Hot and neutral (feeders) are reversed in your sub panel, the white striped wire should be neutral, solid black & red stripe should be hots. Make sure you fix it at the other end as well.

Good tip is to always do grounds first then neutrals over the grounds and hots last over the grounds and neutrals. This applied in every box including outlets. That's so if anyone ever has to service your work the first thing they deal with is the wire that is hot.

Yeah, I failed my first electrical inspection over not having tamper proof outlets. I will also add that tamper resistant outlets are a pain in the butt! My wife absolutely hates them because it's really hard to plug things in! I did find that if you plug something in them multiple times it does eventually loosen up a small bit. But it's been over a year for us and they are still annoying 🙄

Red and black wires go to main breaker, black and white to common bar

the best thing to do with an old breaker panel is to throw it out. code changes over the years have made them useless. i was an electrical inspector for 22 years in a major ohio city. i got along with most of my permit holders. arguing with an inspector is like wrestling with a pig-they enjoy it.

On the incoming feed, I would have used the all black and red/black wire for the incoming hots and white/black for the neutral. Reason being a black or red wire normally indicates that it is hot and white normally indicates that it is neutral. The configuration that you have could be seen as being wired incorrectly given these reasons. As for the GFCIs, they should not be connected to each other. Only need one at the beginning of the circuit to protect the remainder of the ciruit. Other option would be to use a GFCI breaker. Two GFCIs connected to each other will have issues because the first one in line will see a difference caused by the second one and trip unnecessarily.

I agreed with the inspector except for one thing, WR plugs in the garage. In your installation the plugs aren’t exposed to weather. If that was the case, he should’ve made you put outside plug covers on them also. I’ve been doing commercial and residential electrical work for 25 years this year, I’ve seen a lot of changes in codes and wiring methods, some good and some bad. You did a pretty good job for a DIYer. I’ve seen and fixed a lot of wiring that people have installed that shouldn’t even be allowed to change a lightbulb.

Very mature attitude and Competence will get you far. Great vid

Violation: on the incoming subfeeder, you used the white wire for one of the hots and the black wire for neutral. Those are opposite!

Always drives me up the wall to open a panel and see that the installer used the neutral color for one of the hot legs! First thing I noticed from the picture, that and the ground bonding screw in there from the neutral to the chassis. A couple of hours on Mike holt and you should be able to glean enough to get thru an inspection for this sort of an addition.

Electrical code is all about saving lives and property. Kudos to inspectors and all of us doing the installation right as best we can!

I commend and applaud you for securing a permit. I thank you for taking the time to show the violations. So many contributors show the good stuff done right. It's actually refreshing to have you take time to detail your efforts. Also, your inspector is a good one to point out violations without being condescending. For anyone looking to bypass the system; it may work, you may get away with it. Best case you did. Worse case you die. Fire is a horrible way to go.

Instead of an expensive GFCI breaker, you could have used GFCI blank face device. (Looks like a recep, but no holes, just test buttons) 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of a breaker. I use those to feed jacuzzi tubs in bathroom so if the GFCI trips you don't have to leave the bathroom to reset it.

I built a house as an owner builder. Being I wasn't in the building trades most of the inspectors gave me a lot of leeway and also advice. I had all licensed trades on the jobsite. More times than not, when we failed they would pass me if I gave them my word I would have the problem fixed. When they left a sistered truss out not so much. :) I just took a humbling attitude towards them. My BIL is a large commercial builder who gave me his subs and handled all the accounting and paperwork. He would argue with inspectors and also ask for hearings if they wanted something off the books. That really pissed him off. If it only had 2 zeros behind it I didn't care. I just wanted to move on. In the end it turned out well and I learned so much from the experience. My current home was built by a large builder and my experience lead me to catch a few major mistakes they missed.

Real men can admit their mistakes. Even better men are willing to make a video and tell everyone. Good job!

thank you for making this video. We all learn from each other!

Wow. Good to know. and espacially for the light and 3 way switch thing.

I only made one of those mistakes - it was on the WR/TR outlets. But dang, I didn't have to use WR inside the garage - only on the exterior outlets on the outside walls. I originally did the outside covers only.

