On Oct 18, 8:42 am, " wrote:
On Oct 18, 9:16 am, Claude Hopper
wrote:

Phisherman wrote:
On Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:03:23 -0700 (PDT), Zippy the Wonder Turtle
wrote:

How dangerous is it to have old knob and tube wiring in your home?

Kenan
www.trustasc.com

Your insurance company will know.

Most insurance companies are jack asses.

insurance companies track carefully causes of claims, both primary and
secondary.

primary K&T has a failure and causes fire directly.
..
I believe all the electricians that have written on the subject here
say K&T is ok if it has not been abused. I have not seen insulation
deterioration on k&t except maybe above a light that pumps heat it the
j-box and kills any insulation (like the old circline fixtures).

A couple links on K&T (originally posted by Phil Munro) a
http://www.waptac.org/sp.asp?id=7190
is a report to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community
Affairs on adding building insulation around existing K&T wiring. No
record of hazard was found in the large number of K&T installations
that had insulation added around them. (Larry Seekon, whose comments
are quoted was head electrical inspector in Minneapolis.)

http://web.archive.org/web/200408250...maine.gov/pfr/
ins/hearing_2003-13680.htm
or
http://tinyurl.com/297uk7
is the record of a complaint to the Maine state Bureau of Insurance by
a homeowner against an insurance company. The insurance company denied
renewal of a policy based on K&T wiring. The insurance company was
ordered to renew the policy because the insurance company "provided no
justification for its position that knob and tube wiring per se
automatically provides grounds for nonrenewal".

(Compare with “Your insurance company will know.”)

IMHO insurance treatment of K&T houses is merely the latest redlining.
..
secondary aunt mary visiting trips over a extension cord strung across
middle of room, to overcome just one outlet iun the entire room.......
..
Not having enough outlets is not an argument for replacing K&T. My
house, as built, did not have enough outlets by current standards and
it was wired in rigid pipe.

--
bud--