A hack is someone whose work cuts corners: wires spliced outside boxes, missing grounds, overloaded panels, extension cords run through walls. The word covers handymen, homeowners and licensed electricians alike, and a hack job is any installation that makes the next electrician wince. Calling out hack work is a regular pastime on service calls, where whoever opens the panel inherits the mess.
Some hack fed the hot tub off a twenty with Romex laid across the yard, we're ripping all of it out.
Also heard as
- hack job
Related terms
Double tap
Two conductors under a breaker or lug terminal listed for only one, a classic inspection writeup.
Red tag
Failed inspection notice, or the act of an inspector failing work so it must be fixed and reinspected.
Suicide cord
Homemade cord with a male plug on both ends, used to backfeed a house from a generator.