<p>CB, it’s looking great! I really appreciate the time you take to post your progress and, truly, you have my condolences around the mess with the sewage…yuck! I love the tile you picked for the shower. That vacation is going to be one well-earned respite…sorry about the timing but, who knows, maybe your lead is right!</p>
<p>Believe me, I cannot wait to finish the front porch either. But, it’s a dancing game because I’m not sure whether we need a permit of not. Definitely do not have plans, drawings or engineering. Permit required fie decks over 30", its not over 30 inches. No permit needed for unattached patio covers. Those posts are exactly one inch from structure. But I see some fine print about Pitched roof, I think patio cover has to be flat roof. So I’m stalled for a bit because I still need my gas line inspection to get gas turned on.</p>
<p>Turns out that SDGE refuses to turn on gas at a house that was red tagged without City inspection for the repairs. This is new because I had a house about 2 yrs ago that was red tagged and SDGE came and did a very thorough inspection themselves. Must be some kind of City revenue generation scheme. But now I have to go deal with the City again, Oh Boy.</p>
<p>PG&E will not turn on electric for my project without city permit either, and the rough inspection requires no sheet rock on the wall.</p>
<p>But for gas inspection, you just have a pressure gauge on the gas line with 15 psi air in the system. However, the inspector may come and see some thing else and start inspect it.</p>
<p>Artlover, was your electricity red tagged? My electricity is fine and was turned on when I purchased the property. It’s just the gas that is red tagged. </p>
<p>Believe me, I am shaking in my boots about how we are going to get the City around the outside of the house to look at the pressure gauge. For some stupid reason this local City requires a Permit just to install a new water heater, even if it is same kind going into same location. That means that every time some poor homeowner goes into Home Depot and buys a new water heater and pays Home Depot to send out an installer, there is supposed to be a permit. I have no idea why that is, maybe to make sure the earthquake straps are on the heater or something? That one borders on the ridiculous. </p>
<p>Big mistake on my part… I think I’ll pull water heater permit also since the guy will be walking by our tankless system. Which then might lead to… how did the new water lines get in here for this water heater? Boy oh boy, never a dull moment</p>
<p>IMHO, CB, you have lots to think about it. One thing may lead to another. A water tank which is re-routed may trigger a water line inspection…etc, that is major. Yes, every town requires a permit for water tank inspection now, they want to see the TPR being routed to outside and looking down, the water line pass 50psi air test, the gas line pass 15 psi test, the ground wire installed properly… then after all those, you have to install earth quake shut off valve at the gas meter… lots to know. We were with the inspector for over one month. and those RE-Inspection penalties… HAVE FUN… You have opened a can of worms…</p>
<p>Regarding my electric being turn off by PGE, its a long and sour story. In short, we re-route the electric panel from inside to outside and even we passed the town rough in inspection, the PGE did not agree and think we were in “danger” and turned off the electric to “save” our life… the saga goes on and on.</p>
<p>And just days ago we have to video tape the sewer line to get a sewer certificate and I am almost in contract with a buyer.</p>
<p>Another major problem we had regarding inspection was that they send different inspectors each time they come. Different inspectors have different backgrounds and requirements, one may want you to do this, the other may come and say “Oh, that is dumb, but you have to do another thing”. It is better to have it passed the first time, otherwise, you will never have end of it. An experienced contractor with good planning and experience can avert all these hooplas. But a self taught from a half way house “flipper” like me do not have enough knowledge to even write up that permit properly and that was very costly.</p>
<p>With a wimp, I wrote on the permit application “whole house re-wire”, that was the beginning of my major headache. I was lucky, did not say “whole house re-build”…:)</p>
<p>Today was a very expensive lumber day. We built the supporting structure for a very large back deck and today I needed to get all of the lumber to build the top part of the deck and a couple more supports.</p>
<p>Had to load over 70 pcs of lumber into the truck and try to make it back to the project without blowing the tires or getting some kind of ticket. I just cannot believe we got it all into the truck. I loaded a couple of photos to the group page.</p>
