I recently had a new metal roof put on my cabin. During the process a set of recessed lights inside quit working. The dimmer switch they were on was physically inoperable. It wouldn't push in at all. Almost like something had melted. I changed out the switch but couldn't get the lights to work. I tried wiring it several different ways but no luck. I finally called an electrician.

They sent out (2) apprentices to troubleshoot. Cost of $227 for 1 hour. They finally concluded thru continuity testing that a wire had probably been hit with a screw during the roof install. They said to find the exact spot they'd have to come back out for a level II troubleshooting. Cost of that is $418 for 2 hours. And they are supposed to bring a tool to trace the wires.

Wondering how others would go from here. Would you let them do the level II trouble shooting, and then get a couple estimates for the repair? Possibly buy the tool and trace the wires yourself? It's a total of (4) lights, being in pairs on each side of the room.

depends how your wires are ran and what a pain they are to get to and how easy or a pain it would be to run new

that sort of thing.

its not popping the breaker though?

Even if they can locate the bad spot in the wire, you are either tearing off roof or ceiling to put in a junction box to splice the wires back together or pulling new wire, if that's easier/less expensive. You checked the breaker/fuse, right? How in the world did they not have this tool with them on the original troubleshoot? I'm the kind of fella that would figure it out myself, even if it cost me twice as much as hiring a pro.

Is this a cathedral ceiling with conventional high hat type lights ?
Dimmers go bad , did you replace dimmer switch with standard togal switch ?
Are these regular light bulbs or led ‘s —- excessive banging on roof could knock filaments in bulbs out .
It’s simple to diagnose with a meter , to see if there is a short in the wires going to , or between the lights .

To answer a few questions.

It's not tripping the breaker.
They are LED bulbs.
It's a pretty steep pitch.

Here's a pic. Not a great one, but you can see one of the lights in the background. My concern is the hickory paneling covering my ceiling. Even if I let the electricians finish the troubleshooting, I'm a little concerned about letting them mess with the interior of my house. I might try to find someone who does remodeling.

Id have to figure out how the wires were ran and or how hard it would be to pull the light out of the ceiling and to run a fish tape down to where the wire comes from. If thats easy to do you are in business. (electrician work, not remodeling work)

If you can't pull new wire with however they did your ceilings it could be ugly but I'm guessing they left you an out, it looks like a nice place.

I sure wouldn't be paying for 4 hours of troubleshooting. You got power at the switch? You got power out of the switch? You got power at the light? Thats the first thing to figure. I wouldn't like that it wasn't tripping my breaker.

Pulling one of the lights down and seeing if you can get it to come on in the garage would tell you a lot.

Im guessing you need to be an acrobat on a ladder to get to the lights? Hopefully it isn't that bad.

Those lights with the slope ceiling kits , will come out from below ..
You should be able to pull the cans out as well , exposing the junction boxes at each light ..
Check for power and check all connections ..make sure you have the neutral as well …
If you have 120 volt leaving switch , then you should find it in one of the lights

They should be IC type high hats ( insulation clad ) , when they got hot , there was a thermal switch that internally shut them off ..
But only that specific light ( this is the old style high hats of older style )

Today we use can- less led fixtures , , different fixtures all together ,

First of all I would, replace the dimmer switch, with an old fashioned switch . if your lights now work , you know , you had a bad dimmer switch. If there are lights , on two sides of the room , take down the light , closest to the switch likely the circuit splits at this light . see if you can determine , which side of room the problem is ..It is trial and error, till you find problem. Did , the lights quit working , immedietly after roof completed? The fact that , the breaker , doesnt trip , probably eliminates a screw,, in a wire. Dimmer switches and led bulbs , can be tempermental. Whether you do the trouble shooting, or hire it done, could take a bit of time. If you have a buddy , that is kind of handy, maybe he can help you. Good Luck . old 243

This here, I've seen several missed diagnosis, not saying there wrong but it's a possibility.

They’re going to “find” the break?
I’m not a residential electrician, but I inspect their work. I’ve used a “thumper” to locate underground breaks on our system, but it pumps a 10000v static shock through the cable and usually blows the break clear. You can usually feel & hear it if you’re close enough, hence the name…..thumper. It can give a rough estimate of where the break is too, but it’s usually out by at least a few feet. This machine is over $25000.
I’d like to know what kinda tool they’d use on a household circuit to locate the fault.
It’s pretty easy to find out if the wire is NFG.
If it is, pull a new run of wire.
And for that price, I’d expect a journeyman to be on site. Isn’t it illegal for them to sent 2 apprentices out by themselves? Here, they’re supposed to be 1:1 ratio on a job site.

I appreciate all the help and feedback. I know what Ill be doing this weekend. I'm pretty confident I should at least be able to pull the cans and figure out which one is the issue. Hopefully something came loose at one of the cans.



I could be wrong about their status. They're both listed as apprentices on their website, but they may have graduated by now.

I can mail you Troubleshooting Tools if you want ?

Here one of them would have to be a master electrician

If you have a multi meter you can shut the breaker off and ohm the wires between the switch and first light and see if there’s a break and so forth between lights. And also check for continuity to the metal roof. I would also bet that they are just going to bring a wire tracer and find out how the wire is ran and if there’s a break the tone might stop at the break. Just because the breaker doesn’t trip doesn’t mean a screw didn’t hit a wire. If it didn’t short hot to neutral it might have just made the tin hot if it is not grounded. I have seen water lines and duct work both have 120v on them because they were in contact with the hot wire but not grounded so it wouldn’t trip the breaker. I don’t know what the circumstances are but our company wouldn’t send out two apprentices. Always a licensed journeyman/master and then an apprentice if two were actually required. Also i know equipment is expensive but really they should have a tracer and megger on their vehicle. Like I said they should be able to do most of the tracing and troubleshooting with just a normal multi meter in most normal situations and have a pretty good idea of how the wire is ran. Honestly it sounds like a scam, either send out a capable qualified person to start unless you agreed with them sending out an apprentice knowing that you might have to pay more if they struggled.

^^^This ^^^

I always hated residential service calls when they could conn me into doing them and this one sounds ugly.
Really, this problem can be found with a common VOM (muiltimeter) that you can buy from Lowes for under 30 bucks.
If indeed the roofers have driven a screw through the romex wire you are going to have t replace THAT run. You can't get on the roof and start backing out screws till you find the right one. Much too expensive and you'd destroy the watertight integrity of the roof.

Sucks that those cans are in a vaulted ceiling. Someone, you or them will probably have to get some scaffolding in there to get up there in that cathedral portion.

Them tracer things work for a clean/complete break, but if it’s hanging on by a thread, the signal gets through, but not enough current.
Had guys trouble shoot services and the powers all good at the meter, but under load it’s all wonky. They certainly don’t train them like they used to.

I don’t understand how or why a wire would be that close to the roof deck.

^That's what I was wondering as well.^

Buddies sun room has some tight wiring in the un insulated roof. By our code, it’s supposed to be mechanically protected if it’s within 1” of the edge IIRC. Reno’s happen, inspector would never catch everything, wiring added after inspection, who knows.
An Arcfault breaker woulda tripped right away, but those things are gay…….lol

Our code (NEC) requires plates if the conductors are less than 1.25" from the edge.

Not only are Arc Fault breakers gay, they're expensive too! LOL