- Q. I am doing renovation in a house that was flooded. Is it necessary to replace electrical receptacles that were under water?
A.Rex Cauldwell responds: Just because they got wet from fresh water doesn’t automatically mean they are doomed (if it was salt water, replace them). In a fogged-up bath, the receptacles are also getting wet all the time. It all comes down to a matter of corrosion. Turn off the power and take a few of the receptacles out and look at them. If there are signs of corrosion, you should replace them. Any corrosion that you can see would indicate that there might be corrosion on the internal contacts, which you can’t see. This corrosion will act as a semiconductor and create heat, which will destroy the receptacle and the male plug.
If the receptacles in question are the standard cheap hardware-store variety that I see in most buildings, I would replace them with high-quality commercial-grade ones — perhaps higher on the wall in case the room floods again.
Rex Cauldwell is a master electrician in Copper Hill, Va.
