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 Note from the author:

My family has three generations of electricians- I am the third. As a kid, I remember working in spooky old buildings that had been around since the Civil War. The attics and basements of those houses were especially scary to me, but it was the crawl spaces I hated most. While lying in those damp or dust-choked caves, I remember pulling wires through floor joists spanned by spider webs clogged with insect carcasses, attempting in vain to ignore the multi-legged thing crawling up my leg- all the while trying not to knock my head against another darn joist and hoping the flashlight wouldn't die. Those are not fond memories, but I learned a lot. And it was literally from the ground up that I was taught about electricity and wiring a house. Now I'm both a master electrician and a master plumber and have my own company.

I have written this book from lifelong experience and knowledge, some of which has been passed down through each generation. However, there is no one within my family to pass the gauntlet to-no fourth generation to pick up the trade. Therefore, by reading this book, you will become heir to my knowledge and experience. You, in effect, will become the fourth generation.

Three main themes of the book are safety, design, and materials. If you're doing the work yourself, I'll tell you how to do it safely. If you're not doing the work, you'll gain enough information from these pages to ask educated questions, to understand what an electrician is doing, and to know whether he or she is doing it correctly. You'll also learn what makes a good electrical design and how to choose the best materials-not the lowest-cost materials-for your situation.

Safety Is Paramount
As an electrician, safety is a primary concern-both for my clients and for me. Electricity can kill, so it's very important to be alert while working with it and to use safety equipment. I've received shocks before, and I would not be here today had it not been for a GFCI- protected receptacle. If you are not competent working around electricity, hire an electrician do the work.

One of the aims of this book is to help you understand the basic principles of electricity so that you can give it the respect it deserves. You'll learn not only how electricity flows but also how to work according to a plan, so that any wiring job can be done safely and without fear. Throughout the book I offer safety tips that could save your life. Wiring can be tricky, so take your time and don't cut corners. alarms are not required to have GFCI protection.

Tools
Tools are important to any person working in the building trades. Using the right tool for the right job will make the work go smoothly and safely. The same holds true for electrical tools; however, using the wrong tool or a low-quality tool will not only cause headaches by making the job more difficult, but it also could seriously hurt or kill you. That's why I devoted an entire chapter to tool use. In it I give you good background knowledge of electrical tools so that you will know which tools to buy, and even more important, which ones not to buy. I also illustrate how to use tools correctly, not just in the tools chapter but throughout the book.

Meeting Code Is Not Good Enough
Minimum code means exactly that-it's the absolute minimum required to pass inspection. And I'm sorry to admit that on many jobs even minimum codes sometimes aren't enforced. Most inspectors are already backlogged and over- worked they have time only to check for obvious violations. They cannot trace every wire to make sure it goes to the right location or even verify that the wire is the proper gauge. Therefore, you cannot assume that an electrical system has been installed correctly or even safely just because it has passed inspection. Sadly, the bottom line is that it's normally up to the installer or homeowner to know what needs to be done and to see that it is done correctly. Knowing this, I try to give you enough information to know right from wrong and what works and what doesn't, so that you can make intelligent decisions about the design of an electrical system.

In addition, this book will teach you how to develop a good, safe, high-quality electrical design, not one that simply meets minimum code. For example, one time I was called out to rewire a recently built house. It had passed all electrical inspections, the walls were up and painted, and the owner had moved in. The contractor had only been obligated to build to minimum specs. The outlets were spaced 12 ft. apart, with no receptacle outlet where it was needed for a specific piece of furniture. A cheap, poorly designed electrical panel that was 99% full upon completion of the house was taking all the load it could handle, so nothing could be added (such as a spa). The electrical system-in fact, the entire house-was built without any consideration for the owner's needs. The owner had to pay twice: once to meet minimum code and a second time to get things custom-designed. A good design surpasses minimum code and takes the owner's needs into consideration. (See my Above Code reference in the Preface.)

Low-Bid Jobs Are Cheap -- for a Reason
It may come as a surprise to some people that it is impossible to obtain high-quality material on a low-bid job. Why? From the contractor's viewpoint, the object of the bid is to get the job. If I were to put together a bid that includes good-quality, high-end material and my competitor makes a bid that includes cheap material, my bid will be significantly higher-and I most likely will not get the job. For contractors, this book will illustrate when high-end material is appropriate and when you can get by with average-quality material. With this knowledge, you'll be able to put together a bid that's reasonably priced, without compromising over- all quality.

As a homeowner, you should know that when you choose the lowest bid, you may get exactly what you pay for. But if you specify in advance the type and exact grade of materials you want, so that all contractors are bidding with the same standards in mind, you can choose the lowest price knowing that you haven't compromised quality. This book will give you the knowledge to make informed decisions about the wiring system in your house.

A Book Written from Experience
This book is unlike any other wiring book on the market. Written by an electrician for homeowners, do-it-yourselfers, and professionals alike, it is full of stories and experiences of exactly what happens when wiring a house. I even talk about some of the common mistakes that both pros (including myself and do-it-yourselfers make so that you can avoid them from the outset.

I've always hated the standard how-to wiring books because, for the most part, they're not written by practicing electricians. Instead, some desk jockey rehashes stuff from other books written by other desk jockeys. These books always pick perfect textbook situations with photos taken in a studio. They never tell you the problems you will encounter and what to do when things go wrong-let alone the experiences of the authors. They can't, because the people writing the book have rarely done what they're telling you to do. I think both professionals and novices will appreciate my book because it's honest- I've done the work.