Wiring and plumbing a second kitchen

I have been reading for hours on line and then I found this site :-) I need help with terminology, wire guages needed and a bit of how to. This is long so only the brave please continue.

The house was built in 1900 and half of it was rewired before I bought it. I am putting in a a second kitchen so my divorced daughter can have her own space and we don't tear each others hair out. The back part where I want to put in the kitchen has the old wiring with ceramic tubes in the joists. They make pretty good whistles if you blow just right :-)

The new power supply to the house is about 10-12 feet away from the new kitchen room and it has a master shut off for the house and the wiring is covered in conduit. Is this the Panel or the sub panel?

I need to install a new box with breakers for this kitchen inside the house. How do I add up the Amps needed in order to buy the breaker? There will be an oven, separate stove top, microwave, dishwasher, garbage disposal, 2 ceiling fans w/lights with ceramic heaters, 2 indoor lights, 2 outdoor lights, fridge ( is that 110?), airvent extraction fan, thermostat for the underfloor heating and 9 x 110 power outlets for kitchen appliances a TV and plug in electric heaters (there is now forced air in the back of the house) a washer and a dryer. I think the amps are different for all of these and does it depend on the watt consumption?

Should I run all of the wiring in conduit or just the 220 wiring? Only the stove top, oven and dryer are 220 right? What guage wire should I run for the lighting, outlets, 220, is the fridge line a different guage. I should use outdoor wiring for the outside light ? What guage?

I got a quote for $2500 and that's probably very good but I can't afford it so I was planning on installing all the wiring up to the new breaker panel and then asking an electrician to hook it up to the mains. That sounds scary to me

For the plumbing I there was a old sink back there and I pulled up the floor and it's got galvanized pipe and cast iron drains going into the main drain. I think this was the original kitchen part of the house. Is there an adapter that will let me connect black plastic drain into the cast iron drain? Is there an adapter that will let me connect to the galvanized supply lines for hot and cold.? What kind of pipe should I use for these new lines? Should I run a separate drain from each of the sink and the dishwasher to the main drain or can they go in the same drain from the wall over to the main drain? Is there any kind of a valve I can put in that will help with water pressure so when I have the dishwasher on I can still use the sink? Do I need a separate ventless thing for each of the sink and the dishwasher or can they share one? Do I need any drain valves to prevent "backwash"? I was planning on adding a garden tap off the cold water supply into the kitchen is there anything special you have to do to make sure it doesn't act as a cold conductor and freeze all the pipes? The walls are wood siding like a shed so it gets cold in there. Can I take the outside tap directly off the sink line near the wall or should I use a three way supply to each of these 1. sink, 2. dishwasher, 3. outside tap from the existing supply line? Are there any questions I forgot to ask?

Lots of questions and yes I know I am certifiable. Please respond.

Reply to
Mulan
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you could get her a job on a different shift from yours and just share the kitchen. :) you need to update the electrical service and update the 100 year old knob and tube wiring, as you already know. see electrical faq at:

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Mulan wrote:

Reply to
buffalobill

WOW that's a great site I think I just got another 10 hours of reading ahead of me. Thanks, I hope it has all the answers. :-)

LOL - different shift was funny. I work from home and she went back to university so she won't be making minimum wage for the rest of her life

- hence she's moving in with me and I like my hair just the way it is :-)

How about the plumbing questions anyone?

"Knob and tube" LOL sounds well .....never m> you could get her a job on a different shift from yours and just share > the kitchen. :)

Reply to
Mulan

Hi,

In my opinion it appears that you are - and I mean this as a constructive comment - in WAY over your head.

As regards the pluming your results may or may not work properly, but at least the actual chance that your efforts will injure or kill yourself, your daughter or some subsequent occupant of the house are likely small.

The electrical however is another matter, it ALL has to be done right to be safe, and if it's "unsafe", there's a good chance any resulting "accidents" will produce fatalities.

