Defects are simply areas that we identify in a home inspection that present a safety hazard or need repair to properly function. Electrical issues usually present safety concerns for obvious reasons.
When you look at your home electrical panel, you’re used to seeing the metal plate screwed to the front it. This is called a deadfront. While you’re accustomed to seeing it in your home with circuit breakers arranged in two rows protruding through an opening in the plate, the panel is actually manufactured as a solid plate that is perforated with rectangular shapes called knock outs or twist outs.
As your home inspector, we’ll tell you an electrician can twist and snap individual knock outs and remove as many as needed to accommodate the number of circuit breakers that are being installed in the panel. The result is an installation with no openings in the front of the panel assuring that live wire connections or the metal bus bars that run down the back of panel box and connect the breakers to the electric service cannot be touched when the panel door is opened.
If too many knock outs are removed or a breaker is removed from the panel, you can hire an electrician to remedy the issue. Also, you can purchase plastic blanks at any hardware store and snap them into the opening created in the deadfront. Be certain the main breaker bringing electrical service into the home is OFF before you attempt any repair in the electrical box.
Because a missing knock out allows the possibility of electric shock, it is a safety defect that your home inspector will call out in an inspection report.
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