Third Party Inspector

Safety First Electrical Contracting, Consulting, and Safety Education

3419 Forty-First Avenue

Colmar Manor, MD 20722-1904

301-699-8833, 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Fax: 301-699-8830

(I recommend that you use your return receipt option, and call 301-699-8833 if you don't get a response within a day.)

This site will tell you about the services, credentials, and fees of an unusual certified third-party inspector, and provide a convenient form to sign up for services. Note that this is where you will find information only if you are seeking a certified Third Party Inspection that has been authorized by a government body such as Washington, D.C.'s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. If you are looking for private electrical safety inspection, for your own information, you need to go to the web page at this link, where I describe not only my contracting but also my consulting.

SERVICES.

While I cannot automatically take the place of a governmental body, where duly authorized I can inspect many kinds of jobs.

Washington, D.C. lists Safety First Electrical Contracting, Consulting, and Safety Education as one of a handful of Third Party Electrical Inspection agencies, authorized to take the place of an electrical inspector working for the city itself in approving or disapproving residential wiring, upon application by a contractor. You will can download a form to request permission to use me from DCRA's site,

The Maryland State Fire Marshall lists me as qualified to serve as an electrical inspector anywhere in the state where not in conflict with local authorities. Where there is no County or City inspection, and therefore the customer functions as the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ), my certification may enable me to serve as the official inspector. Amtrak, for example, chose me when it came time to inspect a contractor's work at their BWI station. The State of Maryland has long listed me among the preferred third-party inspectors for State projects.

I have been invited to perform contract inspections for Frederick County, Maryland and for the Cities of Laurel and Annapolis, Maryland. While honored by the invitations, For one reason or another I have not taken up their offers. This means that if you have pulled a permit in one of those jurisdictions, I cannot take the place of their inspector. Similarly, ETL/Intertek, a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (i.e. a competitor to Underwriters Laboratories, Inc.) offered me a job as a part-time Field Evaluation Engineer, but I chose to say no. So I am not credentialed to apply a label to a non-Listed product.

BENEFITS to Working with Me

Your work is inspected by a hands-on master electrician, not an engineer or architect or even merely a formerly licensed electrician; moreover, your inspector is the man who is responsible for the company's reputation. I'm not over-worried about an installation's untidiness, about the "neat" aspect of a job's being "neat and workmanlike"; but I do insist that violations be corrected, and I home in on hazard. Nobody's perfect, but you'd be hard put to find someone more conscientious about what's most important.

Your inspection is performed by someone with inspector certifications from D.C., Maryland, and IAEI, and someone with constantly-updated training.

You get a man widely-enough respected as an authority, and as a communicator, that I write for Electrical Contractor, IAEI News, and other trade magazines, talking about best practices and problem-solving, and helping readers when they run into difficulties. I am trained as a teacher, and have decades of experience consulting.

You get a man who doesn't simply red-tag violations. I'm happy to talk about what's wrong and help you explore the choices for remediation. By the way, this is not by any means to say that I insist you wire the way I would. Any approach which you can find justified in black-and-white within the NEC is fine.

One benefit you get that definitely is not present with a standard AHJ inspection is that you have the chance to correct violations, of whatever size, and earn the green sticker. If you have the materials needed for the tasks, have the time to perform the corrections, and are prepared to pay me to wait while you straighten it out, you can exercise that option.
Do note that if there are too many violations present for a site to earn a green sticker on my first visit, I will not wave off the need to see them corrected. Sad experience has shown that even "I'll email you pictures" is not a reliable substitute for having me back to examine the corrections firsthand. An installation that I cannot pass earns a red tag.
It is not unusual, when I have had to come back to a red-tagged job, for me to find that the attempt to correct the violations was itself done wrong. Also a few jobs have been so unready for inspection on my first visit that one or two violations were overlooked in the mess, but were easier to spot when I came back. The fact that I--or some other inspector--did not identify them earlier does not give them an automatic pass: the installation has to meet Code.

Finally, you can have your needs accommodated a lot better in terms of when the inspection happens. If you want to be scheduled in at my convenience, great. If you need to get me to your site within a particular time frame, say if you're in a rush, you need me there yesterday, there is a decent chance it can happen. So long as you are comfortable with the rates I list for special scheduling, I probably can meet your needs.

Here are some links to use if you want to jump ahead within this web site:

Credentials

Electrical Publications How well do I communicate?

Limitations What can't I offer?

Signing up If you are pretty sure that you want to hire me, here's where you'll find out how to go about it.

One more item before we get to business. I'm interested in getting you the information you need, not in impressing you with flash. For this reason, I've included no graphics or animation. Still, one approach that some people like, to get an idea of who a person is, is to see what he looks like; others simply might like the idea of being able to identify the inspector who is going to come to their door. For a picture of me from late-2002, go to An Action Shot by photographer Mark Laster, and then hit your BACK button to return.

QUALIFICATIONS

I have earned international certification, through IAEI, as an electrical plan reviewer and as both a residential and a general electrical inspector.
The Maryland State Fire Marshal has certified me similarly.
Washington, D.C.'s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has authorized me to perform residential electrical inspections in their place, upon (approved) request. You'll find me on their PDF list at http://www.dcra.dc.gov/services/third/tpi.shtm.
I am a decades-long member of the International Association of Electrical Inspectors (IAEI). I have served for many as Secretary-Treasurer of IAEI's Maryland/D.C. chapter and as a member of the executive board for the eastern United States, where I head the Bylaws committee. I also participate in and support the work of the American Council on Electrical Safety.

