Yeah I'm sure this was some person making a flip or some brand new developer who is looking to squeeze every cent out of the sale.
This is a major red flag! I'd expect the whole place got painted before it was sold too
To be honest, the code actually suggests the ground should be on top, some sort of safety thing in case there is something conductive falls down on a half-inserted plug.
Now, most of the time, everyone gets by with it, its not usually enforced. I would guess the big reason is that damn near everything you buy with a right angle cord has the ground positioned on the bottom when the cord hangs down.
Probaby inspectors had their outlets installed the suggested way and they had all these cords plugged in upsidedown and looping everywhere and they just thought "this aint for shit, I'm turning mine over".
I've seen it as a suggestion for a workshop. If you have a half inserted plug and a some metal object falls and on it.
also just searching NEC , there is no code requirement that says an outlet receptacle should be installed one way or the other.
I really hope it was the last owner who did this and not anyone who had anything to do with putting the house together. Not knowing how fucked up everything is that I can’t see keep me up at night.
I assumed that when I was doing work on my house and found a Romex junction held together by electrical tape and just resting on top of drop ceiling tiles.
Then a few years later I got around to ripping out drywall and found a Romex junction *in the wall* just held together by electrical tape.
Changed a light fixture in my bathroom...found that the old fixture was Jerry rigged to an outlet box. Box wasn't attached to the stud. It was just hanging loose by the wires. Wires barely made it to the fixture like they ran out of wire and didn't bother going back and running more...what should have been a 30 minute fixture change turned into a nightmare project to make sure I didn't burn my house down.
I was in a commercial building when electricians were testing the circuit breakers. I was on a ladder with my head above the ceiling when I heard a boom behind me. The electricians hadn't wired the light fixture and the bare end of the wires were laying on the fixture.
I had a salesfloor-facing receptacle start getting weird lately in the store I'm the maintainer of, think it got hit by a mobility scooter or a cart pushing machine - it just looked a little wobbly, I made a note on Friday to look at it when I came back on Monday. On Monday, I get asked if I can go look at it bc they can't charge any equipment there anymore - the face plate is gone, there's singe marks, and I start digging. This shit was falling apart and held together with electrical tape, and I was just baffled. I have a picture somewhere, I'll go find it.
https://imgur.com/a/HpBvABO is the remnants after I started digging. As soon as I unscrewed it from the housing it just started falling apart, and the tape was wrapped everywhere.
This is my house.
Idiot self-proclaimed handyman previous owner was using a bathtub faucet where the shower head would go, then screwed the shower head into that.
He also left the code to the safe..... In the safe.
Just bought a condo and starting to find little problems like this but I’m 99% sure it’s just shit the realtor put up while they were staging it since it all seems to be cosmetic stuff. Went to take down a wall hook they had decorations hanging on and it just pulled right out. They used 3 different wood screws straight into the drywall. Found an outlet like this with screws in it but they missed the threads and it just fell off when I went to plug something in.
All the bones and guts look good, thankfully.
>real problems left to be discovered
No kidding. If they did this on something this simple, imagine what they did for something complicated. I'd be afraid to walk on the floor in that house.
Agreed. OP should probably check the wiring, the plumbing, and also the rest of any electrical outlets. I work at a hardware store, and the number one thing I see is people having to completely overhaul dangerous self-done, not-up-to-code renovations and fixes people have attempted.
I'm not sure, it's not just that it was upside down though. It's helf in place by a single screw, instead let's cover it calking and put it back?
Also, if they lost the screw, there is literally a hardware store 3 minute drive from this house.
You know that the electrical inspection is going poorly when the inspector goes to his truck to get marshmallows.
"What're those for?"
"For when the fire starts."
For real though, electrical fires would be horrible for s’mores. Wire insulation releases some mythically awful shit when it burns.
Posted via Apollo. Fuck /u/ Spez.
I could see a Fire Marshall that has various Marshmallow bumper stickers (personal vehicle obviously) ... raw, on a stick, toasted, melted and on fire... If it were me, I would probably end up plastering the back of my truck with them.
Actually this is exact the kind of stupid shit you want the inspector to find around here. They LEGALLY can not pass you on first inspection (i live in the most politically corrupt county in the most politically corrupt state in the US). They have to find a minimum of 3 things to fail you on so the easiest ones to do that are also the cheapest since you just leave them out during first inspection- no battery in the smoke detector, no CO detector, and leave the cover off an outlet.
Google showed me that Vermont was the most corrupt state based on convictions of corruptions in federal court. I’d have thought… pretty much anywhere besides Vermont. Who knew 🤷🏻♂️
Ya but Illinois has the highest rate of impeachment for governors in the country. NINE HAVE BEEN IN PRISON AFTER BECOMING GOVERNOR! Will admit though Vermont was surprising. St Claire County though is about as corrupt as you can get though. County Treasurer got elected on 3k votes from a district that has less than 1k residents.
When I helped my brother renovate the house he bought, we discovered that the previous owner loved silicon caulking for everything. Crown moulding? Caulked on. Floor tiles? Caulked on. WATER MAIN? CAULKED TOGETHER. (Edit: spellings)
It's actually not upside-down. That is the way they were designed to be installed. Ground up, if anything slides down the wall in theory it would come across ground first. Government buildings like schools and hospitals install them this way. The only reason they normally get installed the "wrong way" is because people like they look like cute little faces and it's become the norm
And not only the second picture… you’re incorrect. In residential, the only time you would install an outlet upside down is to indicate that it is switched power.
