That has been my experience as well.

Definitely. When knob and tube is modified improperly that's when it is dangerous. I personally would prefer knob and tube with the addition of a ground conductor as the hot and neutral wires are farther apart than they are in romex. That would mean if the insulation goes bad the hot and neutral stand a lesser chance of touching each other given they are separated a bit.

The saving thing about old knob and tube wiring is the two wires are separated (usually) by some distance. I don't know if there was a standard. The problem with them is the insulation is usually in terrible shape and they had poor insulating materials to begin with. The wires themself loosing their insulation isn't much of a problem because of the wires being spaced apart (well bare wires could sure be a problem to you). The big problem is when the 2 wires are brought in or out of a fixture box. Now the 2 wires may not be separated and you have to work on these old, with crumbling insulation, wires..

@@EverydayHomeRepairs the other problem you see is the wires have become very short over the years of people changing recepticals and switches. Often even adding a pigtail is difficult to get a wire nut or connector on the existing wire.

@@smitlag Or crowding your wires & nuts in a small box, when pigtailing.

Love it, and nice with helping him out. I just bought a house from 1915 in a farm town where it had a 700 square foot 2 story addition added in 1938, both were knob and tube. It seems like this whole house has been a case of a friend helping a friend and in about 2002 there was a 200 amp panel added and they rewired from first floor outlets down to the basement, everything from 1st story lighting upwards was still knob and tube. I got an 80 amp sub panel and plan to wire it in a second floor closet and rewire myself according to modern code. It's funny what all you can find when multiple generations of "handyman" lays hands on your house haha

@@Timman57 That's great Timathy that you've got yourself an old house to fix up. As for installing your sub panel in a clothes closet, you may want to consider another location for it. According to the 2017 NEC at article 240.24D, the heading reads, *Not in Vicinity of Easily Ignitable Material.* Overcurrent devices shall not be located in the vicinity of easily ignitible materials, such as in clothes closets. Good luck with your wiring and wishing you all the best!

It's not as if every DIY'er burns their house down 🤦‍♂️ It's really no rocket science to understand how to strip a wire and bolt it onto a switch or outlet or whatever. Sure some people mess it up, but i think it's a silly common assumption that electricians are high up wizards and everyone else should keep their hands of it. As long as someone has the intention to do it well, and reads through all the information relevant to it, it's highly probably fine. If someone doesn't care how it's done and just wants to have it done for free then sure you get the ticking timebomb/house burned down.

@@Engineer9736 you really should keep your hands off of it if you’re not an electrician it’s not some silly diy project it will kill you

@@Engineer9736 no they don't burn their houses down. But they sure give us a lot of work fixing their DIY fuckups

@@Engineer9736 There's a lot of job security that is at the root of these generalizations.

@@Engineer9736 As an electrical engineer, I bet most electricians can barely do a circuit analysis. Read up on codes and NEC, and most of us can probably do a better job since we care more about our own houses than someone on a clock. Crawling through attic or crawl space would be the hardest part.

With "living" being the key word.

yup - -that's how I see it too...

Aluminum wiring is an entirely separate problem. Houses with aluminum wiring are not “old,” by my standards. It was a modern innovation.

@@GH-oi2jf That's my point. Buying something 90 years old requires checking the electrical carefully. Buying something only 45 years old still requires checking the electrical carefully. (And buying something new requires checking everything carefully)

I had a space heater melt an outlet that was wired to aluminum wiring, I don't trust the stuff.

@@brandonlink6568 If you checked the melted outlet, it probably did not have the CU•AL compatibility symbol that is REQUIRED before installing it on aluminum wiring. I saw a brand new photocopier melt an outlet when they switched it on. A few years later that building burnt down. Five family businesses lost that day because of incompatible electrical parts.

Al wire is perfectly safe......IF it was spliced correctly. And fused/breakered accordingly. The problem is that alot has not. Theres a whole list on how to splice Cu to aluminum, pigtailing yada yada. Wouldnt touch the stuff if my life depended on it but just saying. Afterall the wiring coming from the utility pole is all aluminum.

pullstrings and keyless are no longer allowed due to code needing bulb to be protected

@@davidicousgregorian Actually, a new light fixture with a built in pull cord to turn power on and off is still code in Michigan. The way that was set up with a separate pull cord feet away -- since I have never even come across it IDK. Also, the state doesn't care if the bulb is protected with a cover. Michigan is usually 50 years behind every other state with everything but since these light fixtures are commonly available I suspect other states allow them as well.

