For you sparkies that have worked on a lot of old K&T was it ever a common (no pun intended) or acceptable practice to switch the neutral?

Brian,

Yes it was. I can't tell you how many times I told my men to be careful when working on K&T wiring. The switches were on the neutral side. There were splices made inside the walls and ceilings, there were no splice boxes on them either. Everything was soldered and taped and you couldn't install insulation around the wires. Most of all, there wasn't a grounding conductor. I have also seen people hang wet cloths on the K&T wire in the basement.

Harold

yeah it is very common with old t&k wires with switched nueutrale lines that the reason it is a pain in the butt when to repair t&k stuff and igenrally tell them to replace with more modren stuff it is alot more safer to boot 70 % of my time i find t&k wires are allready history due hevey overloading like some personalles like to put 30 amp plug fuse insted of 15 or 20 amps that the reason i am not too crazy with this one

merci marc

(p.s. it is the same way with old french wires too )

Hello Brian,

One thing I have found to be very useful when work with K&T is one of those hand held voltage testers. The ones that look like a pen and glow and/or buzz when they get near voltage. Where it really helps is when you are replacing a fixture and both wires look the same. Just point it at the wire and you know immediately which is hot and which is not.

CAREFUL BRIAN, I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH NON-CONTACT TESTERS BECAUSE THEY BUZZ OR LIGHT FOR THE NEUTRAL. USE AN IDEAL 61050 CONTACT TESTER.

Thanks for the info guys. I have seen some K&T but the job were on now has it still in use and with switched neutrals. I thought I had heard this before about the switched neutrals. Thanks for the tip EVAD7 on the tester I know what you mean.
Brian