Welcome to wiring hell.

HardDrive · 10-10-2007, 01:04 PM

Why me?

I paid half a million bucks to get wiring like this?

Telephone wiring evidently rigged up by Bell himself on his lunch hour. A pathetic mix of modern, aluminum and old knob and tube wiring hanging off 100amp box that looks like spaghetti inside. Oh, and those white pipe covers that cover the hot water heating pipes.....THAT RUN DIRECTLY OVER THE BOX....pure asbestos.

This is at least an 8 beer job.

dad911 · 10-10-2007, 01:30 PM

You did get a home inspection, right? Obviously more important than a PPI, with the larger investment.

1fastredsc · 10-10-2007, 01:46 PM

I like how you measure the work in "beer" time........

Porsche-O-Phile · Porsche-O-Phile's Garage

I really hope you're not planning on doing anything on that yourself. . . Asbestos abatement is a specialized (and expensive) field of work.

If you touch any of that asbestos (or the wiring), you're opening up a humongous can of worms with the inspector. . .

Jeff Higgins · 10-10-2007, 01:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HardDrive

This is at least an 8 beer job.

I bet it took him way more than 8 beers to fuch it up like that.

stomachmonkey · 10-10-2007, 02:00 PM

What is the whitish stuff on the beam?

Is there more of it?

Does it look like sprayed white primer?

Commonly used to treat a mold issue.

SlowToady · 10-10-2007, 02:54 PM

Don't you wonder how they got that working in the first place?

8 beers? For that mess? You must drink the 24oz cans.

MysticLlama · 10-10-2007, 02:58 PM

That looks like a more tangled version of the same time-period wiring in my house.

I was actually going to make it pretty and put in a patch panel and cross-connects and go high-tech, but I just cancelled my phone line instead.

HardDrive · 10-10-2007, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

I really hope you're not planning on doing anything on that yourself. . . Asbestos abatement is a specialized (and expensive) field of work.

If you touch any of that asbestos (or the wiring), you're opening up a humongous can of worms with the inspector. . .

So.....by 'specialized training' ,you mean throw on an asbesto mask, wet the schit down, throw it in garbage bag, then chuck it in the dumpster behind 7-11, right?

Nostril Cheese · 10-10-2007, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HardDrive

Why me?

I've seen worse. Think speaker wire.

notfarnow · 10-10-2007, 04:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nostril Cheese

I've seen worse. Think speaker wire.

Yep, my phone wiring was 50% old speaker wire. My electrical wiring looks a lot like yours, except yours is a whole lot more organized. They skipped the beer and went straight to whiskey.

Even though mine is worse than yours, I wouldn't dare complain.

This is a picture from a old home forum; an electrician was asked to figure out why they kept getting shocks from the taps upstairs:

notfarnow · 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

What is the whitish stuff on the beam?

Is there more of it?

Does it look like sprayed white primer?

Commonly used to treat a mold issue.

My neighbor's joists look the same; concrete residue. On some older homes, the planks they used when pouring the foundation were reused for joists & framing.

craigster59 · craigster59's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by notfarnow

My neighbor's joists look the same; concrete residue. On some older homes, the planks they used when pouring the foundation were reused for joists & framing.

Good call NFN, I was thinking the same thing. My house (1927) had similar issues including a 30 amp "screw in" fuse box w/ a 120v "knife switch" main panel. Also asbestos covered heating pipes/ducts.

Asbestos should be okay, left undisturbed, but try to get some "orginization" going wth the wiring. A "flush mount" panel mounted on a piece of plywood might indicate novice work. And definitely get rid of the aluminum wiring, bad stuff.

You might want to upgrade to a new panel, or at least a sub-panel to "straighten" things out. On a brighter note, the good thing about electrical work is you know right away when you've fuched up.

notfarnow · 10-11-2007, 04:22 AM

Here's a book I found extremely helpful:

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Home-Wiring-Comprehensive/dp/0865734291

Among other things, it's got a great section on mapping out existing wiring. You'll be able to determine which circuits are overloaded, which ones are underutilized, etc... Well worth doing before you get to work, or before you hire someone to do any work.

The only thing I didn't like about the asbestos insulation is that the wrap seems to be peeling off in at least one spot. If you're going to be working in the area, you don't want to be bumping that and ending up with friable asbestos.

A friend of mine had a long length of asbestos wrapped pipe in his basement. We wet it down and carefully wrapped it in several layers of plastic. THEN we cut it out. Called a local abatement guy and he picked it up.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Danny_Ocean · 10-11-2007, 05:08 AM

My personal hell:

onewhippedpuppy · 10-11-2007, 05:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by notfarnow

Yep, my phone wiring was 50% old speaker wire. My electrical wiring looks a lot like yours, except yours is a whole lot more organized. They skipped the beer and went straight to whiskey.

Even though mine is worse than yours, I wouldn't dare complain.

This is a picture from a old home forum; an electrician was asked to figure out why they kept getting shocks from the taps upstairs:

That is one scary picture.

Nostril Cheese · 10-11-2007, 07:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by notfarnow

WOW. that's real?

notfarnow · 10-11-2007, 07:50 AM

Yep it's real. It was posted on an "old house" forum where lots of renovation contractors hang out. They had a thread about the worst DIY jobs they ever had to undo. That was actually one of two similar setups... the other one was way worse, the shower head was directly above the fuse box.

Moneyguy1 · 10-11-2007, 11:17 AM

For a home in that price range, I hope you had an inspection prior to purchase. Most homes of any age have electrical/wiring problems. Phone wiring is about the worst to untangle, basically since most telephone techs have no idea what they are doing (kind of like cable TV techs--supply both with a srewdriver and a pair of pliers, call them a tech and send them out into the world). The electrical systems in older homes are generally full of errors, even to the point of still having fuse boxes, too few circuits with new stuff parisitically spliced into existing circuits, homes old enough still having some cloth covered wire or worse yet knob and tube.

If that is your main service box, I can tell you it was not professionally done and I would urge you have a qualified electrician come in and give it the once over including measuring all the circuts to see if they are "balanced", with no single circuit taing too high a potential load.