@@mharris5047 thats the new code for new builds not remodels or reinstalls code is for new book and new construction . old rebuilds allow old rules from as far back as 2015 not 50 years but maybe 7 depending on jurisdiction rules . and no not behind most southern states are behind due to population . more homes mean more accidents to base new codes by.

pullcords like you describe are allowed in some cities but not new construction built in cords still require bulb to be covered enclosed but allow those type of enclosed to use a chainpull but new code for 2023 says not for new installs

@@mharris5047 E4003.2 Luminaires Near Combustible Material Luminaires shall be installed or equipped with shades or guards so that combustible material will not be subjected to temperatures in excess of 90°C (194°F). (410.11) michigans rules also this E4003.12 Luminaires in Clothes Closets For the purposes of this section, storage space shall be defined as a volume bounded by the sides and back closet walls and planes extending from the closet floor vertically to a height of 6 feet (1829 mm) or the highest clothes-hanging rod and parallel to the walls at a horizontal distance of 24 inches (610 mm) from the sides and back of the closet walls respectively, and continuing vertically to the closet ceiling parallel to the walls at a horizontal distance of 12 inches (305 mm) or the width of the shelf, whichever is greater. For a closet that permits access to both sides of a hanging rod, the storage space shall include the volume below the highest rod extending 12 inches (305 mm) on either side of the rod on a plane horizontal to the floor extending the entire length of the rod (see Figure E4003.12). (410.2) The types of luminaires installed in clothes closets shall be limited to surface-mounted or recessed incandescent or LED luminaires with completely enclosed light sources, surface-mounted or recessed fluorescent luminaires, and surface-mounted fluorescent or LED luminaires identified as suitable for installation within the closet storage area. Incandescent luminaires with open or partially enclosed lamps and pendant luminaires or lamp-holders shall be prohibited. The minimum clearance between luminaires installed in clothes closets and the nearest point of a closet storage area shall be as follows: [410.16(A) and (B)] Surface-mounted incandescent or LED luminaires with a completely enclosed light source shall be installed on the wall above the door or on the ceiling, provided that there is a minimum clearance of 12 inches (305 mm) between the fixture and the nearest point of a storage space. Surface-mounted fluorescent luminaires shall be installed on the wall above the door or on the ceiling, provided that there is a minimum clearance of 6 inches (152 mm). Recessed incandescent luminaires or LED luminaires with a completely enclosed light source shall be installed in the wall or the ceiling provided that there is a minimum clearance of 6 inches (152 mm). Recessed fluorescent luminaires shall be installed in the wall or on the ceiling provided that there is a minimum clearance of 6 inches (152 mm) between the fixture and the nearest point of a storage space. Surface-mounted fluorescent or LED luminaires shall be permitted to be installed within the closet storage space where identified for this use. [410.16(C)]

In the process of something similar, house was built in 1911. Originally didn't have anything other than lights till someone went in and added a couple plugs here and there... It's been tough but working on lots of upgrades and changes.

The amount of structure damage will depend on the configuration of the home. One of my customers recently upgraded an 1890's, two story, 3,500 square foot home, with a complex floor plan, that was all original knob & tube system. As in their case, home insurance companies were refusing to write a policy on a home with knob & tube wiring. They did their homework and found an electrical contract who specialized in knob & tube conversions. To my surprise the entire home was fully rewired and the contractor only had to create two 4" diam. holes in the walls during the entire process. With a new 200 Amp panel and all new wiring to code, their annual insurance premium was also reduced by $250.00 per year.

@@chrisgraham2904 Yeah, the older the home, I think the easier it is. Balloon framing makes it so much easier. With no fire stops, you can pull a wire just about anywhere.

