Wiring a new shop and found a mess behind the old panel

I opened up a panel in a 1970s shop outside Austin and found three circuits just taped together with no junction box. Had to shut everything down and spend 3 hours fixing it proper, anyone else run into this kind of cowboy work in old buildings?

2 comments

2 Comments

nina_lane161mo ago

Oh man, "just taped together with no junction box" gave me flashbacks. I found the same kind of mess in a 1960s garage I was rewiring near Houston. Three hots twisted together, electrical tape hanging off, buried behind drywall with no box in sight. Took me half a day to trace all the circuits and put in proper junction boxes. How long did it take you to find all the hidden problems?

harperschmidt1mo ago

1976 build I worked on just outside San Antonio had an aluminum wire nightmare mixed with copper. Some genius twisted them together with no antioxidant paste. The real danger nobody talks about is the fire risk from thermal cycling. Aluminum expands way more than copper when it heats up from current flow. Over time those connections get loose and start arcing inside the tape. I spent two full weeks rewiring that whole place and still found problems a year later when the new owner called me back.