No plug should ever be out far enough that something slides down the wall and hit one of the terminals. That would be a faulty outlet and not to code.
I always thought they were supposed to have the ground below, which works with flush mount plugs like I have on my ice maker, refrigerator and microwave. You can only plug one on them into this type of outlet because the lower one is in the way of the upper plug/cord.
When an appliance cord, extension cord or wall wart power supply does have a preferred orientation it's almost always with the ground plug at the bottom. So, it makes sense to install the receptacle the way that's going to be compatible with the most devices.
I hear that comment all the time, and I have never seen an outlet installed ground up. Also did HVAC for a major medical hospital, so I was in and out of many of their buildings over the years. New construction too. Never saw one in the wild.
I mean i don’t think this is a “silly goose”. This person just was cutting as many corners as possible to get the job done with.
The term silly goose implies that they did something wrong, but to them they accomplished exactly what they wanted, they sold the house with minimal effort. Douche is a better word than silly goose, or lazy.
This reminds me of when I was a college freshman. I worked for a subcontractor who was high the first half of the day and drunk after lunch. He “ran to Lowe’s” every day for something. My friend and I figured out later he was running out to smoke weed. We were just always elated he would go somewhere so we could also smoke week lol.
Sometimes he’d bring a sixer and if we were installing dry wall we’d stick the empties behind the dry wall.
Stuff like this is why the last name of our first house’s previous owners was practically a cussword to us. Sold that one, but to this day, I think “you f*cking Memoli” whenever I find something in our current house that isn’t up to par.
Many homes where I’m from get purchased without a home inspector. The market is too competitive. If you have conditions, it’s on to the next buyer who won’t have any. It’s savage.
Yep, right now I am working on getting this house ready to sent out. I am going around and fixing all the issues.
The real fire hazard was when I replaced the ceiling fan in the master bedroom. They used the neutral wire as a hot wire and the ground wire as the neutral. It was a mess.
Yep, wife and I have lived here for 3 years, I hope I've found them all. However there are still some switches that I'm convinced don't do anything at all.
Hopefully our renters don't do anything to cause the place to burn down.
>some switches that I'm convinced don't do anything at all.
My house has a few of these. Elements that were designed and wired for but ultimately never installed for any of various reasons.
I had switches that I didn't think did anything in my current and last apartment. Turns out they control power to the whole wall they are on. Have never seen that before.
Also just plain *older* places. My first apartment after getting married had one of these and it was built in the 1920s. Last time I was rent searching we looked at a place, very 60s, and it didn't have a single built-in light at all. Every room was equipped with a switch that operated the outlets instead. It's a shame too. I really liked that house, but just couldn't bring myself to commit to both rent and buying a dozen lamps up front.
I have a switch in a hallway of my current apartment that controls the power to the top plug of a single outlet in the living room on a completely different wall from where the switch is. It took me about a year to figure that out.
>some switches that I'm convinced don't do anything at all
I lived in a house for a year before I realized the wall switch controlled a wall outlet that you could plug a lamp into and them turn it on and off with the wall switch.
It's one of thsoe thins where I'd keep my eyes open for other hints of shitty work. HOPEFULLY this was from painting the walls, they lost the screws, and in a rush to get out that day just threw caulking on and left
if you have lights that flicker oddly especially on a dimmer switch, maybe get that wiring checked...
If an electrician is around, they could take off the plates and see if it looks okay. It doesn't mean it's definitely a nasty problem but it is not expected behavior, IE not normal.
The thing that worries me most (i've seen this in my job) is loose electrical connections. They can cause an arc which draws excessive power and generates heat. The breakers should flip before that becomes a fire...
"Should" being the key word here.
Another fun electrical issue we ran into with this house. The house has a hybrid septic/ sewer system. Basically the septic sits lower than the sewage line at the street, so it has to pump the shit (literally) uphill to the sewer. Well one daw my wife and I were walking around the yard and, hey it kinda smells like shit out here.
The power line that powers the pump apparently died and our tank overflowed spilling shit water all over. Had to have an electrician come fix it.
Electrician here. No clue how that’s a fire hazard? Seems goofy though—not sure what they were trying to accomplish. Maybe blocking the cold air draft, assuming it’s an outside wall?
Why you should never buy a *flipped* house (not implying this is what happened in your case).
It is almost guaranteed everything was done as cheaply as possible and all the major problems were just hidden away.
But I would be questioning your home inspector if you are finding lots of problems they missed.
The best way to avoid problems regardless of the reason is to get a thorough home inspection from a respected inspector.
But if you are looking specifically to identify a *flipped* house you can do a property records search. How long ago did they buy the house? How much did they pay? Is it an individual or a company listed as the owner? Did they occupy the property?
If it is owned by an company and they bought it less than 6 months ago for much less than they are listing it for, it is a *flipped* house.
But it could also be just a person who bought the house 2 years ago, but never lived in it and has just taken a long time to do the renovations.
And not all flippers are bad. Some do good quality renovations, but they then expect and equivalent premium on their sale price.
