dankoos
Member
I am in contract to purchase a vacation/second home near Lake Erie (OH). The home was built in the 70's, appears to be a pre-fab house, set on a crawl space (cleanest crawl space I have ever seen, even has concrete floor). We performed our own inspection (finding a home inspector who truly knows what they are doing is not easy) and found a few minor items.
The one item that is really giving me heartburn is the electrical panel location. It is BEHIND the refrigerator in the kitchen. We had to ask the owner where it was and he told us it was there and the "fridge rolls out real easy", which was true. When you roll the fridge out (which takes 5 seconds), the panel is accessible. We aren't sure if the fridge was always in this location, but the way the kitchen is set up currently, that is pretty much the only place it can go.
So, I am pretty confident this is not up to code (but please confirm anyway), but my real question is, is this a true safety hazard/dangerous where it is located? If it is, and we want to get it moved (or negotiate to have the current owner have it moved), anyone have a ballpark estimate on moving it about 8-10 feet down that same wall into the living room? The service/meter are on this side of the house.
House is 900 square feet and the box contains approximately 16-20 breakers (we believe it has so many breakers for such a small house because it has baseboard heaters in each room).
We really, really like this house, but also don't want to have a huge expense (or keep it as-is and risk safety) as soon as we buy it if the current owner is not willing to pay for the relocation (either by dropping price or having it done before closing).
Advice?
The one item that is really giving me heartburn is the electrical panel location. It is BEHIND the refrigerator in the kitchen. We had to ask the owner where it was and he told us it was there and the "fridge rolls out real easy", which was true. When you roll the fridge out (which takes 5 seconds), the panel is accessible. We aren't sure if the fridge was always in this location, but the way the kitchen is set up currently, that is pretty much the only place it can go.
So, I am pretty confident this is not up to code (but please confirm anyway), but my real question is, is this a true safety hazard/dangerous where it is located? If it is, and we want to get it moved (or negotiate to have the current owner have it moved), anyone have a ballpark estimate on moving it about 8-10 feet down that same wall into the living room? The service/meter are on this side of the house.
House is 900 square feet and the box contains approximately 16-20 breakers (we believe it has so many breakers for such a small house because it has baseboard heaters in each room).
We really, really like this house, but also don't want to have a huge expense (or keep it as-is and risk safety) as soon as we buy it if the current owner is not willing to pay for the relocation (either by dropping price or having it done before closing).
Advice?
