Had a nightmare today man you gotta love the stuff what in the $%#^&&^ where they thinking????

You should not let your inexperience, or lack of training, lead you to hasty sentiments.

K&T has worked wonderfully for over half a century in many places- including my home! Many thing that are considered "standard" today were new in the day of the Vietman war. These "new" things included MC, wire nuts, ground wires, and household circuit breakers.

You're sure to see, as you gain in experience, a lot of other things about building construction that no one would dream of doing today. Styles change, technology advances.

My favorite pain in the butt has been lead covered direct burial cable.
As for Knob and Tube, I always felt it was a very safe style of wiring except for the old front expossed knife switches.

I have several horror stories that deal with knob & tube wiring. It sucked trying figure what was going on in the beginning. Come to think of it, it still a pain in the neck to work with but only because a guy my age is used to NM, AC, or MC cables. What's fascinating are those small hand-cranked holes the old timers used to make to pull the old bx through building members.

I can't speak for K&T as you won't find it over here, but in my experience many of the problems with older methods of wiring come not from the original installation but from the way it has baeen hacked about for additions in more recent years by people unfamiliar with the techniques involved.



As in a hole bored with a hand brace and auger bit?

Remember - back in the day of K&T they used to switc hthe neutrals!


Found that out the hard way

that sounds terrible but if you had a sharp bit it really went pretty fast

At least the auger and bit are Y2K compliant and you don't ever have to charge the batteries.

Over the years I have seen many installations of Knob and Tube wiring. When it first starts out, it isn't a bad system - except for the occasional switched neutral and the lack of grounding. It's what happens to it later in its life that really bites (sometimes literally) - bad add-ons and circuit splits with equally bad splices, physical damage from being stepped on, wiring covered up with insulation, overheating from overfusing, etc.

When you really get down to it, a 1930's technology doesn't support a 2000's lifestyle very well.

Those guys that used to install that stuff were really good with the soldering irons, though...

Mike (mamills)

[This message has been edited by mamills (edited 12-14-2005).]

Yes, those small holes that the old timers made to pull bx (AC). They are so small that I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to pull wire through them. Can anyone tell me the logic behind making the holes so small? All I can say is thank God for hole hogs and cordless drills w/ speed bits.

Oak floor joists at least 2" thick minimum,
Hand cranking the brace. The smaller the bit the easier it is to drill.

Considering the torment that alot of the K & T I've come across has been through with 30A fuses, insulation, 200 watt light bulbs, etc. I think it's held up quite well all in all... The last K&T I dealt with was a house built in 1898... Sans the lack of grounding, the system was in fairly decent shape... I'd never even thought about all the holes being hand drilled before, EESH! My hats off to those who walked in our steps before us.

I have actually bored a hole by hand with a brace and bit before on occasions. In tight spots where's there's a risk of damaging something else should the drill slip, it can be a way of keeping greater control and reducing that risk.

The last time I had to bore a hole with a brace'n'bit was back when I was a little ol' helper. We had to sink a wood pole in the middle of a lumber yard to raise a triplex that hung too low.

So, here I am on top of two stacks of rough-cut lumber, one on the other, then lifted to the max height of a large fork truck, and then I had to stand up a 28' wood ladder toi reach the top of the pole.

I used a length of NM as a makeshift harness so I could lean back and drill a 1/2" hole through the pole, maybe a foot thick at the top. That only took me about 20 minutes or so.

Then I inserted an eye-bolt, screwed a washer and nut on the back end, and use a come-along to pull the triplex up enough to attach it with the slip type of hanger, the kind with a steel wire loop.

Fun job!