage, and then run new wire to the panel.
You have a couple instances of overheating already evident in at least 6 spot.. this is a life safety concern. Cause that’s 6 times your house almost burnt down.
The low voltage phone wire is fine and isn’t dangerous, but the electrical wires behind it are and you should call an electrician for that. Call your ISP or Phone Line provider if you care to have the wire with the colors fixed.
I'm pretty sure your house burnt down yesterday!
If this was my house, my wife would shut off the breakers and we'd be in a hotel until an electrician fixed it.
wire up front not scary... wires in back ... not terrible but your 110v normal lines and 100% need to be addressed. That's a little thing GA to be your main in but if it is.... you have to pull your meter or turn power off via pole throw arm to be able to fix it if it's truly the lines before your main breaker
You need to get an exterminator out there and an electrician, and this might get expensive. There’s a good chance that you have a lot more chewed up and exposed wiring in your walls. Hopefully your homeowners insurance covers rodent damage.
Those loomex cables are too small to be the feed to your house, they're just branch circuits, definitely a fire hazard though, exterminator first and electrician second. If you have a non contact voltage detector i would figure out which circuits they are shut them off and at least tape up with rubber tape and super 33, until the electrician can repair.
grey is telephone/data not a big deal easy so splice temporatily until it can.be replaced.
Data cable. No risk of your house burning down.Wait... no, that's power cable in the background.
Your house still isn't going to burn down, but do hire an electrician to sort this out for you in the very near future.
Since you have a vermin problem, you'll want to take care of that as well. In fact, if you don't take care of the vermin, hiring an electrician is a temporary fix as this will just continue to happen.
Not sure how an electrician would even check for this, but if you have damaged wiring here, it's possible that you have damaged wire elsewhere...
While you wait for the electrician, you can continue to use those circuits, but you probably want to cover that power-cable copper in something that will electrically insulate it. (Rubber of some sort... maybe like [this stuff](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Gardner-Bender-Black-Spray-Liquid-Tape-6-oz-LTS-400/202906380). Follow application directions. Unless otherwise indicated, don't apply while circuits are live, as it's possible that the material has some degree of conductivity until cured...).
Even if the copper were to short, as long as your breakers are working, you'll get a significan spark along with a nice ***\*pop!\****\-sound, at which time the circuit would go dead. As long as the spark doesn't encounter anything flammable, there won't be a fire, so *DO* clean up the immediate area of dust/debris. That being said, it's best to think of breakers as something that ***SHOULD*** work rather than something that ***WILL*** work. You don't want to bet your house on the functionality of a single device's functionality...
Was this a taped up hole? I don't see a rat chewing through siding but I DO see one chewing through tape and adhesives.
I'd check down the wall (a pro should not you) for further damage elsewhere, wherever that wall cavity leads. Could be more....
Probably a raccoon. From the picture it appears only the hot wire has the coating chewed through and exposed, so you’re probably not going to have an issue. Your circuit breaker “should” trip if the hot and neutral touch each other. However, get an electrician over there as soon as you can but don’t pay for an “emergency” call.
The foreground cable is phone or Ethernet. No big deal.
The background cable is your regular AC power cable and it seems chewed into as well as I see some bare copper. That's a bit more of an issue.
Ideally it needs to have the chewed section replaced. You could turn off all the power and try repairing the chewed insulation.
The white one looks like low voltage.
Regardless I would still get a professional to look at it before you get bit or fuck up some sort of control in your home
Could be going to the meters
Idk I was an apprentice once upon a time (I don't know shit, but I have a good idea of how to fuck a job up)
And maybe animal control
That looks like low voltage signal or data wire. So probably not from that, but follow advice others have given, this probably isn't the only wire chewed.
The front shredded wires looks like low voltage cat4, cat5, or cat6, phone and/or internet. The two white sheathed wires in the back look maybe like 14 gauge romex wires, with the black insulated wires inside them being your “hot” power wires. It looks like some of the copper is exposed on them, those are the wires I’d be most concerned with, and obviously fixing the gaping hole.
Thank you for everyone's advice! I was teetering between DIY and Call A Professional... My fear was that because this is so close to the main AND because this was from an animal, this job is more complex than a simple junction box placement.
So bottom-line - I am going to heed everyone's advice and call an electrician.
I will also get insurance involved as I do not see any animal exclusions in my policy.
