Please help!

954 Views 13 Replies 5 Participants Last post by rrolleston, Feb 20, 2013

justinramani

Discussion Starter · Feb 19, 2013

I'm buying a house and need to know if this electrical looks ok. I mainly want to know of there is any evidence of aluminum wiring in the house. I can't afford to rewire. I have to make a decision in the next 4 hours. Please help!

Thanks

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rrolleston

· #2 · Feb 19, 2013

It definitely needs some work and those panels are not really that good from what I hear.

I don't see a need to rewire from the pics but maybe tidying up some of the boxes and replacing the breaker panel in the future would be a good start.

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justinramani

Discussion Starter · #3 · Feb 19, 2013

So it doesn't look like there is any aluminum wires to worry about?

Thanks for your quick response

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rrolleston

· #4 · Feb 19, 2013

What does the 60 amp breaker feed? Aluminium wire is still used to feed panels and sometimes large appliances.

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justinramani

Discussion Starter · #5 · Feb 19, 2013

Is it possible to tell from this pic?

Maybe outside plugs or storage bldg out back?

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Trucon01

· #6 · Feb 19, 2013

Looks like the storage building. Did you look inside the storage building to see if you could locate another panel?

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justinramani

Discussion Starter · #7 · Feb 19, 2013

I actually didn't notice any electricity at the storage building, but its very possible that I missed it. I need to get rid of any aluminum wire in the house for insurance purposes. Would it be reasonable to simply remove electricity to the shed? It's not a nice shed anyways. How expensive would that be?

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Trucon01

· #8 · Feb 19, 2013

The top left breaker is also AL, looks like it is your range? You could have more AL that we cannot see from the pics too.

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parman

· #9 · Feb 20, 2013

The 60A breaker is AL. the 30A breaker above it is AL. The top left breaker is AL. Your main feeds look to be AL but can't tell for sure.

Al wiring is really not an issue if handle properly. I know some people have come on here saying they can't get insurance, but I just don't get it. It's basically ignorance which is causing confusion and rash decisions.

If your insurance absolutely won't insure if ANY AL is in the house, then you have some work to do.

Quite a lot of large feeders in commercial building are done in AL. They still can get insurance.

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rrolleston

· #10 · Feb 20, 2013

Worst case you would have to replace the wire for those two circuits. It's still legal to feed sub panels with AL

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justinramani

Discussion Starter · #11 · Feb 20, 2013

I'm a little worried, but I think it's good that the other circuits are connected with copper. I'm going to be pretty stretched with the budget - so I want to make sure in not getting in over my head. What's a good idea of the cost to get the necessary items fixed?

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Speedy Petey

· #12 · Feb 20, 2013

justinramani said:
I'm going to be pretty stretched with the budget - so I want to make sure in not getting in over my head.

Is it a good idea to get into a home with a stretched budget?
Can you afford the house with a few thousand left in the bank? If not I'd be surprised if you even get a mortgage.

justinramani said:
What's a good idea of the cost to get the necessary items fixed?

Absolutely NO WAY to tell from here. Not even a clue. All we have to go on is a few blurry pics of some panels and boxes. We have no idea where these circuits go, how long, what path, etc. A wild guess would not even be close to accurate.

Did you not get a home inspection?
What inspection do you need to get rid of the AL wiring for?

As the others have said, AL wiring larger than #10 is NOT a problem. Anyone that tells you it is is either trying to sell you something with scare tactics, or does not know what they are talking about.

I'm sorry, but it needs saying. If you are coming to an internet message board in a panic, with a 4 hour time frame, asking these questions, where the answers will be the basis for buying a home (!!!), you are NOT getting off on such a good foot.

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justinramani

Discussion Starter · #13 · Feb 20, 2013

Fair enough. Here is the rest of the story:

The house is a foreclosure that I'm getting for 28k. I need to send the earnest money, but before I commit to $1,000 I wanted to make sure that I was not going to have a 10k electric bill to rewire the house with copper to make it safe. It will be a rental, but that doesn't matter - safety is still my #1 concern. Paying to get a 28k house rewired would make kill the deal. I can manage to spend maybe $800-$1500, but its something that I didn't originally budget for.

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rrolleston

· #14 · Feb 20, 2013

Getting someone to come in a fix all the issues with all the outlets would be a start and making sure that the kitchen and bathroom have GFCI protection.

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