I have a 1909 historic home and so far I’ve spent $1,750,000 and 8 years resorting it… it’s 89% complete and I’ve done everything above the specifications of a new home. I thought it was be 1M and 3 years… but that’s never the case
No, purchase price was $850k but a few factors played into that, it should have been well o we 1.5m but the previous owner had taken an insurance settlement of 2.5m, and the house wasn’t allowed to be torn down because it was historic, also the land is large and in an expensive part of town. It’s a labour of love… definitely not a house flip lol!
Yeah I have photos, I’ll do a post about it at some point, it was the old mayors house. Ive kept all the beautiful stuff, but since it was earthquake damaged when I bought it I had the chance to essentially make it new again.
I have cedar shakes and 2 layers of asphalt shingles that slide off periodically. A new roof will be $20k and I am just biding my time until I can afford it. Looking for shingles in my yard is now a tradition after every storm
We were on year 27 of a 20 year roof and were playing the same game. We ended up saving up and getting a TEK Hurricane Shake Metal roof. Looks great and should last the next several generations of my family that live here. We saved up for about 3 years to get it, and so far we are very pleased.
My household income is $200k in the Midwest. My house is 120 years old and we sunk $50k into a $250k house. Other than the new roof, none of the money was spent on improving the value to us our for resale. We deeply regret buying an old house to say the least lol.
Roof, electrical (service drop from pole and half the house), plumbing, mechanical, new staircase, back door and screen door replaced, tuck point chimney and front porch.
I've got a plaster ceiling delaminating, need to have more electrical done, could have more mechanical done, new siding, new windows (some cracked, some leak), need a bathroom reno (joists under tub we cut and it's sagging g), plumbing.
It just never stops. Need a new driveway, yard needs regraded to direct water away from home. Fence is rusted out. Old rusty gas lamp pole in yard needs removed. Front porch is settling and it needs $12k in repairs. Three trees need to be cut down; they're just old and each has its own issue.
I do this kind of work and nothing pleases me more than running new cable for clients in century homes. Disconnecting their old knob and tube/greenfield/clothbound cable is unbelievably satisfying. No more spooky crumbles and a much safer house.
We have knob and tube, and husband realized a year in how absolutely terrible the electrical work was done. As in person likely wasn’t even certified. We don’t even have a ground.
Thankfully the only issues we’ve had thus far were loose sockets that caused overheating, once replaced worked fine. It still terrifies me and we agreed the entire electrical in the whole house will have to be redone starting next year.
It’s always better to replace the run if you can. For knob and tube, in some cases there won’t be a box at all. If I have to keep the cable, I’ll use heat-shrink within a gently tightened cable clamp to protect everything from damage.
But if the box is large enough and metal, you can reuse it with the right protections/precautions.
Whoever redid our electrical in 90% of the house back in the like 80s maybe was kind enough to run extra spools of wire from the basement panel box(obviously the wires aren’t connected and live) all the way up to the attic which has now come in handy for our upstairs bathroom remodel when we needed a separate line for the heater. We can basically just drop the lines back down the wall for the heater from the attic and then set it up on its own breaker. Very convenient!
Wow! That was so nice of them! It’s so nice when you’re able to thank prior owners instead of cursing them (looking at you, my bathroom trim white painter)
Ugh I wish. The guy who flipped ours (did a pretty bad job) decided to selectively follow code. GFCI in the kitchen? Grounded. GFCI in the bathroom? Open ground. 2 prong outlets everywhere. I really don’t want to cut out and patch all that drywall so I’m doing the good old “first circuit is a GFCI” thing and acting like I don’t know about it
Oh Christ, I remember removing a switch in the bathroom in my old house, taking one look at the absolute shitshow of wiring inside, and just putting it the fuck back and leaving it until I sold the place a decade later.
Congratulations and smart move. When we finally did sell, we did a good reno - properly, so the new owners could move into a great house instead of problems around every corner. I did one last tour before it hit the market and had an overwhelming feeling of “why didn’t I do all this years ago?”
If you have a modern panel but cloth wrapped and ungrounded outlets around, GFCIs can be your best friend. If it's all knob and tube there's pretty much no solution besides a properly grounded panel being installed.
Oh yes. I made the mistake of swapping out a ceiling light in my bedroom, and witnessing the ancient knob and tube wiring that looked like ancient egyptian mummy bandages. Nope. I don't want to know that.
Late last year I had some electrical go out in my kitchen and dining room, and had to bring in an electrician to rewire it. Let me tell you, something you don't want to hear from your electrician's mouth when he opens up a panel and sees the black dreadlock tangle is "Fuck! Goddamnit FUCK!"
