old home aluminum wire

[enireh]

what to do on an old home with aluminum wire? everything looks good other than two wires to the outlets no ground, wiring in the attic all looks good, is ok to go through and just check out all connections and if they are looking and feeling good then let it be? It is an old couples home they want to buy and this place has always been just like it is until now with a home inspection To go in and rewire would cost mucho dinero what is the professional thing to do here?

 

[mbrooke]

what to do on an old home with aluminum wire? everything looks good other than two wires to the outlets no ground, wiring in the attic all looks good, is ok to go through and just check out all connections and if they are looking and feeling good then let it be? It is an old couples home they want to buy and this place has always been just like it is until now with a home inspection To go in and rewire would cost mucho dinero what is the professional thing to do here?

Wait no ground and yet it has AL? What year was the home originally built? Are you sure this is not just tin coated copper? AL wiring was made available when grounding was already in effect.

 

[enireh]

Wait no ground and yet it has AL? What year was the home originally built? Are you sure this is not just tin coated copper? AL wiring was made available when grounding was already in effect.

I was emailed an inspection report an it spoke of aluminum wiring throughout the house and no grounds to the outlets, two wires only hot and neutral I would guess I have not been there, only read report and looked at photos

 

[user 100]

what to do on an old home with aluminum wire? everything looks good other than two wires to the outlets no ground, wiring in the attic all looks good, is ok to go through and just check out all connections and if they are looking and feeling good then let it be? It is an old couples home they want to buy and this place has always been just like it is until now with a home inspection To go in and rewire would cost mucho dinero what is the professional thing to do here?

As mbrooke noted, al without an egc is highly unlikely and its more likely to be tinned copper- by the time AL became popular in the mid 60's, the NEC had already mandated an egc.

One dead give away is going to be the cable appearance- if its a plastic jacket, its almost certainly AL NM and if it is a cloth jacket, tinned copper. You will know for sure when you scrape the wire- if some silver comes off to reveal copper- its tinned copper. If it doesn't, its AL.

One other possibility is that it is indeed AL NM but the egc was terminated to the back of the box, hiding it. Its something they did a long time ago in residential. They would even often use 2 wire receptacles in such installations, which can further mask an already present egc.

 

[mbrooke]

I was emailed an inspection report an it spoke of aluminum wiring throughout the house and no grounds to the outlets, two wires only hot and neutral I would guess I have not been there, only read report and looked at photos

My guess is that either the EGC was cut off (assuming it truly can not be found and the testers show open ground) or its tinned copper from days before the NEC mandated grounding. If you have 14 gauge wire on those suspected circuits, that is a 100% grantee its copper wire. Reason I say this is that when AL NM wire came out, grounding was already well into effect- and 15 amp circuits in AL required #12 and 20amp circuit required #10.

 

[infinity]

I was emailed an inspection report an it spoke of aluminum wiring throughout the house and no grounds to the outlets, two wires only hot and neutral I would guess I have not been there, only read report and looked at photos

As others have stated it might not be aluminum conductors which would be my guess too given that there are no EGC's. Wouldn't be the first time someone got this wrong on an inspection report. If you post the photo'd we'll know for sure.