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That 3-way switch setup in an old house took me 5 hours last Tuesday
Got a call for a light in a hallway that wouldn't turn off right. Old Victorian in Asheville. No neutral in the boxes. Had to trace the whole loop with a toner because someone used 3 different colors for travelers. Pulled my hair out for 4 hours before I found a junction box buried behind drywall. Another hour to rewire it clean. Ended up labeling everything with tape and a sharpie just to be safe. Anyone else run into nightmare old knob and tube retrofits?
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stellachen27d ago
Toner says 3 different colors for travelers, that is absolute madness. Whoever did that must have been on something or just hated the next person working there. Buried junction box behind drywall is my actual worst nightmare, I'd be livid finding that after hours of tracing. At least you got it sorted and labeled, that's more than whoever did it originally bothered to do. Knob and tube always makes me wish I could go back in time and yell at whoever was working on it originally.
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scott.jana26d ago
Oh man, that buried junction box is the stuff of nightmares... I've been there. Found one once in a drop ceiling that had been Sheetrocked over, took me a whole afternoon to figure out why the circuit kept tripping. Three different colors for travelers is just cruel though, that's not even trying to be helpful. At least with knob and tube you know it's gonna be a mess going in, but surprises like that still get me every time. Good on you for labeling everything, that's the kind of thing that saves the next guy hours of grief.
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