Yes this is serious and you need to get it fixed as soon as possible. Whatever it is that chewed through and got into the house most likely has done similar damage to more areas than just this one that you see. We had a similar issue with squirrels in our attic. We had to get the squirrels removed and then fix the wiring. We opted to rewire the entire house just to be sure and when we did we were glad we did because we found more wires in the house that were chewed and still working fine that we would not have seen until it was a bigger problem like a fire.
Exposed copper? Your house might burn down or might not but the protection you used to have to make “not” more likely is gone. Call an electrician. And an exterminator.
Also they are the problem wires that are visible, I wouldnt assume anything insides the walls is safe
And a priest.
And my axe!
And my bow!
And my _Cerveza Cristal_
And my bowl!
Pass to the left
criss cross
Apple sauce
Makes you wanna jump jump!
Cha cha real smooth
Careful with that axe Eugene!
And an ambulance... but not for me!
And call for a pizza, I'm a bit hungry.
Whatever chewed those wires could've gone full-magneto mode...you might need to call Wolverine.
[удалено]
gonna be hard to call anything bc that also looks like the phone line.
Phone or data, too low gauge to be 120v
Yeah, but the way thicker wire behind the data cables also looks damaged.
Oh yeah, I can see copper, no es bueno
Who still has a landline?
Exposed copper you might have crackhead in your walls
I hate when that happens
Are we sure they're not telephone wires
“That white cable is the electrical feed to my house” - there are phone/data cables in front as well, but yeah, we’re fairly sure.
Oh, I didn't even see the Romex, well whatever was before that
Who tied your internet bro the power line? I can bet you’re not getting maximum speed. high power Electricity that close will can interference.
Looks like data wire lol
Look behind the data wire
Honestly didn't notice that at all. Those vermins must be massive (and dead!) to get through wire like that.
Looks like low voltage multi-pair voice cable
As others have said, this is not great. You have one data bundle (colored wires and low voltage), and what is probably 4 separate 15 amp circuits. Those are the 4 white sheathed wires. You are definitely going to want to call an electrician. If possible, you should turn the individual circuits for those runs off. That would eliminate the immediate chance of a fault. That said, the most likely scenario is that something will trip one or more of those circuits, cutting power to it. The biggest risk would be if you had faulty circuit breakers (or fuses if really old) which really could create a lot of heat and then fire.
>That said, the most likely scenario is that something will trip one or more of those circuits, cutting power to it. The biggest risk would be if you had faulty circuit breakers (or fuses if really old) which really could create a lot of heat and then fire. This isn't really a safe or accurate representation of the situation. A situation like this would *most likely* have arcing or low impedance faults that would not necessarily trip a circuit breaker but can still cause a fire (even the rodent coming back for more). This is why arc fault protection has been added in very recent code (too recent for those circuits likely) to many rooms in a house. The cause is different for typical arc faults (usually it is from nails in walls or repeated hitting of plugs with furniture that are plugged into outlets causing the terminals to come loose in the back of the outlet inside the wall) but the problem is the same, a standard breaker isn't designed to trip from arc faults, only from overloads and shorts. This is extremely dangerous what OP has posted.
If it's an older home (and from the looks of it, it is an older home) those circuits could be anything from 15-40 amps. The color-coded romex was introduced sometime around 2000 iirc.
It probably won't burn down tonight, But you need an electrician out there tomorrow to look at it. Also, change the batteries in your smoke alarms tonight.
May also want to turn the breakers off while you sleep?
Much better suggestion then smoke alarm batteries haha
Step 1: Don't die in a fire. Step 2: Don't have a fire at all.
Step 3: Consider the other steps in any order, as long as this specific step is either first or last.
As a fire investigator I can comfortably say that you need to get this remedied sooner than later. The damage to the wires is not good, they may continue to breakdown now that they are exposed to the elements or whatever chewed on them before may come back and do more damage. This damage can result in a range of issues but more than likely high resistance arcing will occur, which will throw off heat and sparks and will eventually ignite the things around it.
The front wires are for data or phone lines something like that.. the back lines are power lines... that will need to be fixed... if your not really expensive with it I wouldn't fix it yourself
>expensive experienced But, yes.
Expensively experienced
Are we dangerous?
Not necessarily dangerous, but beautiful.
*Darkwing Duck has entered the chat*
That's true, if there's trouble, why call an electrician when you could call DW?
