I’m sure
that there are a lot of things that are worse than wiring work in an old home.
Ours isn’t quite “post and tube” old, but it has a lot of issues with wire- the whole place was done in early BX, which is great, except that it’s early enough it’s cloth over rubber, and the blasted rubber deteriorates where it touches air- so often you have to cut back as much as three, four inches of the BX and repair it, which makes for a happy fun time. Then the wires embrittle in the box, so anytime you try to put a new component in the wires break easily. And the cloth wrap is a mess no matter what you do. Then theres the wonderful practice of running all the outlets in the room through the ceiling box, for which hopefully someone is being perpetually raped in hell by legions of thorny-cocked demons. Oh, and the old rocklath and plaster required mudrings whose threaded holes have long since deteriorated past the point of usefulness.
yeah, there’s probably things worse than wiring repairs in an old house. But I can’t think of them, at this moment.
22 comments Og | Uncategorized
Og;
This’ll get ya going, I just finished completely rewiring a cusstomers ’56 Jaguar sports car. At least in your home, you didn’t have to put up with rust and layers of oil/dust/dirt amalgum. Who could ever understand the use of a 13 terminal switch for two speed windshield wipers!
Plus 55 years of other folks electrical “repairs”. Count your blessings friend.
rusted mud ring and congealed chunks of 65 year old plaster, disintegrating rubber wirng, outlets over a base cabinet and uner an upper cabinet. Three bleeding headwounds later, I gotcher csr repairs right here.
I’ve worked on jags, alfas, MG’s, land rovers. Childs play.
I replaced the entire wiring loom in my Seris II with decent wiring and non-lucas components so it would run reliably, and never looked back.
Other than a vehicle treated in that manner, I would never own another brit car.
That’s why I have this ONE phrase that I repeat often: “I don’t do residential.”
I’m good on industrial and utility to 500 kV, but getting into the attic of an eighty year old house and finding “Knob & Tube” still in use gives me nightmares.
Bubba is alive and well and doing residential wiring.
MC
I did quite a bit of knob and tube in old lathwork houses when I was an electrician back in the early seventies. Nasty stuff. And like mostly cajun says, the old attics in those places were bad. I remember more than once taping up all my cuffs and buttoning up my shirt to the top (and it was always amazingly hot in the attic) to keep the black widow spider from falling inside my clothing.
Wow. I have 53 year old wiring. It has the plastic insulation that is still good, and nice armored cable, but I was complaining about hot-ground being reversed at every outlet, and color changes as wires went from jbox to jbox, and the outlet that was split so two different circuits went to it.
Then there was the 53 year old plumbing that welds could not have been a more solid joint.
I’ll shut up about my problems now.
I can relate, Og. My home was built in ’29, and though I have an upgraded service, the majority of my wiring is kin to yours. Bah.
Yep. I bet you have the scarred knuclkes to show for it too.
My pops was a a computer tech who put in all the DoD mainframes at the Big 10 schools in the 60s and 70s. Pulled more cable than Tesla and Edison’s flunkies combined. His comment as we rewired parts of our Coolidge era house? ” Boy, buy a New. Fucking. House.”
n5: Good advice, if you can afford it!!
I hate to think about all the old knob and tube wiring Dad and I repaired/replaced over the years.
I cant- my house was built in ’64.I need a new service.
Owned a house built in ’37. Added onto in the ’50s and early ’70s. Electrical was 2nd only to plumbing in the hammer throwing pissed-offedness. And roof leaks. Yea. n5’s Dad had it right.
That reminds me: I need to buy fire extinguishers…
Our place was built in the early forties. A couple of past owners thought that watching Bob Villa and thumbing through a Time Life book meant they were good to go.
Oh dear God….the horrors.
Garage fer instance…..
Two circuits. One for interior outlets. One three-way switched for interior and exterior lights. At one point on leg of the three-way failed. Their solution? Just tie into the neutral return of the other circuit.
That little Fluke Volt Alert gizmo is the absolute best tool I have every bought. In this house alone it’s saved by butt a half dozen times at least.
BGM
Doing the work for free on that wiring for your little sister. With new wiring spliced in randomly. And outlet boxes used for junction boxes for other circuits. With the outlets in them. After being struck by lightning I am more than a little nervous around electricity anyways. My rather religious sister stated ” Well I can’t say I have ever heard those particular word combinations before.”
Roger
yeah, I’ve escaped the lighting thing, though almost every member of my immediate family has been hit.
I figure my time will come.
I’ve got friends rebuilding an old house, and one of the real horrors has been the wiring; Leah says they’ve- so far- found eight places where the wood by the horriblebloody@(#))_!nasty work was actually charred; God knows why the place hadn’t caught fire in the past.
By the way, ‘post and tube’? ‘Knob and tube’? May I ask for explanation(tube I can figure)?
The wires go through tubes to go through wood. The knobs change direction of the wire. Think high tension power lines.
…okay, that’s just MADE OF WRONG.
I’ve worked on more than a couple houses that were done in rigid conduit.
Ah, thought it meant something like that but wasn’t sure, thanks!
Firehand:
It’s very common to see charred wood near old electrical connections, because as often as not it was soldered with a propane torch.