c/electricians

Heard a journeyman talking about old cloth wiring in a 1920s house

I was grabbing coffee before a job and overheard two guys talking about a full rewire they just finished. One guy said the old cloth insulation crumbled like dry leaves when they touched it. It made me think about how much the materials have changed, and how careful you have to be with that old stuff. Anyone else run into cloth wiring that just fell apart on them?

Question about old cloth wiring in a 1920s house in Cincinnati

Last week I was doing a kitchen rewire in a house from the 1920s and found the original cloth covered knob and tube still active behind the plaster. It was surprisingly brittle, and a section had cracked just from me moving it aside. What's the safest way you guys handle this stuff when you find it still in use?

A foreman told me my wire pulls were too fast and it was hurting the insulation

He pulled me aside on a big apartment job in Tempe and said, "Slow down, you're cooking the jacket." I was pulling 4/0 THHN through a 2-inch conduit and thought speed was key. Now I set a timer for five minutes per hundred feet and check the wire by hand for heat. How do you judge the right speed on a long pull?

I finally got to see the inside of a panel I wired three years ago

I was called back to a house in Oak Park for a new circuit, and the owner had taken the cover off. Three years ago, I spent a full afternoon making those wires perfect, with neat bundles and clean bends. Now, it looks like a bird's nest because the homeowner added a bunch of smart switches himself and just stuffed the extra wire in. He told me, 'It was easier to just push it all in there.' Has anyone else had a neat job completely undone by a DIY project?

Found a whole panel of Federal Pacific breakers in a house I was working on yesterday

It was a 1980s split level in the suburbs, and the home owner wanted a new outlet put in. I opened the panel and there they were, all original. I told him straight up these things are a known fire risk and need to be replaced, like now. He had no idea, just bought the place six months ago. I gave him a quote for a full panel swap and he signed off on it right there. Has anyone else run into a full panel of these lately, or are they finally getting rare?

Changed my mind about aluminum wiring after reading a safety report

I always thought it was just an old thing that was fine if you left it alone. Then I read a report from the Consumer Product Safety Commission that said homes with aluminum wiring are 55 times more likely to have a fire hazard at an outlet. What's the safest way you've found to deal with it in an old house?

Shoutout to the old 3-way switch that taught me to always check the travelers first

I was working on a kitchen rewire in a house built in the 1970s. The homeowner wanted to swap out the old switches for new ones. I figured it was a simple job, so I just turned off the breaker I thought was right and started on a 3-way. I disconnected the old switch, wired up the new one exactly like the old one was, and turned the power back on. Nothing. The light wouldn't turn on from either location. I spent a good 20 minutes checking my connections and the breaker panel before I finally grabbed my meter. Turns out, the two switches were on different circuits. The power feed was at one box, and the switch leg was at the other, with just the travelers running between them. I had only killed power to one side. I learned to never assume both switches in a 3-way are on the same circuit, even in an older house. Now I always verify with a meter before I touch anything. Has anyone else run into this, or is there a faster way to spot this setup before you start?

Spent $800 on a thermal camera for my phone and it paid for itself in one week.

I was chasing a phantom overload on a panel in an old apartment building. My regular tools weren't showing the issue. I finally caved and got the FLIR One Pro. The first scan showed a single breaker terminal running 50 degrees hotter than the rest, a classic loose connection I would have missed. Found two more just like it in other units. The landlord paid for the camera call and the repairs, so it literally covered its own cost. What other diagnostic tools have you guys bought that felt expensive but were instantly worth it?

Warning: a simple outlet swap in a 1950s house turned into a 3-hour puzzle

Got called to replace a single outlet in a kitchen in an old neighborhood here. The box had three separate cables coming in, all cloth wrapped, and none of them were color coded. Took me an hour just to map out which wire was hot with my tester because the previous guy had tied two hots together and buried it. Finally got it sorted, but the whole thing ate up my whole morning. Anyone else get thrown by weird old wiring that looks like a bowl of spaghetti?

Had to choose between a 200 amp panel upgrade or a subpanel for a new garage workshop

The homeowner wanted a full EV charger, a welder, and a dust collection system running at once... so the load calc came out to 140 amps just for the garage. My choice was a whole house upgrade from their old 100 amp service for about $4,200, or installing a 125 amp subpanel fed from the main for roughly $1,800. I went with the subpanel because the existing service wires were in good shape and the main house load was still light. It worked out, but I'm wondering if I should have pushed harder for the full upgrade for future proofing. Has anyone else had a garage load push them right to the edge of what a subpanel can handle?