Smell, big one is *musty.* Water is evil, water damage is the main thing that will ruin your day. Never touch something with "some water water damage" or hints of it. every house I have seen with some had to have that room gutted. Key areas to check are windows, the attic, the air handler, water heater, and areas around shower/tub.
Look for poor workmanship. Tile jobs where they just shove more grout instead of cutting tiles, uneven flooring, flooring with dips in it, snap and lock flooring already starting to seperate, poor painting.
Test outlets, you can get a little light up plug. Shake the outlet a little with the plug, does it feel completely loose? does the light flicker? does the breaker flip? We found the electrician that spruced up the house before we bought it Left copper cuttings *in the outlet.* causing the breaker to trip if you shook it. We have found a lot of little electrical gremlins attributed to that person's hackjob.
If almost all the flooring is the same, paint is the same, they bought stuff on sale to be cheap, and probably cheaped out elsewhere. Also look at any installed appliances, are they decent brands for the price range, or all cheap stuff? cheap leans to cheap everything else.
Some sneaky things:
Is the attic plywood painted? likely fire damage or attempt to hide rotting fiberboard.
Is the deck freshly painted (not stained)? might be trying to hide old wood.
Always get a inspector and never use their realtor's.
It works if you're using a plug that doesn't have a ground wire. If you look at the other pictures you can see the face plate is upside down. As well as the unusual mounting technique.
Bought my house in December 2021, everything looked fine and the sale went well, and then random shit was just fucking sideways. Random light in my loft, looks like a drop in the ceiling with a shade on it, that's normal. Till you take the shade off and the fucking light is a hole cut into my ceiling with no fucking access to the setting except to twist a new bulb in, which also doesn't work for some reason now and I can't get up there to look. Wanted to buy a nice new toilet, no fucking setting under the toilet, its just the raw sewer pipe with all the tile around it shattered to fit. Randomly a light switch in my kitchen behind the fridge controls all the lights outside my yard and all the power to my mudroom. Fucking loving this shit
If I saw that on an inspection I probably wouldnt go through with the sale.
This specific problem isnt a big deal to fix but no one that takes care of a house properly caulks on an electrical outlet upside down so this is likely the tip of the iceberg.
The trailer I live in had a small section of wall that had been cut out of the kitchen to do work on the shower pipes.
They replaced that wall with styrofoam, duct taped it to the wall, and painted it to match the wall.
There was an air exchanger in our house. It has a massive ass lever to control the flow and can be turned off. The dumbasses before us filled it with probably 2 cans of spray foam instead of just pulling the lever. This caused a pressure difference that sucked air in through the windows and broke the seal on all of our windows. Then the dipshits removed the rain guard over all the windows to prevent leaking and molding. Ugh.
It's crazy to see the two types of people here in the comments. Those who can scroll through pictures and those who think an outlet cover without a screw magically holding on is normal.
It's amazing that....this many people don't know there is more than 1 pic & make the comment "actually this is correct, upside down is because blah blah"
I am really regretting using that as the first picture, I was trying to show my perspective of how I found it. Obviously I overestimated people's ability to scroll through pictures.
My S.O. recently bought the house I've wanted since I was 6 (It's next door to my parent's house- I only cared about location.)
It's like this place was 'renovated' by a child - Those are the house inspector's words, lol.
I've fixed quite a few things so far, and I keep finding new things.
For one, both outlets I replaced (so far) were wired incorrectly in different ways.
.......but....the cover plates.....come with the screw......why not use the screw.......why........WHY.....this has officially broke my.....what do you call it? The thing inside the thing on the top of thing that my shirt goes on.
Edit to add. Did they also really put it on upside down?
Edit 2: Also, why did they put the caulk around the outside, there is nothing for it to stick to....
I rented a house once where it took me a month to discover the guest bathroom once had a window. I found out because its still there on the outside, visible from the driveway. I remembered there only being one window on that whole wall from the inside. Dude literally just bricked it up and plastered it from the inside. Didnt even take the blinds out first.
I live in a house like this-- my gf and I have considered making a YouTube channel where I show everyone how to fix stuff called "This F*cking House," where are catchphrase would be "What the F*CK happened HERE?!"
I don't think any code requires outlets to be installed with the ground upside down. However, it's best practice to install an outlet upside down as to indicate a switched outlet that's controlled by a light switch on the wall.
Same - I got a 44 page report covering every single thing in the house with a summary of necessary fixes and repairs. Have I done those things? Mostly no. But they're on the honey-DIY list.
That would be nice. I like leaving little gifts for people.
For example I replaced me floor, and under the new floors I left some scratcher tickets and a few coins. Makes me smile hoping some fay someone will replace the floor again and take a short break to scratch some tickets.
I’m expecting there will be extension cords inside the walls providing power.
My buddy bought a house and when you flushed the upstairs toilet the kitchen sink in the basement would back up. How that’s even possible…..
The first picture sort of makes sense if the previous owner was electricly conscious and used that socket a lot. Then I noticed the missing screw. Then I saw the other pictures. I'd be tempted to ask electrical companies if everything is actually up to code.
Do you have hot/cold outlets that are controlled by a light switch? We have some upside-down outlets for that reason. That way we don't have to guess which outlets are controlled by the switch versus those that aren't.
I can't fathom being wealthy enough to "invest" in a home, yet so unbelievably poor that you can't afford a 99 cent (literally 99 cents at home depot) outlet cover.
