Know and tube worries

[GibsonGM]

Everything Phil said, and....if you can, talk to a licensed electrician. Tell them you want to run the wire, get some advice, ask if they will come back and inspect your work (for a fee...an easy couple hundred dollars, perhaps). Many will, they will correct you if you're going wrong, give tips, then double-check you. At least in my area - your codes may be citified and prevent you from working on your own property, check that first!

I put in a 2nd floor bathroom, plumber was too busy to do the waste line, but he came by on a Saturday and explained it to me, in detail, for free. 4 yrs later, no issues. Same for my electrical, all of which I replaced myself based on the national electrical code. Most of this stuff is quite simple, but you want to be sure you understand how it works and why, before you get into doing it. Most don't care to learn that 'why' part, which is why we've passed it over to someone to do it for pay.

[SwierkE]

Thanks again for all the info!!! Such good suggestions and so helpful! We just got back from a more detailed walk through. My father confirmed with his "sniffer" that the k & t is hot.

The seller agent assured me that the majority of wire was updated for the whole house, and the k&t goes just to the attic. Ya, I'm not believing it, the agent was very young and seemed a bit confused by my inquiries and had to contact the owner for an answer.

There was the green and silver covered wires from the main box with new and a lot were 2 wire outlets. Needless to say I'm definitely getting a professional in to inspect before we make an offer. But I'm pretty sold on the house

I took a quick shot of one of the junctions to share.

20190728_133022.jpg (1.39 MiB) Viewed 488 times

[GinaC]

Yeah, as long as you know what you're walking into, everything can be fixed if you have it in your budget.

My inspector told me that I'd have to replace all my windows since the sills in the master bedroom are rotted out. Um, no. (However, it seems like the hard part is getting someone to replace them who knows what they are doing. In any case, it's going to wait until spring when I can take off the 1960's aluminum storms and see how much damage there really is.)

[Gothichome]

That looks like a door bell transformer.

[nhguy]

The one good thing that came out of having the k&t removed from the attic was I got a chance to inspect the insulation and air sealing up close. I'm not so sure I would have pulled up 1650 sqft of two layers of boards otherwise. I was able to air seal and insulate properly, our place heats with less than 2 cords of wood and less than 100 gallons of oil yearly.

[1918ColonialRevival]

That looks like a door bell transformer.

That's what's it is. I'd wager it's probably still good. Doorbell transformers last seemingly forever.

I'm seeing K&T and BX in the picture.

OP - pulling the outlets and looking at the wires will tell you if it's all K&T, or if it's something else, though I would still map every circuit in the house before even worrying about what kind of wiring is in the walls. It doesn't matter if the wiring was installed last year if you have four or five rooms wired into a single 15 or 20 amp circuit.

Note that non-metallic cable insulated with cloth was commonplace from the 1930s through the 1950s. If you find this or BX cable when you are doing your outlet inspections, and you have adequate circuits, you can take your time with replacement, though I would recommend eventually upgrading to three-wire (hot, neutral, ground) runs for your outlets.

If the "hot" K&T is only for low demand circuits like overhead lights, I wouldn't worry about it right away. Overhead lights don't draw enough current to present an overloading situation and those circuits are the least likely to be modified or added to. K&T itself is not inherently unsafe like all the propaganda has made it out to be. Common sense applies, though.

[phil]

yes that looks like a vintage doorbell transformer. id put a new one in and keep it for show. You can see the connections made outside the box , wrapped with tape. I'd carefully inspect all of those you can find with power off of course.
you can see the little low voltage wires for the bell , if they touch it could bake the transformer or maybe just ring the bell if they are the pair running to a button.
Nowadays because the connections are to be made in a box, but the transformer isn't' supposed to be inside a box I think they want it mounted to the box and the connections made inside the box. It should be fine to repair the bell wire but you could just pull in new for the sake of it if it isn't too buried.

mine is super loud, it scares everyone in the house lol.. we decided we might actually mount the thing outside near the button so when they lean on the bell they get a surprise we will still hear it.

from what I'm hearing I'd think of replacing the panel. If it has old breakers, they can stick and if you do get a short you want them to trip rather than the wires getting hot. If it has old screw in fuses however, they don't stick because of how fuses work. If you see fuses check no one has put a penny behind them. It's a very old and stupid trick. Just unscrew each and look if you have fuses. . see if the rating makes sense.

good planning will help the job go smoothly weather or not you are involved with the actual work. If it's done by contract I'd specify everything like where the runs will go and what will be opened up, the timeline and how many boxes you want to end up with, just so you don't have a conflict. If you are getting into the work If the electrician works hourly then it might be more simple to communicate and make decisions throughout the job and then any help will decrease his labor and he may or may not play that way with you.

