Rant: A service call in an old Portland apartment building made me double-check every neutral now

I was replacing a light fixture in a unit built in the 1920s, and when I disconnected the old one, I got a tingle off the neutral. I mean, it was hot. Turns out a previous hack job had back-fed the circuit through a shared neutral in a different unit that was still live. I had to trace it back to a junction box two floors up. Now I meter every single conductor, even the white ones, before I touch anything in those old places. Anyone else run into a shared neutral that wasn't on the same circuit?

3 comments

3 Comments

alexc9314d ago

Always test the neutral... learned that the hard way too.

lindaowens14d ago

Wait you actually touched a live wire without checking first? That's how people end up in the ER... I can't even imagine the jolt you must have felt. My whole body just tensed up reading that. Please tell me you at least had someone else there in case things went really wrong. That's one of those mistakes you only make once, if you're lucky enough to walk away from it.

grace5082d ago

My uncle's house had a light switch that turned on the neighbor's porch light for years.