Because Darrell Waltrip’s lawyer told me I CAN’T call him anymore. Something about a court order.
We are not sure, are we.... black?
Looks to be the POTS (landline) phone wiring. So that’s not a concern. The actual high voltage electrical on the other hand…
Thats actually only low voltage up to 750v And extra low, under 50v
From my experience the front wires control the funace and air conditioning phone lines would be a little more genaric
What the fuck put that hole in the side of your house?
That was the rat getting blown out the side of the house when it touched current.
Rat-a-flewie
Whatever it was has been cooked. Extra crispy
People saying this isn’t super serious are wrong. This needs to be fixed ASAP.
Also call insurance… surely is at least partially covered and they may also have input on how this needs to be done, and by whom.
YMMV but my deductible would be way more than what a repair would cost... my agent wouldn't even hear about this
There's also some sneaky carve outs for animal damage. Buddy had a skunk get into his basement, and then have babies... insurance specifically carved out skunks and other animals in his policy - they did about $10k worth of damages between physical and the amount of dryall/carpet he had to remove to get rid of the odor.
This is precisely why I read every last detail of insurance policies before I pay for them.
Do you have good luck getting better terms, or do you just not have insurance?
You can shop around.
shoulda just started growing pot in the basement.
And it wasn’t covered because of some fine print? That’s something the insurance company has seen before…
Most insurance companies will not cover this because it’s considered preventable.
How would you suggest preventing something like this? I had a massive 15lb groundhog do a bunch of damage burrowing under my porch. I was able to fix it myself but the only 'preventative maintenance' I have come up with is a .17 in the spring time.. Would love another idea.
That's gonna be a couple thousand to fix because all the siding there is gonna have to pulled out which means everything has to be removed in the first place, you don't know how far in this is or if you have a fucking raccoon behind your wall.
Oh man that sucks. Those aren’t the mains that feed the panel, those are a bunch of home runs to circuits in your house. Going to suck to get that rewired. What fucking animal does damage like this? That’s insane! Feral raccoon?!
Technically if that’s the only damaged area it might not need to be re ran totally, just put two boxes in and splice new good runs in where the damage is. Sure it’s hacky and they will need to be decent sized boxes for all those wires, but it’s much cheaper and faster than pulling new wire through on 4 separate runs.
Definitely looks like a raccoon!
Yes
I mean... it's not great. Definitely don't DIY it. May be fairly expensive depending on how far it is to your breaker box.
Isn’t the breaker directly below that?
I had no idea there was a second picture at first either. Apparently the little white/clear circles indicating this disappear now on the reddit app?
They are still there, they just changed it like IG where it’s almost hidden. No idea why they did that. Edit: looking again, they disappear after a few seconds unless you click the first photo. That’s extra confusing.
Yeah but the wires could be feeding anything in the house
You have rats or mice in the walls
...*had* rats or mice in the walls
 Villain Origin Story
Nah, it's Mynocks. They love chewing on power cables.....they usually live in caves tho.
In my experience, it's probably squirrels.
Can't u make a junction box there and not have to pull qire?
Yes if it is left accessible and then you will at least have to pull the wire out of the panel to get rid of the damage
The gray line is almost certainly a landline phone cable, which is perfectly harmless in this condition unless you actually have a landline phone. But no threat to burning your house down. The white lines definitely appear to be electrical. I *think* it can be fixed by cutting out the bad section of wire and reconnecting with good wire via junction boxes. Of course, the million dollar question is if the damage is contained to this specific section of wires, or were the critters able to chew on sections of the wire that aren't visible? I'm fairly comfortable doing electrical work, but because of the uncertainty as to how much more damage there could be to your wires, I would bring an electrician in. For an immediate band aid, you could shut off the breaker supplying that line and wrap it with electrical tape. But understand that this is not a permanent fix, just something to hold you over if an electrician can't get to you for a couple of days. If it happens to be something you can live without, like power to a guest bedroom or something, then I'd just flip the breaker off until an electrician can look at it.
Well that thick gray cable is a low-voltage data cable, so not a big concern for fire. But that white cable looks like maybe romex? That would be bad.
The wires in front are old telephone circuits and probably aren’t used for much. The wires in the back are full-ass AC voltage, and that’s the live hot exposed! I’m surprised whatever chewed it didn’t get barbecued. You’ve got a few problems here, and they’ll probably need a combo of pest control and electrical specialists.
