Semi-OT: Rewiring Whole House

[pfjw@aol.com]

Any, repeat, any reasonable insurance company that has any, repeat, any experience with old houses will accept K&T wiring as a matter of course. Our house was built in 1890, and is by no means the oldest house in the neighborhood. Visible from our front door are houses from 1850 through 1963, with the preponderance built from about 1895 to about 1915. All but the 1960s house *will* have K&T wiring in them. The 1963 house will have ungrounded NM and thin-gauge grounded NM wire - no prize there either.

Our insurance company did send an inspector to check our wiring if only because we have 'full historical replacement' insurance. But we got a clean bill and no issues or additions to our premium caused by vintage wiring still in use (lighting circuits only). We do have a 200A service, and extensive new wiring, by the way. Not as if we are Luddites.

Any company with such an exclusion would eliminate 2/3 of Cheltenham Township from coverage. Our oldest occupied house is from 1689.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

 

[John Robertson]

On 2017/04/27 5:04 AM, thekmanrocks@gmail.com wrote:

John Robertson:

If you read back through this
thread you will see where I
mentioned that the last knob
& tube wiring was removed
from my house back in the
1980s.

Thanks, missed that.

On the other hand folks reading this may be looking for solutions in
their situations so I try to frame my answers for a larger group than
just the OP's requirements.

John

 

[John Robertson]

On 2017/04/27 5:43 AM, pfjw@aol.com wrote:

Any, repeat, any reasonable insurance company that has any, repeat, any experience with old houses will accept K&T wiring as a matter of course. Our house was built in 1890, and is by no means the oldest house in the neighborhood. Visible from our front door are houses from 1850 through 1963, with the preponderance built from about 1895 to about 1915. All but the 1960s house *will* have K&T wiring in them. The 1963 house will have ungrounded NM and thin-gauge grounded NM wire - no prize there either.

Our insurance company did send an inspector to check our wiring if only because we have 'full historical replacement' insurance. But we got a clean bill and no issues or additions to our premium caused by vintage wiring still in use (lighting circuits only). We do have a 200A service, and extensive new wiring, by the way. Not as if we are Luddites.

Any company with such an exclusion would eliminate 2/3 of Cheltenham Township from coverage. Our oldest occupied house is from 1689.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

Thanks for the info. Here in Canada it was getting harder to get
insurance for K&T back in the early 00s, but I sold my house before it
became a problem, and - as you say - there are probably enlightened
insurance companies who will cover you once the house has an electrical
inspection.

John

 

Michael Black wrote:

On Tue, 25 Apr 2017, thekma...@gmail.com wrote:
Rewiring whole house, mostly existing and
not adding many new outlets, keeping
existing 20 year old panel. Will doing this
see any appreciable drop in electrical
consumption, bills?

Could not find Usenet group devoted to
electricity/Electrical work.

alt.home.repair would seem to be the place.

There used to be a faq about electrical wiring and finding that
might find the most proper newsgroup, though I suspect it was
posted to alt.home.repair

Whatever you do, don't pull out the old wiring as a first step.
Use it to pull the new wiring into place.

It would be nice if all properties installed electrical conduit. But nearly all residential wiring, BX, MC, Romex (copper 12-3 or including a super-neutral 10 wire instead) that's been installed is attached to the walls won't pull anymore. You'd first have to get behind the walls and un-attach at each and every attach point in order to re-pull. Even from branch to panel.