Rewiring New Electrical in an Old House

All right, thanks. Take care. Failed the inspection. [snorts] You wouldn't give me the green light today. I spent $4,000 on all new electrical in this tire house and um we can't pass it. Hey, welcome back to another episode on this abandoned house series. If you're brand new to the channel and you haven't been following along, we bought this abandoned house. It's 63 years old. Nobody's been living here in a while, and we are gutting it from bottom to top. So, in the last episode, we demoed this entire abandoned kitchen. If you haven't seen the episode, please go check it out. This was a mess. It was actually kind of claustrophobic. So, we opened up this entire area. We got rid of the electrical box. The electrical panel got relocated over here in the garage where it's supposed to be. The goal of today is going to be to run all brand new electrical through this entire house. And if you're wondering why brand new electrical, well, let me show you. So, these are the existing 142 cables. As you could see, they are getting worn out. They heat, they expand, they contract, they're insulated, and for 63 years old, they've kind of surpassed their shelf life. And so being a potential fire hazard, we have to replace every single one of them and of course add any outlets that conveniently might be needed. So we're going to start with the kitchen today because we already demoed it. The kitchen has to have 20 amp uh outlets. Uh for the lights, they could be 15 amp. Uh but for the receptacles, they have to be 20 amps. So the idea here is going to be that we have to plan and strategize everything. And not to mention, certain things have to have GFCIs and some things have to have their own independent circuit. Now, the kitchen is the most overused amount of electricity. You have your appliances, you have your dishes, you have your cooktops. It all drains far more energy than any rest of the house. So, the plan here is going to be we're going to have a big island here, or at least countertops. We're going to put one in the middle over here. It's going to be 4 ft wide. We're going to put one right here just so you can use appliances. We're going to have our dishwasher here. So, we're going to have to have its own independent circuit, GFCI. Then, we're going to have one for the garbage disposal, also GFCI. And then we're going to put one here. Again, appliances. We're going to have our cooktop range right here. And of course, plant couple here. Now, also there's a refrigerator. The refrigerator is going to be over here. We're going to have this big builtout section. The refrigerator has to have its own independent circuit as well. Plus, we'll mount another one in case we want to put like a coffee maker there or something like that. We got a lot to work. I got a spade bit. Let's start drilling and mounting our receptacles. We're looking good. We have our outlet for our refrigerator. This is going to be like a countertop area. We got our outlet there. Moving on here, this is going to be a two-way switch or no, sorry, three-way switch cuz you're going to control it from there. Got a receptacle there. Receptacle here cuz this is a nice little corner for appliances. We have a nice little receptacle here and one over here where you're sitting behind the island here. And then you can just plug in your phone and have fun doing so. Now, one more thing we need to do is we got to throw in one for the dishwasher and then one for the garbage disposal. Uh, in terms of height, I don't know if I mentioned it, but an average countertop with the countertop, you know, granite, whatever, on top is 35 in, uh, up to about yay. And then the receptacles typically are recommended to be placed at 43 [music] in from the floor. So, if you're like, where do I go? That's kind of like the gold standard. Uh, these are going to be 20 amps. They're going to be on its own individual circuit. So, we're going to run it from both sides and bring it out to our breaker box. This is the part I don't like cuz a lot of pushing and pulling through this cable. It's like wrestling a snake. This speed bit sucks. It's not selftapping. I got a nice selftapping one that's that's advances it. Now, this is a good spade bit. You see how this got these little threads up top? Instead of you having to shove it and push it in, it starts basically pulling the bit. So, it's half the effort. Especially when I got a knot right here. How convenient. All right. Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? Oh, there it is. Guys, I want to talk about something very, very important. And it's really the secret to my success and my health and the energy that I have. And this is why I'm so excited to present you guys the secret sauce to Mr. Bill. It is AG1. 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AG1, thank you so much for everything you do for me and this channel. want to forget these staples cuz what ends up happening is somebody else comes in, starts yanking on cables, and uh things can get undone. So, be smart. Throw some staples in. Let the record show. Let this day be put in stone as the day is the easiest time I've ever had doing a corner wraparound for feeding electrical wire. I've usually mess with this for an hour. Try to get a fishing wire. This got it done in about 30 seconds. It is my second favorite memory in my life probably right now. Great things are happening. Six outlets in the kitchen. That should do it. Oh, you know what I just realized? I think it would be smart of us to put another one right here, right in the middle of this wall. I mean, we're here anyway. Let's be smart about it. Actually, you know what? I think it'd be easier to use it as either the dining circuit or the living room circuit because there's a receptacle right there. There's a receptacle there. So, I can it'll be a lot easier to tie versus having all the appliances here and you're just dealing with something goes out or you need to kill the switch in the in the kitchen. It's just that. So, let's just keep it there. Now, we got to start