I do not agree with the WR receptacles. Most receptacles are now TR which has become a standard. I totally agree with the GFCI breakers and/or receptacles. What burns my a$$ is the new arc flash requirements. I am a semi-retired electrical engineer turned electrician (passed my test Aug 2021) and it is all about knowing the rules.

I kind of figured that was going to happen, no separation of neutral and ground in SUB panel. but hey you learned a few things and it all worked out good.

I'm a framer. first thing I noticed is the stair stringer are bearing on the step and not the heel. that's a huge nono. especially when it's a dimensional and not engineered stringer. all you need to do to fix that is put a header under the heel. that's gonna fail super fast.

I second Stokes's comment below about swapping the white striped feeder with the black feeder. I'm surprised the inspector didn't catch that.

Good and common sense. Once you hear it for the first time. Thanks for providing a first time. Did a refurb on an outside staircase. The valuable lesson learned from the building code was “continuous graspability.” (Fortunately - learned about it before.)

Good job. Reminded me of my experiences about 20yrs ago.

Exactly. Codes are there to help and be safe. It sucks when the city wants to be a pain over silly things though. Diyer should have inapection to ensure their own and families safety. Contractors get inspected so that the homeowner can have piece of mind.

Good job, doing some home remodel stuff is definitely a learning process, Being honest always work even with the inspectors ha ha, but doing clean and orderly work also gets big bonus points with inspectors. Good video 👍

It’s always a good idea to check with your inspector before starting. Since codes and regulations vary from place to place, it’s best to ask ahead. They are generally helpful and are glad to discuss plans with you before starting. I’m not licensed but I do handyman work and have dealt with a number of inspectors. They are primarily interested in homeowner safety, mostly coming from construction or fire protection backgrounds.

Thank you for the video and the tips on why you failed.

Great video. Working on wiring my shop right now. Thanks for the heads up

Thats how you learn. I admire your work. Great job.

If you are a diy'er, the 2020 NEC requires 210.8 (A).(2). that recepticles in the garage to be gfci protected. And, 210.52.(G).(1). Requires a recepticle in each garage bay not above 5 1/2 above the floor. Run 20 amp wires from the panel to each of the required car bay recepticles (2 separate nm cables). Use these gfci's to supply/protect your garage door opener recepticles (line/load). This gets you the required protection and a reset you do not need to stand on your car to operate.....meeting the gfci "accessibility requirements" in NEC section 100. You could tie both circuits together in your panel and pigtail to one breaker to meet today''s requirements or put them as separate circuits 20 amp circuits for a garage that needs a lot of power. The recepticle version of gfci are about half the cost of the breaker version.

Great video! Thanks for creating and sharing. Your work looks great.

Good to know the reason or why, of the 3 way switch thing and light in a enclosed storage.area.

Just replaced my main panel to a 400a service. That was quite a fiasco, but I was informed that a surge protector is now required on new installs. So..about 150.00 later, I now have a surge protector covering my whole house. When I wire in the other 200 available, I'll have to get another for the shop panel

Thanks for being forthright and sharing with us your mistakes. The pros have hammered you in the comments, but I will tell you they aren't perfect either. I've found a buttload of code violations in my 1980's/remodeled home. Previous owner used only "licensed contractors" and obtained permits for everything. I mean really stupid ones, like 20A CB's feeding 14g cable, two wires under one CB screw, etc.

Interesting why the colors on the incoming feeder cable were not failed. Red and Black are hot and the white with black ought to be neutral, the wire function determined by the stripes. And that also means change them in the main panel to match subpanel.

Very good video. Great attitude. If you care to pursue a career in electrical work, I believe you would do well.

You are so correct. Many nuances to the code that as a homeowner, you are not aware of. I am glad you took care of all the issues the inspector found. Inspectors are there to make sure you do things in a safe manner. Before I do things, I try to review everything I need to, so I dont have to re-do them. A lot of lost time & money can happen if u dont

This makes me realize how many current code violations are grandfathered into my garage...

Thanks for the tips. See the notes about the hot and neutral swap on the panel (as noted, ok to label and leave them, but be sure to check the other end either way). Other notes are helpful, didn’t know about the GFCI requirement for outlets over slab, nor the (new?) requirement for tamper-proof low outlets.

