The day I had to run cable in a house built in 1895

I was on a retrofit job in a historic district last week, and the plaster walls were so thick and crumbly my fish tape just kept getting stuck. The homeowner, an older guy, watched me for a bit and then said, 'Son, the last guy just went under the floorboards in the closet,' which saved me three hours of headache. What's the oldest building you've ever had to wire, and what weird trick did you find to get through it?

2 comments

2 Comments

laurac961d ago

That floorboard trick is a lifesaver. My worst was a 1920s brick house with plaster on metal mesh, not wood lath. The fish tape was useless, it just hooked on everything. Ended up having to use a ton of those rare earth magnets and a steel rod to pull lines through the old heating ducts. Did you find any other hidden paths in that old house, like maybe using the chimney chase or something?

finleyh891d ago

Check for old gas light pipes they left in the walls. @laurac96's magnet trick would work great for that. Found a perfect chase in a 1908 place that way, the pipes were still solid.