Homes… Your Thoughts… Old or New?

[BnRidge]

I’ve got 5 knob and tube… circa 1920-30

The bituminous friction tape used to join wires then is all but impossible to get apart now short of just cutting the wires off. Any remodel work, like adding circuits, two way switches, new lighting means taking out the whole works and replacing. It's not a bad idea to replace existing cotton canvas and asphalt wire after 70years anyway. It works, probably fine, it's just a little unnerving witnessing it there, and trouble to change.

 

[ultrarunner]

The bituminous friction tape used to join wires then is all but impossible to get apart now short of just cutting the wires off. Any remodel work, like adding circuits, two way switches, new lighting means taking out the whole works and replacing. It's not a bad idea to replace existing cotton canvas and asphalt wire after 70years anyway. It works, probably fine, it's just a little unnerving witnessing it there, and trouble to change.

Knob and Tube is soldered with rubber tape over the joint and friction tape over the rubber.

Code is specific when connecting old work to new and as to how the old comes into the junction box for new work.

I’m thinking it’s almost a lost art yet look at any utility pole and you will see knob and tube.

Several of mine are over 100 years in service and unmolested.

The basic 1920 service consists of a 30 amp knife switch main distributed to a 15 amp light circuit and a 20 amp plug circuit with all three Edison Base fused.

The problems I’ve seen over the years are hack add ons and taps or over fusing so that wires overheat.

Can’t say just how many screw in fuses I’ve found with a coin in the socket looking at older homes.

I’ve pulled the permits and did the work to replace 30 amp 120 volt service with 100 amp 240v service about a dozen times.

The most interesting was a legal triplex served by a single 30 amp 120volt service and 3 gas meters.

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[ultrarunner]

My neighbors would like to put in central A/C in their 1958 1750 square feet home.

The electric service is 100 amp 240 volt and the quotes they are getting are 15 to 17k to upgrade wiring… makes no sense to me.

Add another 15k to replace the existing central gas furnace with a heat pump and another 6k for new duct work…

It’s their family home since new and the daughter is moving in with baby.

The contractors have the daughter scared to move into the home she was raised… no GFCI outlets… only 3 grounded outlets… one garage and two in kitchen and no arc fault breakers and of course Federal Pacific Panel…

If I wanted central A/C I would use the 30 amp dryer circuit and make the dryer gas…

No way would I spend over 30k between the electrician and HVAC contractors

 

[WinterDeere]

I’ve got 5 knob and tube… circa 1920-30

You have live knob and tube circuits in your house?

Having spent my life living and working in old houses, I'm used to coming across the stuff, but I can't remember the last time I've actually found any knob and tube that's anything other than an old disconnected remnant. I don't think they even had standardized current handling per wire guage, at the time most of that stuff was installed, and of course insulating any wall that contains it comes with real fire hazard.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

At my homeplace from 1939 has knob and tube wiring. Cloth covered black braided copper wire. Garage has one hot wire with a driven ground for neutral. Four poles going house to garage about 75ft apart with another wire with 4 lights in series each one 30 volts.

 

[Oaktree]

At my homeplace from 1939 has knob and tube wiring. Cloth covered black braided copper wire. Garage has one hot wire with a driven ground for neutral. Four poles going house to garage about 75ft apart with another wire with 4 lights in series each one 30 volts.

I don't know when this house was wired, it had to be after the 1920s since it was all romex, no evidence of K&T ever having been used. The meter was a very old style one, the guy from the power company who put in my new service drop told me he'd never seen one like it before.
Updating the electrical was one of my first priorities when I bought the place.

 

[Oaktree]

I had a step-bro who lived in a log cabin. He and carpenter bees were frequent, familiar, and mortal enemies.

Brother in law has a log house, don't ever remember hearing him complaining about bees...maybe too far north here?

Log cabins tend to be high maintenance. The wood naturally checks, then up here at least they get moisture which freezes in winter and makes them crack more.
Plus there aren't many options when you get tired of looking at the log interior.

Updating/changing wiring or plumbing doesn't sound like it would be much fun either.

As far as interior walls, I suppose you could put up strapping and install drywall. I think my BIL did that in at least some rooms.

 

[Oaktree]

I have two digital converter boxes that were about $20 each after government voucher from Radio Shack.

Yeah, and they basically sucked. Maybe OK in/near a city, fringe-area reception not so much.
I'd do a scan and it would act like it was detecting signals, but when it finished, zippo.

 

[Oaktree]

I started digging in the insulation and found where he added some lights. Instead of using junction boxes for the wiring, as well as wire nuts for the connections. He just stripped the wires back, twisted them together, and left them exposed.

I went to home depot and picked up a bunch of junction boxes and covers, as well as a box of romex connectors and wire nuts.

I spent two days in the attic hunting and fixing his electrical connections.

I found 9 connections exposed in the attic.

My first house was like that too. Live outlets & switches buried inside walls. Switches in the neutral line. Splices like you found. Bare wires draped over rafters where rodents had chewed off the insulation. Fuse box itself was in a dirt-floor basement that tended to get wet.

Last year while my sisters and I were getting our parents' house ready for sale I wanted to install GFIs in the kitchen & bathroom. Absolutely no pattern to what fuse/breaker (it was a combination) went where...a given circuit might power one outlet in the kitchen, one in the living room and another in the basement. I have no idea what my father was thinking when he wired it. What little documentation he left was not easily decipherable.

 

[Dftodd]

My first house was like that too. Live outlets & switches buried inside walls. Switches in the neutral line. Splices like you found. Bare wires draped over rafters where rodents had chewed off the insulation. Fuse box itself was in a dirt-floor basement that tended to get wet.

Last year while my sisters and I were getting our parents' house ready for sale I wanted to install GFIs in the kitchen & bathroom. Absolutely no pattern to what fuse/breaker (it was a combination) went where...a given circuit might power one outlet in the kitchen, one in the living room and another in the basement. I have no idea what my father was thinking when he wired it. What little documentation he left was not easily decipherable.

Yeah, i had a few light switches that switched on the neutral side as well.

Plus a couple three way switches that were out of sync.