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the romex needs to be secured to the studs at regular intervals (NEC). As a result it will be very difficult to do a code-compliant installation without opening the walls, and that's why people say you need to open the walls : they assume you are going to do it right... which I really recommend because if there is a fire or anything (even after you sell the home !), you will may be found liable for the consequences

@@uski Your statement is true where the studs are accessible as if a house is being built or remodeled. When the walls are on the studs, Romex can be fished in the walls without being stapled and is code compliant.

You're correct. I learned wiring doing old city houses with knob and tube. I learned how to cut a metal box in to lath pretty well too. My old teacher would set a separate metal box for hot and ground when grafting to knob and tube (lighting circuits generally). He would also ground spike the boxes.

Ditto. And you don't play with that old wiring too much either. The insulation kind of disintegrates, especially when it is close to the heat of the lamp.

You sound like you know your stuff

10,000 $ I’ll clean that basement up over a few weeks . It will never be straightened out like most slums it will just be there forever

You talk like an actual tradesman that understands why you're doing something and that every action leads to a certain reaction. Many people calling themselves electricians are merely parts Changers who don't have a clue why they're doing what they're doing. It's just what they've always been told,.. they don't really have an understanding beyond everything is going to be ripped out and they don't know how to tell if something's good. they don't know how to calculate based on the size of the wire & the overcurrent if it's correct. They're taught these generalizations and that's what they do, they're blind to actually any sense of condition the wiring is in. They haven't got a clue what a Western Union splice is and that's what you need to use if you're tapping into knob and tube. loose splices start a lot of fires.

My system is hybrid and I can access most receptacles via the attic. It's so much easier being in a house with no insulation, of course. Also, my panel just got upgraded professionally to 200 amp. Having a main breaker is the best.

I would put a fuse panel back in my 160 year old house if I found one with enough circuits. The breakers in the replacement panel failed, almost burning the place down. Studying the breakers in general led me to learn a breakers life is about 10 years or under (30 year max), and even a functioning one will not trip most of the time as they are really for short circuit protection. And running the breaker at 120% while never tripping is the thing that shortens the breaker life ironically, frys the wiring, and ensures the breaker does nothing at 150%+ output when the day comes. (the plasticizer in my old, but retrofitted romex is separating and failing, but the knob and tube is in great shape still)

I wrote the same thing above. Just don't tape the two conductors together and shove them through the same hole.

Realvanman1 I recently worked in a house with an entirely untouched electrical system. 😎 The electrician saved most of the switches but the original circuits wasn't really salvageable

Insulation was poor, if not it wouldn't require ceramic insulators, and degrades with time, thus it's now impossible to find perfectly insulated wires even if they where when installed. I guess that if you retrofit a GFCI breaker in a knob and tube installation it will trip for some badly insulated cable in some wall with high humidity. Also it's less safe. Usually cable that you install in a wall is either double insulated multicore wire or single insulated single wires in a conduit, to give a double layer of protection. Knob and tube it's not even single insulated, you have the bare conductors in the wall, that can be accidentally touched when doing some maintenance. If you have to add a ground, at that point better to replace the wiring with something modern that will last even more time without issues.

@@caseyrevoir Not nearly, normal breakers last a lifetime, they are purely mechanical, never heard of having to change them. RCD/GFCI have a test button that let you test the functionality, to know if they still trip (and you should do that test at least once in a while), since they are more complex and have electronics in them. The fact that a breaker will not trip at 120%, yes they don't for short amount of time, that is how they work. It would be impossible to do differently without some electronic in them, but normal breakers works by pure magnetic and thermal effects. In my country for fixed wiring you tend to install a size of wire that can carry more current than the breaker that is installed: for example for lighting circuit we have 10A or most recently with LED 6A breakers with 1.5mm2 cable, that can carry 15A without problems, for sockets 16A breaker with 2.5mm2 cable, that can carry 20A no problem. In a well designed installations a breaker should never trip for overload (unless the client does something stupid like plugging in 2 3kW heater on a single circuit). If it does it means that you should have split the load on two different circuits. The most common thing that makes breaker trip is faults, short circuits and ground faults (in that case we are talking of RCBO)

Been there done that in Detroit and Ann Arbor in old historic buildings and homes during my career in the electrical trade. I saw a lot of fascinating stuff, but as you say, it can be a real pain. Great memories though, I'm a retired Master now.

does cloth wiring always mean knob and tuuub?

