PetrosA
Senior Member
- Location
- Lancaster, Pennsylvania
First off, I'm sensing a lot of stress here, needlessly. Old houses are usually easier to rewire than new ones because they aren't sealed up so tightly. From your post I'm assuming you haven't done much of this work, so my post may sound like "Vics for Dummies", but I'm only trying to help out.
Try to get an understanding of how the house was framed. Mostly at that time balloon framing was used, so you'll probably be able to fish right from the basement to the attic. You only have a two story to deal with so mostly you'll be working down from the attic and up from the basement (three ways will take a long route from the second floor switch up to the attic then back down to the basement then back up to your 1st floor switch). Remember that someone wired it to begin with, and that's a good place to look for chases. If the wiring was done after the house was finished, even better because you'll probably have some pieces of floor already cut up upstairs.
Helpful things to look for:
Already cut-up pieces of floorboard on the second floor. Many older houses had cheaper and wider pine flooring upstairs that's easy to cut up with a sawzall and good wood blade and won't show damage if you're careful. If this is an option, stock up on good blades. I recommend the Milwaukee Wood & Plastic blades 48-00-5015. They kick butt. Finish nails will get things back together.
Determine whether the K+T was built into the house or not (the presence of gas pipes for lighting would be a good clue). If not, you may find handy ways to get upstairs and you will likely be able to use the K+T as a fish to your switches since the wire won't be attached to a knob in the wall.
Other thoughts:
Baseboard recepts can be a pain with MC, but if you're allowed to wire with romex it should be pretty simple. I'd use metal boxes. For cutting in, mark your box on the board, drill out the four corners (remember that two corners should be wider for the box screws) plus two holes for your screw tabs, and finish the rest with the sawzall. If you want to be old school, you can even chisel out an indent for the box tabs
. Just keep in mind that you won't get more than two romexes in a square box in baseboard. The two biggest obstacles in fishing these walls will be fallen plaster blocking the bottom of the cavities and cats (either horizontal, or as someone mentioned they can also run at a 45? angle on bearing walls). One other thing to remember is when you cut lath for a switch, break the plaster out with a sharp screwdriver or chisel, then cut the side closest to the center of the bay first, then cut the side closest to the stud. This will help prevent the lath from breaking plaster loose. Those milwaukee blades work very well on lath at high speed with very little pressure, at least in my Hatchet.
You'll want a 15' or 20' piece of sash chain for fishing, and at least two fish tapes, one thicker, one thinner. Milwaukee makes a set of stubby spade bits with the click-on hex fitting that work great in a small impact wrench for drilling up into a wall once you have a piece of floorboard up. Keep lots of spare wood bits on hand. Old houses are tough on them.
The main thing for your price is to count on extra wire. Like I wrote, you'll need to take longer routes sometimes than you would in new construction and use 3 or 4 times as much wire (or more...). A trick to cut back on usage, assuming you can't take up any floorboards would be to drop one romex to each recept in a room and put a JB in the attic instead of looping from one to the other.
Send in pics when you get them and we'll try to help out
Try to get an understanding of how the house was framed. Mostly at that time balloon framing was used, so you'll probably be able to fish right from the basement to the attic. You only have a two story to deal with so mostly you'll be working down from the attic and up from the basement (three ways will take a long route from the second floor switch up to the attic then back down to the basement then back up to your 1st floor switch). Remember that someone wired it to begin with, and that's a good place to look for chases. If the wiring was done after the house was finished, even better because you'll probably have some pieces of floor already cut up upstairs.
Helpful things to look for:
Already cut-up pieces of floorboard on the second floor. Many older houses had cheaper and wider pine flooring upstairs that's easy to cut up with a sawzall and good wood blade and won't show damage if you're careful. If this is an option, stock up on good blades. I recommend the Milwaukee Wood & Plastic blades 48-00-5015. They kick butt. Finish nails will get things back together.
Determine whether the K+T was built into the house or not (the presence of gas pipes for lighting would be a good clue). If not, you may find handy ways to get upstairs and you will likely be able to use the K+T as a fish to your switches since the wire won't be attached to a knob in the wall.
Other thoughts:
Baseboard recepts can be a pain with MC, but if you're allowed to wire with romex it should be pretty simple. I'd use metal boxes. For cutting in, mark your box on the board, drill out the four corners (remember that two corners should be wider for the box screws) plus two holes for your screw tabs, and finish the rest with the sawzall. If you want to be old school, you can even chisel out an indent for the box tabs
. Just keep in mind that you won't get more than two romexes in a square box in baseboard. The two biggest obstacles in fishing these walls will be fallen plaster blocking the bottom of the cavities and cats (either horizontal, or as someone mentioned they can also run at a 45? angle on bearing walls). One other thing to remember is when you cut lath for a switch, break the plaster out with a sharp screwdriver or chisel, then cut the side closest to the center of the bay first, then cut the side closest to the stud. This will help prevent the lath from breaking plaster loose. Those milwaukee blades work very well on lath at high speed with very little pressure, at least in my Hatchet.You'll want a 15' or 20' piece of sash chain for fishing, and at least two fish tapes, one thicker, one thinner. Milwaukee makes a set of stubby spade bits with the click-on hex fitting that work great in a small impact wrench for drilling up into a wall once you have a piece of floorboard up. Keep lots of spare wood bits on hand. Old houses are tough on them.
The main thing for your price is to count on extra wire. Like I wrote, you'll need to take longer routes sometimes than you would in new construction and use 3 or 4 times as much wire (or more...). A trick to cut back on usage, assuming you can't take up any floorboards would be to drop one romex to each recept in a room and put a JB in the attic instead of looping from one to the other.
Send in pics when you get them and we'll try to help out