feeding a couple of other appliances. cuz we got to feed our refrigerator to a separate circuit, our dishwasher to a separate circuit, and our disposal to a different circuit. Lots of circuits. What the is this? What is that? This is just playing with my emotions. This is what I need. It's like somebody's trying to sabotage my work here. All right, we're two for two. [music] Two for two. Doing good, folks. The program is going. Brand's [music] looking good. Our spirits are high. Our electrical is going in. What can you ask for? Okay, so the wiring uh for the kitchen is officially done. Now, we got one more thing we need to do before we're actually officially done in the kitchen and we can move on to other spaces is the lights on top. They're going to be something unique, something different. So, the product that I'm using is a low voltage product from Halo. It's a quick link system. These are canless lights. They're LEDs. So, we're going to save power. Uh, they're low wattage, incredible. They're all dimmable. And another great part is you can select the color temperature. So, you don't have to go buy certain light bulbs, you know, whether you like it soft or warm or cool or daylight. It's allin-one. And here's how cool this system is here. It comes with a driver, which you just connect one power source to your from your light switch. That driver is connected to this wire that's super universal. And why is it universal? Because all these canless lights, you cut a hole in your drywall, stick it in there, and these clamps hold it in place with this gasket. What you do is you zigzag this in the ceiling or put a linear strand in. And then you open up these little connectors. And all they do, and I don't know if you can see this, but they lay in here, and then you screw this in place, and it punctures into that wire. Again, low voltage wire saves us worrisome about overloading our breaker. And then it illuminates it all. So, super easy to use. So, in order for us to have this driver be installed, we're going to run power from the breaker box to our light switch, two-way or three-way switch. Uh, and then we'll put the driver probably somewhere in the middle. And then we'll zigzag. No, we're not going to zigzag. What we're going to do is we're going to put kind of do a little snake pattern across here cuz we're going to have six cans total in the kitchen to give us the most amount of light that we possibly can. Let's get us one power up there. We'll install this stuff after the drywall comes on, but right now we just need to get power up there. Your boy done effed up. I got a didn't wear eye protection and I got a nice thick [snorts] piece of sawdust in my eye. Uh, it's a chunky one. That's what I get for not wearing eye protection. And the reason I don't wear is not because I don't believe it. It's because I always sweat and they always get foggy. So, once I get the sucker out, I'm going to get some glasses. All right. Well, better [snorts] late than never. Learn our lesson. That should do it. So, as we're hooking up this three-way switch, uh this is going to be kind of like the strategy that we're going to come up with, at least planning for a strategy for how to replace all the other lights because we're going to have to replace [music] get them cut off from the switch and feed them out. Now, I have a theory in mind that might might make might make might make might make might make might make might make that might make our lives easier. And that theory is that back then they didn't use staples to hold them down. The cable's just running up and down. So, there's just a hole that's cut out and it's should be just kind of dangling here. But, uh maybe I could just tie the cable to it and then pull it out. Um I don't know. But we're about to find out what's going to be the easiest way to feed these wires through based off of just this one three-way switch in the kitchen. Technically, we should kind of pull down, but they might be nailed. I don't know. Not that easy. All right. Well, then I got to go up. My goal is going to be climbing the creepy attic. I don't like attics. Insulation, all that stuff. It's dark. And then I'm going to try to make my way over there and see if I could pull one cable out. And as I pull it out, I'm gonna pull this cable in. Fingers crossed. All right, I think I found it. All right, that should be in there. Now I got to run another cable up to where the driver is going to be. That should be enough to grab and pull through and connect to our light. It's only 80° outside, but in the attic it probably feels like it's 120. [snorts] Oh man, already dissatisfied. I'm not seeing the cable. It has to be in there. I wonder if I just didn't get too far in. There's three holes here. I shoved in some three holes. This is going to be miserable. goes up and it goes through. Oh, there it is. All right. So, looks like they got like two plates up here. They drilled through this one and then that one. So, unfortunately, to make things to go smoother, I think I'm just going to have to break down a little section like this above around every receptacle, every light switch. Sucks. I know. There's a lot of more drywall to do, but this way we'll be able to do this a lot more smoother. Hopefully this double plate system is not everywhere. Just kind of this overbeam here. Things like this should possibly go a little bit smoother, but you never know. Fingers crossed. Throw it up on a receptacle here. Well, actually, I need a double gauge one cuz I need one for the light over the dining room table. So, for now, we'll leave this here. Considering that we now have a connector for a two-way switch or a three-way switch. Why I keep saying two-way? And then, uh, let's put run this to this receptacle. And then, uh, nope. Nope, not doing that. From here, power to the switch to that switch from that switch to our driver. That's going to be uh, we'll put it right here somewhere. Should I start auctioning off all of these things that are in here? Like this could be like a nice vintage chandelier and it'll be like a