Remodel or rewire the house, but what is best.
I have often encountered the challenge of reworking existing wiring and adding wire to an existing dwelling. Here, in the Richmond and Petersburg areas of Virginia, remodels are familiar job types for the local trades and builders. You may get lucky, and not have to move any of your electrical wires on your home’s remodel, but the chances are, that’s never going to happen. Unless of course, the remodel is extremely minor.
To remodel or to rewire. That is the question posed to the electrician. Sure, the homeowner may desire that the electrician continues off of the existing wiring. That would be however, because they think that they could save money. It can be quite the opposite however, but the electrician may urge to keep his or her circuits separated from that which is existing.
In some cases, I too will refuse to work with the existing wires. If a home has knob-and-tube wiring, then I will only rewire it. I will not add my wire to such circuitry. At most, I willprovide my own feed from the existing electrical panel box.
Most electricians will not add wiring to wiring that was installed nearly 100 years ago. Yes, we are going back to as early as 1890. That’s right!
I will also insist on rewiring a home when it has that old BX cable. This cable is a metallic armored and spiraled flexible conduit that simply encases the KT-type wires. What I mean is that the wires of the knob-and-tube wiring are sleaved by this metallic armor. That is BX-cable. The conductors are encased by a rigid and durable conduit, and that’s great.
The problem comes into play when these wires are touched, moved, or tampered with. This is because they are outdated, and so the insulation of the conductors literally begins to disintegrate. The actual conductors, which are insulated, become not insulated quite easily.
What happens is the following. An electrical device, such as a switch or outlet may need to be replaced. When we go to replace it, we find that the insulation breaks off and that the wiring will then have conductors that are exposed. This can lead to potential fire hazards. Personally, the ground that is involved may not be as good of a ground as it was upon the initial installation. Unfortunately, BX-cable can eventually become a hazard.
Here is a great example, a big learning lesson for me. I was working on a house, because the owner was unable to pass inspection after he had his buddy work on the electrical. Well, the buddy decided to work with the existing wiring of the home during the remodel. He added new wires to provide the house with what it needed concerning the electrical, but this was not a good idea. None of these wires were coming directly from the panel box. Instead, he added them as jumpers, and ran wire from the existing wire. When he finished, he had one breaker that was tripping, and receptacle and lighting circuits that were missing grounds.
Just to clarify. I was called to do a job that someone else was unable to complete.
The first thing that I needed to do was demolish the old bx-cables that were coming out of the panel as a homerun. Once they were demolished and isolated, I began to properly splice them into the new wiring that I added.
I used a metallic box with metallic connectors, which I bonded to a metal junction box. This allowed me to be able run the new 12-2 Romex out of the box and to the panel. This provided grounds for his existing circuits.
So, things were going well, and I was closing up the job. If I remember correctly, it took about 5 hours total. That’s what I was billing the customer for, but as I did my last walk through I noticed that there was one light switch in the home that was still causing a breaker to trip. When it tripped, I became worried.
I called the property owner and told him how much he owed me for the job. Additionally, I had to tell him that there was more work that needed to be done. He did not like this, and he listened very carefully. I explained to him that the tripping breaker has absolutely nothing to do with anything that I have done. He wasn’t so sure, however. So now, I have to explain the situation. It wasn’t complicated in any sense at all, and so I was able to show him exactly where the problem was. He understood that the wire going from switch to light was damaged.
Yes indeed, it was undeniable, and I was in the safe zone. He on the other hand was dreading the fact that this fix was going to cost him royally. Not only would he have to pay for more wire and electrical services, but he was going to have to call the painters and sheet rockers again. This job was going to entail cutting into the walls and running new wire. Unfortunately, he was learning how to do a better job on the next go around. He was in the business of flipping properties, and trying to save money, ended up costing him more in the end.
It was on that day that I decided to always shoot to rewire a home when BX-cable and Knob-and-tube are involved.
This is Green Street Electric