You have the unmarked black conductor that should be white on the neutral bus and the white continuously marked conductor on one of the hot buses…

I’m an inspector as well as a master electrician. I spotted a few things… waiting to see if it was pointed out. BTW, max height on a main breaker (or any breaker) is 6’7”. Also, the receptacle outlet next to the sub-panel will be too close, so move it at least 6” from the edge of the panel so there is no interference. Good job trying it yourself, but consider an electrical contractor next time.

Nice video, you need to swap the white/black feeder wire and the solid black feeder wire. The neutral bar should have the white one. Also, hard to tell but it looks as if you have some blacks going into the neutral bar, that should not be the case. Otherwise great job. (but switch those service cable wires)...

You did excellent.... so a few miniscule issues... eh... great job and keep up the great videos

Electrical code is EXTREMELY picky. Its almost impossible to pull off a home/ garage inspection without having an expert guiding you. Sometimes you can find licensed electricians that will just do the devices...you install the boxes and run the wires. They can tell you what wire to run where...and they have plenty to do with drilling holes and pounding in boxes. They absolutely FLY when they connect the devices...so it can be much more reasonably priced. The newest NEC wants EVERY circuit arc fault protected. That means EVERY breaker is electronic and costs in the $80 range. It adds THOUSANDS to the price.

I did mine also, and on the overhead lights they had me put in GFCI outlets on a 10' ceiling

Before I wired my garage, I called up the inspector and asked what they wanted to see. I wrote all of what he said down and kept it for later. I wired my garage and scheduled the inspection. The night before the inspection I broke out the notes from the call to the inspector. I found 3 things that I had not done. I fixed them all that night in about 30 minutes. The next day the inspector showed up looked at all the things he said he would and signed off on the inspection. Easy peasy.

As a tradesman, I view the inspectors like a teacher grading a paper. Do everything right....pat on back. Do it messed up....slap on wrist with maybe a Do-over. They are there to ensure you get a good and safe build. Run away from anyone that "wants to make it work" or wants to hide stuff from the inspectors. Try to find someone that wants to use your house as a display model for their good work.

Let me end the pain here with the neutral color. I took a close look at time 01:08 and can say that the cable looks like SE or USE and the neutral is properly marked with 3 continuous white stripes in accordance with 200.6. The connections are as follows: Bare Aluminum.....ground Black/Red........leg 2 (L2) Black......Neutral Bus Black/3 white stripes..leg 1 (L1). Yes, the inspector and several commentors missed this. Not wrong markings, wring terminals.

Nice neat work. I have a background along the same as you Don’t think much about it. Industrial is so different than residential. I have been scolded over the years

I done alittle different in garage I would’ve made those arc and everything on its own outlet. You’re still gonna want something to protect in case lightning hits the house and shoots up all the wire

Thanks for the info!

Nice job! Thanks for the info.

Like that you’re humble! Most you would really hear in their voice.

I don’t know how the inspector didn’t point out the neutral wire going to the main lug. I’m not the first to point it out but the white striped wire goes to the neutral. Black and red striped go to the main.

Good info, thanks for sharing. The one about the tamper-proof receptacles below a certain height must be a new one; there have to be gazillions of non-tamper-proof ones in houses everywhere. Live and learn.

A very helpful video.

Your panel is wired wrong ,black and white should be to common bar and the two black wires should be hooked too the main breaker

Can’t believe the inspector missed that!

