On Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:29:29 -0700, David Nebenzahl
wrote:
On 9/11/2009 9:27 AM bud-- spake thus:
bob haller wrote:
does the clients homeowners insurance know they have K&T?
The home really needs a complete rewire bringing up to current code
once you muck with this a future fire can see you on the hook for
damages and insurtance company can go after you.........
K&T is very obsolete and what of attic insulation? as you said you
cant imbed K&T in insulation and the roof is the largest loss of heat
in a home......
The only links I remember 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/20040825060154/http://www.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".
In my opinion insurance rejection of K&T is the latest version of
redlining.
And if I remember right, the electricians in this newsgroup think K&T is
not significantly more hazardous than other wiring methods. If it has
been abused it can be a problem, as can other wiring methods.
Thank you very much for those useful links, which are a good antidote to
the previous poster's paranoia.
I must say, though, that as comforting as the findings there are (that
insulating around K&T wiring poses no dire threat), I won't do it. When
it comes to wiring I always like to err on the side of caution.
But yes, the previous poster's shrieks of alarm are unwarranted.
Properly done K&T wiring in good condition (as the wiring in this
particular house is) is no less safe than modren wiring methods.
EXCEPT it is not designed to handle the current requirements of
today's average home.
In a LOT of ways, it is actually SAFER (electrically) than current
wiring practices as the live and neutral are widely spaced.
Pretty hard to drive a nail through a wire and cause a short.
However, MANY older homes with K&T have NO BOXES. Therefore no "fire
enclosure" if a faulty device (switch , receptacle, or lamp base)
should start on fire. That's where the underwritters start having
fits. Particularly if there is flamable insulation around those wires.