This is about money and times are tight.

Household electrical is not that complicated and the homeowner should have the right to do whatever he or she wants to his own house. If they can teach it in a few hours then why did it take you years to learn?

I don’t think they are giving crash courses on things that should only be done by a certified electrician. Besides those rules are set by cities and counties not retail stores. The retailer doesn’t control who is in the class or what the rules are in the students community.

You may think that household electrical work by law should only be done by certified electricians but that’s because YOUR AN ELECTRICIAN OR YOU ARE MARRIED TO ONE. That’s not the law everywhere and running lights, ceiling fans, and receptacles is not that complicated in most homes. Taking the course certainly doesn’t qualify people to get paid as an electrician to work on others homes but people are trying to learn a bit about their own homes and SAVE money.

If electricians were reasonable with their prices then maybe we would call them. I mean come on the sound of calling an electricain is almost like the sound of having to call a lawyer these days. You guys charge the $100 just for showing up at the house. Then an extra $100 to change a light switch. Then $30 truck charge and $20 dollars for a switch that you marked up 1000%. Let’s not forget the hourly minumum which means I pay for an hour labor even if you are only there for 15 minutes. After taxes and misc. fees we are looking at $300.

Let’s be real sister. Most homeowners are just wanting simple repairs or installations. It’s nothing that complicated, but electrical contractors charge 10 times the amount that poor kid gets for cutting my 1 acre lawn with a push mower. And it takes him the entire 3 hours of hard sweating work.

Like it or not people are going to do it whether Home Depot teaches them or some “brother in law” teaches.

I can work on my own car and that could be dangerous to me and society. I can cook my own food and trust me you don’t want to eat it. I can install my own ceiling fan at my own risk. If your job as a certified and highly qualified electrician is threatened by homeowners running a new light for a pool table in the basement then you might want to reassess your skill level in the trade.

I bet as an electrician (or wife) you think that qualifies you (or your husband) to tackle just about any project in your own home. I bet you or he would go out and try to troubleshoot your own air conditioner before calling a professional. I bet you might even try to run a new water line to a washtub if you had decided to put one in your laundy room. Even thugh you might risk having a leak and cause damage I bet you don’t call a professional for things like that do ya? I am talking about calling a real licensed plumber who is insured and bonded and on the clock making full scale pay. Just like you expect to get paid when you install a new 3 way switch for an old lady.

Simple electrical projects are not reserved for electricians. I would rather see people get a little knowledge from a store than none at all.

Besides if it’s so complicated all of the homeowners should be screwing up everything so bad that your phone must be ringing off the hook.

P.S. To show you the lack of concern for customer service, the last 6 8 months I worked for For Depot they warned us constantly that if we clocked more than 40 hours we would be fired. If you were in the middle of helping a customer and your shift ended you had to walk away from the customer unless you wanted to risk being fired.

I say let them go for it.

So much of the notion of course is sales, and yet these and/or Plumbing workshops on a Saturday morning, often end up costing a homeowner major $$$ after they attempt a DIY.

I make my living as a GC, but I’m not so ignorant as to the state of our economy, and the desire of homeowners to want to do what they might not justify paying a contractor for, but working electricity, isn’t exactly like making a tile grout line too wide or too narrow, or having to re-paint a wall that someone messed up.

Not only are electrical/plumbing issues often code dictated, but they can be major liability issues as well, in some possible, horrible end result.

I’ve been in the trades most of my life and still don’t know it all, and I too call in other contractors who do know aspects of any work, I’m uncertain of. What can we do about HD workshops? Likely not much. I might sit through one however, and challenge the facilitator.

Steven Wolf
AKA D.I.Y. Doc

I have done electronics repair and electrical more than 35 years since age 12.
And have more than 20 years in the fire service plus fire investigation.

I have seen incredible things as you may imagine.

Just one example was a middle of the night dwelling fire that originated in the basement level, vented out a rear window, up the rear outside, and took the roof off this newer home.

Briefly, found a main panel 100 amp 2 pole breaker feeding a hot tub on the back porch.
Guess what cable was run to this hot tub ?
12-2 WG NM………

It took awhile to get the floor joists to sufficiently char and then burn.
No one died.
But that Thanksgiving morning was not good for the owner….

And I have asked Yahoo Answers to stop permitting the posting of electrical repair problems or questions.
The quantity of idiotic answers is astounding.
Many answers just downright beyond unsafe.

I very much share your concerns.

There are too few qualified individuals to ”answer” so many inquiries.