Things to remember when buying a house

Does the prospective home have a security system? If you want one, make a note regarding its installation and approximate cost. Modern systems have battery-powered motion detectors that don’t require hard wiring, but the basic unit itself is wired, which means you need to supply power to it. This might not be a big deal, but it’s one more thing to add to your electrical wish list.

Do all the rooms have heat, either from a central heating system or electric room heaters? Some older homes have ancient heating systems and might only have one heating vent in an upstairs landing rather than heating for each individual bedroom. This means you’ll have the expense of supplying heat either with new ductwork (and probably a new furnace) or by running circuits for electric heating. Old homes offer a certain charm and comfort that are difficult to duplicate in most modern housing. Leaded windows, wide oak entry doors, and crown molding running along the ceilings aren’t common features in new construction. Neither are fuse boxes, tacky wiring repairs, and a shortage of receptacles and lights. Updating an old system will have to be figured into your budget (and ultimately your purchasing considerations) when you start house hunting. Throw in a new roof, plumbing, floor refinishing, and a kitchen addition, and Old World charm takes on an expanded definition—bring money!

More Testing

Turn on all the lights in each room. Next turn on various appliances, even hair dryers in the bathroom, and watch the lights for flickering. A slight flicker isn’t unusual, but a permanent dimming is a sign of an overloaded system. The same is true if an appliance repeatedly causes a circuit to trip.
If a switch doesn’t appear to control anything when you flip it on, it can be a sign of an old disconnected load or circuit. A do-it-yourselfer might leave the switch in place, but an electrician would remove it and cover the box with a blank cover plate. You want to check for signs that work was done properly, not slipshod.

A Breath of Fresh Air

Modern homes are tightly insulated, but they have plenty of mechanized ventilation in the form of kitchen and bathroom fans as well as whole-house fans on timers. These forms of ventilation try to ensure a regular exchange of fresh air, which is particularly helpful the first year after construction because carpets, plastic laminates, and paints give off all kinds of fun fumes, thanks to the wonderful world of chemistry. An old house is naturally ventilated through gaps in the windows, doors, and walls. Even so, you still should have fans in the kitchen and bathrooms. If these rooms remain unventilated, moisture hangs around and throws a party for its friends mildew and mold. This means more frequent cleaning and painting as well as a reminder that you burned the pancakes at breakfast because you can still smell them during dinner. Check for fans and make sure they’re working. Small fans (those with a low CFM or cubic feet per minute), whose main activity is making noise instead of getting the moisture and odors out, are next to useless and should be noted for replacement.

Attic Insulation Problems

Modern nonmetallic electrical cable is tough stuff, and it doesn’t require the open-air environment of older knob-and-tube wiring for heat dissipation. Even if you pack it up against insulation, it just laughs as long as cable-nibbling rodents don’t take up residence. Knob-and-tube wiring, on the other hand, can have a dysfunctional relationship with insulation due to heat buildup. It isn’t unusual to find knob-and-tube wiring buried under the blow-in type of insulation, so check your local code to see if this is allowed.
Older light fixtures also need clearance from insulation because they really build up heat, especially if they have more than one light bulb. Although newer zero-clearance fixtures are now sold, never assume they have been installed in an older house until you examine the fixture itself.

Checking Outdoors Electricity Installation of a House

Look closely at any outdoor lighting and receptacles. Bad wiring practices outdoors are especially unsafe because of the exposure to weather, especially moisture. All outdoor receptacles should be GFCI protected and should be enclosed by weatherproof boxes. Electrical cable must either be buried in plastic or rigid metal conduit or be the UF (underground feeder) type, which has a very heavy plastic sheathing.
Cable rated for outdoor use must be buried at specified. Anything buried too shallow for its particular type and circumstances is in violation of the code. Digging is a lot of work. I know one homeowner who did only a minimal burying, and the cable resurfaced from time to time during gardening chores. At another house, the roots of a growing tree gradually yanked a shallowly buried (and poorly located) cable to the surface. Old, corroded switches and receptacles with broken covers are a sure sign of needed electrical repairs. Check the service panel or fuse box and see if the outdoor fixtures are running on their own circuit. You might find that they are tied into another branch circuit inside the house, which isn’t a terrific idea.
Garages are another center for do-it-yourself addons run amok. The wiring here should be equal to any circuit inside your house and should not be a disarray of wires and extension cords stapled to the walls. Be sure to take note of any questionable work. Check the power lines as well for obstructions or worn cables. These are the utility company’s responsibility, but you need to report the problems so it can repair them.