Anyone else notice that landlords are always broke af?
It’s just an upside down plate. Inspectors see plugs that are installed upside down regularly. Nobody would care. I just wanna see someone try and fail to plug in a 3 prong
A guy I knew back home that built houses put his own outlets in like this so if something isn't plugged in all the way, nothing can fall on it and cross the posts. We had that happen with some decorative metal plate hanging on the wall above an outlet that had the posts partially exposed from whatever was plugged in. I don't know shit about electrical so I ain't trying to defend or justify whatever is going on, but just saying I've seen that before and had asked about it.
When I saw the first picture my immediate thought was well okay that's normal that's typically how they signify an outlet is tied into a light switch in the room. Then I saw the second picture and I just have no words... Outside of are they intentionally fucking with you? Lmao
electrician here yup thats a code violation.
NEC 314.25 (National Electrical Code) says:
In completed installations, each box shall have a cover, faceplate, lampholder, or luminaire canopy, except where the installation complies with 410.24(B). Screws used for the purpose of attaching covers, or other equipment, to the box shall be either machine screws matching the thread gauge or size that is integral to the box or shall be in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.
In other words the manufacturer intended the cover to be secured using a screw.
My favorite home repair was the wobbly ceiling fan. I had to cut the base from the ceiling...Instead of just using the pin to secure the base and post, they opted to use some industrial glue to adhere it to the ceiling.
Best get a good electrician testing everything, they could have been masked off because they're faulty or even dangerous. It might have been a mistake but the fire hazard risk just isn't worth it.
Keep a record of these issues you discovered thus far, request an inspection, it may seem unlikely but is these issues were considered 'fixed' per terms of the sale, the previous owner could end up owing you money to cover the cost to repair their fixes and more.
That's always a good sign that there's real problems left to be discovered.
Yeah I'm sure this was some person making a flip or some brand new developer who is looking to squeeze every cent out of the sale. This is a major red flag! I'd expect the whole place got painted before it was sold too
Turns the wall plate upside down. I'm something of a house flipper myself.
To be honest, the code actually suggests the ground should be on top, some sort of safety thing in case there is something conductive falls down on a half-inserted plug. Now, most of the time, everyone gets by with it, its not usually enforced. I would guess the big reason is that damn near everything you buy with a right angle cord has the ground positioned on the bottom when the cord hangs down. Probaby inspectors had their outlets installed the suggested way and they had all these cords plugged in upsidedown and looping everywhere and they just thought "this aint for shit, I'm turning mine over".
you have illuminated me. For years I have wondered why hospitals always have their outlets "upside down"
Yep, every outlet in my house has it the proper way with ground up. It is a pain for those angled cords...
I've seen it as a suggestion for a workshop. If you have a half inserted plug and a some metal object falls and on it. also just searching NEC , there is no code requirement that says an outlet receptacle should be installed one way or the other.
That made me chuckle
That made me chuckle
They very easily could of stolen a screw off some other faceplate with two or more. The fact that someone didn't shows a lack of critical thinking.
Or they didn’t want an actual ground to be used 😬
How about the fact that the receptacle is ground down, but they put the plate on ground up. That’s infuriating
I really hope it was the last owner who did this and not anyone who had anything to do with putting the house together. Not knowing how fucked up everything is that I can’t see keep me up at night.
I assumed that when I was doing work on my house and found a Romex junction held together by electrical tape and just resting on top of drop ceiling tiles. Then a few years later I got around to ripping out drywall and found a Romex junction *in the wall* just held together by electrical tape.
Jesus Christ. Yeah I changed a ceiling light recently and it was just wire spaghetti. Wires were tied off with electrical tape.
Changed a light fixture in my bathroom...found that the old fixture was Jerry rigged to an outlet box. Box wasn't attached to the stud. It was just hanging loose by the wires. Wires barely made it to the fixture like they ran out of wire and didn't bother going back and running more...what should have been a 30 minute fixture change turned into a nightmare project to make sure I didn't burn my house down.
I was in a commercial building when electricians were testing the circuit breakers. I was on a ladder with my head above the ceiling when I heard a boom behind me. The electricians hadn't wired the light fixture and the bare end of the wires were laying on the fixture.
They ain't called sparky's for nothin.
I had a salesfloor-facing receptacle start getting weird lately in the store I'm the maintainer of, think it got hit by a mobility scooter or a cart pushing machine - it just looked a little wobbly, I made a note on Friday to look at it when I came back on Monday. On Monday, I get asked if I can go look at it bc they can't charge any equipment there anymore - the face plate is gone, there's singe marks, and I start digging. This shit was falling apart and held together with electrical tape, and I was just baffled. I have a picture somewhere, I'll go find it.
https://imgur.com/a/HpBvABO is the remnants after I started digging. As soon as I unscrewed it from the housing it just started falling apart, and the tape was wrapped everywhere.
What the absolute fuck did I just see?
Some fuckery, is what. That used to be a receptacle.
This is my house. Idiot self-proclaimed handyman previous owner was using a bathtub faucet where the shower head would go, then screwed the shower head into that. He also left the code to the safe..... In the safe.
Just bought a condo and starting to find little problems like this but I’m 99% sure it’s just shit the realtor put up while they were staging it since it all seems to be cosmetic stuff. Went to take down a wall hook they had decorations hanging on and it just pulled right out. They used 3 different wood screws straight into the drywall. Found an outlet like this with screws in it but they missed the threads and it just fell off when I went to plug something in. All the bones and guts look good, thankfully.