I have served as a consultant on electrical topics to book and pamphlet publishers, trial lawyers, and the Handyman Club of America. Organizations such as the National Electrical Safety Foundation (the earlier version of the Electrical Safety Foundation International) have consulted me regularly, and I have been called upon for help by the Public Affairs office of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission(CPSC) and by the Codes and Standards arm of the National Electrical Contractors Association.
I have been accredited to offer Continuing Education workshops for IAEI, and have given a seminar or two on electrical safety inspection to the Mid-Atlantic Chapter, American Society of Home Inspectors.
I was interviewed by DC Channel 9 on the danger of accessible live wiring, and by Consumer Reports for an extensive article on old wiring in their August 2001 issue. Subsequently, I was interviewed at length by Readers Digest for a condensation of the article that appeared in their January 2002 issue. Also in January 2002, I addressed a Regional Gathering of American Mensa, Ltd. on the topic of what inspectors miss, and why, and what to do about it. I gave a similar talk, on developments in electrical safety, in February, 2004.

I have been hired to address meetings of the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI) on topics related to residential electrical inspections--most recently in Fall of 2007.

The chief electrical inspector for Prince Georges County, Maryland's recruited me to serve on the ad hoc committee developing local amendments for adoption of the 2005 NEC.

I am a master electrician, licensed by Maryland, Virginia (Class A) and the District of Columbia, as well as seven subsidiary jurisdictions. I have been recommended by the American Homeowners' Association, by Home Connections, by BG&E's Keeping Current, by Service Magic, by the Washington Consumer Checkbook and by Washingtonian Magazine.

Electrical Publications

I write a monthly column on residential wiring for Electrical Contractor magazine. I initiated it in 1989, leaving in 1992 and then taking it up once more from 1999 to the present. I wrote an award-winning safety column for Utility Fleet Management, periodic articles for National Safety Council publications, and regular features, mostly on safety, for Public Power magazine. For about 25 years, I have edited The Flexible Conduit, a transnational newsletter for electricians, inspectors and engineers in Mensa. I have produced and validated a test, Safety Awareness for Electricity; published numerous articles and photographs in various electrical trade publications; and written on electricity and home repair for periodicals ranging from Redbook and The Washington Post to Practical Homeowner, , New England Builder, and Fine Homebuilding. Fine Homebuilding purchased permission to reprint an article of mine in their book, The Best of Fine Homebuilding. My materials were distributed by New Jersey officials during 1993's National Electrical Safety Month.

Under contract to the National Electrical Contractors Association, I prepared a guide to workmanship for installing wiring devices such as switches and receptacles, or inspecting their installation, intended as a National Electrical Installation Standard, for adoption by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

My first book, Old Electrical Wiring: Maintenance & Retrofit (McGraw-Hill, 1998), was the only book devoted to this topic. (You can see excerpts of some of the reviews.) My second book, Your Old Wiring, serves people who don't have the background to get full benefit from the first.

In addition to my own writing, I perform an increasing amount of electrical editing. I have edited and fact-checked texts on electrical theory and on Code changes for Mike Holt Enterprises, Inc., and have reviewed others' materials many times. At present I provide some writing assistance to the American Council on Electrical Safety.

LIMITATIONS It is extremely important for you to realize that I cannot "take the NEC as a guideline," and "give a guy a break," rather than enforcing the Code as it is written. It also is important to recognize that when I say, "I didn't notice any violations in what I examined," and give an installation a green tag, I am not absolutely guaranteeing that all the wiring at the site is safe. The only time I can warranty wiring's safety is when I have personally installed, or closely supervised the installation of, every inch of the wiring. I cannot even guarantee that another inspector, coming behind me on a job whose wiring I approved, wouldn't find violations. This could happen because we disagree on NEC interpretation, or simply because he or she found something I overlooked. Every inspection has to sample. No one can look at every last item on a job.

PRICING PHILOSOPHY

Rather than offering a flat fee, I break out different costs, including premiums and surcharges, in order to maximize fairness to all parties.

I give the fee schedule on my sign-up form; a link to that follows. If you want to hire me to inspect, I need you to print it out and send it to me as an email attachment, or fax it to me, along with a copy of the authorization from DCRA for me to inpect your work, if it is in D.C., or from whoever constitutes the Authority having Jurisdiction, if elsewhere. If this isn't convenient, for some reason, call me (between 9 am and 9 pm) at 301-699-8833, or email, and we'll make an alternate arrangement.

Links of Possible Interest

Inspection sign-up form

TPI Form will bring you to an image of DCRA's Third Party Inspection Request form, which you can print out, complete, and fax or carry in to the City. They need to receive this and approve it before I can perform a legally valid inspection for them and issue a green (or red) tag. As of February 2008, the fax goes to 202-442-4860, Att: Marie Brown.

The web page where I describe my contracting and consulting. The latter includes performing safety inspections where I am not serving as a jurisdictional Third Party Inspector.

My personal web site, where you will find a link to other information about me, and links to my other web pages.

Reviews of Old Electrical Wiring: Maintenance and Retrofit

Electrical Contracting and Engineering News: ". . .an essential guide . . ."

CEE News: ". . . a thorough, sometime humorous, guide . . . Ample photographs, charts, and appendices round out the text. . ."

The Independent Writer: ". . . important information for people who live or work in older buildings . . ."

Electrical Contractor: " . . . a valuable reference work. . .keep the book handy. . . ."

Electrical Construction and Maintenance: ". . . practical . . .valuable resource."

Fine Homebuilding: ". . . a necessary addition to any electrician's library."

Electrical Books: ". . . detailed and valuable resource."

Contractors' Code Letter: ". . . clear guidance. . ."

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