Solutions in Dealing and Solving Aluminum Wiring

The obvious answer to any aluminum-wiring problems or potential problems is to replace it all with copper. How practical is this, however, if you have limited unfinished areas such as crawl spaces to run new wire or if you live in a condominium? You also would have to patch and repaint everywhere. Fortunately, there are other solutions. Aluminum wiring is most dangerous at the connections and termination points. The accepted remedy is to use a short piece of copper wire (usually referred to as a “pigtail”) to connect the aluminum wire to the switch, receptacle, or appliance after treating the exposed ends of the aluminum wire with antioxidizing paste (see the following figure). The best method, which is CPSC-approved as the only permanent repair, is done with the use of a special power crimping tool manufactured by AMP Incorporated (P.O. Box 3608, Harrisburg, PA 17105; 1-800-522-7652). This tool installs a metal sleeve called a COP/ALUM parallel splice connector.
This handy tool, which you’ll never find in a hardware store, permanently attaches a piece of copper wire to the existing aluminum wire along with the sleeve. The connection is then covered with heatshrunk insulation. This work should be done by professional electricians, not homeowners, so forget about trying it yourself with a cheaper crimping tool or another means of connecting the wires together. This is a specialized procedure that requires training provided by the manufacturer.
Note that some electrical boxes—the enclosures around switches, receptacles, and other devices— might not be big enough to house the additional pigtailed connectors and wire. It might be necessary to replace the box with a larger size, which will involve cutting into the wall and doing some patchwork to the plaster or plasterboard.
A partial repair can be made by replacing all standard outlets and switches with ULapproved devices marked “CU/AL,” which indicates that they can be used with either copper or aluminum wiring. The CPSC does not recommend these devices as a complete repair. Under no circumstances should any device connected to aluminum wire be back-wired. (If there are problems, you won’t see them.) The consumer booklet “Repairing Aluminum Wiring” (Publication 516) is available by writing the CPSC at U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Washington, DC 20207.

Warning: Aluminum Wiring Ahead

Not every house with aluminum wiring is an automatic time bomb waiting to burst into flames like a vampire caught outside at dawn. The warning signs used to check for overheating problems and loose connections include …

• Warm cover plates.
• Flickering lights.
• No power in a circuit.
• Sparks and arcing.

These signs are discounted by Dr. Aronstein, who states that they are not entirely reliable, do not always take place, or occur at a late stage in the failure of the wiring. He does, however, suggest turning the power off and examining individual devices and loads with a flashlight for the following:

• Charred or discolored plastic
• Back-wired devices
• Excessive tarnishing at the ends of the wires
• Damage to the thermoplastic sheathing including melting and bubbling Some wiring might not show any signs of deterioration because a particular circuit might never have had enough loads on it to cause overheating. If you plug a portable heater in, however, the status quo might change rapidly. The best defense is to monitor these circuits if their usage changes.

Any of these defects is cause for action. Are they enough of a reason for you to walk away from a potential property purchase? No, because even though technology caused the problems, it also can resolve them.

What to look for when checking for aluminum wiring?

Aluminum wiring primarily affects housing built from 1965 to 1973, but it also can be present in additions and remodeled sections of older homes if the work was done during these years. The first thing to look for during your snooping is the word “aluminum” printed or embossed on the plastic sheathing of the electrical cable. If the cable isn’t observable in an attic space or a basement ceiling, look in the service panel. Remove the cover plates and look at individual switches and receptacles to see whether the wire ends are copper- or silver-colored.

What’s the Story Behind Aluminum Wiring?

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), problems with aluminum wiring manufactured prior to 1972 include …

• Expansion and contraction of wires.
• Easily damaged during installation, because it’s a soft metal.
• Corrosion.