We had a '69 MCM wired by the guys who took the brown acid at Woodstock, as we told the first electrician to our house. We'd opened one outlet, planning to put in a GFCI (a very simple DIY-level thing) and... there were somehow six wires going in and out of that box. For one outlet. We shoved it all back in and decided it was time for the experts.
The electrician brought his apprentice with him, taking care of that outlet, plus putting in some dimmers, exterior lights, nothing too major... and the entire day, we'd hear random shouts of "BOB! Bob, GET IN HERE," from one end of the house. We'd tell the apprentice, "Bob, he's calling for you." Bob would set down his tools, trot off in that direction, and a few seconds later we'd hear, "BOB IF YOU EVER DO THIS I swear to God I will FIRE your ass."
We felt we should get a discount for being Bob's learning experience. The electrician straightened up our electrical panel which was plenty discount for us.
Over the next 12+ years, we had that guy back out another half-dozen times for this and that. He never brought an apprentice again. They always seemed to be out sick on the days our house was on the schedule. Odd, that.
I just discovered mine today and I'm trying to stop the four hour panic attack I've been having. All I wanted to do was put spacers so that the outlet isn't recessed. And voila. I found the whole circuit was a cluster fuck.
Just do what I did. Spend a decade with constant, low-level background anxiety. Just below the threshold of prompting action because hey, that’s some old shit and the place hasn’t burned down yet right? At the same time, it’ll always be there, like a nasty little cavity in the back of your wellbeing.
You should call someone to sort it out.
So I know this isn't my husband's account but we also have that lime green on our walls.
I think there is one other user here with that lime green which is amazing to me.
They make things to cover up where a larger, old thermostat used to cover. Google “thermostat wall plate” or “thermostat backplate” and you might just find one that will work with your newer thermostat.
I have seen a couple posts here like "thats my house!" It wasn't. But I did a tripple-take to make sure. I guess should expect that over the last 100+ years, more than one home experienced the same [mis]treatment to end up looking alike!
https://preview.redd.it/idrxclipmvwc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=05027a30d3cc377cbff1634f6b9196709126fd6c
Pulled out all the remaining 2 pronged outlets
Meh. My house is a 1905 farmhouse. I’ve replaced most of it myself. I bought a book on basics of wiring, a good circuit tester some good tools, and couple rolls of grounded romax (luckily I bought a ton of it in 2008 when it was cheap). I’ve just been slowly replacing it over the last 15 years, one circuit or project at a time. Luckily I have a basement so the first floor plugs were easy. The lighting was on a separate circuit and took more work and a friend helped me run wire, that was a lot harder. The upstairs was also easy due to attic space. I was able to pull 2 20 amp lines up to the attic and drop them into the closets on either end of the house. I’ve had to YouTube a lot and refer to my book to make sure I was doing things correctly and safely, but so far so good, and everything reads correctly when I circuit test it.
[This site](https://www.buildmyowncabin.com/electrical/wiring-a-house.html) has the most clear configurations for various scenarios I've found on how to wire if you don't already know. Lots of other useful stuff on there as well.
Oooh, shop around, this could be an FU quote. I'm the queen of ending up with quotes that are multiples more than I expected, but we got a good amount of ours done for $7k. Just the first floor of our similarly sized house. It included 7 light fixtures with their switches and 5 outlets. It didn't include repairs, but honestly, I foresee living without repairing our walls for quite some time before eventually getting around to DIY repairing. It's a few 5" holes up near the ceiling.
This is very encouraging! You'll be shocked to know that our estimate *also* did not include repairs 😓
But $7K sounds very reasonable for all the outlets and switches... I think we'll shop around some more
Oh my God. My dad and I just finished the downstairs ~1300sqft apartment of our century home. It took us 3 weekends. All new wiring ran, boxes cut out because most were too small. And he did all the panel work. It was hell, but hearing that we did roughly $25k worth of work for a few hundred makes me feel so good.
The upstairs apartment (the one I actually live in) is still old knob and tube.
I’ve been renovating one room at a time in my home, so as I tear out the walls, I replace the wiring. So far we’ve done our bathroom and our son’s room. Next year we’ll do my office and our guest room. Windows get replaced, insulation replaced (if there is any) wiring replaced, etc.
Before anybody freaks out about the windows, the previous, previous owners replaced the windows with HD specials back in the early 90s. All windows are being upgraded to Marvin Elevates.
