Electrical woes...breaker box what??

[Myka]

Thanks Mike! How do you go about rewiring the house? Do you just leave the old lines in, and rewire going through the attic, and down through the top plates of the walls?

[DiverDude]

The way I did it was to rip out the walls

If you're not up for that scale of job, then you can add circuits/outlets by either going up from the floor (helps if you have an open or hung ceiling in your basement) or, as you suggest, up, through the attic and down, which, IMO, is a lot more work.

Regardless of how you do it, it's not a lot of fun.

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by Myka

Thanks Mike! How do you go about rewiring the house? Do you just leave the old lines in, and rewire going through the attic, and down through the top plates of the walls?

It's best to remove the old wiring and run the new stuff along the same run..... if possible. It really depends on the configuration of your house though. I have a bungalow (rancher?) so everything is quite accessible since the service panel is in the basement. The townhouse I had in Ottawa was a different story! A second level really complicates matters when you need to rewire. You're going to end up opening a wall or two for some of it. The wiring in my kitchen along the south facing outside wall is the 'scary' stuff I haven't replaced yet, since I'm still reluctant to tear those walls open. Getting ready to do a tank upgrade, so it will be happening soon I hope.

I had to tear out the ceilings in the finished part of the basement to replace much of the wiring, but that's okay since I wanted to redo them anyway. Once the ceiling tiles were gone, things were pretty simple. I've got some pretty good electrical training through my Air Force trade, so wiring a house is pretty straightforward. I did contract a qualified electrician to install the new Siemens breaker panel, but the rest of the wiring I can handle on my own. The contractor installed a new grounding plate/rod in the yard as well, since my old panel was simply grounded to the copper water pipes in the house. This was over 3 years ago now if I recall correctly and cost around $600.

I think I mentioned this earlier, but definitely get your hands on the book "Electrical Code Simplified (Residential)". It's published by PS Knight and is specific to each province, I think yours for Sask is green. The BC one is red. Either way, they're all based on the National Code with province specific amendments, which generally aren't all that radical, available at most Reno centers. I purchased mine a few years ago for $11.95, money very well spent even if you don't intend on doing the work yourself. The info in there is invaluable and quite understandable, hence "simplified". It will give you a very good idea of what lies ahead with regard to a rewire job. It will also show you how your current wiring stacks up against the latest code requirements.

[mike31154]

Thought I'd mention that the 'Simplified' book I have for BC includes an entire section on rewiring an existing house.

http://www.psknight.com/book1.html

Here are a couple of pics of what I found in my place...

Old Pushmatic load panel. Only had 12 circuits available and they were all used... and then some. The capped wires at the bottom are either the dryer or air conditioning cables which needed to be hooked up, depending on which appliance you wished to use... they go to the double breaker (2nd from bottom) to give you the 220volts required for large appliances.. I actually got a few bucks for that old panel at a local electrical contractor. It seems that the 'pushmatic' circuit breakers are in demand. They certainly no longer make them..



Some scary old wiring I found in a switch box in the basement hallway. The insulation literally fell off some of the wires as I pulled the switches out. By rights, my house should have burned down years ago. Ironically, I understand it was built by a one time Vernon Fire Chief. But I think some of the subsequent owners did most of the 'unauthorized' wiring like the dryer/air con fiasco.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by mike31154

Thought I'd mention that the 'Simplified' book I have for BC includes an entire section on rewiring an existing house.

http://www.psknight.com/book1.html

thats a good book, but you still need to knwo a little about wiring and electrical basics to understand it.

Steve