You can weld with those breakers 😳

My house had 3 FPE panels from 1959 when I bought it. The main panel had a 20A circuit for the backyard patio electricity. I was hanging up some PRC string lights, and when I plugged them in, they lit up dimly for a couple of seconds and shut back off. I quickly realized the 1959 FPE panel (that had been outside, in the elements for 53 years) was tripping it's 20A breaker as designed. I found one of the light sockets had it's center conductor folded over into the threads - a direct short. I've since read that some companies made FPE compatible breakers that actually worked in later years, but this one sure looked like it came from the 50s.

@@barry8215 I get the joke🙂

I still see the push button style breakers in homes today. Scares the hell out of me.

@@brianp6965 Should have immediately tripped and not illuminated at all with a direct short like that.

Dishwashers produce heat in the drying cycle, anything heat producing tends to draw a lot of amperage. I believe the code today is a dedicated circuit for the dishwasher as well as the microwave-something that was not common in houses in 1974.

A lot of the older last century homes actually have much heavier gauge high quality copper wiring. I happened to found it out during replacement of some worn out receptacles of the hybrid system. I noticed the standard 15 amp modern wiring are 30% thinner.

@@andyk192 I agree that older switches can fail like the one shown in the video has however many of the newer switches, especially the cheaper ones fail much more often. My rule of thumb is to always stick to spec, commercial, or industrial grade switches and receptacles regardless of whether I am reusing an old switch or receptacle or buying a new one. Cheap residential grade devices go in the scrap pile regardless of age. As for having a switch fail which can happen, if you have properly grounded metal boxes and cover plates there is a minimal risk of fire since the fault current will be safely carried away by the equipment ground and the breaker or fuse protecting the circuit will trip/blow assuming it is in good working condition. Therefore, old switches and receptacles can be used safely as long as your wiring is in good condition, all of your boxes are properly grounded, and you are using good quality and properly sized circuit breakers or fuses to protect each circuit. I would much rather be living in a house with the original fuse boxes, switches, fixtures, and receptacles that has just had the wiring replaced with modern thermoplastic insulated wiring and all of the boxes properly grounded rather than a house with a cheap but new aluminum bus breaker panel, and cheap plastic decora plates and devices all connected to the original cloth and rubber insulated wiring. I bet we can all agree with that. Too bad that seeing the former is very rare but the later seems to be very common.

@@loktom4068 houses built say 80 in more years ago they didn't often make the distinction between number 12 for a 20 and number 14 for a 15 amp overcurrent, they used all number 12 and that wire often was silver clad copper, ( I thought it was aluminum at first) it was copper dipped in molten silver which is a better conductor than copper and both are much better than aluminum that's why with aluminum, if you had a 20 amp overcurrent you would have a number min. 10 gauge wire which is one size larger than number 12 because there's more resistance with aluminum then copper.

@@CompGuy66 the switch he showed was not original to knob and tube

Well, I don't know the latest code but for years it was possible to install GFCI outlets where there wasn't a ground available. I believe it was supposed to be marked, "No Ground" or some such. A GFCI operates about as fast as a dead short takes out a CB so it offers equal or better protections. A problem with the GFCI is that they sometimes "fail un-safe."

When factoring in inflation, a full rewire would be cheaper today than in the late 70s to mid 80s. Copper was undergoing massive speculation as many mines are in countries with great political turmoil. That was the period when Aluminum wiring was in vogue.

@@xavariusquest4603 Oh yeah, forgot about that. The bad old days of AL wiring!

Me too. I kept some knob and tube stuff but never came across that old pull switch. Very cool!

@@WeatherNut27 I ran across some unused porcelain knobs for knob and tube wiring in the early 90's cleaning out a garage for my father while he was moving from one house to another. I plucked them out and saved them but I moved to another house about the same time and I don't know what happened to them during the move.

