Video: Electrical Upgrades for a Remodel

REDWOOD CITY — Host, Saran Rutan: If you’re having your home remodeled, take the opportunity to upgrade any outdated electrical components. Today we’re in Redwood City with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor Greg Danz of G. D. Enterprise to learn more.

Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, Greg Danz: Today’s tip is to talk about electrical upgrades when you’re doing a remodel. As you can see, a lot of homes built back in the forties, fifties, and sixties use knob-and-tube wiring. Knob-and-tube wiring is fine. It’s fairly safe, but as you can tell each conductor is independent. Neutral, hots are run independently from each other.

Modern wiring, which is called Romex, all your conductors are inside of vinyl sheathing, which protects them. First of all, it’s an insulator. The benefits of replacing knob-and-tube is it’s safer.

The knob-and-tube wiring over time, the sheathing on this wiring gets hot, old, brittle, and it falls apart and decays. You’ll notice many times when you change a light fixture, you go to touch the wires and all the sheathing on the wiring is gone. It’s decayed from the heat. That’s unsafe. You do not want heat conductors touching metal boxes and metal light fixtures.

With Romex, it’s all contained, plus it has a ground. Knob-and-tube wiring does not have a ground. That’s why you’ll see some homes have a two-prong receptacle versus a three-prong receptacle. The third prong is a ground wire, which knob-and-tube does not have.

So, when you’re taking the time to do a remodel, take the time to spend a little extra money and remove as much knob-and-tube wiring as you can, and upgrade to Romex. Your insurance company will be happy, and it will be much safer for you and your family. Thank you.

Host, Saran Rutan: To learn more from local, top rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.