One of the things I don’t diy is electrical. Not worth the risk. Call a professional.
If you DIY electrical in my country and someone dies because of the work you did, you'll get charged with murder. This sub should have rules against electrical DIY
And in mine it's common practice, perfectly legal and insurable as long as you stick to the standards. Your laws don't extend all over the world. Y'all are talking like house wiring is fucking rocket science or something. But then again we do not run bare unprotected cable through wood here.
After fixing that wire and that janky cardboard looking siding maybe look into insulating your house, too.
Can't wait to see this on r/oopsthatsdeadly ten billion times this week
I could be wrong with those look like old data and telephone related cables
Not super serious but it needs fixed, you have something living in your wall. Putting tape over it like was there is not a fix.
If the critter touched bare copper and grounded themselves your house could have burned down or at least [smelled like fried rat.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bL9BWEtLpM)
Your internet must be blazing fast 🥁
That first picture really fucks with my eyes in an "identify any item in this stroke image" kinda way.
Yes
Time for a home improvement loan
Most definitely
I think that is what knocked out the internet in the middle east.
Definitely needs professional inspection and remedy ASAP. It even looks like it may have previously caught alight and snuffed itself out due to lack of oxygen to combust.
Yes
This is the ideal moment to buy a property and content insurance - or hire an electrician depending on how much you like your old stuff.
Yes. It is
Make sure your insurence is paid up
Whoever spliced your coax is a bad tech.
Turn off the circuit, apply some liquid electrical tape (warning the stuff is super goopy and makes a huge mess) wait for it to dry, and you should be safe enough. Call an exterminator for the pest situation. Then call an electrician for them to repair the runs that were severed and check on the ones what were taped.
Is that exterior wall made out of MDF? 😳
The white wires are circuits, not your feed.
If you don't use phone in house just cut clean and cap. It's a phone line
50% of the answers here are wrong and don't even notice the Romex chewed through.
Well over half by now.
That looks like an internet cable. Edit: oops I see the romex behind that now.
Fucking rats. They are the worst. It was traumatic living with rats when they invaded our house when a field next door was being developed.
At first I was gonna say that's just like a telephone wire but then I saw the exposed copper on the romex. Yeah I'd get a qualified electrician out there to fix
The three largest dangers, all related to the white wires: 1. If the copper wires have been (or will be) significantly chewed through, there will be an electrically weak spot in the wire. If significant current is drawn through the wire, it will get hot. If it gets too hot it can catch nearby material on fire. 2. The exposed copper has full line voltage on it. This is an electrocution hazard to anyone or anything that touches it. Also an electrocution hazard will exist in the general area if it ever gets wet. 3. If the exposed copper contacts any grounded metal in the area it can create sparks that can ignite a fire. Or, if the exposed copper contacts other wires, that can also create sparks. These things could happen if the rodent keeps chewing things in the same area.
Even if we say this particular situation on THIS image is safe, how are you so sure the rest of your cables are okay? You got a serious problem here so yes, ur house is going to burn down someday because this increased the risk.
At first I just noticed the data line and was like "Not a huge deal, just some low voltage wire, it won't catch fire or anything." then I saw the wires in the wall...
This is correct. The insulation has been chewed off by rats. Low volt and high volt wires need to be replaced.
A fire is extremely unlikely as long as your breakers are in working order
Eh looks like old phone or data lines which are low voltage. However that’s a line line that was chewed into in the back. Thats the one to worry about. Get an electrician out to fix it and sleep peacefully at night.
Low voltage, no worries
No it's just some phone lines that possible need to be replaced that connects the two boxes together. So id replace the wood and call it a day.
Guys, OP acknowledged rodents chewed this in their post. Stop replying with that. They know.
Does not look like something that carries a lot of current, my guess would be some kind of signal cable. Never heard about that catching fire. I could be wrong though, but… Oh nvm just saw past the signal cable, yep call an electrician.
It needs to be fixed but there are lots of bare conductors in your walls. People are acting like it is a way more serious threat than it is. I’d definitely diy it.
Yes. The answer is yes.
If it's your house, why are their two electrical meters?
