Upgrading Wiring with Vermiculite Insulation
makingitourhome
10 years ago
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kudzu9
10 years agoRon Natalie
10 years agoRelated Discussions
dealing with possible asbestos in vermiculite insulation
Comments (1)Testing involves an exam with a microscope, and any decent test lab should be able to do it for under $100. Contact your local health agency or your State Environmental Department because they often have lists of certified labs. You don't need a lot...the amount you can scoop into a 35mm film canister would be plenty. If it does contain asbestos, it might be cheaper and easier to leave it in place, and just do the electrical work while wearing a respirator (not a dust mask) with the specific canisters for asbestos; these can be purchased for under $50, whereas the removal could be well in excess of $1000. If you have asbestos and leave it in place while you're working, you would just need to remember to shake out your clothes and hair outside to get rid of residual fibres, and it would be good not to have to track through the house to do this. You could also wear a disposable tyvek jumpsuit. Your state/local environmental organization can also give you some more specific info about what's involved in a removal, and help you decide the best course of action. The one other thing I will mention, though, is that, if the insulation contains asbestos, you will have to deal with it someday: once you have confirmation, that's something that usually needs to be disclosed when you put your home up for sale, and a buyer might ask for it to be removed or for you to lower the home price....See MoreOld house with ZERO insulation
Comments (5)If the shingles are in good shape, leave them. They should last another lifetime! Asebestos can be very stable. I would use fiberglass in the attic. That is easy DIY, but as mentioned, you need to vent the attic properly for this not to rot your roof. You can rent machines from the big box stores to blow insulation in your walls. Due to your siding, you will have to gain access from the inside. Your T&G is problematic as normally you would drill large hole and blow in the insulation. You will not be able to plug the holes and make them blend (unless your T&G is painted) Maybe you can pull it down and put in bats and nail the T&G up again? I would not put fiberglass insulation under you floors. If you really want to do this, use 2" XPS board insulation instead. Or get a product like tiger foam and apply it. I would look into rim joist insulation and vapor barrier before I consider these options. Do a search, lots of opinions on insulating basements and crawlspaces here. I would need more information on your basement before making a recomendation....See MoreCross-post: Upgrading Electrical with Vermiculite Insulation
Comments (4)Hi everyone, Thanks for the feedback. I am familiar with Zonolite and the background behind the asbestos contamination. In speaking with an asbestos abatement company in the area, he said that for the period my house was built in there was a high prevalence of Zonolite use, and given his experience with the area, there's about a 75%-80% chance that my vermiculite will test positive for asbestos. He also said that testing is not all it's cracked up to be, because different areas within the same house can have different levels of asbestos contamination. One area could test low or none, while another part could be much higher. Given all of that information, I am going to assume that somewhere in this house, my vermiculite contains asbestos, and treat it as such. While I agree that to some extent, this whole asbestos thing has been blown out of proportion, I also know that many educated contractors in this area will outright refuse to work on houses that contain vermiculite insulation. I wanted to get my home weatherized and I had two different companies tell me they won't do anything with my attic since it has vermiculite. However, weatherization might lead to a much larger exposure than electrical wiring, assuming that it could be done without having to open up the walls - which is why I am wondering if it is possible to replace the wiring, without having to make any holes. This isn't just for the sake of risking asbestos exposure either. This house has all original plaster, (other than the upstairs bath and the sunroom), and I am hesitant to open up the walls for risk of having to replace it. I adore my plaster walls (they are one of my favorite features of this house). Also, I did some research, and given what I have seen by opening up various outlets in the house, we appear to have aluminum wiring... which is definitely cause for concern, as it appears to be a pretty widely-recognized fire hazard. Not sure what's more dangerous... asbestos or aluminum wiring....See MoreElectrical System Upgrades?
