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PSA: I had a customer in a 1920s house in Philly last month who insisted their coax outlet was 'just fine' until I showed them the signal loss on my meter.
What's the oldest or most stubborn wiring setup you've had to talk a homeowner into letting you actually fix?
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ivan7742mo agoMost Upvoted
I used to think old phone wiring was harmless until a 1920s apartment here had a fire scare from it. @mianelson's story about the cloth wiring really drives that home.
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cooper.drew1mo ago
@gavin365 you're not wrong about that stuff being dangerous. When I bought my old place, I had an electrician come in and he spotted the original cloth wiring right away. It looked fine on the surface, but once he pulled a little bit of it out, the insulation just flaked off like dry leaves. I ended up having to rewire the whole first floor, which was a pain and cost more than I wanted, but it was worth it for peace of mind. The cloth wiring from back then wasn't made to last this long, and those old phone lines can be just as sketchy. Better to get it checked out than to have a fire scare like what happened in that apartment.
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mianelson2mo ago
My buddy had a client in a 200 year old Boston row house still using the original cloth wrapped wiring from the 1940s. The insulation was literally crumbling off in his hands, and the guy argued it was "vintage charm." Took showing him a scorch mark on a floor joist from an old short to finally get the okay for a rewire.
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