Be Careful Of 'Updated' Wiring

This was the state of the wiring in an old home I purchased back in 2021. When I see "updated" wiring where the house originally had knob and tube this is what I find.

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[justme]

I asked my electrician about doing a completely updated wiring job in my little cape cod style house. He replied “Oh, I didn’t know you were in the mood to take out a mortgage more than this house is worth.”

[mike-skli]

Most old homes are blocked between studs. The insulation may be asbestos and the walls are plaster. Unless you as homeowner is willing to foot an entire renovation this is the best option

[tallbright]

Spider is just vibing in the back, getting all cozy with the wires🕷 🕸

[tremolobar]

That is exactly how my century home is. I’ve been slowly updating the old cloth bx with the proper gauge wire for the circuit and adding modern smart switches to further fulfill my childhood dream of having a Jetsons home.

[lohrtom]

Was like that in a home I bought. Had an electrician out in a new breaker box. I rewired the entire house myself. Took me over 2 months but I go it done and up to modern code. I could only spend about 15 minutes at a time in the attic in the summer. I lost 10 pounds from all of the sweating. The cost of having your house totally rewired by an electrician is about the same as a small nation’s GDP.

[generaluser]

Every inch of wire in my 1916 home is new. Did it myself. I hate when people say they rewired their house when all they did was cha ge the box.

[badoeno]

Found a similar situation my grandparents old house (1904) so we replaced ALL outlet wiring with new 12 guage Romex. The lighting is still original but bulbs changed to LED to reduce the load on the wiring. The fuse box is still in place though as it does serve the purpose with awareness of the possible risks.

[timshafer]

My house was built in 1911 and I completely replaced every Old wire and used number 12 wire for all the outlets and lights.

[Mike.D.]

Yep. This is how my dad house is. 1942 house, has old cloth & rubber insulated wire. They installed a breaker panel. All new Rolex in the panel, out to junction boxes to old wore. All 20amp breakers to old 14 guage wire. Half the damn house is on one circuit! The rubber inner insulation is all brittle and if disturbed it crumbles. Any work I have to do, like replacing a switch or fixture ect... always involves a headache of dealing with that old wire. What I have done in the past is repair any damaged insulation with heat shrink. We also ha e to be very careful about overloading the wire. I don't even know how that panel passed inspection... the wiring is beyond sketchy the way they left it.

It's way over due for finishing the rewire... I'm going to go room by room and diy it.

[teamdada]

The cover off the box is so accurate. Unreal

[phildev]

So many houses around here have knob and tube connected to old cloth romex with those ceramic socket style connectors.

[itaintrocketscience]

Electrician here.
You have to gut a house to the studs to accomplish the goal of 100% new wiring.
I don’t care how good you are with a snake.
Not happening

[SLAPsSis]

This was true for me. My 1937 home had a more updated electronic box and a few 3 prong outlets. After closing and upon further research, I learned the entire house is knob and tube and the 3-prong outlets are not ground. It got past the home inspector. To say it’s expensive to update is an understatement and living in Cali soon there will be a need for many to have an up to date electrical system. Arg!!!!

[emmettturner]

True. I got displaced by a tornado to an old home with an breaker box replacing the original fuse box. You could see plenty of Romex but if you followed it you’d find the old fabric wires going to ungrounded outlets with T-shaped slots.

[zachsmith]

This is exactly what we just discovered in the house we’re currently renting. Had a power issue where suddenly half the house has lost power even though all of the breakers were on. Landlord claimed he had “everything” replaced 4 years ago, but turns out they just did this. When the electrician came out to troubleshoot he was pissed because some of the wiring the past electrician did was so bad that they should have replaced it all when they were renovating, but went the cheap route and just did a new panel and romex to junction boxes hidden in the basement behind all the ducting.

[JustinMentionedIt]

100% correct in every older home I’ve been in

[ProjecthuntanFish]

I'm remodeling a 130 year old brick building in South Georgia. I have a situation that looks exactly like the connection box you showed.

[njsongwriter]

Yeah that's how my parents house was.
We bought an old home once that we totally updated removing all the lath and plaster and rewiring the entire house. It wasn't insulated either, so it needed to be done. A lot of the plumbing was old galvanized pipe that was rusted shut.

[WYO_Dirtbag]

Found another live wire up in the attic the other week that was just cut and left there. Couldn't believe it. I had found one about a year ago in the crawl space when we first moved in. I almost have all the old fabric wire out and replaced with brand new grounded romex from a new subpanel I had installed. Amazing places don't burn down more often..

[gloriousapplebees]

This is how my new home was. Took a long week and a bunch of holes in the walls but new wire ran everywhere and every switch light and outlet is now properly grounded.