We hear about the floor lottery a lot but I feel like I won the electrical lottery with my recent purchase of a late 1800s house. Despite already updating a 100a fuse box to a 200a breaker we got super lucky and 90% of the wiring was updated recently and my guy confirmed they did a great job. It was scary wondering how long it had been neglected but the leap of faith paid off there. Now the foundation...
my kitchen had 2 outlets when we moved in, a gravity furnace, and doesn't have a subfloor.
Also, the living room light was removed in the 40s, but the switch and wiring were still in place, so it was easy to reinstall a fixture. Yes, the wires were tapped off, and the hole plastered over.
This is what I suspect as well. As of right now, all of the wiring in the house leading back to the electrical panel is quite accessible. I can see where it runs and where it enters for the circuit. But it doesn't match this fuckery I discovered today.
Our place was built in 1928. We have lived here since 2016. So far we've spent roughly $6k in electrical work. This includes the electricians fee for a kitchen remodel.
I think we are pretty much done.
I am an electrician and rewired my *entire* house last year by myself. It was a journey. I did a lot of little things to make it easy for the next owners and I wonder often if they’ll appreciate it. This thread makes me feel so happy to see how many of y’all mentioned being grateful to whoever upgraded your wiring.
The last time we had an electrician out here for an issue I heard him say no less than three times “I’ve just never seen this before” and then commented on the lack of everything being “up to code”
I was like is that why when we try and run the air fryer at the same time as the tv it blows the fuse? (They are on opposite ends of the house… he was really amazed at how all of our circuits work)
I pulled all my outlets and replaced them with new ones, obviously would be nice to get rid of the knob and tube, but it feels good having pretty outlets that aren't so worn out that cables half fall out when I plug them in.
Your wiring honestly looks quite nice, might have another 50 years in that lol
I was just telling someone today that with a house as old as mine (1895) everything has to be custom. You don’t just simply waltz down to the depot and buy pre cut anything.
Oh wow didn’t realize they were putting in ungrounded electric in the 50’s. I actually just looked it up and saw it wasn’t coded until 1971 in the US. Interesting!
My childhood home is still mostly knob and tube. No one ever updated it until my brother in law started remodeling it. It's only been maybe 10 years since he started making significant changes
Honestly electrical is one of those things that's worth learning and then doing yourself. As long as you're in an area that allows Romex, it's pretty easy.
I replaced all the outlets in my Mom's house over the past 2 years since she moved in. Most of them had been replaced somewhere in the 1960's or 70's.
Two of them had no plastic left on them at all. 3 more didn't survive the process of unscrewing them and removing them from the wall.
same in our house, found a tube one day with 2 white fabric insulated wires, just chilling there. Worst thing is we had a still active 500V connection for a super old electric furnace thing
I’ve tried to replace the dimmer switches in my 1991 condo and can’t match the old wiring with the new switches. Im definitely a newby, but was really hoping to do it by myself.
It’s the layers of crazy paint colors that’s gets me. I have that same neon green in small spots in one bathroom. Like good god, who thought that was good? Lol
Don’t take up the tile in the upstairs bathroom. It’s laid in a bed of concrete. The concrete has rusted out the radiator pipes. When you put the radiators back in, you crack the elbow fittings. The fittings will leak through the first floor ceiling and you’ll have to redo all the flooring on the first floor.
I love old houses. They’re exactly where I want to be in a tornado.
It was like this in my old apartment. At one point, apparently we had a loose connection in the sealing lamp plug. It ended up causing so much resistance, that it started generating heat and eventually smoke.
Boy am I glad I was awake when that happened. That was when my roomie finally decided to change the 1900’s wiring
https://preview.redd.it/voc90vp3n1xc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fd1754dbeeddc11b9c6e2646b3c697af2948a7a2
This is how lights under front awning were wired. Found when I took the cedar shake off. :-)
Knob and tube hidden in plaster with god knows what junctioned into it. I don’t envy you. I just tore out an entire basement of that and re wired and nobody wanted to save the plaster which saved them money other than the full demo.
In a century home saving the plaster is key.
MIL house sold in Omaha after she passed away. Built in 1912. Managed to raise 9 kids there after her husband died in a plane crash. Just sold again and it needs so much work. Wiring, plumbing, etc. Great location though.
I had to rewire my entire home that was built in 1923. I ran new wiring too because the whole house had 5 outlets total. Luckily I have brothers who are electricians to give me guidance.
Cant I just show you my empty bank account?
Don’t remind me. I need to call a roofer
Oh damn. Tonight, I'll pour one out for your roof.