Had a close call with a mislabeled panel at a Phoenix strip mall remodel yesterday

Just realized I was wrong about using a 12/2 wire for that outdoor receptacle run at my buddy's place in Tempe.

Update on that Milwaukee M12 cordless knockout punch kit I bought for a Reno job

I was sure it wouldn't have the guts for 2-inch conduit, but it breezed through 15 holes without even getting warm. Anyone else have a tool they doubted that actually pulled through?

Working on a 1920s house in Albany showed me why old cloth wiring needs a gentle touch.

I was replacing a fixture and the insulation crumbled at the slightest bend, so how do you guys handle these old systems without causing more damage?

Found a weird fix for flickering LED strips in a Denver kitchen reno

Honestly, I was about to rip out the whole run after trying three different drivers, but adding a single 10-watt incandescent bulb on the same circuit actually smoothed the current. Has anyone else tried this trick with modern dimmers?

A journeyman in my shop said my wire stripping was too slow and messy

He watched me for a minute and said, 'You're pulling the strippers toward you, that's why the copper gets nicked.' He showed me to push the tool away from my body instead. I tried it on a 12/2 Romex and the strip was way cleaner and faster. Anyone else have a small change that made a big difference in your speed?

Saw the wiring in a 1920s Seattle bungalow and it flipped my view on old work

I mean, the cloth insulation was basically dust, but the metal boxes and the way they ran everything was super clean. Anyone else run into old installs that made you respect the craftsmanship?

TIL I've been stripping 12/2 Romex wrong for a decade

A new apprentice pointed out I was scoring the outer jacket too deep, which he learned from a Mike Holt video. Anyone else have a basic skill they realized they were messing up?

PSA: I changed my mind on using wire nuts for all my connections

For years, I used wire nuts on every job, thinking they were the only right way. Then, about two years ago on a big rewire in a Portland apartment building, I saw another crew using Wago lever nuts. I tried them on a few circuits and the speed and solid connection won me over. Now I use them for almost all my new work, especially in crowded boxes. Does anyone else think wire nuts are getting left behind, or am I just jumping on a trend?

Shoutout to the Klein NCVT-3 tester for saving my bacon on a tricky job

I was working on a panel in an old building downtown and my old non-contact tester kept giving false positives from some stray voltage. Switched to the NCVT-3 with its adjustable sensitivity and it cut through the noise, letting me find the actual hot wire in about two minutes. Anyone else run into this with older testers on noisy circuits?

Tried a new 'no-touch' voltage tester on a job and it gave me a false negative

I was working on a kitchen remodel in a 1970s house last week, swapping out some old outlets. I grabbed a new non-contact voltage tester I'd just bought, a Klein Tools NCVT-3, to double-check a line I thought was dead. The thing stayed silent, no lights, so I figured it was safe. When I went to pull the outlet out, I got a pretty good zap. Turns out the wire was live but buried under a bunch of old cloth sheathing and plaster dust. The tester just couldn't pick up the field through all that mess. I learned the hard way that those tools have limits, especially in older homes with layers of junk around the wires. Now I always follow up with my old reliable probe meter to be sure. Has anyone else run into this with the newer non-contact testers in messy old work?

My journeyman insisted on using a $40 torque screwdriver for every panel cover, which felt like overkill until a vibration-loosened screw in a commercial kitchen caused a short.

Now I torque every cover to spec, even on residential jobs, so what other 'extra step' do you think is actually worth the time?

Found an old code book from 1978 in my dad's attic last weekend

It said a 100 amp service was enough for a whole house back then, but now we're putting in 200 amp as a standard minimum. Where did all that extra power go, just bigger homes and more gadgets?

I was wrong about using the same torque setting on all aluminum lugs

For years, I just used the same 50 lb-ft setting from my steel lug spec sheet on everything. A job last month in Tampa had me replacing a whole panel with aluminum bus bars, and I kept getting high resistance readings on my connections. The foreman pointed me to the manufacturer's print, which called for 35 lb-ft max. I looked it up, and aluminum's yield point is way lower. I've been over-tightening and damaging the metal this whole time. Has anyone else run into this with newer, lighter gear?

Spent 4 hours on a Friday night tracing a phantom voltage in a 1970s Chicago bungalow.

It was a loose neutral on a backstabbed outlet behind a massive china cabinet. Anyone have a good trick for testing those without moving a ton of furniture?