got a 12 year old home and confused on some points

junkone wrote: ↑

1. i have a 800 sq feet basement. there are electrical outletts near the main electrical board and 1 near the furnace. the rest of the basement has no electrical sockets and it makse no sense. do builders assume that we will get electricals done over time?
2. why is there no light in living rooms?
3. why is thier no light to show the stair case?

junkone wrote: ↑

1. i have a 800 sq feet basement. there are electrical outletts near the main electrical board and 1 near the furnace. the rest of the basement has no electrical sockets and it makse no sense. do builders assume that we will get electricals done over time?
2. why is there no light in living rooms?
3. why is thier no light to show the stair case?

junkone wrote: ↑

1. i have a 800 sq feet basement. there are electrical outletts near the main electrical board and 1 near the furnace. the rest of the basement has no electrical sockets and it makse no sense. do builders assume that we will get electricals done over time?

junkone wrote: ↑

1. why is there no light in living rooms?

junkone wrote: ↑why is thier no light to show the stair case?

MrFrugal1 wrote: ↑ The outlets that are in your basement are there because the Code required them. Unless you paid your builder to install outlets, that's what you get.


Most likely you have a switch on a wall near the entrance to the living room that appears to turn nothing on or off. It actually switches the power 'off' and 'on' to one half of an outlet (maybe the top or maybe the bottom) in the room.

i put my sofa around some outlets and need to investigate

There should be a switch at the top and bottom of a staircase (unless it's a basement, in which case only a switch at the top of the staircase is required by Code.) Basements are considered "utility rooms".

jayoldschool wrote: ↑ 1. Yes, that is normal in an unfinished basement. Wire it how you like.
2. I can guarantee you that in that living room, there is a light switch that controls a switched wall outlet.
3. Normal to not have lighting above a stair case. Many places with 90 or curved will have a hanging fixture.

junkone wrote: ↑ i have a 90 degree turn stair case and i tripped on the step as i could not see a damn thing in the dark. its aweful not to have lights there. wonder what the previous owners did. maybe they had owl eyes

junkone wrote: ↑ i have a 90 degree turn stair case and i tripped on the step as i could not see a damn thing in the dark. its aweful not to have lights there. wonder what the previous owners did. maybe they had owl eyes

thriftshopper wrote: ↑ There was some trend away from overhead lights a "few" years ago for whatever reason. Maybe style driven. You were supposed to use floor lamps or whatever.

James Stonehenge wrote: ↑ How expensive would it be to run outlets in an unfinished basement? Basement isn’t framed so I guess is isn’t?

mrweather wrote: ↑ If you need temporary outlets in the basement just run extension cords. Putting in proper outlets without finishing the space is a waste of money.

MrFrugal1 wrote: ↑There should be a switch at the top and bottom of a staircase (unless it's a basement, in which case only a switch at the top of the staircase is required by Code.) Basements are considered "utility rooms".