Advice needed: becoming an electrician/plumber

[AdmiralD7S]

As many of you know, the wife and I were planning to have our house built this coming spring. However, as the time to go talk to the bank drew nearer, we took a hard look at our finances and decided that while we could make the down payment, we weren't comfortable draining our savings that much, and so we're waiting another year as we continue to save up.

As I keep looking at the estimated cost from the builder, I'm trying to find places where I could save some money by doing work myself. Two areas that I'm looking at are electricity and plumbing. I've done some of both on my own (wired my shop and chicken coop, replaced faucets/drains, installed water line to freezer, etc.), but I don't have near the knowledge I would need to do a whole house. Certainly I don't know all the codes I'd need to meet for the inspectors.

How would you recommend an engineer like myself get the skills and knowledge I would need for the plumbing and electrical work?

 

[TMT Tactical]

You should read and learn the codes but I am willing to bet you would still have trouble with inspectors. They love to hassle home owner builds. My suggestion is to talk to the general contractors and the sub-contractor and see which ones are willing to work with you. Under the supervision of the electrical contractor, you can pull wire, mount boxes and even terminate outlets. You would want the Electrical contractor to inspect your work and make the final panel / h0use connection. The plumbing contractor should do the rough in but there is no reason you could not do the final connections for sinks, toilets, and tubs. Make your case to the General and the sub-contractors prior to signing on the dotted line. My experience is that you can find contractors willing to work with you, but you can't spring this on them after the fact. Note: all this is based on your ability to do good, quality work and release the contractor from any liability resulting from you work. If the toilet leaks, it would be your problem, not the plumbing contractors. As for the inspectors, they will work with most contractors but are more than happy to show off their "knowledge" and power if the home owner is doing the work. Jm2c

 

[masterspark]

You could learn the basics pretty quick but there's a reason why plumbers and electricians need to do a 4 year (8000 hrs) apprenticeship 600+ hrs of schooling, and then pass an exam to be licensed. At Least here in the northeast. Codes are written so that people don't die from shoddy workmanship. Inspectors just make sure we follow the rules. Some are more exacting than others.
If you have a vocational school nearby you could ask if they need a project to help teach the students.
I've seen a lot of homeowner projects that were screwed up and I've been called in to make right. I've seen house fires caused by crappy wiring. In the end it is safer and cheaper to pay to get it done right the first time. That being said, talk to several contractors before you decide on one.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

We re-wired our existing house (knob and tube) and garage ourselves. Building stores carry the code books for your area. We did all the work and then hired an electrician to inspect our work/make fixes and apply for the permit and final inspection. This way we could take all the time we needed to do a $20,000. job for just the cost of supplies and our personal time, with the additional cost of two days time for an actual electrican and the permits. It took the electrician one of those days to wire up the new breaker boxes. Something that is actually easy to do, but a deal breaker for getting hassled by inspectors. In the end, the inspector didn't come out, but gave approval based upon the electricians reputation. We did the work over three years as we slowly trashed the place for insulation and do overs. Where I live it is not a requirement that a certified any body has to do the job, the job just has to pass inspection no matter who does it. It is the paper on the wall that says it was done right that counts.

We are re-plumbing the bathrooms now, and are doing the same thing. If you are having a contractor build your house, than you need them on board for a similar arrangement, and you will need to be able to do the work with in their time constraints.

 

[Caribou]

I took a home wiring class at the local college. That gave me the basics and residential codes. Dealing with inspectors will be on a case by case basis. Some places around here don't even have inspectors.

 

[SheepDog]

I completely wired my garage and shop (I also built it from the foundation up). I didn't have any experience in construction at all but I looked at the requirements to meet codes and then went one better. Wiring for lighting requires 16AWG here and I used 14AWG (the next larger wire) I only put 7 amps on each circuit and ran two circuits for the lights. I can have one circuit off and work on the other and still have lights. I used 12AWG (a size up) for the outlets and only put 5 outlets on each run (20 amp breakers) which it half the conventional number. I placed the outlets every 4 feet and then ran 7 dedicated runs to single outlets for my fixed power tools, door opener and the exterior outlet. (each outlet on a 20 amp breaker) I used 20 amp GFI outlets for all the wall outlets. For my three 240 outlets I ran 10AWG with 30 amp breakers (again a size larger). I did have an electrician run the cable from the house breaker panel to the new panel in the shop and to connect the garage panel to my shop panel.
The reason for the larger wires was two fold: 1. it keeps the voltage drop down and 2. there is no possibility that the wire will heat before the breaker is thrown. I used the deep outlet and switch boxes because My walls have an extra 5/8" sheet of OSB on the inside with 1/2" drywall over it. The deeper boxes let me space them out for the extra thickness and to have room for 12" pigtails from the wall to the outlets and switches. It will make future repairs easier.
I would need to research plumbing because I know you have to place air vent pipes in particular locations to the drains to make it all work.

 

[backlash]

Electrical and plumbing are easy.
Passing an inspection not so much.
I have done both and didn't have many problems with inspectors.
Most of them were helpful and gave me advice about what I needed to do.
Never try to get anything passed an inspector.
Do not try to hide something.
They will find it and they will make your build as difficult as possible.
Make sure you get all the required permits before you start.

 

[hiwall]

I wired my last shop and had it inspected. Yes he found a couple things (I had not labeled the breakers for one). That was not a big deal.
I am in the house right now resting as I am hand digging the trench out to the new garage to run the electric out there. I will not bother having this inspected.
I have wired many many things including a friends large stand-alone addition for his house that was built for a day care and capable of being a rental apartment with its own bath. kitchen etc.
For a house it would need to be inspected in most locations. You WOULD need a local code book.
Same with the plumbing. Neither is rocket science. Most of the codes are practical things that you would do correctly anyway. Much of the work in many places is NOT done by a licensed plumber or electrician but done by low paid workers an many cases even though you hire a licensed person. This is fine if it is supervised by a qualified person.
Only you know what you feel qualified to do.
Clem's post # 4 above seems like a good answer to save money.