A contractor in Austin told me to skip the arc fault breakers on a rewire job

I was doing a full rewire on a 1970s house last fall, and the general contractor pulled me aside. He said, 'Look, just put in regular breakers, the inspectors here never check for AFCI in old homes, and it'll save the owner a grand.' I told him no, because the code is clear about needing them for bedroom circuits. He got pretty annoyed and said I was making the job harder for everyone. It stuck with me because he was so sure he was right, and he had a lot of sway with the crew. Have you ever had a GC push back hard on a code call you knew was right?

2 comments

2 Comments

miagarcia8d ago

You know, that contractor might have a point. The code is one thing, but how many inspectors actually pull outlet covers in a reno to check for AFCI? It's a huge cost for something that might not even get looked at. Sometimes you have to be practical and save the client money where you can, right? Old wiring has been fine for decades, so what's the real risk?

the_phoenix7d ago

Used to agree with you @miagarcia until my neighbor's kitchen almost burned down.