Sadly, I had to attend the funeral of an elderly family member over the
weekend. There is a house involved that will have to be sold soon as none
of the descendants live in the area, and the "old farmhouse" was sold
years ago, this is just a house in which she was living.

In discussion with other family members (who have had a few days more than
I to work on getting this moving,) I was told that "FHA would require" the
fusebox to be replaced with a breaker box to qualify for a loan. True?
This just doesn't seem right to me.

More importantly visual inspection red-flagged the receptacles to me as
those old 2-prong T-slot ones, and I mentioned that to the other family
member (executor of will/estate/etc) then ran down to fusebox again to
investigate wiring. Here's what I eventually found.

- all wiring that appears to be original to the house is cloth covered NM
type cables, appear to be in excellent shape.

- Every single cable that was oriented so that I could read the printing
on it was marked "With Ground." Hmmm...

- pulled out a recep in the living room and I found a very nicely
installed single gang box, two cables coming into it, and yes they were
grounded! The two ground wires from the cables were spliced to a pigtail
which was screwed to the metal box. The recep of course was ungrounded.

- here's the kicker; that splice was *soldered.*

- and yes, the wiring is COPPER not aluminum thankfully!

- so to summarize, the wiring, other than not being 90C temp rated,
appears functionally identical to what would be installed today, with the
exception that the receps are obsolete.

So, I ASSume that what I should do, in the interest of inexpensively
removing what would be a red flag to a buyer, is to just go to the supply
house, buy a couple contractor packs of good duplex receps and some green
14 (or a box of greenies,) and roll through and replace all the receps in
the house with new 3-prong ones. Question is, what would be the best way
to splice to that soldered connection? I'm a little concerned with the
idea of just slapping a greenie on top of possibly 60 year old solder.
Should I twist a new pigtail into the bundle and add some solder? Or am I
all concerned about nothing and the wire nut of the greenie will bite
through the solder acceptably? If I should solder, what wattage iron did
a typical electrician use back in the day? I'm assuming this is going to
be typical of 20-30 boxes throughout the house so I am trying to plan my
moves so that I can roll through there in a day.

I probably will bring some GFCIs as well and put them in the kitchen and
bath as I don't believe that anything was ever updated, ever.

I don't know exactly when the house was built, but I am assuming sometime
in the 50's by the kitchen cabinets and countertop (which I love.)

Another interesting feature of the house is that the light switches are
all pushbuttons. I think there was a thread on these a while back where I
mentioned this very house, as I've never seen them elsewhere. Like this:

http://www.drillspot.com/products/68... ndard_switch

but ivory in color, and the button is perfectly rectangular and square to
the wall. When I go back I'll have to pull one out and snap some pics.

Sidebar question - my inclination is to keep the original switches and
plastic cover plates, as IMHO they "fit" the age and decor of the house.
Or do you think it would be better to replace the switches and plates as
well to provide a more "modern" look? I'm concerned with bang for the
buck here and the perceptions of the average buyer. I know that I'm not
average

thanks for any advice/opinions, esp. on how to deal with the solder
joints.


*If the boxes are metal and are grounded, you can use self-grounding
receptacles and switches. That would be a lot easier than opening up old
soldered splices.

I'm not sure why you plan to do all of this work. You can always try to
sell the house "As is". If you want to get the most money from the sale,
talk to a real estate agent or two from the area and they will tell you
exactly what to do to increase value and salability.

I have heard that certain lenders such as HUD and FHA have certain
requirements before they will extend a loan, but I would wait until you know
all of the facts.