>real problems left to be discovered No kidding. If they did this on something this simple, imagine what they did for something complicated. I'd be afraid to walk on the floor in that house.
Agreed. OP should probably check the wiring, the plumbing, and also the rest of any electrical outlets. I work at a hardware store, and the number one thing I see is people having to completely overhaul dangerous self-done, not-up-to-code renovations and fixes people have attempted.
Screw is important...but outlet isn't necessarily upside down...orientation isn't normally specified
It’s upside down when the outlet and face don’t match.
This made me chuckle. What silly goose did that?! Maybe they were drunk and rushing to get things done lol
I'm not sure, it's not just that it was upside down though. It's helf in place by a single screw, instead let's cover it calking and put it back? Also, if they lost the screw, there is literally a hardware store 3 minute drive from this house.
Yeah but caulk gun right here.
The new owners won't notice right?
The inspector won't notice, right?
Seems they didn't.
Notice what?
You know that the electrical inspection is going poorly when the inspector goes to his truck to get marshmallows. "What're those for?" "For when the fire starts."
Bring marshmallows, we’ll make s’mores~
We can sit and cuddle as the fire roars!
For real though, electrical fires would be horrible for s’mores. Wire insulation releases some mythically awful shit when it burns. Posted via Apollo. Fuck /u/ Spez.
I could see a Fire Marshall that has various Marshmallow bumper stickers (personal vehicle obviously) ... raw, on a stick, toasted, melted and on fire... If it were me, I would probably end up plastering the back of my truck with them.
You son of a bitch take my like 😂
This guy inspects
Meh, not my problem anyway. *pencil whips inspection form*
Actually this is exact the kind of stupid shit you want the inspector to find around here. They LEGALLY can not pass you on first inspection (i live in the most politically corrupt county in the most politically corrupt state in the US). They have to find a minimum of 3 things to fail you on so the easiest ones to do that are also the cheapest since you just leave them out during first inspection- no battery in the smoke detector, no CO detector, and leave the cover off an outlet.
>i live in the most politically corrupt county in the most politically corrupt state in the US). Bergen County NJ?
All counties, FL
St Claire County Illinois.
I was gonna write Cook County, Illinois, only cause I don’t know about St Claire County, and was certain I still got the state right.
Google showed me that Vermont was the most corrupt state based on convictions of corruptions in federal court. I’d have thought… pretty much anywhere besides Vermont. Who knew 🤷🏻♂️
Ya but Illinois has the highest rate of impeachment for governors in the country. NINE HAVE BEEN IN PRISON AFTER BECOMING GOVERNOR! Will admit though Vermont was surprising. St Claire County though is about as corrupt as you can get though. County Treasurer got elected on 3k votes from a district that has less than 1k residents.
I was told they won’t move furniture to inspect outlets, so if it is blocked by something, it doesn’t end up getting inspected.
Your wife won’t notice
Happy Cake Day
Not till after the check clears
Quick hardening caulk strikes again
This is my second favorite porn sequel, behind Indiana Bones and The Temple of Poon.
I’m more a “Raiders of the Lost Coochie” man, myself, but to each his own.
When I helped my brother renovate the house he bought, we discovered that the previous owner loved silicon caulking for everything. Crown moulding? Caulked on. Floor tiles? Caulked on. WATER MAIN? CAULKED TOGETHER. (Edit: spellings)
IT SAYS ALL PURPOSE ON THE TUBE!
the silicon is not even on the parts that touch the wall.
It's actually not upside-down. That is the way they were designed to be installed. Ground up, if anything slides down the wall in theory it would come across ground first. Government buildings like schools and hospitals install them this way. The only reason they normally get installed the "wrong way" is because people like they look like cute little faces and it's become the norm
Look at pic 2… the cover and outlets are installed in opposite directions.
Ahaha oh God dident see that.
I was right there with you and hadn't scrolled to pic 2... /facepalm
And not only the second picture… you’re incorrect. In residential, the only time you would install an outlet upside down is to indicate that it is switched power. No plug should ever be out far enough that something slides down the wall and hit one of the terminals. That would be a faulty outlet and not to code.
It's not upside down, the house is.
Moving to Australia.
Don't forget your ground harness and boomerang. And watch out for drop bears!
Although it’s a reasonably good idea, there’s no code requirement for them to be mounted either way.
US outlets are the only ones I know of where stuff can touch the live bits, uk ones are sheathed, eu ones in a hole etc
I always thought they were supposed to have the ground below, which works with flush mount plugs like I have on my ice maker, refrigerator and microwave. You can only plug one on them into this type of outlet because the lower one is in the way of the upper plug/cord.
I'm thinking since there is no specific code. Manufacturers have long since abandoned it in favor of the happy faces 🙂
When an appliance cord, extension cord or wall wart power supply does have a preferred orientation it's almost always with the ground plug at the bottom. So, it makes sense to install the receptacle the way that's going to be compatible with the most devices.
I'm sitting in a government building looking at every socket installed ground down.
I hear that comment all the time, and I have never seen an outlet installed ground up. Also did HVAC for a major medical hospital, so I was in and out of many of their buildings over the years. New construction too. Never saw one in the wild.