one thing DIYers don't know is that the code book is not your enemy it is an actual tool that is set up to be used as a field reference guide no one can remember all that stuff and no one is expected to. code books are not that expensive AND there are as many exceptions to the code as there are sections because almost all of them have multiple exceptions. in this case the inspector was on the mark , that sort of an installation is pretty basic but there are inspectors and they there are inspectors. they are not all trained on the actual code they just have a punch list of specific items they look for along with the other punch lists they have to look at and the kicker is not that they may cause you to correct things that are not wrong NOPE the issue is that they miss things and YOU are they one actually responsible for the safety of the installation! the inspector and the regulating agency are specifically indemnified from any potential liability for any of the work preformed EVEN the things they tell you to do in a correction in almost all cases so if they are wrong about that and it causes a fire or an electrocution it is YOU on the hook so do NOT depend on them to check your work ever and even double check to make sure that the correction its self IS correct. technically they are NOT suppose to be telling you HOW to make the correction just what needs to be corrected along with the code section violated , it is when they opine about the how part that the line gets blurred any way grats on getting your rough signed off looks like a nice little addition and dont feel too bad about the corrections no one catches everything every time and the inspectors tend to think they haven't done their job if they don't gig you for something so they tend to keep looking until they find anything they can call a correction even if it is just adding a staple while they stand there and watch.

I would recommend you re-wire those feeds. YOu have the neutral wire where a phase should be and a phase is where the neutral should be. Yes, it is a code violation too. Whether your inspector know that or not. White wires MUST be neutral wires only, not phase conductors.

VERY good, thats why we take exams on JUST the NEC

I do believe ( whether or not your strange inspector passed it) you should change your incoming hot and neutral wires back to the solid black being your black, and white striped being your neutral. Because in the future if someone ( trained individual) ever has to service that or that cable gets damaged someone is likely to get KILLED

nice video, great looking panel!

The black wire with the white strip should go to the Neutral Bar and the black wire should go to L1. Also if a white wire goes to a breaker it HAS to have a color tape on it! and black wires going to a Neutral HAS to have a white tape on it. Also the main panel feed wires does not look big enough to handle that amp load of all the breakers

It comes down to general circuit receptical, compared to dedicated outlet, all places it can be accessed is an outlet,, it can be a receptical a light fixture, a switch , a smoke detector, dosnt matter it's an outlet,, some are general purpose receps, some are juntion box's, some are a simple light switch,, an outlet by code has many different purposes,, it accualy goes back to Edison,, and his original outlet🤔🤔🧐👍

Good fix especially now. Homeline GFCI 20a breakers are $53 EACH currently. Utter insanity. You can buy 10 packs of UL listed 20a GFCI receptacles for $82... $8.20 EACH and they'll protect all your downstream outlets just as well. If that's the best the industry can do for pricing and availability then these codes need to be abolished. You have to draw a line somewhere. You don't automatically enforce by law a 6.5x increase in price in the name of a minor safety improvement. If you applied that to every single aspect of life you'd never be able to afford anything ever. Bring down the breaker cost and I'd RATHER use them. They're more elegant. Better idea entirely. But why in Hades do they cost so much more? It SHOULD be the price of a standard breaker (About $6.50) plus the cost of adding the GFCI outlet features (about $8.20) for a TOTAL of $14.70. NOT $53! For that matter if they were $20 at a $5 premium I'd still gladly use the breaker for the convenience.

it appears you have your neutral on a hot lug and a hot leg on the neutral lug .also that is technically a sub panel so the grounds and neutrals have to be separate and not bonded together. Thats why you need to remove that screw it's a bonding screw.

2020 nec 210.70 (C) lighting shall be installed where these spaces are used for storage or contain equipment requiring servicing. just in case anyone was wondering about the under the stairs light. but the WP plugs and crap in the garage total bs. inspector needs to do a little more research on that.

Pretty sure that the storage area isn't required to have a light unless there is a piece of equipment in that space

Hot and neutral reversed on the feeders, also the outlet beside the panel is too close. Good putting the panel cover and outlet face plate on !!

Also 2 of ur main feeder wires r incorrect u have black wire on neutral buss & white wire on one leg of the main circuit breaker

Not sure a weather resistant GFI is required inside a structure

Thanks for sharing.

3-way "circuit" for stairs. 3-way switch, to many, infers a 3-pole switch, which I don't believe is what you were referring to.

Thanks for the upload.

Don't fell bad a lot of people learn the hard way, neat job .

In the picture it looks like you have the white neutral landed on one of the line terminals?

for code you also need to tape your neutrals white.

Good thing you were saved from needing a flashlight for that tiny storage space...

Depends what size panels box you need

Always keep receipts so you can return items that don’t pass.