Aluminum wiring heats up more easily than copper wire from electrical currents passing through it because it has a higher resistance. As a result, aluminum wire must be one gauge size larger for a given circuit than if copper were used. Thus, a 15-amp circuit could use No.14 copper wire but would require No.12 aluminum. As a conductor, aluminum heats up when a current passes through it. Like any heated wire, it expands and contracts as it heats and cools, but aluminum is damaged more than copper by this cycle of temperature changes.
Adding to this problem are the connections (or terminations) at devices and fixtures. Aluminum tends to oxidize when it comes in contact with some other types of metals—the same ones that often compose the termination material (such as brass terminal screws). Now we’ve got a metal that’s already touchy about heating and cooling, and it’s also corroding and offering even more resistance to the current. The corrosion adds to aluminum’s natural resistance, making that resistance even worse.
As a result …

• The connections deteriorate and loosen at the terminals.
• There is arcing or a discharge of electricity across the gap between the end of the wire and the terminal.
• There is possibly enough heat to melt the insulation and cause a fire. Aluminum wiring can easily be damaged because it’s so soft. If a piece gets nicked while the insulation is being stripped during installation, the nicked area is weakened and can deteriorate faster than the rest of the wire as it heats up. So much for that 50 percent savings in material cost when this stuff was installed!

Aluminum Wiring

Human beings always are looking to substitute new, less-expensive versions of successful products that have been tried and true for years. Sometimes this works well (a cheap, hand-held hair dryer versus a full-size, hair salon, sit-in-the-chair-and-put-your-headinside hair dryer); sometimes it doesn’t (Yugos and Vegas versus most other automobiles). In the electrical world, the use of aluminum wire for running branch circuits falls into the latter category of substitutes gone bad.
Aluminum wire was installed in at least 1.5 million homes between 1965 and 1973. The material cost was as little as 50 percent of the price of copper wire, which made it a hit with homebuilders, even if it ended up being a false bargain for homebuyers. Unforeseen problems with the connections of the wire to devices lead to it being labeled a potential fire hazard and ultimately banned from most residential use. Although I could find no figures as to the actual number of homes that burned down due to electrical fires from aluminum wiring, there were enough to initiate studies, accusations, lawsuits, and not-so-veiled warnings regarding its use. The problem wasn’t immediately apparent because aluminum-wired circuits can take years to reach a failure point while still remaining functional. According to Dr. Jesse Aronstein (in his report “Reducing the Fire Hazard in Aluminum-Wired Homes,” prepared for the Electrical Safety Conference-Electrical Fires at the University of Wisconsin-Extension in March 1982 and revised May 10, 1996), a seemingly indefatigable researcher in this area, “The probability of an aluminum-wired connection overheating in a home varies considerably according to the types of connections, the installation methods used, and the circuit usage, along with many other factors. Without detailed knowledge of the installation in a particular home, it is not possible to provide specific advice on corrective measures.”
Is aluminum wiring a red flag in your house-purchasing adventure? Yes, but there are ways to deal with it intelligently.

Checking Smoke Alarms

The best smoke-alarm systems are connected to your house’s wiring and have a battery backup. A standalone, battery-powered alarm is better than nothing at all, but a wired/battery system is preferred. Check the house for smoke detectors and then check the detectors themselves. Press the test button on each smoke detector. If you don’t hear the annoying screech designed to just about wake the dead, you have a dead battery, a dead circuit, or a dead detector.

Testing The Home Electrical Installation

With a couple of simple testing devices, you can check for wiring problems including …

• Whether power is present at a device or fixture.
• Grounding continuity.
• Defective receptacles, switches, and fixtures.
• Whether outlets are properly wired.

