• TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
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    7 hours ago

    Some parts of it still have lead sheath. For some reason.

    My house is from the 30s and we had old knob and tube wiring, some of which had the lead sheathing as well. I would advise you probably replace that old wiring as soon as you can. The insulation under the sheathing is most likely cotton soaked in asphalt. After a while the asphalt dries out and becomes brittle and the cloth kinda just disintegrates over time. If that insulation fails the sheath can become electrified or create shorts.

    We thought about keeping some of the original wiring when refinishing the house, after chasing down shorts for a couple days and one small electrical fire later… We ended up redoing the whole system.