Old Electrical Outlet

Posted by redbrickhat on December 8, 2006, 4:22 am

I live in an old building (1920s) in New York City.

I recently opened up 2 electrical outlets that had been covered up for
at least 30 years. Behind the outlets were 2 wires covered in cloth
braid. At first I thought this type of cabling might be K&T, but a
voltage test showed that the box was grounded, so I guess the wiring is
metal conduit or armored cable.

What is the composition of the cloth braid of these old cables? The
cloth braid looked and felt like cotton, but could it have been
asbestos or another substance?

Thank you.

Posted by Terry on December 8, 2006, 6:21 am

wrote:

>I live in an old building (1920s) in New York City.
>I recently opened up 2 electrical outlets that had been covered up for
>at least 30 years. Behind the outlets were 2 wires covered in cloth
>braid. At first I thought this type of cabling might be K&T, but a
>voltage test showed that the box was grounded, so I guess the wiring is
>metal conduit or armored cable.
>What is the composition of the cloth braid of these old cables? The
>cloth braid looked and felt like cotton, but could it have been
>asbestos or another substance?

The only time I ran into insulation that you describe, it was very
brittle. If you plain to continue using it, you should not disturb it
anymore than you have to.

Posted by Tom Biasi on December 8, 2006, 6:45 am

>I live in an old building (1920s) in New York City.
> I recently opened up 2 electrical outlets that had been covered up for
> at least 30 years. Behind the outlets were 2 wires covered in cloth
> braid. At first I thought this type of cabling might be K&T, but a
> voltage test showed that the box was grounded, so I guess the wiring is
> metal conduit or armored cable.
> What is the composition of the cloth braid of these old cables? The
> cloth braid looked and felt like cotton, but could it have been
> asbestos or another substance?
> Thank you.

Its called loom wire. Most of it in the twenties used rubber also. It will
be very brittle and next to impossible to work with. The general rule is
"You touch it, you replace it."

Tom

Posted by RBM on December 8, 2006, 7:07 am

Sometimes they ran a type of cloth covered cable inside of black pipe, and
early steel cable like "Sprague" had a waxy cloth sheath over the
conductors. The conductors themselves are probably covered with rubber and
more cloth, and as the others have said, move them as little as you can

>I live in an old building (1920s) in New York City.
> I recently opened up 2 electrical outlets that had been covered up for
> at least 30 years. Behind the outlets were 2 wires covered in cloth
> braid. At first I thought this type of cabling might be K&T, but a
> voltage test showed that the box was grounded, so I guess the wiring is
> metal conduit or armored cable.
> What is the composition of the cloth braid of these old cables? The
> cloth braid looked and felt like cotton, but could it have been
> asbestos or another substance?
> Thank you.
>

Posted by hallerb@aol.com on December 8, 2006, 7:26 am

you sure its grounded? some idiot might have connected box to
neutral....... can you see a ground wire?

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