1925 house here. i removed the K&t from it when i replaced the panels. rewired everything from the panel to the outlets/lights. all new romex and removed the old wiring as i replaced them. a contractor asked me if he could keep the old ceramic support. i gave it to him. dunno what he did with it tho but i know im all safe. also found out tons of illegal junction box and funky wiring when i did it. it was scary... outlet inside a plaster wall no box used as a junction, junction box full of plaster with live wires, you never know. safer to start from the panel to the end than retrofitting old stuff

@@patricklegault6383 as hacked up as your old wiring was, it's wise you replaced all of it. with k&t in 1925 one could splice & tap wires without a box. most ceiling fixtures were installed without a box. there were no wirenuts back then, so electricians soldored their connections, then wrapped them with friction tape. we've come a long way since then.

In reality, knob & tube wiring systems were designed and installed to satisfy the lighting requirements of a home only. They handled the family entertainment system ( one radio), a kettle in the kitchen and a clothes iron in the laundry room. Today, LED and other energy efficient lighting systems are the smallest consumers of electricity in your home. You can't save much electricity today by diligently turning off the lights.

@@chrisgraham2904 A good electric kettle for US or Canada use draws between 1100-1500 watts. If the knob and tube is 16 gauge you are at or above its limit just with one thing. Even with 14 gauge wire you are pushing if if something else is also running on that circuit. Combine that with crumbly cloth insulation and you have a recipe for a fire (if the wire were rubber coated then covered with cloth like some knob and tube wiring used you might be OK for the 10 minutes the kettle is running).

You see what minimum code is D- at best and to think each $0.29 switch and outlet was marked up to $5 each lol

@@wizard3z868 components which are so poorly built shouldn't be UL listed. It's almost criminal!

@@Krankie_V agian bare minimum standards you ever heard of a turd in a box with a guarantee what you have there is a ul listing to not catch fire right away and if it dose its supposed to minimize the damage lol but no liability if it dosent

Our first home was a 10-year old tract home built in the early '90s. Plugs were always loose in the outlet sockets, so I wound up replacing all of them. It was a good starter home, but it was built with the least expensive materials the builder could get.

im surprised for a 1996 home that all of that needed to be replaced. everything was up to code for that year though right?

Nice !!! It probably will take a bit of damage to do the top floor, but the peace of mind is well worth it. Find a path to the attic and bring up a few lines. It takes more wire to go up-over-down to each plug or switch but u will probably minimize the damage to walls. I did it in my house, sometimes was lucky enough to simply use the old wire as a pull string. Eventually got house entirely up to present day code. Nice peace of mind for sure

Old houses scare me. They're so creepy.

As you ought to be!!

I think you are making up the part about the cat. And the fuse box heat 3 feet away. (it's OK to lie in these comments to make a good story.)

@@glasslinger In the old homes, the tube and knob wiring was covered with a cloth type of insulation. When it got very old, if you touched it the insulation would just flake off and expose the bare wire. We had a litter of kittens born under our house that my sister was feeding. I will admit that my sister told me about the kitten getting electrocuted and that I did not see it directly. OK, to be perfectly honest here, it was closer to 2 feet away that I could feel the heat coming from the fuse box. I was not making this up to make a good story. It all did happen. The pilot light was not being blown out, I think it was being starved of oxygen. The gas system was installed in the old oil burner that the house originally had. That was why the cure for the pilot going out was to just leave the oil furnace door ajar to let in more oxygen. When my mother died in 2000, I was the executor of the estate and the new buyers of the house did bulldoze the house so no one else will be hurt from all of that nonsense. I was just a teenager at the time and didn't really know any better than to do these things. I won't even get into the asbestos covered flue ducts through out this large 3,300 sqft home.

Funny that you put up that song.... There was an "All In The Family" episode where Archie had "fixed" a blown (glass) fuse by putting a penny under it, then had an electrical fire and thought he would collect from insurance, forgetting about the penny......then the inspector found it.

@@kennethalbert4653 You are very perceptive. As a 15 year old boy, you just don't think about things like that. LOL

Happy to help. Thanks!

Thanks Robert, this home needs some love for sure.

