Sadly, I had to attend the funeral of an elderly family member over the weekend. There is a house involved that will have to be sold soon as none of the descendants live in the area, and the "old farmhouse" was sold years ago, this is just a house in which she was living.
In discussion with other family members (who have had a few days more than I to work on getting this moving,) I was told that "FHA would require" the fusebox to be replaced with a breaker box to qualify for a loan. True? This just doesn't seem right to me.
More importantly visual inspection red-flagged the receptacles to me as those old 2-prong T-slot ones, and I mentioned that to the other family member (executor of will/estate/etc) then ran down to fusebox again to investigate wiring. Here's what I eventually found.
- all wiring that appears to be original to the house is cloth covered NM type cables, appear to be in excellent shape.
- Every single cable that was oriented so that I could read the printing on it was marked "With Ground." Hmmm...
- pulled out a recep in the living room and I found a very nicely installed single gang box, two cables coming into it, and yes they were grounded! The two ground wires from the cables were spliced to a pigtail which was screwed to the metal box. The recep of course was ungrounded.
- here's the kicker; that splice was *soldered.*
- and yes, the wiring is COPPER not aluminum thankfully!
- so to summarize, the wiring, other than not being 90C temp rated, appears functionally identical to what would be installed today, with the exception that the receps are obsolete.
So, I ASSume that what I should do, in the interest of inexpensively removing what would be a red flag to a buyer, is to just go to the supply house, buy a couple contractor packs of good duplex receps and some green 14 (or a box of greenies,) and roll through and replace all the receps in the house with new 3-prong ones. Question is, what would be the best way to splice to that soldered connection? I'm a little concerned with the idea of just slapping a greenie on top of possibly 60 year old solder. Should I twist a new pigtail into the bundle and add some solder? Or am I all concerned about nothing and the wire nut of the greenie will bite through the solder acceptably? If I should solder, what wattage iron did a typical electrician use back in the day? I'm assuming this is going to be typical of 20-30 boxes throughout the house so I am trying to plan my moves so that I can roll through there in a day.
I probably will bring some GFCIs as well and put them in the kitchen and bath as I don't believe that anything was ever updated, ever.
I don't know exactly when the house was built, but I am assuming sometime in the 50's by the kitchen cabinets and countertop (which I love.)
Another interesting feature of the house is that the light switches are all pushbuttons. I think there was a thread on these a while back where I mentioned this very house, as I've never seen them elsewhere. Like this:
Sidebar question - my inclination is to keep the original switches and plastic cover plates, as IMHO they "fit" the age and decor of the house. Or do you think it would be better to replace the switches and plates as well to provide a more "modern" look? I'm concerned with bang for the buck here and the perceptions of the average buyer. I know that I'm not average :)
thanks for any advice/opinions, esp. on how to deal with the solder joints.
nate