Hello all, First Post - but have been lurking for a couple of years... Couple of questions... I've recently purchased a 50 YO masonry construction single story home. I'm not living there and I'm renovating it on weekends. The electrical wiring is non-grounded silver romex. Service appears to be 200A deduced from 2 100A pull disconnects in parallel off the meter. One disconnect feeds panel with radiant heat circuits. Other, the household circuits. Is my deduction regarding the 200A service correct? I disconnected the radiant heat circuits after finding melted insulation in the thermostat boxes. It was supposed to have been disabled due to earlier problems, but it wasn't. I will be having a heat pump installed as part of the renovation. The cables from the breaker panels go up the wall (uncovered) and then 12' across the utility room to the living space through 1" X 6" notches sawn in the TOP of the RAFTERS!!! (I removed the ceiling which was 1/4" plywood specifically to inspect the wiring). There's a flat roof over the laundry/utility room. The wires had been damaged by rodents and roofing repairs - nail through the range feed!!!! But everything worked. Needless to say, I want to replace the wiring (and breaker panels) and update it and most importantly I want to route the wiring differently. I still have to go up through the gable/flat roof junction to get into the attic as the adjacent interior wall is paneled on furring strips on block. The rafters in the utility room that needs to be crossed are only 2X6 (6 ft span/16" centers). There would be approximately 16 cables leaving the room (13 today), but the washer, dryer, water heater, GFI receptacles and lighting for the laundry room need to be dealt with too, because all the fixed equipment is on the opposite end of the room from the service entrance. So that's 22 cables 1#6 (range), 4#10 (dryer, water heater, heatpump outside unit, air handler emergency heat strip - 5KW) 11#12 (dedicated,gp and GFI recepticles) and 6#14 (lighting and airhandler blower) the way I have it laid out now. I'm capable of performing the wiring work, however the thought of drilling a bunch of holes through flat roof rafters bothers me from a structural standpoint. A 80 year old retired electrician neighbor said go with 1" holes in the center of the rafters, 6" apart. He said I could fit 3#14 or 2#12 or 1 #10 or 1 #6 through the holes... Does that sound right? Are there alternatives? This work will be permitted and inspected and I'm trying to put together a preliminary plan. Thanks!! Rod

I needed to replace an outlet in my living room. I did my research and it seemed easy enough. I pulled out the old outlet, connected the wires to the new outlet and this is where the prolems begin. I am unable to get the wiring and the outlet to fit back into the outlet box so I can screw down the outlet to the box. The cables put so much pressure on the outlet that the screws just pop right out of the outlet box (I think the screw holes are now stripped on the outlet box). The wire is thick and not easily bendable. There are a couple more outlets that need to be replaced and now I'm afraid to even attempt them. Is there a trick to getting all the cables to fit back into the outlet box or is it normally not this difficult? :wall: