Dateline: Where a Giant Sucking Sound is Heard in My Bank Account
What the hell have I gotten myself into? I’m back in Mexico City, now on my 15th day. As you’ll recall, I had to return to the USA the day after I signed all the paperwork to buy my house. Since my international wire transfers didn’t clear for a few days, I wasn’t so much as given a key to the house. So until last week, I had only spent a few hours inside, under the watchful eye of the owner’s son.
Now I’ve spent many a day in the past two weeks carefully examining what I’ve bought. I won’t go so far as to say that I wouldn’t have bought the house if I knew as much in October as I know now. But it’s pretty clear that the house needs just about everything.
Take electricity. While anyone from the United States of Overkill will likely view nearly any Mexican electrical system as suspect, older systems can be laughably inadequate. Or dangerous. In my case, it’s both. Power comes in from the street and goes into a big, old-fashioned blade-type switch, which also contains a pair of 30 amp fuses. From there the wiring goes back out via a conduit to a small, but modern circuit breaker box which protrudes from the wall to the entry. From there the wires go back to the garage, where they run up to a box on the wall near the ceiling. The two wires supplying power are there connected to 3 sets of wires which then feed the rest of the house. A fourth set of wires in that box is ominously not connected to anything, though I suspect the unconnected wires “power” the kitchen.
So if some dangerous condition were to “want” to trip the breaker, well, good luck. None of the wires downstream of either the 30- or 40-amp breaker is rated to carry nearly that much power. I don’t know the specific wire gauge of the downstream wiring, but I’d be surprised if it’s any thicker than 14 AWG, which is rated for 15 amps maximum. So in the event of a short-circuit, the wires would melt down way before the breaker tripped. So I’ve essentially got a completely unprotected set of house wiring. From the 1930’s. Thank God it’s not a wooden structure.
I had an object lesson in this a few days ago. I had wanted to see what in the house worked, so I went around testing fixtures and plugs. When I got to the blue, Art-Deco bath, I switched the switch, and immediately heard a bang. I immediately switched off the switch, and an acrid cloud of black smoke rose from one of the sconces that flank the medicine chest mirror. Later I switched off the main breaker and discovered the remnants of a fried bulb base stuck inside the fixture. I removed what was left of the bulb socket and taped off the wires with electrical tape.
Fortunately, that’s the worst that has happened. Surprisingly, much of the wiring in the house “works,” though I’m probably going to have to replace the bulk of it. Certainly I’m going to need more than a single circuit with a too-large circuit breaker controlling it. And absolutely nothing in the kitchen works. No plugs, lights or switches do the slightest thing. At least they don’t do anything bad like my bathroom light. So there’s that.
While I learned to do wiring in 1997 when I bought my house in Boston, I’m at least going to partially rely on an electrician here. A friend recommended a guy who had not only rewired his apartment, but did the entire 20+ unit building. I called him yesterday and we’re supposed to meet Saturday morning in the house. Part of what we’re going to discuss is what I need to buy, which as you’ll see below is a somewhat pressing question. Unlike in the USA, I have a “monophasic” supply here, which basically means plain, vanilla 120V with no possibility (at least without an upgrade from CFE) of 220V. This also affects the layout of the breaker box, something I need to discuss with the electrician.
Meanwhile, I’ve got an unwanted “opportunity” to buy electrical supplies in Laredo, TX. When I crossed the border nearly a month ago in my overloaded car, I was granted an FMM Visa for a “canje,” basically a very temporary visa that is granted so that you can get to the Instituto Nacional de Migración, where (if they feel like it) they exchange this for a Visa Temporal. This FMM “canje” visa has a term of 30 days. Despite my protestations at the border, the agents would give me no longer than 30 days temporary importation of the car either. But they said I’d be able to extend that visa in Mexico City at the SAT, basically the Mexican IRS. I was suspicious of this, and asked several folks independently. All said the same thing.