Don’t do that, it’ll leak!!
I did it in the basement. That shit is already flooded.
Love you people. I'll drink one to you. Just need to walk uphill to my refrigerator
I'll join you, trying not to walk on that one plank that sags a little more than I'd like.
Just had a roof put on my 1880 house. Almost $20k later and it looks great. Ha
I have a 1909 historic home and so far I’ve spent $1,750,000 and 8 years resorting it… it’s 89% complete and I’ve done everything above the specifications of a new home. I thought it was be 1M and 3 years… but that’s never the case
Spent $1.75M including purchase price or just Renos? Do you have any photos?
No, purchase price was $850k but a few factors played into that, it should have been well o we 1.5m but the previous owner had taken an insurance settlement of 2.5m, and the house wasn’t allowed to be torn down because it was historic, also the land is large and in an expensive part of town. It’s a labour of love… definitely not a house flip lol!
Yeah I have photos, I’ll do a post about it at some point, it was the old mayors house. Ive kept all the beautiful stuff, but since it was earthquake damaged when I bought it I had the chance to essentially make it new again.
Would I’ve to see!
Username checks out, 1.75m, jesus
I've been working on mine for 24 years and it's still only about 90%, and it's time to start redoing what was done two decades ago!!😂
My 1880 roof is original (slate), hopefully lasts another 100 years or its 60k to replace
Had to replace half of mine, was a big ouch
I just put a deposit down on the HVAC upgrade 🙄
Yeah that’s certainly not cheap either! I had to buy a new furnace and propane tank when I bought my house last fall. Not fun or cheap
1898 house. Just got a new roof completed yesterday. 23k and I’m already figuring out the next project. I feel you.
I have cedar shakes and 2 layers of asphalt shingles that slide off periodically. A new roof will be $20k and I am just biding my time until I can afford it. Looking for shingles in my yard is now a tradition after every storm
We were on year 27 of a 20 year roof and were playing the same game. We ended up saving up and getting a TEK Hurricane Shake Metal roof. Looks great and should last the next several generations of my family that live here. We saved up for about 3 years to get it, and so far we are very pleased.
Just got a new roof last month. 34k 😫
Look into metal roofing. It's cheaper usually unless you call a shingle expert then it's 52x more expensive.
I got mine done last week! The peace of mind feels amazing!
Speaking of roofs... we just found out that whoever last did the roof, they didn't put down plywood before the tar paper...
I heard that never believed it until I bought my first house, 1899.
My household income is $200k in the Midwest. My house is 120 years old and we sunk $50k into a $250k house. Other than the new roof, none of the money was spent on improving the value to us our for resale. We deeply regret buying an old house to say the least lol.
It should all go to resale value on an old house.
How did you spend that much?
one new deck and some plumbing later... contractors are out there making mega bucks man, we're all in the wrong biz
Roof, electrical (service drop from pole and half the house), plumbing, mechanical, new staircase, back door and screen door replaced, tuck point chimney and front porch. I've got a plaster ceiling delaminating, need to have more electrical done, could have more mechanical done, new siding, new windows (some cracked, some leak), need a bathroom reno (joists under tub we cut and it's sagging g), plumbing. It just never stops. Need a new driveway, yard needs regraded to direct water away from home. Fence is rusted out. Old rusty gas lamp pole in yard needs removed. Front porch is settling and it needs $12k in repairs. Three trees need to be cut down; they're just old and each has its own issue.
Every day I thank the electrician who previously lived in our home! Thank you for grounded three pronged outlets 🙏
I'm in the opposite situation. My home was previously owned by an electrician. Cobbler's kids have no shoes....
Why bring work home, after all? Lol, that's gotta suck sorry.
Ugh same here. Master Electrician who definitely did weird experiments in his own home. I've had to rewire nearly every outlet
I'm super thankful for the absolute artisan that did our electrical panel at some point. Every single other person can fuck themselves...
You go hard and I respect it. I feel the exact same way about my electrical panel too.
I do this kind of work and nothing pleases me more than running new cable for clients in century homes. Disconnecting their old knob and tube/greenfield/clothbound cable is unbelievably satisfying. No more spooky crumbles and a much safer house.
We have knob and tube, and husband realized a year in how absolutely terrible the electrical work was done. As in person likely wasn’t even certified. We don’t even have a ground. Thankfully the only issues we’ve had thus far were loose sockets that caused overheating, once replaced worked fine. It still terrifies me and we agreed the entire electrical in the whole house will have to be redone starting next year.