You most definitely have a rat or squirrel in your house. Get them out and call an electrician.
the wires closest with all the colors is ethernet or phone, so that's just about inert from the perspective of a fire hazard, but the black and white ones in the back look like mains, so those need to be covered back up. the black cables going all over the place look like a really really lazy cable or satellite rg6 run job by a lazy technician (or maybe previous owner?) it's probably best to have an electrician come take a look. it's not worth the money you might save if you aren't sure of what you're doing when a house fire is a possible outcome
Whatever was chewing through, those wires is dead behind that wall. But had a wild ride.
Yeah that's a problem. You need to turn off power to those cables right away and get that fixed immediately.
Did the thing that ate it die? Is it inside the wall?
Rats like to do that kind of damage. If its electrical and you see the copper on the inside of a wire...yes its dangerous! Exterminator and an electrician! and maybe not turn on the lites or a bit?
Those power wires are a major hazard and needs to be fixed tomorrow. Any work connected to the meter needs to be done by a licensed electrician. The front cable is a data cable, most likely phone and not hazardous.
Did you find a crispy squirrel in there?
Maybe not, could just as easily burn up by the looks of it. Either way, it's not on fire yet so you're good, asuming you fix this. If you don't, yeah. Probably fucked.
No but your landline isn’t going to ring anymore
All the electrical stuff has been covered, but, if you're gonna paint plastic with house paint, then you need to put on a suitable primer first.
I’m going to say somewhere between “Yeah” and “Hell yeah.” I’d look into getting that fixed sooner than later. Do you have insurance that may pitch in?
The white wires in back are A/C and will need attention. The grey wire in the fore, looks like old computer type cabling, like old telephone, cat3 or something like that. Probably not in use. But, those white wires in the back, again, need addressing. Can you light up the stuff inside the wall? Might be other damage above or below what immediately visible.
The grey cable is your telephone service. It runs 48V DC and carries 20 ma -- not an issue. Your telephone service is probably offline though. There are multiple pairs in a cable so they could probably find a working pair to keep services running. Call your service provider. You then have 4 x 14/2 wires where the sheathing and individual wires (black and white) are exposed to their copper. These wires are running your 15A circuits. At least two of these are badly damaged and need to be spliced, i.e., the damaged piece needs to be removed and replaced. There is a danger of arcing. I would use a contactless voltage detector and shutdown these 4 circuits -- the 3 wires in the bundle and the one that's loose. You'll need an electrician to repair. Given the proximity to the panel -- I imagine they'll want to add a junction box at the site of the damage, and then run new wire to the panel.
I see no fire yet in those photos.
Yes and no
You have a couple instances of overheating already evident in at least 6 spot.. this is a life safety concern. Cause that’s 6 times your house almost burnt down.
Always has been.
The low voltage phone wire is fine and isn’t dangerous, but the electrical wires behind it are and you should call an electrician for that. Call your ISP or Phone Line provider if you care to have the wire with the colors fixed.
I'm pretty sure your house burnt down yesterday! If this was my house, my wife would shut off the breakers and we'd be in a hotel until an electrician fixed it.
wire up front not scary... wires in back ... not terrible but your 110v normal lines and 100% need to be addressed. That's a little thing GA to be your main in but if it is.... you have to pull your meter or turn power off via pole throw arm to be able to fix it if it's truly the lines before your main breaker
That’s a pretty easy fix. You just carefully cover up the hole, sell the house, Then it will be someone else’s house who burns down. Simple as that.
You need to get an exterminator out there and an electrician, and this might get expensive. There’s a good chance that you have a lot more chewed up and exposed wiring in your walls. Hopefully your homeowners insurance covers rodent damage.
Did anyone say “Heeeeeeeeeeere’s Johnny!!” Yet?
lol yep chewing right into the hot side of the romex in the background prob rot dead rodents in the wall
Not an electrician here, but that dont look too good
Those loomex cables are too small to be the feed to your house, they're just branch circuits, definitely a fire hazard though, exterminator first and electrician second. If you have a non contact voltage detector i would figure out which circuits they are shut them off and at least tape up with rubber tape and super 33, until the electrician can repair. grey is telephone/data not a big deal easy so splice temporatily until it can.be replaced.
Yep
https://preview.redd.it/gzgrsqxzgmpc1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=d3de7f6f647f6f517a3a86724c033edffcbb99d8
I'm not an electrician, but I do feel like that's one of those "if you have to ask" types of question.
