More electrical shennanigans

"shop-teacher" (shop-teacher) 08/10/2018 at 22:21 • Filed to: My wallet is crying

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This afternoon, after day three of  meetings, I pulled the last of the old cabinets out of my kitchen. Upon doing this I discovered ... A buried outlet. Yes, it was hot. Of course it was hot.

If you look at the top middle of the picture, you’ll see the one modern GFI outlet that the kitchen had. Below it you can see the BX they used to feed it. Now here’s the really great part. The BX they tied in to feed that new outlet, goes to the exact same junction box that the old outlet they buried ties into. It took longer to figure out which circuit (the labeling in my breaker box is a total cluster) they were on, than to pull that old outlet out of there.

Also found this wall papering job, for which I have no explanation.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > shop-teacher 08/10/2018 at 22:43

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Isn’t home archeology fun! 

Urambo Tauro > shop-teacher 08/10/2018 at 22:48

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How many layers of flooring does your kitchen have, anyway?

M.T. Blake > shop-teacher 08/10/2018 at 22:48

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Found a buried plug behind my  wood stove hearth. It was hot and covered with child safety plugs and plastic. I know the struggle. 

OPPOsaurus WRX > shop-teacher 08/10/2018 at 22:50

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Shocking

shop-teacher > M.T. Blake 08/10/2018 at 22:55

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Nice!

shop-teacher > Urambo Tauro 08/10/2018 at 22:56

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At least four. We decided not to disturb the asbestos, so it'll be five soon!

LOREM IPSUM > shop-teacher 08/10/2018 at 22:56

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Isn’t electrical fun?

As for the wallpaper, that looks quite a bit like what  one would expect just above the stove, below the vent hood, and between the cabinets.

If your current floor plan doesn’t reflect that, I’m guessing it did at one time.

shop-teacher > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 08/10/2018 at 22:56

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So much fun!

How the hell did this house not burn down?

shop-teacher > OPPOsaurus WRX 08/10/2018 at 22:56

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*rimshot*

Urambo Tauro > shop-teacher 08/10/2018 at 23:07

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LOL I’ve seen w orse. (Seven’s the record so far - that first step was a doozy!)

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > shop-teacher 08/10/2018 at 23:09

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I left a 220v dryer outlet in a wall, just pulled the breakers and caped the wires. Completely removing it would be a hassle.

shop-teacher > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 08/10/2018 at 23:12

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This outlet took like 8 minutes to pull out though. And the dude was already in that junction box! Just unhook it while you're there!

Quadradeuce > shop-teacher 08/10/2018 at 23:12

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So we restored a 100yr old house. We gutted the kitchen and dining  room and I killed all of the circuits in those areas.  As I was sawzalling out an opening in the wall between the rooms, my blade contacted a wire that was "dead" and the dining room light turned on.  Due to the old knob and tube wiring using shared neutrals, the circuit was dead, but I was able to complete the circuit via the ground on the sawzall.  I realized that I would never be able to truly isolate individual circuits so I decided to rewire the entire house.  Added about a year onto the project.  

shop-teacher > Urambo Tauro 08/10/2018 at 23:13

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I bet! I stripped off the top layer of stick-on tiles at least.

shop-teacher > Quadradeuce 08/10/2018 at 23:13

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Oooof!

shop-teacher > LOREM IPSUM 08/10/2018 at 23:20

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Oh yeah, big time party fun!

No, this is at the top of the stairs, no room for a stove here.

LOREM IPSUM > shop-teacher 08/10/2018 at 23:28

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Oh, that would be an unusual place for a stove.

Your guess is as good as mine then, lol.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > LOREM IPSUM 08/10/2018 at 23:37

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Maybe hidden behind a big book shelf at some point?

Svend > shop-teacher 08/10/2018 at 23:37

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Lol. I had a brief cluster-fuck in my house when I ordered a new washing machine.

Last washing machine broke (something to do with barrings), ordered a new one. New one came, they went to install it but found the old one didn’t have a plug and was spliced toge ther with a cable coming out of the wall. Turns out of the three cupboards in a row, Cupboard one on the left has a hard wired power point, the cupboard to the right has a sink and the power cable comes out under it and goes into cupboard three and spliced together with the washing machine.

