Old house wireing

[bc.gold 3,406]

If you see light switches like these in that new house your thinking of buying be prepared to rewire to meet code.

 

Knob and post wiring. There is a following of those who collect this old stuff.

 

 

[roadapples 6,983]

I remember them in my grandparents house...

[Sparky-(Admin) 22,814]

  I’ve rewired a few old houses with that type wiring. 

  Insurance companies are requiring it be removed to maintain insurance coverage. 

[peter lena 9,186]

that,s about as scary  as a house my father bought , many years ago , built in 1900 , with EXTENSION CORDS  throughout the house for wiring  power. that and a lot of other  era , standards , made the house very expensive to live in , and no wear near any code .pete

[953 nut 59,215]

My first house had metal ceilings and knob and tube wiring. It had been in the same family since it was built in the mid 1800s, I bought it in 1968.

There were four pull chain light fixtures and each one had a hot wire running to it and a ground wire to the metal ceiling.           The metal ceiling had a return wire going back to the 30 amp single fuse holder which also fed the one and only electrical outlet. The wire was all 14 gauge which is rated at fifteen amps so it was slightly over-fused!

Being an electrician I was not concerned about that. I also did away with the outhouse and pitcher pump in the kitchen and added a bathroom and running water.

[stevasaurus 23,222]

Actually, that knob and tube wiring is pretty safe...until you try to use it for more then it was designed.  Takes a big rat to lay across those wires to short them out.  You also have to remember that those were 60 AMP days.  The issue was up;dating to 100 or more AMP service, and if you tried to open one of those little, tiny boxes to put a 3 prong plug in...there was no ground.  My Mom's house is a "Balloon Framed" house and is full of knob & tube.  Anybody remember what a "ballooned framed" house is??  It is about 100 years old and can be protected as is.  The city would rather have a fire, but the town is old enough to have a bunch of them still standing.  I actually had some knob and tube in my attic, when I  up-graded that.  It is all gone now...my house was build in about the early 40's.

[SylvanLakeWH 28,078]

14 minutes ago, stevasaurus said:

 My Mom's house is a "Balloon Framed" house and is full of knob & tube.  Anybody remember what a "ballooned framed" house is??  It is about 100 years old and can be protected as is.  The city would rather have a fire

 

I do. Watched my neighbor’s house go up like a balloon a few years back...

 

wow it burned fast...

 

luckily no no one hurt....

[Racinbob 11,875]

Our house was built in 1935 with an addition that doubled the size added in 2002. My original plan was to just go through things and make it safe but quickly discovered that wasn't good enough. Over the years and probably mostly when the addition was built a contractor came in and butchered things so bad my best bet was a complete demo and rewire. That same contractor (I have the receipts) did the addition and the two garages. The wire itself was OK but the circuiting and workmanship was horrendous. Both garages got rewired and every circuit in the addition was thoroughly checked and made safe. As far as the original house, it was like Chip Gaines DEMO DAY. Everything went in a dumpster and all new wiring, plumbing, some HVAC, walls, ceilings and flooring were done. Even relocated a stairway. The bottom line is that the knob and tube, BX and the older cabling is usually safe when installed but becomes outdated for todays power requirements. Then add the idiots that come in and cobble things so bad as to make a very dangerous situation. 

[Racinbob 11,875]

For example:

 

 

The home inspectors solution? "Install cover plate"  Similar and even worse examples were all over the house. Home inspectors should NOT be allowed to inspect the electrical. 

[RandyLittrell 3,894]

I live in a 1920's brick bungalow style house and it still has the knobs in the attic. Luckily our house had all been rewired properly when we bought it. We are just the 4th owners.

 

Off topic but, our house had a drive in basement when we bought it. The original owner carried the mail and kept his model T in the basement where it would be warm.

 

He kept a spare motor so if he had engine trouble he could just switch it out and not miss a day of delivering the mail.

 

We still have the big heavy wire run through the basement rafter that was used to change the motor. 

 

 

 

Randy

[WHNJ701 4,165]

I would more worried about an overloaded surge protector than knob and tube wiring.  

[JERSEYHAWG / Glenn 4,498]

Those old push buttons brought back memories of my grandparents home. 

 

Glenb

[rjg854 12,019]

Where I  grew up, although the wiring was bx cable and the wire was cloth wrapped. 

[Sparky-(Admin) 22,814]

  Completely removing all knob/tube and rewiring is tough, actually nearly impossible if the walls and ceilings aren't opened up. Steve @stevasaurus is correct that if left alone knob/tube isn't bad wiring. But nowadays we have so much stuff that needs to be powered that those old circuits and wires are getting taxed way beyond what they should be. 

  Unless your forced by an insurance company or building inspector to rewire all of a house the best fix is to simply run new circuits for all the larger loads. Rather than just plug in a couple window AC units to existing wall outlets run a dedicated circuit or two right to those windows. Run a dedicated circuit to the fridge and the microwave, both are high amperage draws. Dedicate a circuit for the bathroom outlet where your wife (or maybe you ) runs a 1200 watt hair dryer each day. That hair dryer alone is a 10-11 amp draw! Taking these loads and others like them off the existing knob/tube will ensure that the old wiring doesn't get overloaded.