I've been doing a lot of home electrical work lately. I'm no electrician, but I use the ATGATT rule. No, I don't wear a helmet...but I do use conduit, junction boxes, proper tools and connectors, and I never mess with the breaker box. I test circuits before, during and after. I read up on what I am doing and make sure I am up to code as much as Google will tell me.
The question is, should I feel safe about this, or get a pro in to double-check my work? Any time I get a second opinion, it ends up costing me money for nothing because all contractors (and mechanics and plumbers) are crooks.
OK, not all contractors and mechanics and plumbers, but enough.
I'd love to tell you to get your work checked by the pros.
But, as many times as I go behind the pros, fixing their messes and mistakes. I'd have to say if you're doing it right, good enough.
Dunno... Breaker box is nothing special. If you can wire a 3way switch, you're fine.
one hand in your pocket.
I only do minor electrical stuff. It gave me cold chills to watch a guy on one of the home shows re-connect the service to a house.
Maybe getting an inspector to check it if you want the piece of mind. An electrician may say your work is wrong to get you to pay them to "fix" it. The only issue I have seen with doing your own work is at selling time if the buyers inspector fails what you did. Other than that, I wouldn't worry.
I do a lot of my own work. Honestly, as foxtrapper says I have seen so much stuff boogered up by so called 'pros' or as cost cutting measures I trust my own work more than theirs.
For instance, there are three 240 volt circuits in my house's main panel going to my garage. Two are for the upstairs and downstairs A/C wall unit power. The third one is for the 110v outlets and lights. 
What they did was run a single 240V to the garage and split it into two 120V circuits, I verified this with a digital voltmeter.
It seems to me like one side of the 240V breaker is for the lights and the other side is for the wall outlets but I will need to do some digging to be certain. It was done that way because it was cheaper than running a sub panel in the garage. It also means that if something goes south it may only trip one side of the 240V breaker which might not be real safe. Now, in order for me to fix it properly, I will have to replace the single 240V breaker with two 120V breakers. Yet another project...
One house I lived in had the air handler for the A/C in the crawl space. The belt pulley separated, so I bought a replacement, flipped the 'fan' switch to ON so I could hear it run, went under the house and had my GF's son keep flipping breakers till the fan turned off. I then disconnected the wires and dragged the motor out of the way so I could get to the squirrel cage. The wires were in my way so I had to keep pushing them back, I finally got pissed and shoved them really hard... and was rewarded with a shower of sparks. We later discovered that the thermostat transformer was on a different breaker than the motor, they are supposed to be wired so that everything is on the same breaker. That house had been rewired by a so-called 'pro'.
One thing I bought which has really helped me is a non contact voltage tester. I have a Greenlee which came as part of a kit with a small digital voltmeter and it has been super useful. The best thing about it is that if you are looking at a wire you have found in a wall, aren't sure where it goes or whether it's live if you put the probe against the insulation it will light up and buzz if the circuit is live. I did discover that it has to be right next to the live conductor, so test all around the wire.
The best way to handle 120/240V wiring is to think of it like a firearm: Every firearm is loaded and every wiring circuit is hot.
if your local area vo-tech has adult education classes in residential wiring take 'em
If you question it get some help. Wiring is not a hobby. We are licensed for a reason. I have never heard the one hand in your pocket thing in all my 24 years in the industry. Seems pretty dumb to me.
Chris
In my 40 years of messing with electricity and electronics, sometimes professionally (I'm still licensed by the FCC, 1st class Radio Telegraph with RADAR and 6 months' service endorsements, which covers everything except aircraft), I have heard of the 1 hand in your pocket rule a lot. Seems pretty smart to me.
The rule is so that if you accidentally hit a live circuit, the voltage will run down to your feet (worst case) and not across your arms and through your heart.
I do agree, though, that if you have questions, some adult supervision is A Good Idea.
Never heard the 1 hand in pocket thing either. I can't think of a single thing I could do well in wiring without using both pudpullers. Well, I could flip the breaker...
Oh, and the rule applies in particular when working on live circuits. Not so much for dead circuits. The accidentally hit part is if you accidentally loose your insulation on the live line.
heard that rule all through college (EE) and out in the feild (playing with substations) The idea is not to use both hands - but to keep you from just randomly resting your hand on somthing grounding it while poking around with your other hand.
GrantMLS wrote:
heard that rule all through college (EE) and out in the feild (playing with substations) The idea is not to use both hands - but to keep you from just randomly resting your hand on somthing grounding it while poking around with your other hand.
Okay, that makes sense.
I was trying to figure out how to replace a receptacle with just one hand and wasn't getting anywhere. 
Zomby Woof wrote:
Mazdax605 wrote:
I have never heard the one hand in your pocket thing in all my 24 years in the industry.
How is that possible?
Because maybe it isn't a good idea.
I heard the one hand in the pocket thing in EE school as well, but it really only applies to idiots who try to work on hot equipment.
Now that I think more about it, if my hand's in my pocket it's way close to Little Jimmy and the Twins...
Basic electrical education + common sense = win.
Just today I added a dedicated 30-amp RV outlet in front of my house. I never turned off the power during the install, and I have ultimate confidence in it. I used 10-2 NMB for a whopping 8 feet to the outlet and its on its own brand-new 30A breaker. Total cost was $38.
Would it pass a code inspection? Hell no. Will it be safe? You bet. It will be much safer than the rest of the house which was last wired in 1937.
