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Posted by HerHusband on May 27, 2006, 11:28 am
I am in the process of replacing the wiring in my in-laws 100 year old
house. So far the work has been in the basement, with short runs up to the
appliances. But now I'll need to run wires up to the attic for ceiling
lights, fans, and smoke detectors.
The current knob and tube wiring actually runs along the OUTSIDE of the
house between the basement and attic, and is seriously corroded with
crumbling insulation. Obviously, this is not an acceptable way of routing
the wires!
Normally I'd just drill a hole at the top, one at the bottom, and dangle a
string down to connect the two. But as is common in these old houses, there
is blocking partway up inside the wall. They have 12 foot ceilings, so I
don't know yet whether there is a single block, or additional blocks.
I DO NOT want to cut into the old plaster and lath walls, so what is the
best way to get a wire through the wall in this case? I remember seeing
really long drill bits at Lowes, but I don't remember how long they were,
and am concerned they wouldn't reach far enough into the 12 foot high
walls.
If all else fails, I figured I could mount a length of conduit in the
corner of one of the closets, as a chase to run wires from the basement to
the attic. But I'd prefer to fish the wires in the wall if possible.
Any tips?
Anthony
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Posted by RBM on May 27, 2006, 11:48 am
You could find wind bracing in the walls, which are criss crosses, and they
make snaking really tough. You don't say how many floors are involved, but
if it's just one, you can easily run lines inside a closet from basement to
attic. If it's two floors and you find two closets, one on top of another,
you can go through both. Also you may find a cast iron stack pipe in the
attic, which often has enough space around it to drop lines from attic to
basement. If all else fails, run a conduit outside the house
>I am in the process of replacing the wiring in my in-laws 100 year old
> house. So far the work has been in the basement, with short runs up to the
> appliances. But now I'll need to run wires up to the attic for ceiling
> lights, fans, and smoke detectors.
>
> The current knob and tube wiring actually runs along the OUTSIDE of the
> house between the basement and attic, and is seriously corroded with
> crumbling insulation. Obviously, this is not an acceptable way of routing
> the wires!
>
> Normally I'd just drill a hole at the top, one at the bottom, and dangle a
> string down to connect the two. But as is common in these old houses,
> there
> is blocking partway up inside the wall. They have 12 foot ceilings, so I
> don't know yet whether there is a single block, or additional blocks.
>
> I DO NOT want to cut into the old plaster and lath walls, so what is the
> best way to get a wire through the wall in this case? I remember seeing
> really long drill bits at Lowes, but I don't remember how long they were,
> and am concerned they wouldn't reach far enough into the 12 foot high
> walls.
>
> If all else fails, I figured I could mount a length of conduit in the
> corner of one of the closets, as a chase to run wires from the basement to
> the attic. But I'd prefer to fish the wires in the wall if possible.
>
> Any tips?
>
> Anthony
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Posted by Goedjn on May 30, 2006, 12:39 pm
On Sat, 27 May 2006 11:48:43 -0400, "RBM" <rbm2(remove
this)@optonline.net> wrote:
>You could find wind bracing in the walls, which are criss crosses, and they
>make snaking really tough. You don't say how many floors are involved, but
>if it's just one, you can easily run lines inside a closet from basement to
>attic. If it's two floors and you find two closets, one on top of another,
>you can go through both. Also you may find a cast iron stack pipe in the
>attic, which often has enough space around it to drop lines from attic to
>basement. If all else fails, run a conduit outside the house
You may also find, if the house is post-and-beam, heavy timbers that
you don't especially want to put holes in.
If you're re-wiring, wouldn't this be a good time to re-insulate as
well? If you're going to be doing both anywhere near the same
time period, you're better off just opening the walls.
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Posted by HerHusband on May 31, 2006, 11:00 am
> You may also find, if the house is post-and-beam, heavy timbers that
> you don't especially want to put holes in.
In our case, the house is standard platform construction; studs, joists,
and rafters.
> If you're re-wiring, wouldn't this be a good time to re-insulate as
> well?
My in-laws house needs a LOT of improvements, including insulating, a
complete gutting and rebuilding of the rotten bathroom, etc. But they both
have serious health issues and are living on a fixed income. So we're
working off of very limited funds they've saved up over the years, and what
little we can afford to contribute ourselves. Their home insurance is sky
high because the electrical wiring was a fire waiting to happen and they
heat with space heaters. So I'm replacing the wiring and adding in some
permanent wall heaters.
As it is, I just had to replace 90% of the plumbing for what started as a
leaky faucet. You know "while you're here, can you take a look at our
faucet...". They had an old wall mount faucet in their kitchen that was
leaking around the stem. Turned out to be a rusted and broken spout. I
couldn't find a new spout, but I did track down a replacement faucet. Of
course, when I tried to remove the faucet, the rusted pipes broke instead.
When I tried to replace the broken pipe, another section farther down the
line broke. It continued to escalate till I was halfway through the house!
:) So I just replaced the majority of the plumbing with new pipe, and
installed a new sink with a standard deck mount faucet.
Anyway, the moral of this story is to avoid the "might as well" syndrome.
It has a way of quickly spiraling out of control around that place! :)
Anthony
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Posted by Doug Miller on May 27, 2006, 11:53 am
[snip[
>I DO NOT want to cut into the old plaster and lath walls, so what is the
>best way to get a wire through the wall in this case? I remember seeing
>really long drill bits at Lowes, but I don't remember how long they were,
>and am concerned they wouldn't reach far enough into the 12 foot high
>walls.
>
>If all else fails, I figured I could mount a length of conduit in the
>corner of one of the closets, as a chase to run wires from the basement to
>the attic. But I'd prefer to fish the wires in the wall if possible.
I'd go with the conduit in a closet. BTDT.
>
>Any tips?
Put the conduit in one of the *front* corners of the closet. Nobody will ever
know it's there -- who goes into a closet and then turns around to look at the
door?
Conduit is cheap. Don't skimp. Use a big one. Like three inches.You may want
to run more circuits later.
If you're just really set against using conduit, you could build an actual
chase with studs and drywall... but conduit's a *lot* cheaper, and faster to
install.
--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)
It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.
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