<p>Granite installed in kitchen today! Yeahhhh!!! we are looking like a livable space</p>
<p>Something interesting–and alarming–I just heard: reportedly, in CT one can no longer get homeowner’s insurance for a house where the electric system was put in more than 30 years ago! We’re not talking knob and tube, we’re talking 1960s and 1970s construction!</p>
<p>^ That would be 70% of the housing stock in CT. Doesn’t seem credible.</p>
<p>I searched a little, but I couldn’t find anything about that.</p>
<p>I know, that’s what I thought. But my mother knows someone who is currently in the process of buying a house who has apparently run into this.</p>
<p>I will say that these things change. We have a old house that has some remaining visible knob and tube in it. When we bought the house, in 1994, it was not a problem. We were advised by a realtor a couple of years ago that it is now verboten, and we would have to get someone in to redo it.</p>
<p>The closest thing I could find when searching was replacing a fuse box with circuit breakers.</p>
<p>I’m always looking at homes with old knob and tube wiring. I know that home inspectors freak out but I don’t really know the specifics of why it is considered bad. The main issue with what I see is that the main usually can only support about 70-80 amp and modern homes need a minimum 100 amp main.</p>
<p>The issue with insurance may be more specifically aluminum wiring which can be very dangerous if it isn’t connected or redone properly</p>
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<p>[Knob</a> and tube wiring](<a href=“http://www.knobandtubewiring.com/]Knob”>http://www.knobandtubewiring.com/)</p>
<p>Of the knob and tube installations I have seen, embrittlement is the worst issue. The wire insulation literally decays and falls off the wires. It’s a huge fire hazard.</p>
<p>We have a summer house with knob and tube. Since all of it is visible we can catch any problems. The electrician says it’s not dangerous as long as the insulation is there. I’m sure we’ll have to replace it sooner or later.</p>
<p>Consolation, that doesn’t make sense to me. We bought a 1963 house a year ago and got insurance with no problem. In fact, the insurance guy didn’t even come into the house; he just prowled around outside.</p>
<p>I remembered that, and was thinking of asking you. I bet that they just have to replace the panel so that it has circuit breakers instead of fuses.</p>
<p>We had circuit breakers when we moved in. Only 100 amps, which we upgraded to 200. (Anticipating the central air, and the double ovens, and so forth.)</p>
<p>In ca, from marketability point of view, a house with knobs and tubes 60 amps wiring is not very desirable. We always rewire the house before we sell.</p>
<p>Latest news is that the person buying a house in CT is able to get homeowners instate after all–with a different company. Who knows what was going on with the first one…</p>
<p>Yes, I agree that knob and tube wiring has to be replaced in order to easily sell a house, but never understood exactly what the safety issue was. I do understand the safety issue with aluminum wiring - the aluminum shrinks/expands with temperature changes which could cause the wiring to become loose in connections. Especially connections to copper or other materials.</p>
<p>There are several issues as I understand it:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Original knob and tube generally had only one plug per room. As wiring needs increased, people would tap in to the connections and add more plugs. But they didn’t use junction boxes, wires were twisted, soldered, and taped… this was often done poorly, leading to hazardous conditions.</p></li>
<li><p>Expanding the circuits led to more load on each circuit, which would blow the fuses (no circuit breakers back then). So people would screw in higher amp fuses to stop them from blowing out, which can lead to overheated wires and cause fires. (This isn’t exclusive to knob and tube of course.)</p></li>
<li><p>The wire insulation rots off over time and will fall off, leading to bare copper, which is really dangerous. And it makes it impossible to work on, because the slightest touch will cause the insulation to fall off. So you can’t modify it, you can’t insulate over it, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>There is no ground with knob and tube. This leads to shock/electrocution hazards.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I think the fire hazard is the biggie from the insurance company’s POV. I have found bare copper in some of my buildings on more than one occasion from old knob and tube. I’m pretty sure there is none left at this stage, but it is hard to be sure in a 100-year-old building.</p>