19 March 2018
With the rough in plumbing squared away, it was time to turn our attention to replacing and enhancing our electrical wiring.
Out with the old! We started with the old breaker panel inside the house. This panel was rated for 100 amps and had 10 spaces. The right side wasn't working working because the main lug and wire had been overloaded at some point and started to overheat.
The wires that were run up in to the attic were fed through a large slot cut through what used to be the porch roof support beam.
We installed 2 new ground rods 8 feet long, 6 feet apart.
Then we had Energy United come out and detach the power line from the house and move it over to a temporary power pole.
With all the old wiring in the house no longer live, we started pulling all of it out. Wherever an old wire ran through a space that we were going to have to fish through ourselves, we used the old wire to pull the new wire through.
This will be the fourth time that this house has been wired/rewired for electricity. Most of the wire runs that I thought were going to be difficult have turned out to be fairly easy because the previous electricians had already cut access holes in some of the wall or ceiling boards. All we had to do was pry the pieces of bead board back off.
And some places there has never been any wiring. So you gotta just take stuff apart, put the wiring in, and put it all back together.
Some of the old wire shows the signs of rodent activity in the house.
I also found the working end of a 3/4" boring bit stuck inside a wall. It appears to have broken off when a previous electrician was drilling a hole for the wire. I had to chuckle :-). To avoid this, I'm using mostly inexpensive spade bits to drill our holes. I don't get too irritated if one breaks or gets dull from hitting a nail (which is happening somewhat often).
We're tripling the number of outlets on the first floor. Nearly all of them are getting wired from the crawl space. So far, knock on wood, I've only drilled up through the floor once. Oops.
With nearly all the wiring for the downstairs, dining room, and kitchen done, this is what our new breaker panel situation looks like so far. This is a 200 amp unit with 40 spaces.
Our next step is to wire the upstairs. I decided that it would be best to clean out the attic a little first and install some catwalk to make it easier to get around.
How exciting it would be to find some little treasure in the attic?! A little box of old money. Maybe somebody's diary or journal. Perhaps an old lamp or rare painting. These are the ideas that fill your head after watching too much Antiques Roadshow.
Our attic is not a walk up attic. There was never a narrow set of creaky old steps behind a small locked door. Instead, we have a small scuttle hole barely 16" by 20" in size (until we added the drop down stairs). This probably had a significant impact on what we did NOT find in the attic. Here are samples of what we did find.
Mud dauber's nests. Lots of them. Most had fallen from the roof rafters probably knocked off by all the hammering from the last roof that was put on in 2010. I think I carried out about 8 of these buckets.
Left over cedar shingles from the original roof.
Left over pieces from a standing seam metal roof that we think replaced the cedar shingle roof.
The remains of an asphalt shingle roof that we think replaced the metal roof.
A bird. Okay, yeah, it's not really a bird anymore.
Broken glass from the three small windows in each of the dormers.
Rocks. Maybe that's how the glass in the dormers got broken.
Chunks of mortar broken off of the chimneys.
Nesting material. Most of it packed in to the corners of the eaves and soffits.
A baby squirrel, found in said nesting material.
Lots of wire nails.
A few handfuls of cut nails, some never used. As far as I'm concerned, real treasure.
Another ceiling joist cut half way through. What were they thinking?
Dust and dirt and other things too small to pick up. I probably carried out 16 to 18 of these buckets.
I went through about 6 dust masks getting all this stuff out of the attic.
Once I got everything cleaned up, more or less, I installed some catwalk using the 3/4" flooring we took out of the living room.
Amy picked up a crock pot at a thrift store. She filled it up with vinegar and we've been cleaning up some of our door hardware in small batches.
I also created a doorway from the new master bathroom in to the closet where a toilet will be.
The electrical wiring continues...
With the rough in plumbing squared away, it was time to turn our attention to replacing and enhancing our electrical wiring.
Out with the old! We started with the old breaker panel inside the house. This panel was rated for 100 amps and had 10 spaces. The right side wasn't working working because the main lug and wire had been overloaded at some point and started to overheat.
The wires that were run up in to the attic were fed through a large slot cut through what used to be the porch roof support beam.
We installed 2 new ground rods 8 feet long, 6 feet apart.
Then we had Energy United come out and detach the power line from the house and move it over to a temporary power pole.
With all the old wiring in the house no longer live, we started pulling all of it out. Wherever an old wire ran through a space that we were going to have to fish through ourselves, we used the old wire to pull the new wire through.
This will be the fourth time that this house has been wired/rewired for electricity. Most of the wire runs that I thought were going to be difficult have turned out to be fairly easy because the previous electricians had already cut access holes in some of the wall or ceiling boards. All we had to do was pry the pieces of bead board back off.
And some places there has never been any wiring. So you gotta just take stuff apart, put the wiring in, and put it all back together.
Some of the old wire shows the signs of rodent activity in the house.
I also found the working end of a 3/4" boring bit stuck inside a wall. It appears to have broken off when a previous electrician was drilling a hole for the wire. I had to chuckle :-). To avoid this, I'm using mostly inexpensive spade bits to drill our holes. I don't get too irritated if one breaks or gets dull from hitting a nail (which is happening somewhat often).
We're tripling the number of outlets on the first floor. Nearly all of them are getting wired from the crawl space. So far, knock on wood, I've only drilled up through the floor once. Oops.
With nearly all the wiring for the downstairs, dining room, and kitchen done, this is what our new breaker panel situation looks like so far. This is a 200 amp unit with 40 spaces.
Our next step is to wire the upstairs. I decided that it would be best to clean out the attic a little first and install some catwalk to make it easier to get around.
How exciting it would be to find some little treasure in the attic?! A little box of old money. Maybe somebody's diary or journal. Perhaps an old lamp or rare painting. These are the ideas that fill your head after watching too much Antiques Roadshow.
Our attic is not a walk up attic. There was never a narrow set of creaky old steps behind a small locked door. Instead, we have a small scuttle hole barely 16" by 20" in size (until we added the drop down stairs). This probably had a significant impact on what we did NOT find in the attic. Here are samples of what we did find.
Mud dauber's nests. Lots of them. Most had fallen from the roof rafters probably knocked off by all the hammering from the last roof that was put on in 2010. I think I carried out about 8 of these buckets.
Left over cedar shingles from the original roof.
Left over pieces from a standing seam metal roof that we think replaced the cedar shingle roof.
The remains of an asphalt shingle roof that we think replaced the metal roof.
A bird. Okay, yeah, it's not really a bird anymore.
Broken glass from the three small windows in each of the dormers.
Rocks. Maybe that's how the glass in the dormers got broken.
Chunks of mortar broken off of the chimneys.
Nesting material. Most of it packed in to the corners of the eaves and soffits.
A baby squirrel, found in said nesting material.
Lots of wire nails.
A few handfuls of cut nails, some never used. As far as I'm concerned, real treasure.
Another ceiling joist cut half way through. What were they thinking?
Dust and dirt and other things too small to pick up. I probably carried out 16 to 18 of these buckets.
I went through about 6 dust masks getting all this stuff out of the attic.
Once I got everything cleaned up, more or less, I installed some catwalk using the 3/4" flooring we took out of the living room.
Amy picked up a crock pot at a thrift store. She filled it up with vinegar and we've been cleaning up some of our door hardware in small batches.
I also created a doorway from the new master bathroom in to the closet where a toilet will be.
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