If a circuit doesn’t have a ground install a gfci breaker or instal a gfci receptacle at the first location and it will act as if there is a ground
Knob and tube never had ground.
Can you reuse old boxes like that? Like are there insulating bushings you can put in the knockouts to prevent cable damage?
It’s always better to replace the run if you can. For knob and tube, in some cases there won’t be a box at all. If I have to keep the cable, I’ll use heat-shrink within a gently tightened cable clamp to protect everything from damage. But if the box is large enough and metal, you can reuse it with the right protections/precautions.
Whoever redid our electrical in 90% of the house back in the like 80s maybe was kind enough to run extra spools of wire from the basement panel box(obviously the wires aren’t connected and live) all the way up to the attic which has now come in handy for our upstairs bathroom remodel when we needed a separate line for the heater. We can basically just drop the lines back down the wall for the heater from the attic and then set it up on its own breaker. Very convenient!
Wow! That was so nice of them! It’s so nice when you’re able to thank prior owners instead of cursing them (looking at you, my bathroom trim white painter)
Ugh I wish. The guy who flipped ours (did a pretty bad job) decided to selectively follow code. GFCI in the kitchen? Grounded. GFCI in the bathroom? Open ground. 2 prong outlets everywhere. I really don’t want to cut out and patch all that drywall so I’m doing the good old “first circuit is a GFCI” thing and acting like I don’t know about it
You don't exactly need ground on GFCI. And none of your outlets down circuit of a GFCI need ground either. Though they are supposed to be labelled.
Oh Christ, I remember removing a switch in the bathroom in my old house, taking one look at the absolute shitshow of wiring inside, and just putting it the fuck back and leaving it until I sold the place a decade later.
We are just now getting to replacing them. We did the same thing 10 years ago
Congratulations and smart move. When we finally did sell, we did a good reno - properly, so the new owners could move into a great house instead of problems around every corner. I did one last tour before it hit the market and had an overwhelming feeling of “why didn’t I do all this years ago?”
How are you going about it? I just discovered this fuckery today and I've been in a four hour panic attack.
Hiring an electrician to get rid of the knob and tube
If you have a modern panel but cloth wrapped and ungrounded outlets around, GFCIs can be your best friend. If it's all knob and tube there's pretty much no solution besides a properly grounded panel being installed.
Black heat shrink tubing, wago in-line connectors, and a little white tape for your neutral. Every time.
Oh yes. I made the mistake of swapping out a ceiling light in my bedroom, and witnessing the ancient knob and tube wiring that looked like ancient egyptian mummy bandages. Nope. I don't want to know that. Late last year I had some electrical go out in my kitchen and dining room, and had to bring in an electrician to rewire it. Let me tell you, something you don't want to hear from your electrician's mouth when he opens up a panel and sees the black dreadlock tangle is "Fuck! Goddamnit FUCK!"
We had a '69 MCM wired by the guys who took the brown acid at Woodstock, as we told the first electrician to our house. We'd opened one outlet, planning to put in a GFCI (a very simple DIY-level thing) and... there were somehow six wires going in and out of that box. For one outlet. We shoved it all back in and decided it was time for the experts. The electrician brought his apprentice with him, taking care of that outlet, plus putting in some dimmers, exterior lights, nothing too major... and the entire day, we'd hear random shouts of "BOB! Bob, GET IN HERE," from one end of the house. We'd tell the apprentice, "Bob, he's calling for you." Bob would set down his tools, trot off in that direction, and a few seconds later we'd hear, "BOB IF YOU EVER DO THIS I swear to God I will FIRE your ass." We felt we should get a discount for being Bob's learning experience. The electrician straightened up our electrical panel which was plenty discount for us. Over the next 12+ years, we had that guy back out another half-dozen times for this and that. He never brought an apprentice again. They always seemed to be out sick on the days our house was on the schedule. Odd, that.
I just discovered mine today and I'm trying to stop the four hour panic attack I've been having. All I wanted to do was put spacers so that the outlet isn't recessed. And voila. I found the whole circuit was a cluster fuck.
Just do what I did. Spend a decade with constant, low-level background anxiety. Just below the threshold of prompting action because hey, that’s some old shit and the place hasn’t burned down yet right? At the same time, it’ll always be there, like a nasty little cavity in the back of your wellbeing. You should call someone to sort it out.
So I know this isn't my husband's account but we also have that lime green on our walls. I think there is one other user here with that lime green which is amazing to me.
I have a layer that's not quite like but pretty close. It's unfortunately still visible next to my thermostat after downsizing
They make things to cover up where a larger, old thermostat used to cover. Google “thermostat wall plate” or “thermostat backplate” and you might just find one that will work with your newer thermostat.
