Just realized how much old wiring can mess with a new panel install

I was helping a buddy swap out a 20 year old system in this old house in the West End. The place had that old cloth wrapped wire everywhere, which I figured we could just work around. When we hooked up the new panel, we kept getting random zone faults on the keypad. Took us a solid afternoon of head scratching to figure out the old wire insulation was so brittle it was basically dusting off and letting the conductors touch inside the wall. We ended up having to pull new 22/4 for three of the zones, which added like 4 hours to the job. It was a real pain, but now I'm way more careful about checking the actual wire condition before I assume the old runs are good. Anyone else run into this with really old residential builds? What's your go-to move, replace the wire or try and salvage it?

3 comments

3 Comments

betty_walker3mo ago

Pull new wire" is a waste of time and money.

milap3526d agoMost Upvoted

Wait, have you actually tried running new wire in an older house before? Because I have, and honestly, Betty's got a point if you're just talking about the hassle and cost. Pulling new wire through finished walls is a nightmare, you usually end up patching drywall and it takes forever. But for a total kitchen or room redo, you really should do it right with new wire, especially if the old stuff is aluminum or just ancient. It's not a waste if you don't want your house to burn down or your breakers tripping every time you plug in a toaster.

carter.reese3mo ago

You ever try to pull new wire through old walls? I spent a whole weekend fishing one line and ended up with just a spool of spaghetti and a new hole in my drywall.