little souvenir from the uh abandoned house here. So, you can have a little piece of it in your own home. What do you guys think? Let me know in the comment section. Starting bid, $5,000. labeling and organization is going to be our biggest friend right now. So, throwing some tape around them. Going to label them. All right. So, now we're going to move to the rest of the house. It's going to be pretty repetitive work. Yes. But it's uh I don't think any part is going to be the same because as you can see, there's three switches. So, one for the outside, one for here, and then one for probably this outlet. But you never know. And we're going to have to put recess lights in here as well. So, it's going to be a lot of mental math, mental gymnastics that we're going to have to do to figure out where to bring the line in the hot wire, and then how to efficiently spread it out. So, [sighs] this is where I wish I like puzzles. Well, that's one way. Unscrew a light bulb. I mean, are you seeing it? It's like brittle. The fact that this house never burned down, like I said before, is a complete miracle. Wow. It's like crispy toast. When I say this is a complete fire hazard, look at what I just found. This is the main junction box that's bringing power to the attic here. It's uncovered and that's only that's uncovered. The cables are all pulled out of it. And there's insulation hanging on it. One tiny little spark. Look how thick this cable is. I mean, that is a Oh, that's cool. That's straight up a hot wire that's just laying on top of insulation. One little spark, this thing goes boom. I cannot believe this. Cannot believe this. So, I was able to get the living room all on one circuit. The living room lights, living room outlets. So, this is going to be the power is going to be running to there. We're going to run it. Oh my god, I'm sweating like a pig. Like a freaking pig being chased by hunters. Now, I can put on its own designated circuit, labeling it living room. All right. So, this is my [music] line hat. This is going to be my indoor light. Look at this. My brim of my hat. Look at that. It's just soaked up all the all the sweat. So, one thing I don't know if you noticed, but there's a couple of things you got to notice about these outlets. Number one, there's no ground on them, right? Which is okay. That's what they used to do back then. But number two, it's like maybe 5 in from the bottom of the floor. Uh very silly. Um you're not really concerned about water flooding, but just in case you know you live in an area that has flooding or something like that. This is a potential danger hazard. So uh I got to move them up up to code so they're the right height. But this is just silly how how low to the ground they are. I mean, look how close to the carpet. A spark could reach that far. No joke. It could start a fire. This is what we should name this house is the fire hazard. The abandoned fire hazard. You kidding me? Hey, how's this for? Uh, let's just extend an outlet for where we need it. Are you kidding me? This is I'm not going to say ridiculous. This is just stupid. [music] Do you guys remember that scene in Stranger Things where Will was trapped in the upside down and his mom, Joyce Buyers, he was talking to her through all these lights and there's something coming through the wall so she stuck an axe through it. I feel exactly like Joyce right now trying to get to the upside down. What is this? Is this like a CIA listening wire? What is this? All right, so we got the drywall all cut out. We have a blank canvas. All the power has been stripped from here. There's no power outlets or power in the ceilings. Obviously, there's no recess lights. So, what I'm going to do now is to This is probably the second place that has the most amount of energy used after the kitchen cuz you're going to have your TV here. You're going to have lamps, all this stuff. Uh, so I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to use the same circuit for the outdoor lights, this hallway light, and then I'm going to give this circuit to my recess lights cuz it's low voltage. Keep that independent. and then put the second circuit in here for just the outlets down below, uh, including the TV. So, uh, going to get back up there, start running those lights, give it a second circuit. We should be good. [music] So, I got the power running there. I need to put one right here cuz this is where a TV would go traditionally. So hopefully I don't hit a stud. We'll see. Only one way to find out. this used to be a window and they look like they added a fireplace later. And this is a header above the window. That's going to make putting an outlet very hard. So, we're going to have to drop it here, past the header, and then go through the side. Oh, it's so fun to figure out what was here before, what was here after. our TV outlet and I'm thinking piggy back off of this one. Rip this Wayne cones out. Uh bring it out here and then drop it down and then we can connect two more outlets there and then the living room should be done. Well, actually we still need lighting. No, we're getting there. There's a package that was like hiding behind the Wayne's coating here. See what's inside. What could it be? Probably a CD. I don't know what it could be this size. Says fragile on it. Please be money. Oh, it is a CD. It's like a record vinyl prep. Is this like a vinyl record? Atlanta Georgia Stray. Chris Canry Rustland Music. If only I had a record player to play it on now. That's cool. When you're up against the wall and you can't go on when you're up against the wall and you cannot pass go on All right. So, all the electrical is officially done, not only in the kitchen, but the living room. Lights, switches, outlets. Now, we got to move to the other side of the house. I'll get this done in the next day so that uh in the morning we could start hanging up our drywall and connecting all of our lights. See you in the morning. So, it's 3 days later. Finally got the entire done. Rewired completely top to bottom. Brand new wiring. And then last night, I had…