Opinion from NES Electricians....The real ones!!!

I’ve seen worse too and admittedly i would tell myself it needs to be fixed, but depending on my mood I may just try to stuff it back in.
 
There's nothing wrong with knob and tube wiring. They fail when people stuff in insulation or screw with the wires, like hanging clothes or tools from the wires...

Pull out all that Romex crap and run REAL cables. If anybody asks it's been there forever and nobody will blink.

Trust me. I know what I'm doing.
 
There's nothing wrong with knob and tube wiring. They fail when people stuff in insulation or screw with the wires, like hanging clothes or tools from the wires...

Pull out all that Romex crap and run REAL cables. If anybody asks it's been there forever and nobody will blink.

Trust me. I know what I'm doing.
Too bad wire is date stamped so good luck with no blinking. 😂

I do have some predated wire I’d sell for cheap. The train tracks have tons of insulators laying around.
 
I had an old timer foreman years ago who was the best! He didn’t use any 1/2 inch stock, waste of time. And all splice/junction boxes were in 4-11/16’s boxes and all receptacles and switches were in 4” SQ deeps. He had his shit together.
I’m not an old timer yet but I have no time for just barely enough sized boxes, conduit, troughs, etc. Work smarter, not harder! Plus, we only work for customers that promise this is the only power we need over here, then like clockwork, after the job is completed need just a few more outlets!
 
Looks like every box in my house except most of mine have a mix of 12 and 14 awg and most of the boxes are over stuffed and barely attached to the framing.
Any electrical work in my house is an adventure.
It’s a good thing we have home inspectors that pick up on that stuff all the time🤔🤔
 
Op asked for real real sparkys but I have to wonder who the hell put that abortion together in the first place?

I’d be more concerned the same person who wired this (and should have his toolbox welded shut) has left his mark elsewhere in the house.
At least the rumpus room is wired for a tanning bed and a hot tub,
so if OP feels lucky, maybe there's enough capacity to run the welder on site.

This was years ago. It does it in big springtime rains, when the ground can't handle it all, it backs into the garage.
(One spring I saw a house on the south side of Rt. 62 in North Reading
where Elm St. drained into the Ipswich River in their back yard
by running into the garage door and out the back).
 
Pull out all that Romex crap and run REAL cables. If anybody asks it's been there forever and nobody will blink.

Trust me. I know what I'm doing.
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I’m not an old timer yet but I have no time for just barely enough sized boxes, conduit, troughs, etc. Work smarter, not harder! Plus, we only work for customers that promise this is the only power we need over here, then like clockwork, after the job is completed need just a few more outlets!
Aah, the old "While you're at it" line.

I used to get that doing mechanical work. I'd say , sure....."While you're at it, add $345.00 to the price quote I just gave you. [laugh]
 
At least the rumpus room is wired for a tanning bed and a hot tub,
so if OP feels lucky, maybe there's enough capacity to run the welder on site.
We upgraded from 150 to 200 amps a while back and the tanning bed and hot tub stuff was all disconnected from the panel. not sure how many spaces are in the panel but its almost at capacity. I have a 50 amp range circuit I am going to get removed as well so I'll get a couple spaces back.
 
Aah, the old "While you're at it" line.

I used to get that doing mechanical work. I'd say , sure....."While you're at it, add $345.00 to the price quote I just gave you. [laugh]
T&M bro. We still do the same job 3 times before they finally figure out where the machine should go. There are machines I’ve wired and unwired 6-8 times!! Whatever the people that pay the bills want!
 
on the job, ya.. at your own house, who cares lol

Yea just nothing really that close to staple them too, wood trusses 24" OC. but I don't feel bad because hardly anything else is stapled lol. Lot of goofy things I'm finding too. For the kitchen lights they ran off a box about four feet to another box and then another 2 or 3 feet to the light (with no box) just spliced and tucked up in the ceiling, like why wouldn't you just use one piece of wire?
 
Aah, the old "While you're at it" line.

I used to get that doing mechanical work. I'd say , sure....."While you're at it, add $345.00 to the price quote I just gave you. [laugh]
An electrician friend (RIP via 14.4kv) told me customers often thought he was offering freebies when he asked "would you like another outlet over there?...", however, those same customers never thought McD was offering free food with the employee asked "want fries with that?".
 
I like to see at least a little of the romex insulation inside the box, and I usually use labels like "downstairs NW" because in 20 years nobody knows where the bunny was, but if all of my wiring at home looked as good as the "after" pic I'd be happy.

Usually when somebody says "wtf with this box" I expect to see manky 50's cloth romex with insulation so fried you can't even tell what's black and what's white, either no ground or maybe 16 gauge with a Boston wrap if you're lucky, and no slack to work with whatsoever and with ancient burnt tape gobbed over everything. The lack of romex clamps is pretty cringeworthy but with good access, good light, and nice modern cable to work with it's at least an easy fix. (Give or take the wire fill violation anyway.)
 
I like to see at least a little of the romex insulation inside the box, and I usually use labels like "downstairs NW" because in 20 years nobody knows where the bunny was, but if all of my wiring at home looked as good as the "after" pic I'd be happy.

Usually when somebody says "wtf with this box" I expect to see manky 50's cloth romex with insulation so fried you can't even tell what's black and what's white, either no ground or maybe 16 gauge with a Boston wrap if you're lucky, and no slack to work with whatsoever and with ancient burnt tape gobbed over everything. The lack of romex clamps is pretty cringeworthy but with good access, good light, and nice modern cable to work with it's at least an easy fix. (Give or take the wire fill violation anyway.)
Saw one of those on a detached garage at a former house. First I did after setting down my tools was call a licensed electrician who managed to make a good connection with 1" of wire sticking out of the basement wall. It's not just the electrical code knowledge but the skill at working with difficult stuff like this, fishing the unfishable, etc. that can make DIY more expensive than paying. The trick is having the skills to spot the difference early before you screw things up.
 
Usually when somebody says "wtf with this box" I expect to see manky 50's cloth romex with insulation so fried you can't even tell what's black and what's white, either no ground or maybe 16 gauge with a Boston wrap if you're lucky, and no slack to work with whatsoever and with ancient burnt tape gobbed over everything.
I had to look that up.
iu

I did see a tuna fish can used as a splice box for K&T wiring. The homeowner thought that after lunch, (a tuna sandwich, I guess) he cleaned out the tuna can and cut notches in it, then installed it around an open "T" splice in his attic around the K&T splice.

I need to change out some lights that are on 1920s BX (presuming two wire cotton insulated) but I'm too much of a candy ass to touch them because I'm afraid if I do the insulation may fall apart and then I have a shit show beyond my capabilities to fix. I've had a rusted out ceiling light in my bathroom that started to buzz/flicker and haven't used it in nearly 10 years (taped off the switch) because of this. Ditto for a kitchen pull chain fixture, that the rotary switch wore out on) that some a**h*** before I lived here must have pulled the junction box out of the ceiling joist it was attached to because the fixture is embedded in a few inches of spackle at an angle. I cringle at thinking at whatever hack job was done to wire the existing lights to the old wiring inside the junction boxes behind those fixtures.
 
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All I wanted to do is swap some lights…….. I would say this box is stuffed beyond capacity plus, no NM clamp. What Say ye all? Fortunately there is enough slack in the cables so it can be re-worked into a bigger box.

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there's a reason for the code book, if you learn how to use it you can determine the cubic inch capacity of the box and how many wires will actually fit in a certain size box or just take a hammer to the wires and pound them in till the cover will fit
 
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