Insurance cancelled on century-old farmhouse. What are the alternatives now?

[MoKelly]

We recently moved from a house built in 1914.

The history was very interesting.

It still had knob and tube around but replaced years ago.

We had radiator heat plus whole house gas heat. The boiler and pump motor in the basement looked really really old but worked fine. Radiator heat is very nice.

We had asbestos wrapped pipes in the basement that were encapsulated.

The sewer pipes were cast iron and PVC.

The house was updated so we had walk-in closets v. the cubby holes originally and the kitchen was expanded from the small box originally. Folks in the early 1900’s had no need for closets or kitchens!!

The detached garage was a carriage house and had living space above the car storage area. However, the ceiling was sloped and the slopes were only about 6 feet tall.

It was a fun house but it was 4 stories and we were not getting any younger. Plus, an attached garage is nice.

MoKelly

 

[California]

... found one hot wire that was hooked into the box on both ends

Token Ring! Early IBM equivalent to Ethernet for office networking but slower. It used a loop like that (for signals) to improve reliability.

Your discovery sounds just plain scary.

 

[civilian]

We call that a toaster.

YIKES!

Our current (there's a pun there) home was built in the 20s. There's still knob and tube all over the place, but, fortunately, it's all disconnected and modernized now.

House built last year still has knob and tube? Oh, you mean 1920's! LOL. Jon

 

[plowhog]

My mom's house had knob and tube wiring, it was the first house in the hamlet they lived in to get electric. It was scary. When I was replacing it I found one hot wire that was hooked into the box on both ends

I hear ya.

I reworked a circuit in a knob and tube house. I knew nothing about the wiring history and found a jumble of wires going into a common box where I wanted to add a light. I carefully traced the wires out-- found the hot wire, then found the ground wire also connected to hot.

 

[MossRoad]

House built last year still has knob and tube? Oh, you mean 1920's! LOL. Jon

Ha! I had to think about that.

 

[California]

... traced the wires out-- found the hot wire, then found the ground wire also connected to hot.

I wonder what this means.

 

[MossRoad]

I wonder what this means.

My outlet / GFCI tester shows all 3 lights lit, what does that mean?

Normally when you see this, the first thing that you will want to check is all of the connections on the back of the receptacle, and if all of those are tight, then check the rest of the receptacle…

gardnerbenderfaq.wordpress.com

 

[California]

My outlet / GFCI tester shows all 3 lights lit, what does that mean?

Normally when you see this, the first thing that you will want to check is all of the connections on the back of the receptacle, and if all of those are tight, then check the rest of the receptacle…

gardnerbenderfaq.wordpress.com

Thanks for that link! Yes, a loose wire is possible.

A while back at a different location I had intermittent power and found a loose wire. I replaced that outlet. I'll do that here and see how it tests. (There's nothing else plugged into the circuit, their other possibility).

 

[ning]

I've had circuits where there's like 70 volts on the neutral but practically zero current - induced voltage.
May be enough to drive the LED.

 

[MossRoad]

I had a similar situation at my house. Wife wanted bathroom redone. Changed colors of walls and floor. I wanted to change Ivory colored GFCI and light switches to White. So I pulled a perfectly functioning Ivory GFCI and installed a White one. It would trip the breaker upon being reset. I tried a 2nd GFCI. It wouldn't work, either. Reinstalled the original. Nope, it wouldn't work either. Scratches head. Buys GFCI tester similar to yours. Got all three lights, which wasn't on the list of possible combos. YIKES@$%%#!!!

So I started tracing things back.

First, the circuit breaker was faulty and burnt inside.
Replaced breaker.
GFCI would now reset OK.
Tester down to two lights, but flopped polarity.

Followed wire to next box in circuit, a ceramic ceiling light fixture in the basement. Found smoked connection in that fixture and cracked ceramic. Tested polarity at that box. OK. Replaced the fixture. Still flopped polarity at GFCI as expected.

Followed the wires to a j-box under the bathroom. Opened that up to find the hot and neutral going up to the GFCI were swapped. Removed all of the many connections, sorted everything out, re-connected properly and all tested well at the GFCI.

I still have no idea why the original GFCI was working, then no GFCI was working, other than I flipped the breaker to power off the circuit originally and that drove the breaker to finally die.

Anyhow, it was a good refresher lesson for me in circuit testing and starting from the beginning. I don't get frustrated too easily and don't mind doing that kind of work. It's just a logical trace-out from beginning to end. Slow and methodical. The only bummer was it was all overhead work, so my arms got tired after a while. Just another excuse to take a break and have some snacks.