| May 4 @ 10:55 PM |
A question for electricians
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RareQuestor
Posts: 2,650
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My mother lives in an old house that was built in the early 1900's and it needs to be rewired. As I understand it, however, that would mean ripping out the walls in order to replace all of the wiring. My mother can't afford that as she is a widow living on a fixed income. We would like to contact a volunteer organization to help, but I confess that I have no idea where to begin. (I contacted Habitat for Humanity, but they only build new houses for qualifying families.) We don't expect it to be done free of charge, of course. It's one thing to replace a faulty outlet, but it is quite another to ask someone to spend several days rewiring an entire house.
Have you ever worked for such an organization? If so, which do you recommend that I contact?
Thanks in advance! 
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| May 4 @ 11:02 PM |
A question for electricians |
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luvmycats
Posts: 10,208
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It does not require ripping out walls, unless the walls are insulated. Does she have a basement? If not, then if can be done from the attic. Just more work is all.
As for an organization,  sorry.
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| May 4 @ 11:12 PM |
A question for electricians
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Brass_Wolf
Posts: 1,551
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My best advice, round up a few relatively handy friends and one journeyman electrician to supervise. Much of the work in a total rewire is grunt work, which can be done by the semi skilled. I'm affaid at a time where most electricians aren't working much there isn't much help in the philanthropic special need cases, such as you describe.
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| May 4 @ 11:44 PM |
A question for electricians |
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Always_Striving
Posts: 8,794
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Rewiring, a house (without ripping the walls out) and repacing the knob and tube wiring circuits can be done without too much trouble. Wire is very expensive though (copper in general) because of the demands from China, and India coming online to catch up with us. In addition - catastrophies, like hurricane Katrina are rising the prices. I used to purchase 12-2 w/g Romex 250 foot roll for $22.00 at Lowes or Home Depot. It suddenly rose in price to $164.00 per roll. The price has come down slightly but it is still very high priced.
You cannot disregard the cost of wiring. Labor varies. I recommend that you get a contractor that has significant experience in refurbishing old with new wiring. This type of contractor primary does this kind of job more so than wiring new houses. Indoor wiring electricians that do new houses are pretty much clueless when it comes to replacing knob and tube. They are the ones who typically request that you rip out all the walls before they will step in. That's because they lack the experience with this kind of situation and want to appoach it as they would doing a new house.
Don't hire those types.
In the Seattle area the cost to rewire an average 3 level older house (demolition, wire, and labor) will run about 16-18 thousand and might take about a month to complete.
Exterior walls may be a bit more time consuming if they contain insulation and there might be fire blocking in the walls that might have to be contended with.
[Edited on 5/4/2009 11:56 PM]
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| May 4 @ 11:45 PM |
A question for electricians
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Jankia
Posts: 11,892
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Since its an old house rare and you want to be certain its done safely and up to code,the only way you can do it properly is to have it done by a licensed electrician.
Luvmycats is right,if your have access to either the top or the bottom of the wall,even with insulation you can still wire your mothers home.
They have a system called a baseboard raceway that alows you to wire without tearing down the plastered walls.
You could also use surface mount conduit made thats cheaper and attractive but that might effect the resale value as well.
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| May 4 @ 11:50 PM |
A question for electricians |
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beckyiv42000
Posts: 14,576
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try this link.. might take a bit of looking but they should be able to help you huggs and good luck 
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| May 4 @ 11:55 PM |
A question for electricians
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Kenn159
Posts: 4,402
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You don't have to tear the old walls down.
You just have to fish the new wire in to replace the old existing wire.
One easy way to do it is to follow and locate the path for each wire from the outlet/outlets to the breaker/fuse box.
Pull the main on the breaker/fuse box[turn off the power]
Remove any staples holding the wires in place in the attic or under your house, depending on how your house is wired.
Remove the outlet covers and disconnect the wires from the outlets.
Connect new wire to the old wire.
Now go up in the attic or under the house, again depending how your house is wired, and as you pull out the old wire, the new wire that is connected to it will replace the wire in the walls.
Continue the run to the breaker box and replace old wire with new wire at the breaker.
This will work unless the wires were stapled behind the wall, before the wall was finished during construction.
If this is the case, you will new to buy fish tape, and fish down the wall the new wire totally independent of the old wire.
Make sure the wire you use is matched to the breaker load.
12 gauge is standard for most common outlets and lights, although your water heater[if it is electric], stove and air conditioner will need a larger 220 wire, based on the amp draw of the units on that line.
