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Don’t complain about your garage wiring
- Thread starter Shiftless
- Start date
exranger06
Well-known member
I have a small attached garage (20x22). When I moved in 4 years ago, the lighting consisted of 2 100w incandescent bulbs hanging in porcelain fixtures. There were only 2 outlets, and one of them was on the ceiling for the garage door opener. Both outlets and the lights were all on the same 15A circuit. That same circuit also feeds some bedroom outlets and some other lights.
I replaced the light fixtures with 2 8' fluorescent fixtures (and eventually converted them to LED tubes), and added a 4' fixture over the workbench, and another 4' fixture as a task light. I installed a 100A subpanel in the garage and ran surface-mount EMT conduit everywhere, adding about 18 outlets total on all the walls, on three 20A circuits. Also wired up a 240V electric heater, and I'm currently trying to finish up wiring my 60 gallon air compressor, which I installed in the basement, on the opposite side of the house from the garage.
I used to complain about my garage wiring...a lot...but not anymore!
I replaced the light fixtures with 2 8' fluorescent fixtures (and eventually converted them to LED tubes), and added a 4' fixture over the workbench, and another 4' fixture as a task light. I installed a 100A subpanel in the garage and ran surface-mount EMT conduit everywhere, adding about 18 outlets total on all the walls, on three 20A circuits. Also wired up a 240V electric heater, and I'm currently trying to finish up wiring my 60 gallon air compressor, which I installed in the basement, on the opposite side of the house from the garage.
I used to complain about my garage wiring...a lot...but not anymore!
Falcon67
Well-known member
My grandads shops were all like that.
What era did k&t wiring get phased out? I've never seen it before. I find the different standards used for wiring in different places quite interesting (Yeh..I know...)
My first house (1923 brick built arts & crafts housing project) was originally wired with loose insulated wire in metal tubes, roughly 3/8" diameter, with metal junction boxes joining the pipes. It was long gone by the time I bought the house in 2005, but I found some of the old pipes behind the plaster as we remodelled. Kinda weird, like a tiny version of the trunking you would see in an industrial unit.
My current house was probably not wired until the 50s, it had rubber insulated t&e originally. I lifted some old floorboards, I found a charred section where it had caught fire.
My first house (1923 brick built arts & crafts housing project) was originally wired with loose insulated wire in metal tubes, roughly 3/8" diameter, with metal junction boxes joining the pipes. It was long gone by the time I bought the house in 2005, but I found some of the old pipes behind the plaster as we remodelled. Kinda weird, like a tiny version of the trunking you would see in an industrial unit.
My current house was probably not wired until the 50s, it had rubber insulated t&e originally. I lifted some old floorboards, I found a charred section where it had caught fire.
Last edited:
dutchgray
Well-known member
What era did k&t wiring get phased out? I've never seen it before. I find the different standards used for wiring in different places quite interesting (Yeh..I know...)
I don't think K&T was ever used in the UK, I haven't ever seen any here either, in the USA it was common until the 1940's or so.
We in the UK used rubber insulated cables, which degrades and falls away leaving bare live wires, or rubber insulated wires in a lead outer casing which was a bit better but the rubber still gives out and it will short out internally especially if disturbed, or metal conduit with singles like you found in your own house, but that is quite rare as it was more expensive to do.
Then we moved on the the PVC insulated and sheathed cables that we still use today.
AntonLargiader
Well-known member
My house was built in the early '30s and has K&T distribution with some BX connecting to specific outlets. Also of course it's BX wherever it was buried in plaster (ground floor walls are solid brick).
The BX is galvanized steel, and the wires inside look pretty much like those that were used for the K&T: they seem to be tarred and then covered with fabric.
It's annoying how small those outlet boxes are. They all have to be replaced to upgrade anything.
The BX is galvanized steel, and the wires inside look pretty much like those that were used for the K&T: they seem to be tarred and then covered with fabric.
It's annoying how small those outlet boxes are. They all have to be replaced to upgrade anything.