Arc Fault Interrupter breaker will find ground leakage caused by overstuffed box (GFCI in small box by previous owner). There the hot wire with crumbling insulation was intermittently touching the grounded box. Grounds were provided by a separate wire (1953 house). AFI highly recommended for all old branch circuits, not only for bedroom sockets as required by code.

The penny in a socket bit -- so dangerous! My father found that in the fuse box of a house he owned -- and the wiring was covered with cloth that just disintegrated in your fingers when you tried to work with it. I am glad that fuse boxes are just about a thing of the past.

@@ccox7198 Very sure. My parent's own an ~1870's home, wired in the 20's. Many of the switches were on the neutral (Others had already been rewired). I read into it on some electricians forums and a lot of them also reported seeing the same in older homes.

@@TheSeanUhTron Ya something that old isn't even guaranteed to be branch circuits. A light might pull hot from set of wires and neutral from another.

@Oliver Taylor: "Also,old systems waste power.Takes more power to get through old worn out wires than new wires.conducitivity goes down with age". The conductivity of a specific copper wire does not change with age (at least for the timescales we're talking about here). Many older homes are wired with smaller conductors than modern life demands, and those should be replaced. To the extent that "old systems waste power", the waste happens by pushing current through conductors that are too small. The system wasted just as much power when it was installed as it does today. It is the size of the conductors that matter, not their age.

Yep, not a small job but basement and attic access will go a long way.

Those silent mercury switches will last a lifetime and beyond under normal use.

If it is insulated with asbestos (i. e. almost guaranteed lung cancer if you mess with it) you have a job ahead of you that cannot be done yourself. All of the asbestos insulation where you are going to re-wire must be removed by a special contractor (of which your area MIGHT have one or two, even Grand Rapids, MI only seems to have three) and it will cost thousands of dollars. If you have the whole house remediated the cost is in the tens of thousands of dollars (and an N95 mask won't protect you). I feel sorry for your grandmother. Appropriate officials here in Michigan told me that if you don't mess with the asbestos it likely won't hurt you but once you disturb it you run the HIGH risk of lung cancer.

Wow what a junk old house.

Good eye. Looks like replacing the wiring will be a small piece of the bill to fix this place up

Yikes! Damn. That's going to be a lot more work than the electrical.

I'm surprised that insurance would pay for that upgrade.

Me too 🤔

Code upgrade coverage is wise to get on older homes when it's offered. It's very likely their neighbor had been paying extra for it for many years before needing to use it.

The hot wire ended in a hot rat. Yikes!

You can make an insurance claim to update your old electrical? 🤔

you can also often save money by stripping the house to the studs and replacing EVERYTHING.

@@kenbrown2808 When was the last time you got estimates to gut and install a new electric panel, rewire, replace all switches, outlets, and lights insulate, drywall, float, and paint.

I completely agree and if we renovate this home we would do a complete rewire. I think a lot of the challenge is with these homes even renovated they are $100K - $125K or so for the sale price so the vast majority of flippers would not do a full rewire. Not advocating for that approach but that is the truth of what I see in our area.

@@krazyj1957 let me give you a hint: the rule of thumb for estimating a remodel is to take the estimate for doing a new house and triple it.

@@EverydayHomeRepairs flippers are absolutely terrible about adding price without adding value.

Yeah, that type of setup is actually really common for old homes in my area.

The common fibrous romex for home use did not use asbestos, it was quality bleached, often mercerized cotton with a high--dielectric varnish. Asbestos wiring was reserved for larger currents/wires in commercial and retail (think theatres). Asbestos doesn't "dry rot" but very old cotton does, especially at bend points where it starts to fail along with the brittle varnish.

@@EverydayHomeRepairs I think it's quite common in most areas in the US, even I have some in service K&T and romex and one armored wired cable for the stove, and when I was looking at the house, it still had a FPE circuit breaker that I had replaced on the seller's dime. Since I had K&T, several outlets in the kitchen, living room and original bedroom had to be swapped for GFCI, even though they had newer grounded outlets, but as you know, K&T can't be safely grounded, if grounded at all, hence why it's often required to be removed or taken out of service when getting insurance.

Old houses scare me. Everything about them is so creepy.