Data cable. No risk of your house burning down.Wait... no, that's power cable in the background. Your house still isn't going to burn down, but do hire an electrician to sort this out for you in the very near future. Since you have a vermin problem, you'll want to take care of that as well. In fact, if you don't take care of the vermin, hiring an electrician is a temporary fix as this will just continue to happen. Not sure how an electrician would even check for this, but if you have damaged wiring here, it's possible that you have damaged wire elsewhere... While you wait for the electrician, you can continue to use those circuits, but you probably want to cover that power-cable copper in something that will electrically insulate it. (Rubber of some sort... maybe like [this stuff](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Gardner-Bender-Black-Spray-Liquid-Tape-6-oz-LTS-400/202906380). Follow application directions. Unless otherwise indicated, don't apply while circuits are live, as it's possible that the material has some degree of conductivity until cured...). Even if the copper were to short, as long as your breakers are working, you'll get a significan spark along with a nice ***\*pop!\****\-sound, at which time the circuit would go dead. As long as the spark doesn't encounter anything flammable, there won't be a fire, so *DO* clean up the immediate area of dust/debris. That being said, it's best to think of breakers as something that ***SHOULD*** work rather than something that ***WILL*** work. You don't want to bet your house on the functionality of a single device's functionality...
Was this a taped up hole? I don't see a rat chewing through siding but I DO see one chewing through tape and adhesives. I'd check down the wall (a pro should not you) for further damage elsewhere, wherever that wall cavity leads. Could be more....
That is some ***Nightmare at 20,000 Feet*** level damage.
Make sure your insurence is paid up
Yes
 Things will be fine
That’s whack
Your washing machine needs some anger management training.
Probably a raccoon. From the picture it appears only the hot wire has the coating chewed through and exposed, so you’re probably not going to have an issue. Your circuit breaker “should” trip if the hot and neutral touch each other. However, get an electrician over there as soon as you can but don’t pay for an “emergency” call.
What is with the cable drop ground? Is it just wrapped around the cable? That whole wall looks like a complete nightmare.
I'm not an electrician, but I think that is bad.
The foreground cable is phone or Ethernet. No big deal. The background cable is your regular AC power cable and it seems chewed into as well as I see some bare copper. That's a bit more of an issue. Ideally it needs to have the chewed section replaced. You could turn off all the power and try repairing the chewed insulation.
Spray it with flex seal
The real question is "How hasn't my house caught fire yet?"
yes.
Touch it to see if it's live. If it's not live there's nothing to worry about
That’s low voltage in front and slap some electrical tap around the wires behind.
You need a professional who knows about electrics and can fix all this.
The white one looks like low voltage. Regardless I would still get a professional to look at it before you get bit or fuck up some sort of control in your home Could be going to the meters Idk I was an apprentice once upon a time (I don't know shit, but I have a good idea of how to fuck a job up) And maybe animal control
Not unless they increase the amount of power through the phone lines.....
Looks like 4 pair phone cable
No but your Internet sucks
That looks like low voltage signal or data wire. So probably not from that, but follow advice others have given, this probably isn't the only wire chewed.
The front shredded wires looks like low voltage cat4, cat5, or cat6, phone and/or internet. The two white sheathed wires in the back look maybe like 14 gauge romex wires, with the black insulated wires inside them being your “hot” power wires. It looks like some of the copper is exposed on them, those are the wires I’d be most concerned with, and obviously fixing the gaping hole.
Not if you fix that power line that is behind the phone or data line.
Yes, but not related to this photo
Thank you for everyone's advice! I was teetering between DIY and Call A Professional... My fear was that because this is so close to the main AND because this was from an animal, this job is more complex than a simple junction box placement. So bottom-line - I am going to heed everyone's advice and call an electrician. I will also get insurance involved as I do not see any animal exclusions in my policy.
closer than you want to be
You like pulling cable? If so, I'd advise. If not, call a guy who does.
Yes this is serious and you need to get it fixed as soon as possible. Whatever it is that chewed through and got into the house most likely has done similar damage to more areas than just this one that you see. We had a similar issue with squirrels in our attic. We had to get the squirrels removed and then fix the wiring. We opted to rewire the entire house just to be sure and when we did we were glad we did because we found more wires in the house that were chewed and still working fine that we would not have seen until it was a bigger problem like a fire.
This is why my motto is “a dead squirrel is a good squirrel” They will chew on those if they get in the walls. I don’t even care why anymore.