If you are determined to proceeded with this effort one important preliminary step is to determine from you local building department what portions of such work may be done by a homeowner, and what portion if any MUST be done by a licensed electricians, plumbers and members of other trades, and how you apply for the required permits to perform this work. The building department may also be able to provide you with a "checklist" of common mistakes they discover when inspecting such projects, and a list of provisions different from the national codes which have adopted by your town or city.

Let me say though - as someone who has actually done such work themselves and inspects such work done by homeowners and contractors - that when an average homeowner undertakes major renovations and expansions of electrical, plumbing, HVAC and structural components themselves their chances of getting it "right" the first time are close to zero. (For that matter, many contractors are still not getting it "right" after decades in the business. If you doubt either, spend a bit of of time poking around on the message boards at a place like inspectionnews.com).

That it's NOT just a matter of reading the codes, buying the parts, and hooking things up - that you really have to understand WHY the codes specify the things they do - how their provisions ACTULLY relate to safety and functionality.

But most of all, you have to be able to think in terms of the big picture.

For example, have you investigated the zoning and code requirements for adding what amounts to a "in-law" apartment to your house? In most communities there are underlying "life-safety" issues: minimum square footages, ventilation and light requirements, emergence egress standards and so on which need to be considered before you even start thinking about laying out electrical, pluming or HVAC systems.

Acquiring and retaining this knowledge - hundreds and sometimes thousands of "minor" details are involved in a major project - is far from straightforward even for people with extensive experience in the "trades", for example the efforts of a skilled practitioner of one trade attempting to duplicate the work they have observed performed by another (for instance a plumber attempting to wire their own home, or an electrician attempting to plumb a building) are a notorious source of problems, and every experienced home inspector has had the experience of looking at substandard and even overtly dangerous work done by intelligent homeowners with construction experience proud of their efforts and surprised (and sometimes outraged) that not only did they fail to get it "right", but that an overworked municipal inspector - who can usually devote only a few minutes to each inspection - has passed it!

So for someone with limited experience in construction - especially when performing rehab work such as you are proposing, which presents a host of special problems - well.... it's VERY difficult to get ALL this right.... not impossible, but IMO not likely, either.

And the possible results of doing some of this stuff in "reasonable" looking ways that are not right can be really, really scary.

Michael Thomas Paragon Home Inspection, LLC Chicago, IL mdtATparagoninspectsDOTcom

Reply to
MDT at Paragon Home Inspection

The site that buffalobill referred you to is great, but I agree with MDT. You are in over your head. If you can't afford to hire it done turn key; ask if you can hire an electrician as a consultant. Let him tell you what to do, and you do the work. The truth is it will be more trouble to the electrician than your fee will be worth, but if you ask enough of them, you'll find one that is willing.

Randy R. Cox

Reply to
Randy Cox

Rule number one in general for kitchens... There are NEVER enough outlets and outlets get easily overloaded.

So the idea is a separate 20 amp outlet on its own 20 amp breaker for each appliance. And MANY counter top outlets with each outlet on its own 20 amp breaker.

In theory a kitchen could have say 15 separate outlets each on its own 20 amp breaker.

Go to the store and look at all the kitchen appliances which can be purchased. Many have heating elements which use a lot of amperage. And you plug two of these into one outlet or one of these and a microwave into same outlet and the breaker might trip.

Then lets put the microwave over here... Next week, let's move the microwave over there next to the deep fryer... Next week something else..

Then also counter top appliances which don't use much amperage, but have many in same area. Like can opener, radio, clock, blender, etc. And these can be located anywhere and moved around. So for that reason, I think it is best that each counter top outlet be a fourplex (4 outlets).

So think about this stuff in advance, then get a breaker panel which will have enought slots for all those breakers. I have a 40 slot breaker panel myself. (Rule number two is there is never enough slots available in a breaker panel.)

Reply to
Bill

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