Yeah, right. On Monday I finally got my Visa Temporal, a literal green card. Then I spent a fair amount of time on Wednesday running around the metropolis desperately trying to find a place that would be able to extend my car’s import permit. No dice. I have to drive back to the border to get the car’s import permit extended there. I even had a long conversation with someone at ITV (Importación de Vehiclulos Temporales) about this. He unhelpfully suggested that I could save a few hundred kilometers by driving to Reynosa instead of Nuevo Laredo. I replied that that would take me though some pretty “conflictivo” territory and that I wasn’t game. He had nothing to say about that, probably because he’s just as aware as I am of the myriad carjackings, robberies, and worse that take place in that part of the country.
So Sunday I will set out for Nuevo Laredo. I figured Sunday was the ideal day. There’s little traffic here on Sundays, and thus I can escape the traffic-infested grip of Mexico City fairly easily. After that, the rest of the trip should be a breeze, except perhaps for the Monterrey Metro Area, which is tied with Mexico City for awfulness of driving. Also Monday I can’t drive due to “Hoy No Circula” and Tuesday is too late to get to the border on time.
After I get my car paperwork settled, I’m going into Laredo for a shopping trip. Not only is much of what I need for wiring my house more expensive here in Mexico, it’s also worse quality. Large circuit breaker box kits with 24 slots and a handful of circuit breakers included can be had at Home Depot in Laredo for $95 USD. Here? Such a thing seems almost impossible to find unless you walk the streets of the Centro Histórico and find a dealer. At Home Depot Mexico, small, 8-slot breaker boxes without a main breaker can cost $60-80 USD. Individual circuit breakers in the USA run around $5, while here they run about $9. I also want “Romex,” a type of three-conductor wire that can’t even be easily found, and on Amazon Mexico, it runs about 40% more expensive than here. Not to mention the myriad of power outlets and light switches I’ll need.
So I did a quick calculation. Just buying 3 main circuit breaker panels, some spools of wire, and a few other things, and then fully declaring my purchases and paying the 19% import tax, I can save $500. Since I’m actually going to buy much more than this, I’ll probably save a thousand USD or more. Along with electrical supplies, I’m going to buy a shop-vac and a microwave. The microwave will be a big (2.0+ cubic feet), powerful US-style model. Sure, I could probably find such a thing here, but I have yet to see one in a store. And my friends say that here it’d cost triple. The vacuum here would cost double what I’ll pay in Laredo. And many other things will be cheaper and better in Laredo. While it’s overall much cheaper to live in Mexico, lots of manufactured goods can be surprisingly expensive here.
So as much of a pain as it is to have to drive back to the border, at least it comes with some benefit.
And that’s where I am at the moment. Looking forward, I’ll try to detail my remodeling process. Big jobs to come include plumbing, flooring, and tile, the latter of which is already becoming problematic. But that’s for the future. For now, saludos, and thanks for sticking around.
El Gringo Suelto 
Upgrading the entry current to 220/240 voltage from the pole, new meter, new wires, new mast will help you sleep at night .There are fuse/breaker boxes that are set up to take double breakers, if you should need to add a circuit, the regular wide breaker comes out and two narrow breakers go into the old slot-buy that kind of box. With electric cars being on all of our horizons, a 400 amp service is prudent because the future fast charge home units are going to require a good deal of amps to run hot yet stay cool. On long runs, I run # 10 wire to the first junction, #12 wire for after that point in the run. You still use a 20 amp breaker but you have less drop in current from the long run. I’ll run a two hot wire # 10 or #12 to a 20 amp wall plug, split the run at the wall plug and use two 20 amp breakers at the main box to run two 20 amp circuits off the one two hot wire run.
As to shop vacs, Home Depot’s big Rigid shop vacs are the best choice for shop vacs. I’ve wore two of them out over the years-they will pick up one inch chunks of concrete.