Ok a sub panel does not need a main breaker,, it can be used as a secondary shit off,, and yeah it should have some sort of hold down screw or strap, and idk what state your in but nothing in national code about if it's hard worked or plug in,, technically anything not permintaly installed need a means of disconnect,, which includes a receptical, and any stair case or basement needs a 3way top and bottom,, but I must call out the need for GFCI becuz it plugs in, any and all circuits that are intended to be for general use in certain places need to be GFCI,, but if installed for dedicated purpose use it's a different code section,, especially wene relating to lighting,, maybe arc fault, but not ground fault👍🤔

Why did you use the black wire to feed your neutral and the white wire to feed a hot in the panel? You must have a lot of funky local codes. WR inside a garage? TR's only under 5'6"? 3-way switches for stairs? I'd be taking the inspector to task on those. They're inspectors, not expectors. They can't be pulling out shirt-pocket rules made up back at the office and only pulled out when they're checking things out. Code must be adopted, which is a defined legal process.

I still see a problem - you used the neutral as a hot I'm surprised the inspector did not see that - all black and black/red are hots and the wire with the white or gray stripe is your neutral

Didn't phase those white conductors going in the breaker .. unless it's a arc fault ground fault breaker but it don't look like it

I'm trying to start a new shop project... soon. One of my biggest fears is that I'm 45 yeas out of date, and codes as well as construction practices change. PEX is all "new" for me. We had GFCIs, but not Arc Faults. Then, of course, there are local codes. St. Louis had something that they only allowed one wire per hole in a stud or joist. Can anybody say SWISS CHEESE? I've had many problems with GFCI outlets, and would never use one unless absolutely necessary (near a sink). Those child proof plugs would be a pain in a workshop, although perhaps they would help with dust and corrosion.

As a licensed master electrician and an electrical contractor with 41 years in the trade, I have had many people call and want me to sign off on the electrical on their already finished basement, garage, addition or whatever because they got caught with no permit. Sometimes someone turns them in or a prospective buyer checks for past permits. I always refuse to do this. Why should I be sued when there is property damage or someone gets hurt or killed because of what some ignorant homeowner did? Sometimes the homeowner has started the work and wants me to finish it. The first thing I do is rip EVERYTHING out that they did. Boxes, wire, everything. If they can't accept that, I tell them to get someone else.

The black wire you have connected to the neutral bus should be used as a hot and the white wire you have on the hot should be the neutral. Neutral conductor is supposed to be white. I don't know how an inspector let you by with that.

I’m gonna call BS on the WR receptacles inside the garage. If it was a wash bay it would be different and covers would be required also.

Having three way switches at the top and bottom of a staircase is just common sense. The inspector did you a favor by requiring dedicated staircase lighting with proper switching.

Dude, you also switched the neutral with one of the hots going into the main panel breaker. How did the inspector miss that???

Iv been in it since 1991, and many things have changed, but arc fault and ground fault, and the combination it a very specific thing,, ground faulting lights just cuz they plug in is not nessisarly a code, it's an inspector personal idea of it🤔🤔👍

I see so many sub panels bonded I want to scream..And you don't need a GFCI in every outlet. Just the first one in the circuit has to be GFCI.. Preferably where you can reset it easy. I would add. Mark every ground and neutral with the proper color tape in the panel..

Are you leaving that OSB exposed? I wanted to do that in my garage to mount stuff but it is not fire code rated. My AHJ has 5/8 fire x Sheetrock against the garage walls that meet a outside living space wall.

Have you been addressed on the main breaker termination? Not being a know it all but I feel like you have some in the wrong location. Looks good. Hope you enjoy it

I don't understand the light for the confined storage area. I have some small closets that don't have lights, so is there some additional minimum size requirement?

Thinking about adding a sub panel in my garage addition. Is it a code violation to run 4/0 wire from my existing panel through interior walls?

Left power feed wire and neutral wire needs reversed wrong color on each of them - who inspected that ?

In this video I heard $500.00 for replacement cost for parts and materials to pass your inspection. In all the T.V shows and all the U-TUBE videos I never hear the total cost Labor, you cannot install a job without labor costs, it would be nice to know the actual amount time spent removing the materials, rebuying, and reinstalling to get approved.