cotton jacket wiring?

[Unregistered]

My husband and I recently had a house under contract and we rejected the contract. One of the things that the inspector found was old Cotton Jacket Wiring. Can someone please explain this to me and why it's a problem. Thanks.

[suemarkp]

Old wiring doesn't mean things are necessarily bad, as old pipes and wires should be expected when buying older homes. What is more important is the condition of those wires and how well it has been expanded over time. If you touch one wire and all the insulation flakes off, then the wiring should be replaced. If the integrity is pretty good, it may be able to be left. I'd be more concerned if there was a fuse box with oversized fuses, exposed wirenut splices, or aluminum branch circuit wires.

In the end, much wiring that is old (say 40 to 50 years or more) should be replaced because of lack of grounds and insulation integrity. And this can be a huge undertaking depending on the design of the house and whether you are willing to remove all the lath and plaster and do a major upgrade/remodel. Or, you can cut sections of the lath and plaster out and run new wires. If there is access above and below, you may not even need to do much wall demolition at all.

Bottom line is I wouldn't necessarily reject a house because of old wires. But I'd reduce the price paid compared to a similar type and age house whose wires have been upgraded. If you don't want to deal with this, then rejecting the house is the thing to do. But if you're looking at older houses, you may not find too many with recently upgraded wiring. Asking for "repair" money at closing to fix/upgrade the wiring is usually the best solution. This way, the rework can be to your standards and not to some seller's who wants to cheap out. You can have similar issues with old galvanized plumbing.

[Wgoodrich]

The last reply was pretty thorough. However I wanted to add the is you are buying a home it is common that an inspector paid for by a bank if the bank is reluctant to approve the loan will have a more picky home inspection. Then again if a strong loan in mind that same inspector may be a bit loose. Then if a seller pays for the inspector that inspection may be a bit loose. Remember the inspector is trying to cover him or herself in liability and serve the customer to the customer's advantage if they can to promote more business.

Then again there are major difference in skills of these home inspectors.

If you are buying a home you should hire your own home inspector after you have confirmed he has passed accepted testing to prove he knows what he or she is inspecting. Remember a home used many different trades with many different minimum safety rules for each trade. Hire an inspector that can and will show you his or her proof of having passed an accredited inspector's test such as Experior or issued by the International Code Council. These test are available anywhere in any town or nearby. An inspector providing proof of having passed an accredited inspector's testing format should provide you with confidence in that inspector's report. If they can not provide testing documentation then there will be a good chance of an inaccurate report from them.

Unless that inspector stated an unsafe condition of this cloth style Romex then he or she is not condeming but rather dating the age of the wiring for your reference. This inspector may not be flagging as unsafe but rather just mentioning the era the wiring was originally performed. For your information cloth style Romex was installed in the mid to late 50s. Plastic appeared in wiring style around the early to mid 60s.

Remember commonly a locality will not require licensing of inspectors and a taxi driver or other unrelated profession may be that inspector. Not trying to knock taxi drivers but question how much one would know about all 24 Code books and old methods of building structures in eras involved.

Contact your home inspector and ask for testing credentials to confirm just how much that inspector is skilled in what he is doing. Many people are surprised at lack of proof of any skills or formal education in home inspectors.

Hope this helps

Wg