Running wire in concrete walls: A 4 inch tile saw that looks like a mini skill saw, about 4 diamond blades and a hammer drill to knock the cut out will cut days off your rewire. That shop vac will catch most of the dust if your helper keeps the hose close to the cut. ( you’ll go through at least four filters on a job the size you are starting) A hammer drill in a concrete house is priceless-buy a good one.
And: the shop vac works well for running wire through conduit. A small button attached to sewing thread, sucked through the conduit, it is used to pull a pull wire through and then that wire pulls the electric wire.
A note book of the paper that has scale blocks is a good planning tool. You mark out your rooms on the paper, each block being 4 or 6 inches, your materials are easy to figure by counting the blocks. My note books end up a mass of post it notes by the time my planning is done. In your situation , a comprehensive material list is worth the extra time it takes to think the whole job out. Good luck.
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Hey Norm, Thank you so much!!!! I really appreciate your input. It is, literally, priceless. I’m in Laredo at the moment, and I’m looking at the Home Depot (Ridgid) 16 gal, 6.5 hp shop vac. I’m planning to get a bunch of bags, and then Home Depot’s version of a HEPA filter. (On my shop vac in Boston, I’ve got a Gore Clean Stream, which has been working for 25 years, and whenever it gets dirty, I just wash it out and start again.)
I’ve already got a small angle grinder, and I did buy one diamond bit for it, but I guess I should buy a few more while I’m here. I’m also looking to buy a Bosch SDS/Hammer drill, which does pounding and drilling and should be good for cutting channels. I’m also wondering if it can remove the kitchen tiles without breaking too many of them. If I can save ~20% of the tiles, that may well be enough for my purposes.
I got a quote from a well-recommended electrician for labor only. This would run me about $4,000 USD to do the house, the apartment, and the cuarto de servicio, which I’m planning to turn into an apartment. He wants me to buy several 30 amp circuit breakers, but I know #12 wire isn’t rated for more than 20, nor are any “normal” outlets. I was just at Home Depot here, and discovered that 20 amp outlets are about 3x as expensive as 15 amp outlets. So doing everything with 20-ampers seems like overkill. I’ve used #12 wire in my Boston house all over, but mostly 15 amp circuits. I like the #12 wire as it has less voltage drop, and allows me to upgrade to 20 amps if I replace the outlets, etc at the terminus. The electrician wants single-conductor spooled wire as he says it’s much easier to thread into old, narrow conduit which is embedded in the walls.
Given that I know enough to do all my own wiring, and that I’ve got plenty of time on my hands, I have wondered about trying to do it myself. Yes, I’d need a helper, but he doesn’t have to be very skilled. Meanwhile, I’m confronting the fact that Home Depot doesn’t have any 20 amp breakers until Wednesday, part of the Great Supply Chain Crisis of 2022.
Thank you so much for your comment. It is really valuable. Cheers!
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Interesting view of things right here, especially those who want fat wires and high-end this-that-and-the-other. Nothing wrong with that, of course, especially if you enjoy spending money. But I suspect that of the people who’ve weighed in so far, I am the only actual electrician. Not only that, an electrician who’s had formal schooling on the matter. Of course, that was 100 years ago, and I’ve forgotten most of it, but still.
Your house is a redo, and I imagine there are factors there that I did not encounter when I built my home from scratch in Michoacán over 19 years ago. As I’ve related previously via email, the only thing I did was tell the electrician where I wanted wall outlets and that I wanted the entire system grounded. Other than that, I left it completely in his hands. I didn’t even pay attention to what he was doing. Nineteen-plus years now, and I’ve had no electrical problems whatsoever. The whole neighborhood goes out now and then, but that’s got squat to do with my wiring.
So there is, I think, one of the critical concerns, getting an electrician who knows his stuff.
Where I lived 2.5 years before building own home, not that far away, the electrical problems were relentless. Why was that? It was an old rental, a mess of wiring, and the owner paid next to no attention to anything at all. That was immediately after moving to Mexico, and I concluded, incorrectly, that electrical issues were simply an unavoidable part of Mexican life.
