Homeowners, how long did it take to break your house?

The kitchen light switch failed a couple of days ago. It went on and would not go off I replaced it yesterday and now when I flip it a weird noise buzz/hums for half a second, and the damn light does not come on. Alison is calling an electrician today.. Now to fish out my pipe wrench.

The buzzing indicates you may have incorrectly connected the grounding wire to the wrong screw connector, or it could be that the switch you used as replacement is not the same amperage as what is needed for that particular switch.


http://www.hometips.com/home_probsolver/hps05/02_conventional/hps_conventional04.html

http://homerepair.about.com/od/electricalrepair/ss/repl_switch.htm

http://www.ehow.com/how_367_replace-light-switch.html

And info for a three-way light switch:
http://www.thecircuitdetective.com/3and4wyinfo.htm

It is a dual switch, both to florescent lights. The old switch was a three way set to separate feeds, so I knocked out the tab and installed the new one the same way. The new switch is a two way sharing a power line that loops around the "hot" connector then heads off to parts unknown. The power in wire is red and connects to the upper left corner, the lower left is white and must be the ground, but I will double check to see if it is a open connection. The right side of the switch has two leads, running to each light.

OK, now to not burn the house down and install a three way switch. Thanks for the advice. While looking for the load rating I noticed that I had a two way instead of a three way switch.

Money pits.

Bake

It is Alison's house inherited from her late mother. It is a pre-prop 13 house so we are quite lucky. Low mortgage balance and rate, very good neighborhood. The only thing is we have to catch up on the maintenance, her mom only hired handymen and it shows in so many ways. Money pit indeed, but it is mostly our money pit.

The whole thing must be about to fall in. That usually happens right after you make the last mortgage payment.

:rofl:

Bake

nothing to do on the weekends again."

not that he works on the house every weekend. but he sure could.

my husband and I could to. now, what kind of texture is best for a bathroom ceiling...?

Nooks and crannies encourage growth.

Scary growth

Hope yours is a cheap fix! :hi:

If it results in fire, maybe not so cheap. Is Mr Mander going to fix the wall himself?

for a living -- so he's going to come by and "help" (a.k.a., he's going to do it while we fetch him beer, LOL).

I think we could do it ourselves, but he said he'll put in a few more studs while he's at it so that it won't happen again!