Ancient Wiring and New Outlets

Most of the house has the old two wire fabric insulated wire system with no ground wire. The outlets were worn out and plugs would fall out of the outlet creating a fire and shock hazard.

I replaced 12 outlets with new outlets specifically designed for systems with no ground. 

After some research I discovered a non-contact voltage meter and bought one at The Home Depot for about $22. It was money well spent. This one can detect which wire is the hot wire.

I found that the smaller hole in the outlets should be the hot wire. That hot is usually black and neutral is usually white. 

Three outlets had previously been replaced with three prong outlets none of which were grounded. One outlet was wired correctly as per the color but the wires going to the outlet were backward. Hot was white and black was neutral. 

I fixed all but one of these and replaced the three pronged outlets with two pronged outlets.

I discovered that the wooden encased fuse box does indeed control most of the original wiring but that the electrical outlets on the third floor are controlled by a circuit breaker. Even with that breaker tripped I was still getting a reading that there was some power to the outlets. I cut the main power to be sure that there was no power remaining in the wires.

I removed each fuse or pulled open the throw switch one at a time and tried to find what each controls and recorded this information for future use.

One strange thing that we discovered was that when I removed one fuse one of the lights in the house got much brighter. The fuses seem to work in pairs.

This increase in illumination does not seem to be a good thing. Once I restored the fuse the light returned to a normal level.

Some of the fuses didn't appear to do anything at all.

Using the new non-contact voltage meter I discovered that there are a few switches in the house that while the switches are not connected to anything still have power to them. This tool is neat because as the name implies you do not have to actually touch the wire in order to get a reading in most cases.

It is simpler and faster than a multimeter.

I found one outlet that was out I it a baseboard without an electrical box. That will be fixed soon.

I found out that three prong plugs can be put in with the ground up or down. According to my online research the electrical code does not specify which way to orient them but inspectors want it to be consistent in any given structure. It seems that commercial buildings tend to have them oriented with the ground up and residential buildings tent to have the ground down.

I did not find this out until well into the project. After I discovered this I oriented the remaining plugs so that the ground would be down if the outlet had a ground.

The wiring system is a long way from safe but is a little safer than it was. Rewiring the house badly needs to be done.

Light Switch Replacement

The light was flickering so it was time for a new light switch.

I replaced the old switch with a new 15/20 amp heavy duty switch from the local home-improvement store.

I didn't really need to use a heavy duty switch but since I am going to the trouble to replace something I tend to like to use high-quality components. The heavy duty switch was only a few dollars more than the regular switch. This is where do-it-yourself can be better than having a professional do it. Obviously, the professionals know what they're doing or they usually do anyway. However, the money saved in labor costs can be put into higher quality parts.

This is an old two wire electrical system with no ground wire so I left the ground screw in the switch disconnected.

The job probably took about 30 minutes from beginning to end. I simply turned off the power, tested to make sure the power was off, replaced the old switch, installed the new switch and plate, then restored the power and tested the light.

Floor Drain Archeology

The washing machine backed up which caused me to inspect the floor drain in the basement.

The strainer or cover was rusted through. I used tongs and ice cream scoopers to clean out the floor drain. 

I found a long lost dog ball, four marbles, and various nasty things in the floor drain.

The dog ball was originally blue or orange. The stick is under a filing cabinet so the water that got under there can dry out. 

I bought a replacement strainer at Lowes. There are no visibe threads and nothing to hook a strainer into that I could see so I got the one pictured.

This floor drain is not in a spot that gets stepped on so this strainer should work.

I flushed out the drain using several buckets of water. Without the dog ball in it the drain works well. I also added flushing out the drain to my home maintenance checklist to be done regularly.