@@ytsux9259 I can see that, but it depends on the house, and its condition. My house does not creep me out at all, even though it was initially from 1908, with an addition in 1985.

Good point, thx 👍

I noticed that also. Good call.

That would be 2 way not 3 way.

@@davey6024 It is "called" a 3 way Switch

@@davey6024 the switch itself may be a double pole, but that application is called a three way.

K and t wiring was safer because the wires are not running next to each other like common wiring today. The problem now is that the insulation is brittle due to age.

Yeah, good to at least have a high level understanding 👍

The funny part is I already did a round 1 with a broom 😂 this basement had more dead spiders than I have ever seen. Right by a corn field.

Amen. Got knob n tube? Replace it all

My grandmother didn't have electricity until the early 1940's. She did have gas lanterns but no electric service. One of my uncles bought a house in the 1980's, it still had the gas lanterns and piping in working condition in an upstairs apartment. He tore that out right away due to concerns that it might start to leak. The whole building had electric service run in it and appeared to have had it for at least 35-40 years at the time.

i agree, if untouched it is fine, as in this case, the knob and tube was not installed properly into the box

Knob and slob..... good one😊 your right, 90+ years ago, knob and tube was state of the art technology and was very safe for it's time, especially compared to the gas and oil lights it replaced. Most of the problems begin due to one thing. Human error. Putting 100 watt light bulb in ceiling and cooking the wiring into position. Burying into insulation especially attics. Inserting 30 amp fuses to prevent overload from blowing fuse and inconvenience. Bypassing fuse with penny or lining with aluminum foil. Adding more circuits to the existing wiring by means of weak and or exposed, unsafe splices, and other unapproved means. Finding an old house where the original wiring is left untarnished after nearly a century, is like finding a needle in a haystack.

@@Sparky-ww5rei have actually found wiring that was untouched, usually it has a 30 amp fuse in it, but it came out fine. Usually these wiring systems are okay, but lots of people think old always means bad. how I look at it is to evaluate it, look it over, if it is fine don't touch it, if it needs to be replaced. replace it, if it needs to be fixed, fix it. i hate it when people say all of it is bad just because of what it is.

@@gtb81. Unfortunately, many home insurance companies are refusing to write a home insurance policy of knob & tube are present in the home. Insurance companies are forcing conversion more than the electrical authorities are.

@@chrisgraham2904 yeah, it is usually down to making more money, if you are not willing to comply and pay to have the house gutted in order to remove it, you have to pay lots of money to insure it. it would be much more advantageous to have an electrician evaluate it, some do but not many. if i understand it correctly. usually knob and tube is not beyond repair if it isn't fine already. i actually have only seen one house with knob and tube that actually needed the rewire.

Hey Hank, thanks for the feedback. What book do you recommend? I like the Black + Decker books myself.

I can't recommend a good do-it-yourself book because I have been taking CE classes for 40 years, and we use the NEC. This book will not be understood by laymen, because it uses terms which are particular to the trade.

@Toren1156 I would probably not feel comfortable spending time in your residence, if you try to do your own electrical work based on what you learned on the internet. Do you know what size wire to use in all circumstances. do you know how much wire must be left in junction boxes? How about how many wires of each size can go into each different box? I have spent hundreds of hours in classroom settings and I still have to look up things in the code book as does every other responsible electrician. I'm sure I could look at a house wired by a welder and find at least a hundred different violations!

@Toren1156 I disagree. While the basic principals can be learned pretty easily, doing things right is a different story. I am not an electrician, but I know enough to know what I don't know. I've also pulled my share of wire, and wired more than enough receptacles and lights over they years on side jobs with my best friend who is a licensed master electrician. I can also tell you, knowing how to do something, and actually doing it are two completely different things. Try twisting 6 12ga wires together a few times then come back and tell me again how easy it is. Especially when you are laying across joists in an attic in July.

Major electrical work like knob & tube conversion will require permits and inspections in most jurisdictions if a DIY'er thinks they are up for the job. There will always be some that will bypass the permit process since they can buy all the components at their big box store. I guess you could buy some books and watch some videos to learn to do your own surgery on yourself or a loved one, but I'll trust my surgeries to a qualified doctor.