update: 5000sf mansion rewire

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newservice

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Syracuse NY
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Electrician extraordinaire
NOt sure if this is kosher, but the original thread started by me is now closed.
http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php?t=147021&highlight=newservice

I did end up going time and materials. I made a bundle, but not nearly what a big shop would have got by contracting it. It sure was nice warm work in the winter and kept me busy August to March. In fact I'm going back now to extend overhead feeder to the garage and who knows what else.

So, here is how it shook out. I ended up cutting a 4" channel around the top of every baseboard in every room to be rewired. Then cut some bigger holes, drilled from floor to floor (3 floors above grade) and fished romex and cable to almost every room. Oh, forgot to mention the unexplained layers of BRICK encountered in the walls between the floors. No baloon construction there. That was fun. Not. And the Canvass ceilings. Yes canvass. Needless to say we used a lot of sconces. Then drilled the studs in the channel and again pulled romex.
The baseboards were a good thick hardwood of some sort, and 12" tall. Lent perfectly to cutting in old work boxes. Pared back on the old k&t style outlets and allowed that to stay, ended up with only a handful of those and left most the existing lighting outlets, which were re-used with most of the original fixtures because the owner was obsessed with keeping it as original as possible. The k&t was all very well executed, splices solid and #12 copper throughout.

Existing 150A service entrance OH and changed out for a 200A in 2"pvc , outside meter, 200A C&H panel, and a 100A sub panel half way across the basement. All the plaster on the basement ceiling was removed and so was a pile of old 1/2 conduit and boxes that was 10 feet long and waist deep. All my new wiring went right up in that ceiling just like a new house. K&T was removed wherever visible and spliced into.
2 circuits of smoke and CO detectors were put in to avoid going beyond the 12 device maximum rule (discussed in other forums). Also 2 heat detectors in the attic.

anyway.
 

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newservice said:
NOt sure if this is kosher, but the original thread started by me is now closed.
http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php?t=147021&highlight=newservice

I did end up going time and materials. I made a bundle, but not nearly what a big shop would have got by contracting it. It sure was nice warm work in the winter and kept me busy August to March. In fact I'm going back now to extend overhead feeder to the garage and who knows what else.

So, here is how it shook out. I ended up cutting a 4" channel around the top of every baseboard in every room to be rewired. Then cut some bigger holes, drilled from floor to floor (3 floors above grade) and fished romex and cable to almost every room. Oh, forgot to mention the unexplained layers of BRICK encountered in the walls between the floors. No baloon construction there. That was fun. Not. And the Canvass ceilings. Yes canvass. Needless to say we used a lot of sconces. Then drilled the studs in the channel and again pulled romex.
The baseboards were a good thick hardwood of some sort, and 12" tall. Lent perfectly to cutting in old work boxes. Pared back on the old k&t style outlets and allowed that to stay, ended up with only a handful of those and left most the existing lighting outlets, which were re-used with most of the original fixtures because the owner was obsessed with keeping it as original as possible. The k&t was all very well executed, splices solid and #12 copper throughout.

Existing 150A service entrance OH and changed out for a 200A in 2"pvc , outside meter, 200A C&H panel, and a 100A sub panel half way across the basement. All the plaster on the basement ceiling was removed and so was a pile of old 1/2 conduit and boxes that was 10 feet long and waist deep. All my new wiring went right up in that ceiling just like a new house. K&T was removed wherever visible and spliced into.
2 circuits of smoke and CO detectors were put in to avoid going beyond the 12 device maximum rule (discussed in other forums). Also 2 heat detectors in the attic.

anyway.
Click to expand...

inside pics? these older homes can be a challenge
 
Umm, when you say canvas ceilings, what exactly did you find? There used to be an asbestos cloth that resembled canvas used in homes between floors as a fire barrier, and my first guess would be that that's what you were seeing here. You might want to get it checked out.
 
PetrosA said:
Umm, when you say canvas ceilings, what exactly did you find? There used to be an asbestos cloth that resembled canvas used in homes between floors as a fire barrier, and my first guess would be that that's what you were seeing here. You might want to get it checked out.
Click to expand...

I would say it's a little late for that.
If it is asbestos I would not want to be the one that brought that up after the fact.....
 
PetrosA said:
Umm, when you say canvas ceilings, what exactly did you find? There used to be an asbestos cloth that resembled canvas used in homes between floors as a fire barrier, and my first guess would be that that's what you were seeing here. You might want to get it checked out.
Click to expand...

It was not unheard of for canvas to be used under plaster on ceilings. I think it is for the texture, or maybe to reduce cracking. In some cases it was used to repair cracks back before there was fiberglass mesh available. I think there was also some kind of cloth made of goat or horse hair that was sometimes used with plaster.

might be that the bricks you encountered were some kind of fire stop.
 
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petersonra said:
It was not unheard of for canvas to be used under plaster on ceilings.
Click to expand...

Three of my customers have canvas ceilings in their formal rooms, they were a fashion for a while and not terribly uncommon in some older, nicer homes.

You don't run into too many of them now because of all the bad remodeling that seems to have taken place during the disco era...they got replaced with crappy acoustic ceilings to hide the cracked plaster and rewiring holes. ;)
 
petersonra said:
It was not unheard of for canvas to be used under plaster on ceilings. I think it is for the texture, or maybe to reduce cracking. In some cases it was used to repair cracks back before there was fiberglass mesh available. I think there was also some kind of cloth made of goat or horse hair that was sometimes used with plaster.

might be that the bricks you encountered were some kind of fire stop.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's what we were thinking, the bricks between SOME of the floors might be fire stops.

No folks, when I say canvas ceiling, I mean canvas ceiling. The canvas was the finished ceiling. NO longer code obviously as a fire risk,and a huge one at that, this was used widely for a time in the big old houses. Fancy moulding hid the rack that it was wrapped around it , then they lifted the rack and nailed it. Saved alot of plaster finishing time, has a smooth appearance. London was big on it. But, you must use a certain kind of paint that none of the suppliers carry any more and only a few of the old timers remember called Creotine or something like that. If you paint it with anything else it will literally drop to about 4 feet off the floor. Relax tho, because the next morning will have sprung right back up into place. New owners of this place were crazy about it, even the living room where plaster had fallen onto it and bowed it down a couple feet, and also where the plumbing had leaked upstairs and bowed it down another few feet. That section actually came back up after the plumbing was fixed.
 
ceknight said:
Three of my customers have canvas ceilings in their formal rooms, they were a fashion for a while and not terribly uncommon in some older, nicer homes.

You don't run into too many of them now because of all the bad remodeling that seems to have taken place during the disco era...they got replaced with crappy acoustic ceilings to hide the cracked plaster and rewiring holes. ;)
Click to expand...

Hey thanks Chris, you should stop by sometime Ill show ya the place.
 
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