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December 15, 2007
new wiring
I am renovating and wanted some advice. We need to rewire the whole place (four floors). We have decided to pull off the base molding and rewire there (hoping to save the plaster walls). We plan to put all electrical outlets in the base boards. Does anyone have any experience with this? If so, what challenges did you encounter?
Comments
I could be misunderstanding your question but it seems like if you are rewiring the house, you'll need to pull off more than the baseboards to get it done. How will you go from one floor to another? What about all the light fixtures and their switches? How will you run all the wires to the panel? As far as I know, all of that requires a lot of broken walls.
Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at December 15, 2007 10:04 PM
Code doesn't permit outlets as low as the baseboards and of course plasterwalls and ceilings must be broken throughout the house for a rewiring. It's a big job.
Get a few estimates and check with previous customers to see if the electrictions did minimal dame and restored the plaster to the owners' satisfaction.
Posted by: guest at December 15, 2007 10:28 PM
wow. the code point is interesting because the contractor nor the architect have mentioned that. They told ME they could do it through the base boards. In addition, I have seen wiring pulled and snaked out without digging in the walls and pulling down plaster. Now I'm confused.
Posted by: hhitchc at December 15, 2007 11:44 PM
Ok. I am wondering if the idea is to hide all the running wiring along the base board level and then just come up in places where the outlet will be. One more question. Does the electrition have to remove ALL the old wiring? And a newbie question, can the new wire be tied to the old wire and pulled through, like in the instance of a light fixture? (I have seen extensive patch jobs and minimal plaster patch jobs.)
I am just trying to arm myself with suggestions so when the contractor tells me he has to rip the 110 year old plaster walls down, I can counter.
Posted by: hhitchc at December 16, 2007 12:07 AM
It is fine to run the new wiring behind the baseboards and come up to the code required heights at the outlets. And yes, an elctrician can often pull the new wiring through the old greenfield using the old wire to pull.
Posted by: guest at December 16, 2007 8:44 AM
I'm in the process of having my 4 story house in Bed-Stuy completely rewired. There are outlets in the baseboard, a couple of which will be upgraded -- maybe not to code but, without going into detail, there's just nowhere else to put them. All the others will be disconnected and covered up with a blank. The new stuff will be in the wall, as required (this job is filed). The electrician has been running the wires and cables along the top of the baseboards. They haven't disturbed/removed any of them or the tin ceilings (and there are tin ceilings throughout the entire house, even in the closets). It's extra work to do it that way, and is generally more costly and very messy, but it IS possible. Anyway the electrician, so far, has done a terrific job of preserving the detail but there are A LOT of holes which, if you're not doing a gut reno, you can expect... The electrician is WCK Electric, a recommendation from this forum.
Posted by: guest at December 16, 2007 9:36 AM
If you're going to rewire the entire place, please do it right. It's going to be expensive and it's going to be a hassle, but don't go cheap. Yes they can run the new wiring along the baseboard, then up the wall to individual outlets, but somehow the wiring needs to go to the lights also, so you'll have nasty cuts all over the place. In reality, you should rip all the plaster out and re-drywall the entire place. It's the only way it's going to look good.
Posted by: guest at December 16, 2007 7:25 PM
That's nonsense. Don't rip anything out unless you have to or want to. If the walls and ceilings are in basically good condition, as mine are, a good handyman can patch them no problem and it's like "it never happened". Just prepare yourself for a big cleanup and a little horror at seeing your beautiful house punched full of holes. But afterward, when you've turned on the pretty wall sconce and are looking at your nicely repaired walls, it'll just be a distant memory. That's what I keep telling myself anyway :)
Posted by: guest at December 16, 2007 8:04 PM
I think 7:25 is just kidding. You do not have to rip the walls down to replace wiring. Thats just bananas!!!!
Posted by: guest at December 17, 2007 12:06 AM
12:06, this is 7:25. I wasn't kidding. You really should rip them all out and start over. Re-wiring is not an easy job. And a bad contractor can really screw up your plaster patching job...
Posted by: guest at December 18, 2007 1:27 PM
Hi
I used a company called Christopher John Electrical to do my wiring in my home.
Posted by: guest at December 28, 2007 2:38 PM
Hi, Happy New Year Brownstoners
Last year I used WCK Electric in a 4 story brownstone on Decatur Street, it was a massive job to rewire the entire house, I can tell you I highly recommend WCK, they were effecient,respected the time schedule given and cleaned and patched every hole they made. It can be costly, know way around that! But if this makes you feel better Con Edison comes out and inspects after the job is completed the permit is filed by the electrican.
Posted by: guest at January 2, 2008 2:33 PM
I'm in a similar situation with rewiring a Victorian house in Massachusetts. Several posters mentioned that code doesn't allow outlets at baseboard height. However, from everything I've read, the NEC doesn't have a minimum height.
Is this a local or State code in Brooklyn that you are refering to? If it is NEC, can you provide us with a reference? Thanks. (BTW, almost all of the outlets in our house are at baseboard level).
Thanks!
Posted by: guest at February 24, 2008 11:37 AM
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