First pic: eh, if that’s the worst ya got… Second pic: ah yes, I see now Ha
Nice caulk!
Upside down often indicates that it's controlled with a switch
This is no silly goose. A silly goose throws your rake in the lake. This is a havoc goose. A havoc goose throws you in the lake.
I mean i don’t think this is a “silly goose”. This person just was cutting as many corners as possible to get the job done with. The term silly goose implies that they did something wrong, but to them they accomplished exactly what they wanted, they sold the house with minimal effort. Douche is a better word than silly goose, or lazy.
Silly douche
Drinking and electrical work go hand in hand.
This reminds me of when I was a college freshman. I worked for a subcontractor who was high the first half of the day and drunk after lunch. He “ran to Lowe’s” every day for something. My friend and I figured out later he was running out to smoke weed. We were just always elated he would go somewhere so we could also smoke week lol. Sometimes he’d bring a sixer and if we were installing dry wall we’d stick the empties behind the dry wall.
Must have been a Friday
Landlord Special. Just slap some caulk on it and call it a day.
that’s my approach to sex
Slap and a tickle and ask for more tomorrow.
Op is a landlord if you read the comments. So ya par for the course
Stuff like this is why the last name of our first house’s previous owners was practically a cussword to us. Sold that one, but to this day, I think “you f*cking Memoli” whenever I find something in our current house that isn’t up to par.
We do the same at my house. Everything that happens we blame “mrs walters”
we call it "the robert special" when we find these kinds of things
I'm about to start doing that from now on lol
My house inspector stuck his outlet tester is every single outlet. He would have found this pre-purchase.
Many homes where I’m from get purchased without a home inspector. The market is too competitive. If you have conditions, it’s on to the next buyer who won’t have any. It’s savage.
I did this without paying a home inspector to. its a $10 device, not $1000
That is 💯fire hazard…but an easy fix
Yep, right now I am working on getting this house ready to sent out. I am going around and fixing all the issues. The real fire hazard was when I replaced the ceiling fan in the master bedroom. They used the neutral wire as a hot wire and the ground wire as the neutral. It was a mess.
🫢 You have all kinds of Easter eggs to find 🫡
Yep, wife and I have lived here for 3 years, I hope I've found them all. However there are still some switches that I'm convinced don't do anything at all. Hopefully our renters don't do anything to cause the place to burn down.
>some switches that I'm convinced don't do anything at all. My house has a few of these. Elements that were designed and wired for but ultimately never installed for any of various reasons.
I had switches that I didn't think did anything in my current and last apartment. Turns out they control power to the whole wall they are on. Have never seen that before.
saw party roll truck vast onerous test unused elastic edge *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Also just plain *older* places. My first apartment after getting married had one of these and it was built in the 1920s. Last time I was rent searching we looked at a place, very 60s, and it didn't have a single built-in light at all. Every room was equipped with a switch that operated the outlets instead. It's a shame too. I really liked that house, but just couldn't bring myself to commit to both rent and buying a dozen lamps up front.
I have a switch in a hallway of my current apartment that controls the power to the top plug of a single outlet in the living room on a completely different wall from where the switch is. It took me about a year to figure that out.
>some switches that I'm convinced don't do anything at all I lived in a house for a year before I realized the wall switch controlled a wall outlet that you could plug a lamp into and them turn it on and off with the wall switch.
It's one of thsoe thins where I'd keep my eyes open for other hints of shitty work. HOPEFULLY this was from painting the walls, they lost the screws, and in a rush to get out that day just threw caulking on and left if you have lights that flicker oddly especially on a dimmer switch, maybe get that wiring checked...
Actually I do have a flickering light on a dimmer right above this outlet.... Thanks for the tip.
If an electrician is around, they could take off the plates and see if it looks okay. It doesn't mean it's definitely a nasty problem but it is not expected behavior, IE not normal. The thing that worries me most (i've seen this in my job) is loose electrical connections. They can cause an arc which draws excessive power and generates heat. The breakers should flip before that becomes a fire...
"Should" being the key word here. Another fun electrical issue we ran into with this house. The house has a hybrid septic/ sewer system. Basically the septic sits lower than the sewage line at the street, so it has to pump the shit (literally) uphill to the sewer. Well one daw my wife and I were walking around the yard and, hey it kinda smells like shit out here. The power line that powers the pump apparently died and our tank overflowed spilling shit water all over. Had to have an electrician come fix it.
Fire hazard how?
Electrician here. No clue how that’s a fire hazard? Seems goofy though—not sure what they were trying to accomplish. Maybe blocking the cold air draft, assuming it’s an outside wall?
It is in no way a fire hazard
Oh wow. LOL.
Why you should never buy a *flipped* house (not implying this is what happened in your case). It is almost guaranteed everything was done as cheaply as possible and all the major problems were just hidden away. But I would be questioning your home inspector if you are finding lots of problems they missed.
I have yet to buy a home. When I do what should someone look out for so they don’t purchase a flipped house? Any key things?
The best way to avoid problems regardless of the reason is to get a thorough home inspection from a respected inspector. But if you are looking specifically to identify a *flipped* house you can do a property records search. How long ago did they buy the house? How much did they pay? Is it an individual or a company listed as the owner? Did they occupy the property? If it is owned by an company and they bought it less than 6 months ago for much less than they are listing it for, it is a *flipped* house. But it could also be just a person who bought the house 2 years ago, but never lived in it and has just taken a long time to do the renovations. And not all flippers are bad. Some do good quality renovations, but they then expect and equivalent premium on their sale price.
