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?

2 comments

2 Comments

adams.harper8d ago

My granddad's 1948 place had the same cloth wiring, and we found a dead mouse skeleton tucked behind an outlet box.

michaeljones8d ago

Yeah we had that in my old house too. I just replaced all the outlets and switches with modern ones, it was cheaper than rewiring the whole place. Worked fine for another ten years until we sold it.