Until I built my own place, and discovered the contrary. I use the internet a lot. I have two sizable TVs, and most of the trappings of modern life. And I have no electrical problems. Never. What’s the point of all this? Got no clue. Take it for what it’s worth.
Finally got my WordPress ID back after losing it yesterday. Yipee.
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Hola Michael,
Thanks for the comment. I’ve spent a fair bit of time since I wrote this working on my electrical system. Because I had to go the border anyway, I took the opportunity to fill my car with electrical goodies in Laredo — circuit breaker panels, outlets, switches, dimmers, etc., along with a microwave and large shop vacuum. As you’ve figured out, you and I have very different personality types. I’d likely be incapable of just setting an electrician free to do what he wanted. That said, I think I’ve got a good guy, and he seems to be willing to work with me. In any case, there will be more planning before any wires are pulled. Cheers and thanks for stopping by.
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Hmmm. So many people need to be on the internet, cook with a microwave and watch big TVs— all of which require electricity. It occurs to me that if you got good at wiring you could profitably flip apartments doing only that upgrade.
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Hola Christine,
Well, I already am pretty good at wiring, having done extensive wiring in my house in Boston, all neatly done to code.
I just met with an electrician. My job here is big. I don’t doubt I could do it; the only question is how long it’d take me to do it by myself, or with a semi-skilled helper. In any case, thanks for the comment. My adventure in wiring is going to start in earnest the week after next. Saludos!
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Any thought being given to a whole house surge protector? For the last 25 years owned/lived in a large home built in 1990 in which everything electrical had been designed and installed by an electrician named Overkill. The one thing that hadn’t been installed at time of construction was a whole house surge protector. Had an electrician friend recommend and install that and slept better because the house was located in a rural area of periodic electrical blips.
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If he hadn’t thought about it before, I’m sure it’s on the shopping list now.
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It’s under consideration, though I’d imagine it’s kind of pricy. I may just stick to individual surge suppressors for individual devices. We shall see. Cheers.
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Hola Parkprin, I have thought about that. Where I live currently (no pun intended, hehe), there have been a ton of voltage variations. Finally the landlord hired someone to look into it. I don’t recall the specifics, but the problem was more or less fixed. I say “more or less” because the voltage still fluctuates somewhat. I can tell because I have my sensitive electronics plugged into one of those power-leveling power bars and it occasionally clicks, indicating a variation. I’m not sure if I want to do my whole house, but I have considered it. Thanks for the comment and thanks for stopping buy. Future comments won’t be moderated. Cheers.
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Hi Kim, upgrading the service from the street should be a priority, You are wise to upgrade to 220 volt as that will give you one more phase and at least double the service. And like you say, don’t be shy with the number of breakers / circuits. That big microwave you are buying will need it’s own 20 amp breaker. I live in an old house that has seen two additions and the electrical is lacking although legal. I make an average of one trip to the breaker panel a month and it gets old fast. I will be monitoring your efforts with interest! Have fun!
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Hola Croft! Thanks for your comment. I totally agree with you. My house in Boston was totally updated in 1997, and I don’t think I’ve ever had to reset a breaker. I’m hoping for the same here. Cheers and saludos!
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Oh, this is going to be such fun. For us, not you. Gotta wonder: Why do you need a 220 circuit? And yes, it’s not wise to drive toward Reynosa. That used to be one of my favorite border towns. Of course, that was 200 years ago. Things have changed.
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Hola Michael, I’m not sure I need a 220 v circuit. But it’d be helpful to have two 120 volt branches so as to fully use a USA-standard circuit breaker box. But I’ll know more after tomorrow’s meeting with the electrician. Meanwhile I’m working on a shopping list for Laredo. Cheers!
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Don’t forget to stop at Joe Brand while in Laredro. That’s https://joebrand.com/
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Interesting suggestion. Thanks!