To close the permit the inspector will want all the wires covered, all the boxes closed up so if you tear a lot of walls open then you'll want them covered up for inspection.

often they will run the feed wire to a light pot in the ceiling, then run down to the switch and back to the pot using the same cable. that pair that runs to the switch, they are both hot with the light on so this is a case where the white wire is not just a neutral, they are both the hot because they run through the switch then to the bottom pin on the socket. ( unless its a dual switch configuration then it's a bit more complicated and those switches will have three contacts. )

I daisy chained some outlets. that means they have a feed wire entering, a feed wire to another box leaving . 4 wires entering the box. the wires are counted plus the marettes ( wire nuts) you add up the wires and the wire nuts and you need a certain number of square inches in the box. my inspector looked at mine and said the way the wires were all connected was fine and very neat. He liked that I had taken the step to wrap eack wire nut with tape as protection that they cant' fall off.
I asked if I could solder the wires or use crimps. he consulted his books and said yes because then since I wasn't using the wire nuts they wouldn't be counted. so doiung that could get me around the box size issue. I replaced those boxes anyway, just so it wouldn't be contentious.

If you work with an electrician let him show you how to pull the wires into the boxes and how to loop them neatly. It may vary slightly from one guy to another but in general they have practiced this so often they make it look so easy, but homeowners without this practice tend to end up with a tangled mess. neatness means a lot to the inspector. although it might not break the code if he sees shoe prints from walking on the on the wires before they are installed , and wires flipped over and tangled together along the runs that stuff won't gain brownie points. The tidyness means something even if it is to be hidden.

in order to pull wire it is much easier with a helper. then you have one person pushing the wire and the other pulling. as soon as you get a snag you find out why rather than pulling like crazy, the insulation tears easily. if you can offer to be the electricain's helper , go fetch guy, and house cleaner that may help in itself.

as you go through walls try not to let the wire come too close to the face of the wall this is because the drywall screws may penetrate the wires. If you do need to run near the surface, for example I had a little wall that was made with the studs laid with the wider side to the drywall then I put a metal plate ( thickness of an electrical box) , that's to protect the wires from screws because it's impossible to get them away from the surface. when you replace drywall pay attention to where the wires are and if you use long screws think about if they may hit a wire. If you do damage a wire you may be pulling a new one right back to the panel or adding a junction box in some weird place that you dont want.

one thing with old houses that dont have insulation , its easier to pull wire in. Insulation is a great invention though

when I started I used some fibergalss insulation because it was more familiar to me and seemed normal. on some I used the expanded foam sheets. ( ISO board) I like that stuff. Its a great insulator. for most I use rock wool. I find it stops the sound better, it isn't so itchy. It doesn't rot and it stops the sound better. sometimes I use heavy fishing line and just staple that across after the insulation to hold it in if I'm not installing a vapor barrier or before the barrier. it should fit with the proper crush so that it stays in on its own but it helps me to do that sometimes. My house is loud due to street traffic so I started using the soundproof drywall. Its expensive but it makes a difference. the rock wool is easy to cut. I just use a handsaw. I wouldn't open walls unnecessarily but you want to weigh your options for your own circumstances. never put vapor barrier against the shiplap and behind the insulation. If you use vapor barrier it goes against the drywall not behind the insulation.


at first when I began I was under the impression the plaster was sacred. after doing some rooms with much labor due to wallpaper , then removing water soluble calcimine paint, then repair of plaster cracks then doing it all to a high standard of smoothness, well you really can't tell if it's plaster and I ended up with no insulation! . In some houses the plaster has a character of it's own and one flat wall can look different than the rest. now I'm fine doing things like putting 1/4" drywall overtop rather than dealing with the wallpaper layers is faster and the results are the same but some houses are like museums or heritage sites. You'll find your own sense of what should be perfectly original and where you want to bend. what makes sense for one wont be agreeable to another. Kudos to the people who keep it all original but also I think there needs to be some though to what makes sense for each instance.

our houses did not have much plastic in them. I dont think mine even had any calking used. I'm ok that the wire has plastic insulation but I wouldn't put in plastic heat vent covers or plastic windows or plastic siding. I dont want those things that show to be plastic. same with particleboard. I throw it out if I see it. but some want all new counters and cabinets made of it. I hate the stuff but its so common and some like it. In new houses they use it for baseboards and all sorts of stuff. If it gets wet it turns to garbage. I used a bit of MDF wainscott since the price of fir was high and I had money issues. It is what it is I guess but it's easy to get carried away with that stuff. some spend thousands to make entire kitchens out of it.

I'm fine with pex pipe for water feed lines and ABS for drain lines. some like copper. some of the early plastic pipe was junk , it decomposed but plastic improved and plumbers got more familiar with it so its used a lot now. plastic is dead easy to cut out and replace. but with copper you need to think about fires if you are soldering. If you cover stuff in you wan to make sure it's right before it gets hidden. old cast iron drains are quieter. you dont hear the flush of water so much.

some older houses were plumbed with proper slope so you can drain the system easily, For example that's important if you have a cabin you need to winterize against the plumbing freezing. pex can expand and contract a little so it doesn't break so easily but it is hard to plumb so that it drains to one point because it isn't so easy to slope. it can bend and droop along it's runs. we have a summer place and its a real science to get all the water out. every year we miss something despite draining, blowing it all out so when we turn it on in the spring there is always some repair. stuff like dishwashers and washing machines cant' take being frozen without prep. we do use RV antifreeze to some extent.

last year we had a rat that was living in the toilet. It came from the roof stack down into the toilet bowl and built a nest there . I think the seat was down and he didn't get in the house but i guess he kept himself from freezing. we have woodpeckers they go in through the siding and want to live in the insulation.
I get off track too easily..
Phil