A voltage tester should be in every electrical do-it-yourselfer’s toolbox. Consisting of two probes connected at a plastic housing that contains a small neon bulb, a voltage tester lights up when it detects an electrical current. It also can detect which incoming wire is the hot wire and the presence of a grounding conductor. The probes of the tester either are inserted into a receptacle’s slots or are held against the terminal screws that secure the wire to the receptacle. If the probes do not detect a current when inside the slots but do detect one when held against the terminal screws, this indicates that the receptacle itself needs replacement. If there’s no current at the screws, there’s a problem with the circuit.
Note: With back-wired devices, the probes are inserted in the slots next to the wires. The receptacle will have to be removed from the box. To safely remove the receptacle, turn the power off at the panel first, then remove the screws securing the receptacle, pull it out, and, finally, test it.
After removing the cover plate, be sure the switch is in the “Off” position. Place one probe on the metal box that holds the switch; if the box is plastic or nonmetallic, place the probe on the white or neutral wire. You’ll have to remove the switch from the box in order to reach the neutral wire; be sure to turn the power off first and then turn it on again for your test. Place the second probe on each of the black wires, or on the terminal screws holding the wires if they’re side wired. One of them—the line side or black wire supplying power from the circuit—should light up. If neither of them does, there is a problem with the circuit.
After you find the line side, turn the switch to “On” and place the probe on the other black wire, which is the load side, while keeping the other probe on the neutral wire. In the “On” position, the switch completes the circuit and the load side carries power to the light fixture. If the tester doesn’t light up, the switch is faulty and needs to be replaced. You test a fixture by holding the probes against each of the terminal screws with the light switch “On.” If your test shows a current, but the light isn’t working, you need either a new fixture or new light bulbs.

House Inspection Preliminaries

Note whether the house has fuses or circuit breakers and the size of the service. Look for an overall impression of the condition of the wiring and the number of loads. A sure sign of a shortage of receptacles is the presence of multiple-outlet plug strips or multiple outlet plugins, especially in the kitchen.
Are there enough ceiling lights? Do rooms seem too dark? Keep in mind that every room should have a switch-controlled light fixture. This doesn’t mean the fixture has to be installed in the ceiling or on the wall. A switch-controlled receptacle, a common feature in new homes, meets this code requirement because a floor or table lamp can be plugged into the receptacle and turned on from a wall switch.

Who Does the Inspection?

Professional house inspectors are very much a mixed bag. Some are extremely thorough and produce very detailed reports; others are less-impressive and depend too much on checklists and filling in the blanks. The very best person to inspect your electrical system is a licensed electrician, but you don’t want to be dragging one along every time you look at a prospective house. Save that for final candidates. Meanwhile, you can do a preliminary inspection yourself.

Caveat Emptor or Buyer Beware!

Whether it’s new, old, or in its teenage years, you’re taking a certain chance when you buy a house. All the warranties and assurances in the world won’t prevent leaks, squeaks, and lawsuits over roofing or siding materials, for example. I can speak from experience on the last one, because our house—purchased new in 1994—features the infamous Louisiana-Pacific LP Siding, the subject of a massive class-action suit and a multi-million-dollar settlement. The same scrutiny applies to electrical work. You have the law on your side with seller disclosure Form 17 and builder warranties, but you want to preclude any problems after you move in by ferreting them out before signing the final papers. An inspection and a disclosure form keep a seller honest and can bring up unseen problems that were unknown even to the seller.

Examine your prospective house

Your electrical inspection and checklist don’t just apply to your current home but also to a prospective residence. Despite the diligence of inspectors, they still can make errors when checking and approving newly constructed homes and remodeled additions. Any home purchase, regardless of the age of the house, should include a general inspection and an electrical inspection. This inspection will be more exacting than one in your own home because you will have no familiarity with a house that’s new to you, whereas you already know that your kitchen lights start flickering an SOS in Morse code every time you turn on your food processor and that they need to be corrected. An inspection will tell you more than simply the condition of the system. It will enable you to consider changes and additions and their possible costs before you buy. These factors can affect your purchase negotiations, especially if major work is called for such as installing a new service panel.

New homes, both those of your own design and those under construction by developers, deserve special attention with regard to your electrical needs. The planning and construction phases are certainly the ideal times to wire for as many light fixtures, receptacles, dedicated circuits for your computers, and specialized cable for phones and media as you desire. If you’re not sure about future TV or phone locations, wire every room for them and don’t worry about it. The labor cost to install wiring is far cheaper when the walls are open to the framing studs than after they’re finished.