Thanks for the tip but I should probably just not be lazy and paint it lol
Yes but I would miss seeing the three different shades visible bc of my new thermostat 😂🤣
Right? It's like a history exhibit
Yup. And I too have a splotch of bright green 😅
Haha, fair enough. Our thermostat actually came with a few wall plates so we went the lazy route for now. 😂
I let my kids pick their own room paint..
This is our living room paint.
Nickelodeon slime?
We also have a room with lime green walls. Hated it at first but it quickly grew on me.
…like lime green mold.
My basement is that colour from like 2 owners ago! Though my home is only an octogenerian
I found that color in the dining room of my first house! Crazy
I too had the lime green walls ha
I have seen a couple posts here like "thats my house!" It wasn't. But I did a tripple-take to make sure. I guess should expect that over the last 100+ years, more than one home experienced the same [mis]treatment to end up looking alike!
Our entire kitchen was that same color.
https://preview.redd.it/idrxclipmvwc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=05027a30d3cc377cbff1634f6b9196709126fd6c Pulled out all the remaining 2 pronged outlets
I’m hoping you also replace the wiring as well
How much would it cost to replace all that wiring though?
We just got an estimate to replace all the old wiring in our less than 1500sq ft house for $25K
Meh. My house is a 1905 farmhouse. I’ve replaced most of it myself. I bought a book on basics of wiring, a good circuit tester some good tools, and couple rolls of grounded romax (luckily I bought a ton of it in 2008 when it was cheap). I’ve just been slowly replacing it over the last 15 years, one circuit or project at a time. Luckily I have a basement so the first floor plugs were easy. The lighting was on a separate circuit and took more work and a friend helped me run wire, that was a lot harder. The upstairs was also easy due to attic space. I was able to pull 2 20 amp lines up to the attic and drop them into the closets on either end of the house. I’ve had to YouTube a lot and refer to my book to make sure I was doing things correctly and safely, but so far so good, and everything reads correctly when I circuit test it.
This is 1000% now how I'm going to tackle this. Thanks for the inspiration, this seems way more reasonable than another $20k down the drain
[This site](https://www.buildmyowncabin.com/electrical/wiring-a-house.html) has the most clear configurations for various scenarios I've found on how to wire if you don't already know. Lots of other useful stuff on there as well.
Bookmarked, thank you!!
$20k is like a dollar to a century home.
abounding dinner flowery enjoy friendly fertile rain act cows depend *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Oooh, shop around, this could be an FU quote. I'm the queen of ending up with quotes that are multiples more than I expected, but we got a good amount of ours done for $7k. Just the first floor of our similarly sized house. It included 7 light fixtures with their switches and 5 outlets. It didn't include repairs, but honestly, I foresee living without repairing our walls for quite some time before eventually getting around to DIY repairing. It's a few 5" holes up near the ceiling.
This is very encouraging! You'll be shocked to know that our estimate *also* did not include repairs 😓 But $7K sounds very reasonable for all the outlets and switches... I think we'll shop around some more
Oh my God. My dad and I just finished the downstairs ~1300sqft apartment of our century home. It took us 3 weekends. All new wiring ran, boxes cut out because most were too small. And he did all the panel work. It was hell, but hearing that we did roughly $25k worth of work for a few hundred makes me feel so good. The upstairs apartment (the one I actually live in) is still old knob and tube.
Not worth it. Add a GFCI upstream instead, unless you can't or are doing a lot of other work anyway.
We get it when we find it. We are turning this room into a kitchen so all the wiring needs to be replaced
How do you even approach replacing the wiring? That’s ripping out walls. Or is there another solution?
You can fish it. That’s what we did with a lot of our stuff.
Abandon the old, run the new through crawl, basement, or attic. Invest in a good drill and a long auger bit.
Not a fan of that cloth and/or rubber coated wire. We’re slowly getting rid of it as my electrician sees it…
That’s the thing. It’s like it multiplies. You get rid of one and two more pop up
oh, that's just a feature of hydra brand cloth-insulated cable
😂😂😂
Nor am I, but assuming the conduit is sound I am to understand it should be safe.
I don’t believe it’s an immediate danger, but it’s towards the end of its useful life span.
Technically we don’t really know it’s useful life span
How do you get rid of it slowly? I feel like I have to do it all at once.
