Emergency Call – Meter Base Detached from House

In this video, Master Electrician Terry Carman explains how the meter base was repaired after being detached from the house.

Meter Base Repair

In our daily work we run into some really interesting issues. The service call description here was “funny burning smell outside our house and the meter base has pulled away from the house and is on an odd tilt.”

The stress on the PVC pipes entering the meter base broke them free from the base and forced the base from the wall. This is where the utility company much be contacted to disconnect the electricity at the pole so the repair can be safely performed.

Meter Base Repair

This stress was caused by the ground around the meter base settling over the years from seasonal weather changes. You can see how much the ground settled by the amount of protective flexible ducting that is exposed at the bottom of the PVC pipes servicing the meter base.

This meter base was detached from the house causing the wires inside to become damaged.

The wire coming in from the road pole had been damaged and it had heated up – creating the burning smell.

The stress had compromised the interior of the meter base and a new unit had to be installed, along with a box that doubles as a connection point to repair the damaged wires and a flex point for future movement of the wires.

Directly below the expansion box is an expansion

fitting that will allow the PVC conduit to move up and down with the weather changes so the equipment fastened to the house doesn’t get damaged. Fortunately, this was a rare occasion where the siding on the house wasn’t damaged by the movement of the wire and pipes.

Our trucks are stocked with everything required for this entire repair it took less than a day. This included two visits from the utility company and re-connection authorization from the Electrical Safety Authority. So, even though the house had electric heat, extra sweaters only required for the folks inside the house during the repair.

Each spring and fall it should be part of your seasonal maintenance to visually check your underground electrical service. It should look as neat and straight as this installation.

The small beige box under the expansion box is the connection for the telephone service wires to the house. It was installed on the expansion joint side of the box so it will also move without damaging the incoming underground telephone lines.


TSSA License #000399173
ECRA/ESA Licence# 7014005
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