PSA: if you are residing your house

New Siding Safety

Once the siding is complete, have a licensed electrician come out and double check all outside electrical outlets. Yes, it's an added expense. But you can't put a price on your safety!!!

We didn't do this because who even knew we should?! And 9 months after the job was complete , I smelled a burning plastic smell in the back of the house. I first thought it was coming from my office (we have lizard tanks and heat lamps for them in there) but couldn't really find the source. The lights would flicker here and there but we blamed the wind - maybe a loose wire somewhere? Didn't think anything of it. The burning smell came and went and my husband said he didn't smell anything.

This went on for a week.

Then one night our breaker tripped. My husband went downstairs and put it back on then went outside because the spotlight on our deck didn't go on when the dogs went out. He looked and the outlet was fried to a crisp. He went back downstairs, shut that breaker and called our electrician. The one who did all the electric in the house. He couldn't come out to us for a while but said it's something he has seen happen with siding jobs. They don't secure the outlets, they nick a wire, etc and water penetrates it. Slowly, little by little it overheats, then cools. Over and over again until it finally pops.

We had a different electrician come out who agreed with the original ones explanation. We had to replace all the wiring, spotlight and 2 outdoor electrical outlets. When he saw the damage, he said it had been overheating for a while but it took until now to finally blow. He said if our breaker didn't cut when it did, we could have lost our house.

I was sick to my stomach. Called the siding company, who explained it's in the contract that they "recommend" having an electrician come after the job is done. But it's not enforced. They don't enforce it because of the added cost and people don't want to or can't spend the money.

Again... If you're paying that much for siding... Add a few hundred on to have someone come out and be sure you are safe!!!

Message edited 4/20/2016 2:35:23 PM.

Re: PSA: if you are residing your house

I would tell them their insurance company is paying for the repairs on their shoddy workmanship by another contractor, if not, I would threaten to sue the pants off of them.

Re: PSA: if you are residing your house