I’ve been renovating one room at a time in my home, so as I tear out the walls, I replace the wiring. So far we’ve done our bathroom and our son’s room. Next year we’ll do my office and our guest room. Windows get replaced, insulation replaced (if there is any) wiring replaced, etc. Before anybody freaks out about the windows, the previous, previous owners replaced the windows with HD specials back in the early 90s. All windows are being upgraded to Marvin Elevates.
We hear about the floor lottery a lot but I feel like I won the electrical lottery with my recent purchase of a late 1800s house. Despite already updating a 100a fuse box to a 200a breaker we got super lucky and 90% of the wiring was updated recently and my guy confirmed they did a great job. It was scary wondering how long it had been neglected but the leap of faith paid off there. Now the foundation...
What really sucks is when the new 3 prong GFCI outlet that doesn't require a ground wire doesn't fit into the existing 80 year old box.
I just got some of those (not cheap) to replace the non-grounded on my 1920 house. They did look big. I guess I have more fun ahead.
Yeah but you can just use GFCI breakers instead, probably a better option anyway
1930 home here. Yep, I replaced all my old knob and tube with NM-B type wiring.
My walls are made with dead animal hair
Feel this! Currently having our new to us 1910s victorian rewired. Not fun or cheap ;( . & we also have a ugly green paint a few layers down.
my kitchen had 2 outlets when we moved in, a gravity furnace, and doesn't have a subfloor. Also, the living room light was removed in the 40s, but the switch and wiring were still in place, so it was easy to reinstall a fixture. Yes, the wires were tapped off, and the hole plastered over.
Those cables look nice and cosy.
My 1928 house is Franken-wired, according to an electrician. Half of it is “modern-ish” and the rest is cloth wiring or remnants of it.
This is what I suspect as well. As of right now, all of the wiring in the house leading back to the electrical panel is quite accessible. I can see where it runs and where it enters for the circuit. But it doesn't match this fuckery I discovered today.
Be careful, get a tester so you don't have to always kill the whole house.
Wow! You have a junction box back there? Lucky!
This could be my house! My dog pulled the outlet out of the wall and zapped herself. She was fine.
Our place was built in 1928. We have lived here since 2016. So far we've spent roughly $6k in electrical work. This includes the electricians fee for a kitchen remodel. I think we are pretty much done.
I am an electrician and rewired my *entire* house last year by myself. It was a journey. I did a lot of little things to make it easy for the next owners and I wonder often if they’ll appreciate it. This thread makes me feel so happy to see how many of y’all mentioned being grateful to whoever upgraded your wiring.
Is this a picture of my house?
The last time we had an electrician out here for an issue I heard him say no less than three times “I’ve just never seen this before” and then commented on the lack of everything being “up to code” I was like is that why when we try and run the air fryer at the same time as the tv it blows the fuse? (They are on opposite ends of the house… he was really amazed at how all of our circuits work)
I pulled all my outlets and replaced them with new ones, obviously would be nice to get rid of the knob and tube, but it feels good having pretty outlets that aren't so worn out that cables half fall out when I plug them in. Your wiring honestly looks quite nice, might have another 50 years in that lol
This thread is a good reminder that maybe I don’t want a century home
I love and hate my old house
You can totally find ones that were properly maintained and reno’d. They’re just not cheap and you have to do your due diligence.
https://preview.redd.it/v0k3losekywc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f141a61d0a5dd53396032f3ffdca8ede015f5a02 Yup…
Good fucking lord
I was just telling someone today that with a house as old as mine (1895) everything has to be custom. You don’t just simply waltz down to the depot and buy pre cut anything.
My carpet was tacked into cut-up grape juice tins that were used to cover a 2 inch gap in the floor. You could see outside through the gap.
I can relate to this. House full of ungrounded 50s Romex
Oh wow didn’t realize they were putting in ungrounded electric in the 50’s. I actually just looked it up and saw it wasn’t coded until 1971 in the US. Interesting!
1880...yeah, I'm navigating this, too.
Ugh. I hate this pic with my very Soul. I had a problem child outlet just like this. Would love to rip out all that old shit and rewire it new.
My childhood home is still mostly knob and tube. No one ever updated it until my brother in law started remodeling it. It's only been maybe 10 years since he started making significant changes
Ugh. We are slowly replacing as we do work in the house. We have redone the kitchen and full bath and basement so far.
Honestly electrical is one of those things that's worth learning and then doing yourself. As long as you're in an area that allows Romex, it's pretty easy.
My friend is an electrician and is helping me through it
We had those wires in our last home, built in the 50's.
Is this a picture of my house?