Comments (16)Can you provide us with a little more info. I think your age and geographic location play a huge part in your decisions. Are you a grandparent, live alone, young children, health problems, etc? There's alot of gadgets & gizmos in today's market claiming to make things easier and when perfectly set-up they might, but often times set-up and lack of an easy user interface can be more stressful than helpful. A neighbor of mine bought a home security system with multiple cameras and an array of feature yet upon closer inspection I noticed he wasn't actually storing any of the footage and was oblivious to how the whole thing worked. I live in the northeast and with the winter weather I would love an ice/snow melt system to keep the walks and driveways from freezing over. Not sure on your choice of heating but an electric radiant floor heat can warm up bathroom floors that can get cold especially with tile floors. If your gonna have ceiling fans-spend the money on good ones. They're designed to spin over and over and over and many times the cheap ones will wobble and put of alot of motor noise. As for lights and switches, if you want life to be simpler avoid making things complex. Whole house lighting control systems are great if you do alot of entertaining or have interest that would really benefit from them if not be practical. Avoid 4,5,6,7 gang switch plates that need labels to remember what does what and plan a switch location wisely, if its a laundry room imagine you have a laundry basket in your hand when you enter the room, use a rocker switch you could hit with your elbow or a motion sensor switch that'll turn on when you enter. If you have outdoor lighting (not landscape lighting) I like to think of it as 2 systems. One is to help guests and the pizza find your house and approach the front door safely, install a conduit to the end of the driveway for a simple street lamp with a convenience plug on it and then a set of lights for the front door, you can have them share the same switch. The other outdoor lighting is the shock and awe type perimeter lighting, the no nonsense 4 corner 500 watt halogens that if you hear a noise outside or your trying to finish something outside and its getting dark then these will let you see a large area fast. They burn hot and are not energy efficient but when they need to serve their purpose they are generally pretty durable, place around exterior of house but still only one switch, I've heard some people say to put an additional switch in their bedroom for these lights as well but its a preference thing. Obviously LEDs lights are taking over the home, I know in NY you must have 50% low-energy lighting, I still like the color given off by incandescents all the way down to my Christmas tree, so I still used them in the places that mattered to me and loaded up my basement with cheap fluorescent shop lights to satisfy code. Technology is a big part of today's home, keep it simple and install leviton home media hub in your basement or anywhere out of sight. Run all your cabling to one spot. It allows you to easily convert and route all your systems with ease. For instance if your fortunate enough to have fiber-optic internet service to your home, the leviton media hardware will accept the fiber and convert the signal to be used over your cat 6 cabling system. It's not state of the art and if your really serious about home theatre and high end audio you'll probably end up adding other components outside of the unit but its a nice user friendly setup without breaking the budget. Wifi is a must now a day; stay a cat 5e/6 to each floor for a wireless router that should cover any signal problems don't by a ridiculous high end router. Today's mid grade routers do such a l good job handling data speeds that its likely you won't be pushing more than they can handle over a wifi connection. Stick with same brand and for god sakes take the time learn the password. Consider a installing a few floor boxes in the living room if you have an open space. They can be discreet and put under the couch or end table to plug in lamps is gonns be better looking than stringing a cord across floor. Last but not least, USB charging outlets in the couple places your likely to charge your phone daily. Again leviton makes and they're not that expensive and are very practical. . Finallh you'll find that even the smallest upgrades can add up quickly so be prepared to justify what your really need. If your prepared to spend money on quality upgrades like these then an electrical contractor even considering tinkering with 14 awg wire is a sign that you haven't found the right one yet. Good luck. I'm building now and its fun to plan your own place Leviton USB outlet: http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/SectionDisplay.jsp?section=53874&minisite=10251 Leviton home media hub. : http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/SectionDisplay.jsp?section=55914&minisite=10251 Here is a link that might be useful: USB receptacle...See Moreionized_gw
10 years agoRon Natalie
10 years agoionized_gw
10 years agoRon Natalie
10 years agokudzu9
10 years agoionized_gw
10 years agoionized_gw
10 years agoUser
10 years agokudzu9
10 years agoUser
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10 years agoRon Natalie
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7 years ago
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