In most cases 8 gauge 220 is sufficient, although 6 gauge 220 is needed in some cases with a high load draw.
This is just a rough guide, you will still probably need to talk to a fellow electrician or consult a home depot/Lowe's/hardware store employee that has some electrical experience.
Good luck
[Edited on 5/5/2009 12:01 AM]
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| May 4 @ 11:56 PM |
A question for electricians |
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EyesofBlue72660
Posts: 13,047
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Rare:
You could maybe check with your Local IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) or NECA (National Electrical Contractors Association) to see if they know of any groups that do these kind of projects for seniors.
Or check with the local JATC (Joint Apprenticeship and Training Commitee) (the Local IBEW would be able to tell you how to contact them) to see if they could do any of this type of work as a hands-on-training. I'm not sure of the legalities, so they may not, but it is sure worth a try to see if they could do it for cost of materials.
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| May 5 @ 12:00 AM |
A question for electricians
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Always_Striving
Posts: 8,794
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^ Kenn, Since when did anyone "from the early 1900's" (as rarequester mentioned) Staple wire? 
They used knob and tube methods (NOT STAPLES) and the walls are almost always lath and plaster for that era of construction.
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| May 5 @ 12:03 AM |
A question for electricians |
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Always_Striving
Posts: 8,794
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Eyesofblue
Union workers ain't gonna do freebies 
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| May 5 @ 12:05 AM |
A question for electricians
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Kenn159
Posts: 4,402
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That is true, but I don't know of a single house in my area atleast, that was built at the turn of the century that hasn't at some point in the last 100 years updated the electric.
So who knows when the last time this place was wired.
If it has the original electric, then it has been out of code for a long time.
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| May 5 @ 12:13 AM |
A question for electricians |
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RareQuestor
Posts: 2,650
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I cannot be certain, but I think my father rewired it when he bought the house in 1972, but I do not know how much of the wiring he replaced (and I never thought to ask until it was too late.) I do know that the walls are hollow since I have damned the builders innumerable times over the years for not insulating the house. I believe it needs to be rewired because we are always experiencing one electrical problem or another. If we repair an outlet, a light bulb will blow. If we fix the light bulb, then something else will stop functioning. In any case, I have heard that copper wiring has to be replaced every fifty years?
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| May 5 @ 12:13 AM |
A question for electricians
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EyesofBlue72660
Posts: 13,047
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Always.....I didn't say they would - I just said it might be a place to check about "community projects".
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| May 5 @ 12:15 AM |
A question for electricians |
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Always_Striving
Posts: 8,794
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Good point Kenn, I guess it all depends on a cities current cultural changes.
Seattle has a plethora of homes that insurance companies, mortgage companies and banks require to be upgraded because modern wall insulation doesn't allow for heat dissipation (it traps the heat in) thus creates wire insulation breakdown and fires....
Look at this doosey Can you imagine running higher wattage capacities with this condition? every 50 years??? One could look at that photo and make their own judgement.
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| May 5 @ 12:30 AM |
A question for electricians
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Kenn159
Posts: 4,402
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Yeah Always, that's a fire waiting to happen in that photo.
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| May 8 @ 7:50 PM |
A question for electricians |
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kjac
Posts: 8,163
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Just remember to check state laws on circuit breaker requirements. A lot of states are requiring new arc fault circuit interrupters to be installed before the house will pass inspection.
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| May 14 @ 12:02 PM |
A question for electricians
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RareQuestor
Posts: 2,650
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Update:
I contacted the president of the local IBEW. He was apologetic, but unable to help. He referred to me to the PR department who in turn referred me to the United Way.
I plan to contact the NECA next. I have also been contemplating asking a local technical college if they might be interested in rewiring my mother's house in order to train new students.
One more question: I know we need to replace the circuit breaker, the wiring and the electrical outlets, but do we also need to contact the local utility company to have the power line to the house replaced as well?
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| May 14 @ 1:22 PM |
A question for electricians |
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Jankia
Posts: 11,892
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Yes,have it checked RQ because you might have 100 amp service in your new breaker panel but the old line coming in may no longer feed 100 amps.
When my brother bought his tavern we couldnt figure out why we werent getting the amperage we were supposed to have.
The electric company found out why rather quickly.The line coming into the tavern was deteriorated at the insulator supporting it to the building and wouldnt provide the power it was intended to.
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