The guys take it back to the store, we arrange for re- delivery a week later only to find they won’t install it when they return as they can’t get to the water, as the water in is behind a board. So they take the old one away and just unscrew the water in (after turning off the stop cock), cutting through the waste pipe and cutting off the power cord (absolutely useless idiots).

All they had to do was a small cut to remove some board and all would of been done.

So the next day I cut a section of board out and changed over the pipes.

Found the waste pipe is the same diameter as the receiving waste pipe. Went to look at some DIY stores for a section of pipe to jubilee clip together

As the waste pipe isn’t under ant pressure, etc... I ended up Gorilla taping it together. 

blacktruck18 > shop-teacher 08/10/2018 at 23:38

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How many times during this project have you thought to yourself, “Well that could have killed me and  everyone in this house. ”?

LOREM IPSUM > BaconSandwich is tasty. 08/10/2018 at 23:39

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Probably something along those lines, I'd imagine.

TorqueToYield > Quadradeuce 08/10/2018 at 23:46

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“shared neutrals”

Yikes.  

TorqueToYield > shop-teacher 08/10/2018 at 23:50

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So much of electrical is just spend the few minutes and few extra bucks to do it the right, safe, way.

It can only burn your house down, no biggie.

Chariotoflove > shop-teacher 08/11/2018 at 00:11

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I’m still holding my comments for the post where you tell us about the Indian burial ground you find. 

LOREM IPSUM > Quadradeuce 08/11/2018 at 00:53

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Good plan in the end. Knob and tube is a combination of voodoo and satanism.

Few understand it, and given the chance it will try to send you to hell by way of inferno.

WilliamsSW > shop-teacher 08/11/2018 at 02:02

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Electrical work is easy if the house was done right.

And a freaking nightmare in old houses that were done half assed.  

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Svend 08/11/2018 at 02:10

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Nonononono NO

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > WilliamsSW 08/11/2018 at 02:11

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Trust me, new houses ain't much better...

shop-teacher > WilliamsSW 08/11/2018 at 04:30

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I'm just glad it all is fed from the basement, because so far I've been able to find where everything has been coming from pretty easily.

shop-teacher > Chariotoflove 08/11/2018 at 04:32

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Man, so far I haven't found anything cool. I found a note today, but it was just an old grocery list.

shop-teacher > blacktruck18 08/11/2018 at 04:33

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I think we're up to three now.

shop-teacher > Svend 08/11/2018 at 04:36

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What a PITA!

shop-teacher > TorqueToYield 08/11/2018 at 04:38

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The crazy thing about the stuff I've found, is that in most cases they've done more work screwing it all up, than if they had just done it right.

Svend > shop-teacher 08/11/2018 at 05:40

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A Royal PITA. 

Chariotoflove > shop-teacher 08/11/2018 at 11:53

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True story time. My wife grew up in this house that according to stories was supposed to be made from old boxcars laid over a dug out basement (the guy who built it had worked for the railroad).  No one really believed it until one day they did some renovations and had to dig into the walls for the electrical and such. And sure enough, under the drywall...boxcar.

shop-teacher > Chariotoflove 08/11/2018 at 13:21

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Wow! That's really cool!

Quadradeuce > TorqueToYield 08/11/2018 at 18:03

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It’s actually not against code. I ran shared neutral circuits in my garage so that I can have two 20 amp circuit in each outlet box. But all of the conductors need to be in the same cable so that they are all together.  I used 12-3 cable, and each circuit needs to be on a different phase so you don't fry the neutral.

In the case of the old knob and tube wiring, the conductors for those circuits were all over the place with no way of know which conductor went with which circuit.  No bueno, so the only option was to rewire.

Quadradeuce > LOREM IPSUM 08/11/2018 at 18:05

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Agreed, especially when sp liced into poorly. Sadly, all of the old knob and tube was in mint condition. The insulation was perfect, and the conductors were 12ga. But there was no way to map the system safely.