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Jenn: P.S. Seriously? Like I’ll need $500+ dollar sneakers? $700+ sunglasses? Who shops there? Cartel leaders? It’s hard to imagine that the average Laredan can shop there.
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Oh, it’s for folks from Monterrey. And other well-off Mexicans. The markdowns are terrific. And so is the customer service and gift-wrapping. If you look like you could be trusted, they’ll even let you take merchandise to the hotel room to try on. Sort of like the old days when department stores would send stuff out on approval.
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Wow, that’s amazing. Looks like a lovely place. I’ll have to at least take a look. Thanks!
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Soon enough you’ll discover that American “overkill” is far, far preferable than the old “Mexican Rustic” you’re going to find all over the old house. I would start with a new entrance panel with three 20-amp breakers, and room for expansion when you could add more breakers and lines as you go along. This won’t solve all your problems, but it’s a good point of departure. When we built our house we used #12 wiring with numerous 20-amp individual circuits (i.e. for the kitchen you want a line of the fridge, another for the DW, a couple of small-appliance, countertop lines (with GFIs if they are near wet areas, another line for overhead lights etc.)
Don’t be too quick to be schlepping back to the U.S.; in CDMX everything is available, somewhere, somehow. Those trips to the border are a pain and may not save you that much money.
You apparently know a lot about construction and remodeling, so take charge of the project and don’t be shy to tell Mexican contractors to do things the right, i.e. your, way, not some slapdash. Remember, you don’t have licensed plumbers, electricians or anything like that here; the trades are learned from a relatives who picked you up when you were 14 years old. So what they know varies all over the place.
Finally, I’d forget about Laredo. Laredo and Nuevo Laredo are nasty, nasty..It’s a bottleneck and there’s not that much shopping on the other side, compared to a place like McAllen, and the crossing at Anzalduas is much faster than Laredo. The US Border Patrol has websites you can check anytime during the day for the level of congestion.
Good luck.
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Hola Al!
Fortunately, a lifetime of watching “This Old House” and numerous similar YouTube videos, plus having studied a book about the U.S. wiring code, and then done extensive wiring in my own house in Boston, have all prepared me well for this task. My only real problem is that I don’t know nearly as much about masonry construction as I do about wood. But I’m a quick study, and I’m already planning to find a structural engineer for the tricky stuff like wall-moving. I spent about an hour looking around the internet a while back to see if I could even figure out what kind of steel beam I’d need to support an opening in the wall, and quickly discovered that this was not amenable to “do-it-yourself.” As for McAllen, I’ll have to see if it’s much farther. Laredo, as you note, isn’t exactly a charmer, and Nuevo Laredo is downright scary. Saludos and thanks for stopping by.
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P.S. Al: thanks for the specific suggestions, but based on what I learned in 1997, I’d say 3 20 amp breakers are way too few. US code requires at least one breaker per major kitchen appliance: refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave make 3 right there. Pluse you need to have various breakers for the ceiling lights, not so much for load purposes, but so that the entire house doesn’t go dark at once. My 1997 remodeled kitchen has nearly a dozen breakers just for itself.
I’m sure the electrician will think I’m doing overkill. But where I live now, the voltage fluctuates constantly in response to people turning things on and off. I don’t want to live like that, and my electronics don’t want to die young.
Cheers!
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While you’d gone quiet, overactive imaginations went to work, wondering if you’d awakened your second day in Boston, and, realizing what you’d gotten yourself into, pulled the covers over your heard for one long nap. And, having accomplished that, decided to change your name, move to that city in Paraguay or Peru far away from everything, populated by bus drivers who’d fled accident scenes, figuring that was the only way to preserve your sanity.
Welcome back. And load up on goodly supply of Valium and Maalox, because you’re going to need it.
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Haha, too funny, Jenn! Thanks for the comment. I’d be lying if I hadn’t already considered your suggestion (minus the hysterical details). But in the end, I’m hunkering down and going through with it. Cheers!
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