Liza Rhoades wrote:

Looking at a 1957 rancher. Was aluminum wiring common in the 50's.? I
will check it out further myself.

And...Most of the outlets are 2 prong. If I put a GFI at the head of
the curcuit will that protect the downstream outlets so I can replace
with 3 prong?

Thanks for any input. Will return later to check any replies.

For 15 & 20A branch circuits, where aluminum is the potential problem,
it was allowed starting in the early 50s. It wasn't used much until
until about 1965 when aluminum became significantly cheaper than copper.
Problems became apparent and 1971 UL removed its listing on wire and
devices. Soon UL started listing new devices which are marked CU/ALR
along with a new alloy wire. The "old technology" wire and devices may
be in dwelling constructed or modified 1965-1973. About 2 million
dwellings have the old wiring.

Aluminum wire has a distinctive silvery apearance, although some older
rubber insulated copper wire may be "tinned" which is also silvery.

A lot of information on aluminum branch circuit wiring is at:
http://www.inspect-ny.com/aluminum/aluminum.htm
Last time I looked, most of the information was derived from an
investigation on aluminum wiring done by the Consumer Product Safety
Commission.
If you have aluminum wiring the best information on fixes I have seen is at:
http://www.inspect-ny.com/aluminum/alreduce.htm
This is a "paper" writen by a professional engineer, based on extensive
testing of aluminum connections for the CPSC, and gives a wide range of
fixes.

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