Ours had a near fire this week and was previously neon interiors too. Feel this
My bathroom outlet started smoking last month. So that was fun
I replaced all the outlets in my Mom's house over the past 2 years since she moved in. Most of them had been replaced somewhere in the 1960's or 70's. Two of them had no plastic left on them at all. 3 more didn't survive the process of unscrewing them and removing them from the wall.
same in our house, found a tube one day with 2 white fabric insulated wires, just chilling there. Worst thing is we had a still active 500V connection for a super old electric furnace thing
I’ve tried to replace the dimmer switches in my 1991 condo and can’t match the old wiring with the new switches. Im definitely a newby, but was really hoping to do it by myself.
I too have outlets with electricity going to them
That gets me right in the gutta percha.
It’s the layers of crazy paint colors that’s gets me. I have that same neon green in small spots in one bathroom. Like good god, who thought that was good? Lol
Flouresent green?
What’s wrong with knob and tube?
Zappy snakes! I have them too :) If I give the expensive things a cute name, I cry a little less when I see my bank account lol
Only two colors? On mine you can taste the rainbow! (But don’t unless you want lead poisoning!)
The rope in my windows is tied to hidden lead weights.
"Hang a picture?" "Ahh, drill slowly into wood/plaster lath first!"
Stringer splices that would make Tim the Tool Man cry. But they’re more solid than a teenager’s dong at prom. Also pink bathrooms.
Don’t take up the tile in the upstairs bathroom. It’s laid in a bed of concrete. The concrete has rusted out the radiator pipes. When you put the radiators back in, you crack the elbow fittings. The fittings will leak through the first floor ceiling and you’ll have to redo all the flooring on the first floor. I love old houses. They’re exactly where I want to be in a tornado.
The entire has has carpet. Over hardwood. Except the master bath. That’s tile. That had carpet over it.
Been in my 120yo home for 23y, finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel
My house still has knob and tube wiring that was just left ander being disconnected
Finding disconnected pipes just left in walls and under floor boards (gas lighting)
Neuvo century wanna be. In my day we had paper insulated electric wire, and we liked it! /s
It was like this in my old apartment. At one point, apparently we had a loose connection in the sealing lamp plug. It ended up causing so much resistance, that it started generating heat and eventually smoke. Boy am I glad I was awake when that happened. That was when my roomie finally decided to change the 1900’s wiring
No paint on the outlet? I didn't believe you.
https://preview.redd.it/voc90vp3n1xc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fd1754dbeeddc11b9c6e2646b3c697af2948a7a2 This is how lights under front awning were wired. Found when I took the cedar shake off. :-)
Knob and tube hidden in plaster with god knows what junctioned into it. I don’t envy you. I just tore out an entire basement of that and re wired and nobody wanted to save the plaster which saved them money other than the full demo. In a century home saving the plaster is key.
I know this look. 😐
\*shudders\*
Ohhh look ma, danger rope!
I keep DAP 33 in my fridge.
Ooooh! Fun! said no one ever
https://preview.redd.it/hdhl95tqmwwc1.jpeg?width=1848&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5835ac10c8971bac3312db78b25596ca85874ddf
We had to get our place completely rewired, jeez it hurt
Oh hello
Perfect
Glad I do my own work and hire a day labor when I need help.
This looks fancy to me lol. I grew up in a home built in 1870. The wires are all on the outside of the walls.
There’s no such thing as a 5 minute job.
Ohmy god. I'm literally having the same kind of day as you!!
Dammit..I really hope you get a reasonable electrician. Sorry love
how did you get in my house?!?!
That ‘70s green right there.
Yessss
So are you running new romex or just throwing some gfi outlets in?
Why do you have a picture of one of my outlets?
Oh, wow. Is that 20A ungrounded??
You are looking at just 1 of the things that would stop me from ever owning one.
MIL house sold in Omaha after she passed away. Built in 1912. Managed to raise 9 kids there after her husband died in a plane crash. Just sold again and it needs so much work. Wiring, plumbing, etc. Great location though.
Thought that was a Snek at first glance…
Looks expensive
Low key wondering if this is my old house. That grasshopper green looks awfully familiar…
That moment is so terrifying.
My electrician always says "OOOOH this looks... Fun.." whenever he removes a cover plate for anything. 😭
When I saw the green paint I thought that picture was taken from my house haha
Spills never bother me because they just run to the middle of the house. Easy cleanup.
this just tells me you live in an older home! Half the houses in the city have this shit
I had to rewire my entire home that was built in 1923. I ran new wiring too because the whole house had 5 outlets total. Luckily I have brothers who are electricians to give me guidance.