Had the most brutal 3-day service call last month in an old Victorian near Boston

Every single wire in the ceiling was cloth wrapped and crumbling, and I ended up having to pull 200 feet of new romex through walls that had been stuffed with newspaper insulation from the 1920s.

3 comments

3 Comments

wesley_hart23d ago

Great question for @jasonp71, since he mentioned flipping his opinion. Was there one specific moment in that Victorian that made you go "okay, that's it, I'm done"? Because honestly, I've walked out of places where the cloth wiring just crumbled when I touched it (you know, the really bad stuff that basically turns to dust in your hand) and I had to wonder how the place hadn't burned down already. That newspaper insulation is a whole other level of headache though, since it basically turns into a giant dust trap and makes pulling anything a nightmare. Did you find any hidden surprises in the walls beyond the insulation, like old knob and tube that was still carrying current?

jasonp7123d ago

I used to be all about "if it ain't broke don't fix it" with old houses, but that newspaper insulation sounds like a nightmare. That one job totally flipped my opinion on just leaving old wiring alone.

patriciamoore5d ago

My buddy found a 1950s Playboy stash behind some knob and tube, nearly dropped his coffee.