Hi all,
I've begun electrical work in a house I'm inheriting that was built in 1900. I'm running into a few issues.
Like most homes in our area, the entire second and third floors, and half of the ground floor is all on one breaker. This is what I'm assuming to be the original wiring of the house that was carried over from a fuse box to a circuit breaker panel. So the question is, how do I go about splitting this up? Before I move I am remodeling the master bedroom top to bottom, pulling out all the walls and flooring since it has as spongy issue. I figured it would be best to redo the electrical in this room while I'm there.
I do understand I will not know what I'm dealing with until it's pulled out, but what happens if this room is in the middle of run in this original circuit? (i.e. wiring enters from another second floor room, runs to all receptacles in master bedroom, then proceeds on to the attic) - How do I go about removing the old receptacles (there's 4) and keeping power flow to the rest of the house?
There is also an issue with two gang switch boxes. In both the ground and second floors (actually directly above one another) are two two gang switch boxes that only contain one switch each. One just has a two switch plate on it, with one switch missing. The other has a single switch plate on it with the other side plastered over- I kid you not. We also found papers shoved into the plastered side touching some wires, no clue what they were thinking. Anyway, in both these boxes are wires that are just taped off with old brown tape. The other sides go to three way setups for the stairwell and a separate three way setup for the dining area (one switch on each side of the house for two entrances). These wires make me extremely nervous since they are just taped off and not contained in any sort of electrical junction box. The ground floor box was literally cut down the middle to turn it into a single gang box.
Last issue, is that when originally testing the circuits flipping them off one by one, we labeled the house and the breaker box. So when we were inspecting these switches we switched off the appropriate breaker. When I checked for current with my tester it lit up. I also noticed some things were now turned off that weren't before when testing and labeling the panel. I also noticed some things that turned off before now remain on. What could possibly cause that or did we just make an error? Is something crossing somewhere?
Last question is more advice than anything- I am relatively new to the hands on experience with wiring, I've read up a lot and am fine with 'how' to do it, just haven't experienced it a lot first hand. When placing the devices back into their boxes (receptacles, switches, etc.) I can't seem to get them to fit. They either don't go in at all, or tighten up slanted or crooked. What am I doing wrong and is there an easier way?
Thanks for any and all help!
