Old Wiring Question


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Old 06-19-14, 08:28 PM
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Old Wiring Question

My house was built in 1955 and we are approximately 3/4 way through a partial tear down rebuild. We have installed a new breaker box and the addition has all updated up to code wiring in it.

My question is the electric wiring in the old part of the house. There is a hot wire that is coming out of the old part of the house with what appears to be brown fabric type stuff on it. It has two wires and no grounding wire.

Is this the original wiring from the home? It appears to be brown cloth insulated wiring with two plastic insulated wires inside. If not where is the ground wire?
 
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Old 06-19-14, 08:31 PM
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Welcome to the forums.

That is the original romex. It's cloth covered two conductor non metallic cable with no ground.
The next version after that had a real thin ground wire..... almost like an #18.
 
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Old 06-19-14, 08:33 PM
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How do I tell what part of the house old house has updated electric and what part doesn't? The house has two prong and three prong outlets.

can I ground this wire with an outlet similar to one that is used in a bathroom?
 
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Old 06-19-14, 08:45 PM
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Since that has no ground wire there should only be two prong receptacles connected to it.
So it would be safe to say that anywhere you see two prong receptacles.... the wiring has not been updated.
 
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Old 06-19-14, 08:48 PM
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OK.

1) what can I do with those two prong outlets to make them three prong outlets.

2) the previous owner installed three prong outlets inappropriately. Is there a device I can use to pinpoint these and label them? I had a incident on one of these plugs because the lawn equipment was pulling too much current and the outlet turned black and smelled awful.
 
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Old 06-19-14, 08:54 PM
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You would need to replace the cable to the newer style NM cable with a ground.
You can't just put a grounded receptacle on a non grounded cable.

You can test for ground at any three prong receptacle by checking with a voltage tester or meter between the small slot and the ground hole or plate screw.
 
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Old 06-19-14, 08:56 PM
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I cant afford to rewire the whole house.

Would installing CGCI outlets at all the two prong outlets make them safer?
 
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Old 06-20-14, 03:49 AM
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Would installing CGCI outlets at all the two prong outlets make them safer?
Code allows you to do this and install three pronged receptacles. There is still no ground so some things might not work properly, (surge protectors for example) but adding a GFCI receptacle, or breaker, will make them safer.
 
 

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