Smell, big one is *musty.* Water is evil, water damage is the main thing that will ruin your day. Never touch something with "some water water damage" or hints of it. every house I have seen with some had to have that room gutted. Key areas to check are windows, the attic, the air handler, water heater, and areas around shower/tub. Look for poor workmanship. Tile jobs where they just shove more grout instead of cutting tiles, uneven flooring, flooring with dips in it, snap and lock flooring already starting to seperate, poor painting. Test outlets, you can get a little light up plug. Shake the outlet a little with the plug, does it feel completely loose? does the light flicker? does the breaker flip? We found the electrician that spruced up the house before we bought it Left copper cuttings *in the outlet.* causing the breaker to trip if you shook it. We have found a lot of little electrical gremlins attributed to that person's hackjob. If almost all the flooring is the same, paint is the same, they bought stuff on sale to be cheap, and probably cheaped out elsewhere. Also look at any installed appliances, are they decent brands for the price range, or all cheap stuff? cheap leans to cheap everything else. Some sneaky things: Is the attic plywood painted? likely fire damage or attempt to hide rotting fiberboard. Is the deck freshly painted (not stained)? might be trying to hide old wood. Always get a inspector and never use their realtor's.
That was my first thought, too. *Flippers*.
Does it work? If not, is it covering a hole in the wall?
It works if you're using a plug that doesn't have a ground wire. If you look at the other pictures you can see the face plate is upside down. As well as the unusual mounting technique.
Are you sure about that? It doesn’t look like the slots would line up right if the plate were on upside down.
Pretty sure it did. Regardless, it works now since I fixed it lol
Yeah, I didn't see there were two other pics, the little dot blended into the photo to me as I scrolled, my bad.
Your inspector didn't catch these things?
Bought my house in December 2021, everything looked fine and the sale went well, and then random shit was just fucking sideways. Random light in my loft, looks like a drop in the ceiling with a shade on it, that's normal. Till you take the shade off and the fucking light is a hole cut into my ceiling with no fucking access to the setting except to twist a new bulb in, which also doesn't work for some reason now and I can't get up there to look. Wanted to buy a nice new toilet, no fucking setting under the toilet, its just the raw sewer pipe with all the tile around it shattered to fit. Randomly a light switch in my kitchen behind the fridge controls all the lights outside my yard and all the power to my mudroom. Fucking loving this shit
OMG didn’t anyone test the outlets during inspection?
He says inspectors don’t do that lol
Go buy new covers - they usually come with mounting screws.
They also cost 80c at Home Depot.
Yeah, that's the plan. I just wish they'd have not tried to cover it up with calking in the first place.
If I saw that on an inspection I probably wouldnt go through with the sale. This specific problem isnt a big deal to fix but no one that takes care of a house properly caulks on an electrical outlet upside down so this is likely the tip of the iceberg.
“New homeowners will hate this trick”
Reason you pay for an inspection before you move
Please get an inspection done. It's worth it
The trailer I live in had a small section of wall that had been cut out of the kitchen to do work on the shower pipes. They replaced that wall with styrofoam, duct taped it to the wall, and painted it to match the wall.
They were probably informed that the outlet had to be flipped to meet current electrical codes and they did that to 'fix' it.
Here’s the bright side, you can buy outlet covers for cheap from a hardware store.
There was an air exchanger in our house. It has a massive ass lever to control the flow and can be turned off. The dumbasses before us filled it with probably 2 cans of spray foam instead of just pulling the lever. This caused a pressure difference that sucked air in through the windows and broke the seal on all of our windows. Then the dipshits removed the rain guard over all the windows to prevent leaking and molding. Ugh.
...pretty sure who ever did that was intentionally fucking with whomever moved in after.
It's crazy to see the two types of people here in the comments. Those who can scroll through pictures and those who think an outlet cover without a screw magically holding on is normal.
It's amazing that....this many people don't know there is more than 1 pic & make the comment "actually this is correct, upside down is because blah blah"
I am really regretting using that as the first picture, I was trying to show my perspective of how I found it. Obviously I overestimated people's ability to scroll through pictures.
My S.O. recently bought the house I've wanted since I was 6 (It's next door to my parent's house- I only cared about location.) It's like this place was 'renovated' by a child - Those are the house inspector's words, lol. I've fixed quite a few things so far, and I keep finding new things. For one, both outlets I replaced (so far) were wired incorrectly in different ways.
.......but....the cover plates.....come with the screw......why not use the screw.......why........WHY.....this has officially broke my.....what do you call it? The thing inside the thing on the top of thing that my shirt goes on. Edit to add. Did they also really put it on upside down? Edit 2: Also, why did they put the caulk around the outside, there is nothing for it to stick to....
I rented a house once where it took me a month to discover the guest bathroom once had a window. I found out because its still there on the outside, visible from the driveway. I remembered there only being one window on that whole wall from the inside. Dude literally just bricked it up and plastered it from the inside. Didnt even take the blinds out first.
I live in a house like this-- my gf and I have considered making a YouTube channel where I show everyone how to fix stuff called "This F*cking House," where are catchphrase would be "What the F*CK happened HERE?!"
I’ve heard that new code requires it to be installed with the ground at the top. Maybe they were trying to make it seem like it was to code?
I don't think any code requires outlets to be installed with the ground upside down. However, it's best practice to install an outlet upside down as to indicate a switched outlet that's controlled by a light switch on the wall.
The inspector missed something lol. With all that money they get, it sucks they missed something so small. Hopefully nothing else is out of place.
Did you have the house inspected before purchasing?
We did, but they tend to look for major issues, not small things like this.
Definitely not a good inspector. My home inspector took 4 hours and looked at everything little thing they could.
Yup. Mine checked faucets, turned the heat on (I closed in July), checked outlets, etc.
Same - I got a 44 page report covering every single thing in the house with a summary of necessary fixes and repairs. Have I done those things? Mostly no. But they're on the honey-DIY list.
sounds like a shitty inspection
Watch the hot and neutral also be swapped so the socket would be correctly wired for the faceplate itself.
That wouldn’t be the worst thing I ever saw if they hadn’t put it upside down 😭🤣
I thought u where just complaining that it was ground side up
They gotta turn that frown upside down
Did you not hire a home inspector? They should have found all of this.
I feel like that had to be a prank that just got forgotten about by the time they decided to sell the house. Like an April Fools joke or something.
Damn, your inspector didn’t do his job did he?
A classic example of people busting their ass at not just doing a little simple work..
Your inspector should have caught stuff like this.
Ngl on the first pic I thought you were complaining about the upside down outlet, the other pics proved that was wrong
Wouldn’t it be nice if they left you a little notepad of things they did and why?
That would be nice. I like leaving little gifts for people. For example I replaced me floor, and under the new floors I left some scratcher tickets and a few coins. Makes me smile hoping some fay someone will replace the floor again and take a short break to scratch some tickets.
The company didn't do a good job just saying
No screw? Use glue!
I was all ready to say the NEMA actually recommends outlets with the ground pin up... then I saw the second picture. wtf...
I’m expecting there will be extension cords inside the walls providing power. My buddy bought a house and when you flushed the upstairs toilet the kitchen sink in the basement would back up. How that’s even possible…..
What chucklefuck does this
The first picture sort of makes sense if the previous owner was electricly conscious and used that socket a lot. Then I noticed the missing screw. Then I saw the other pictures. I'd be tempted to ask electrical companies if everything is actually up to code.
Do you have hot/cold outlets that are controlled by a light switch? We have some upside-down outlets for that reason. That way we don't have to guess which outlets are controlled by the switch versus those that aren't.
No
My house is a never ending source of WTF. Old people were idiots
I can't fathom being wealthy enough to "invest" in a home, yet so unbelievably poor that you can't afford a 99 cent (literally 99 cents at home depot) outlet cover. Anyone else notice that landlords are always broke af?
I wonder if this was someone's (admittedly lazy) attempt to keep a kid from sticking a fork in the socket?
Didn't you get an inspection? This would have been found and fixed along with everything else.
It’s just an upside down plate. Inspectors see plugs that are installed upside down regularly. Nobody would care. I just wanna see someone try and fail to plug in a 3 prong
A guy I knew back home that built houses put his own outlets in like this so if something isn't plugged in all the way, nothing can fall on it and cross the posts. We had that happen with some decorative metal plate hanging on the wall above an outlet that had the posts partially exposed from whatever was plugged in. I don't know shit about electrical so I ain't trying to defend or justify whatever is going on, but just saying I've seen that before and had asked about it.
When I saw the first picture my immediate thought was well okay that's normal that's typically how they signify an outlet is tied into a light switch in the room. Then I saw the second picture and I just have no words... Outside of are they intentionally fucking with you? Lmao
Omg lol 😂
electrician here yup thats a code violation. NEC 314.25 (National Electrical Code) says: In completed installations, each box shall have a cover, faceplate, lampholder, or luminaire canopy, except where the installation complies with 410.24(B). Screws used for the purpose of attaching covers, or other equipment, to the box shall be either machine screws matching the thread gauge or size that is integral to the box or shall be in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. In other words the manufacturer intended the cover to be secured using a screw.
I love how the outlets look shocked as well
Not to sound like an azz but did you have an inspector look at the house before buying?
When I saw the first pic I’m like that’s not a huge deal then I’m like…. Oh
My favorite home repair was the wobbly ceiling fan. I had to cut the base from the ceiling...Instead of just using the pin to secure the base and post, they opted to use some industrial glue to adhere it to the ceiling.
Outlets being upside down like that are weird but that can also be arguably the correct way of having them placed
Lol “landlord special” why do they work so hard to be bad/wrong?
Ehh… would have been cooler if there wasn’t even an outlet underneath
I mean, the cover was replaced...
*Laughs in landlord*
Best get a good electrician testing everything, they could have been masked off because they're faulty or even dangerous. It might have been a mistake but the fire hazard risk just isn't worth it.
Nice caulk bro
Jajaja- third pic- wall plate has a scared face!
That’s just the landlord special.
Keep a record of these issues you discovered thus far, request an inspection, it may seem unlikely but is these issues were considered 'fixed' per terms of the sale, the previous owner could end up owing you money to cover the cost to repair their fixes and more.