He's correct in a properly wired house it would be much easier to diagnose. I did work backwards from the non working receptacles (which are grounded), to the switch which would be the starting point in a house up to code. The switch was non grounded with very old style cloth insulation and didn't have any outgoing leg to feed anything else.
Is the comment about the SWITCH ...
- Thread starter Esthy
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jumper
Senior Member
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- 3 Hr 2 Min from Winged Horses
Er...um...ya wanna tell us what you are talking about?:?
I am dumfounded of that comment as well. I used to live in Tucson and a friend of mine purchased a house that has some Knob & Tube and it has some receptacles that are not working and trying to direct him by email and telling him to hire a licensed electrician, but according to my friend, a "very respectable and professional non-licensed electrician" examined the situation and wrote the comment about the switches and the problem in not having those legs ... I DONT KNOW WHAT TO SAY! to my friend, he's a senior with some Alzheimer. This professional want to "fix this problem". I posted here, because with Knob & Tube I don't have too much experience ... maybe he is correct ... Isn't he? I am almost ready to call the authorities there and stop that ..
Ok, don't quite know whats going on here, but I'm going to take a shot anyway-The "electrician" may be referencing the apparent lack of neutrals (maybe his definition of "legs") in those old sw boxes or the fact that a neutral(s) are being switched-both of these are very common in K&T. Boxed splices of any kind seem to rare in work of this vintage: most splices were soldered and taped and left pretty much wherever, and if they were boxed, those shallow ceiling boxes seem have been a favorite.
As for his receptacles not working-a loose connection that could be anywhere, bad ocpd etc ;he really needs to contact an legitimate ec.
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- Licensed Electrician
Your friend needs an electrician. The nonprofessional electrician may be competent and do acceptable work for newer work, but K&T is needs an electrician that knows enough to know which wire is what even if they are all the same color.
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- Tennessee NEC:2017
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Esthy, your post reminds me of my late Mother who would start talking about something and we would have no idea what she was talking about. Turns out she was thinking about something then started talking about it assuming we knew what she had been thinking.
Try starting at the beginning and tell us everything from the beginning. With what you posted there is no way on earth to know what you're talking about. If it's something from another thread, post a link to it or tell us the title of the thread.
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