Rehabbing a Home That Has Aluminum Wiring
Rehabbing a home built between 1965 – 1973? Chances are the house has aluminum wiring. If so, you need to know how to deal with this dwelling so your costs are covered and develop positive the home is apt since working with aluminum wiring has to be treated differently than with copper wiring.
Why did they initiate using aluminum in the first station?
Aluminum wiring was installed in most of the homes built between 1965 – 1973 because the high expend of copper by the military during the Vietnam War. This made obtaining copper wire difficult and expensive. The alternative was aluminum wiring which was plentiful and cheap, but the potential exertion it posed was not recognized at the time.
What makes aluminum wiring more risky that copper?
Aluminum by nature is a softer metal that copper, it contracts and expands more when heated and is more susceptible to oxidation, which is a thin film on it’s surface caused by oxygen. It should be notorious that this pertains to only to the smaller single wires that you glimpse on wall receptacles and switches. The aluminum stranded wiring you inspect on the 220 volt appliance and air conditioning circuits do not pose a scrape. When aluminum wires are only hooked together, like you would with copper, the wires expand and contract then novel flows through them which produces heat from the dreadful connection and if the wires has oxidized, this will heat up the connection even further, causing a potential for overheating and a possible fire.
How can I drawl if the house has aluminum wiring?
The best intention to know is to have it verified by an electrician or home inspector. You can check yourself but of course, you need to be careful. I do not suggest that you lift the breaker panel hide which will indicate all the wiring from the circuits, but you could turn the breaker off to a room and steal the camouflage plates to the light switches and receptacles and loosen the screws that bear them in the electrical box. Pull the switch or receptacle out and contemplate at the bare wire around the connection screw. Aluminum will be shiny silver. This is not to be confused with tinned copper wiring which has a boring silver do, but this was faded in a worthy earlier time.
What special precautions need to be taken when working with aluminum wiring?
My best advice is to have all the wiring evaluated by a licensed electrician for safety, preferable one that is familiar with aluminum and if you can sustain from changing out receptacles, switches and lighting that would be best, unbiased don’t mess with it. I know if you are doing a complete rehab, you will want to change out lights, extinct and dirty light switches and receptacles with many coats of paint, but if you can trim them up, you are better off.
Other options are:
1. Rewire the house with copper wiring. This is not great of a choice since a typical house could cost ten thousand dollars or more.
2. You can connect copper to a typical outlet or switch and attached to it to the aluminum wire in the wall. You would need to hire an electrician to do the connections using the celebrated contrivance called Copalum, which utilized a special connector and a high pressure crimping tool to create the connection. This would be very expensive if you even could fetch an electrician that detached has the equipment. I have heard of around $10.00 – $15.00 per connection.
3. Change out switches and receptacles with special aluminum rated ones. You can derive them at electrical supply companies, online or I have found them at Lowes. The plight is they are more expensive. You will pay about fifty cents for a normal copper rated wall outlet, but an aluminum rated one will cost about $3.75 and a wall switch is about $4.50. Needless to say, this will add up costs to your bottom line, but aloof cheaper.
4. There is a connector sold that has had ample testing results named Alumiconn. These are smooth about $3.00, so you might as well expend another dollar and consume the aluminum rated outlet or switch. I would utilize these for connecting light fixtures or other connections.
The other precaution to prefer is to consume an anti-oxidant paste on all connections. This is a thick grey paste that keeps the wire from oxidation and benefit prevent resistive heat.
The notable thing to remember when working with aluminum wiring is that it is not the wiring itself that is makes it perilous, it is the wiring connections. I am reminded of last year when I inspected a home that was featured on the TV indicate “Flip this House” and the guys that did the rehab, did their contain wiring and honest ancient a normal twist connectors to join wires together. A licensed electrician had to be called in to rewire the entire home and the notice of the home had to be lowered to allow for these repairs. They didn’t want to exercise the extra money on the genuine outlets and switches and it pain up costing them more in the long hurry. You want to set out a quality and genuine home and not keep others at risk, so please be careful when dealing with homes with aluminum wiring.
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