aluminum wiring

woodbutcher

Well-known Member
My wife and I bought a house in town that was built in 1968 and has aluminum electrical wiring. At first, I thought I might remodel it myself, so I took several bids
from electricians. They all agreed that the aluminum wiring could be safely left in place if we used the proper connectors. I decided to hire a contractor to remodel,
and he brought in his licensed electrician. I made it clear to them that where walls were opened up, I wanted the aluminum replaced with copper wire. Where the
sheetrock was left in place, I wanted the special connectors used to reattach the aluminum wire to the devices and in junction boxes to copper for a home run. I've gone
into the attic since they finished, and I found one junction box with aluminum wire coming into one side of the box from a wall that had been open and should have been
replaced with copper. The aluminum conductors were attached to copper conductors with regular old redhead wire nuts and no special treatment. I called my contractor,
and he wants to get his electrician to fix it. I told him it needs t be fixed by somebody who knows what to do. It seems to me there is a safety issue here. Am I being
over cautious?
Butch
 
woodbutcher; I don't think you're being over cautious. In any case, your contractor didn't do the job that you hired him to do.

Could you use AFCI breakers or outlets to protect the wiring from the problem you're concerned about? That's what they're for, I think.

Stan
 
You said you are in town. I assume there are building codes there? Was there a permit for the wiring? Did a county inspector come out and inspect the job, and properly?

Old aluminum wiring has been the cause of MANY house fires over the years. Much is due to dissimilar metals; aluminum to copper, or steel (grounding). Another problem is with corrosion, mostly along coastal areas.

And finally, as homes become more 'modern', electrical needs tend to grow. Aluminum isn't able to handle overloading as well as copper, so the necessity for proper sizing of breakers and wiring, and not plugging too much in to any circuit becomes more crucial.
 

I would have stripped out ALL of the aluminum wiring and replaced it with copper. Never have to worry about it again.
 
Where I live, if more than a certain dollar amount of work is
done, a permit is needed. Doesn't matter if it's done by a
contractor or by yourself.

Getting a permit automatically requires a building inspector to
see your work at different stages.

Many mobile homes built with aluminum wiring have long burnt to
the ground.

I would have definitely replaced all the Aluminum. If you go to
sell a home, it may become a very big issue with buyer. I for
sure wouldn't buy a home until the aluminum is gone.
 
When done right, it is fine, but.........finding someone that knows "right" may not be easy.
 
What that electrician did was illegal and does not meet code.

They only way to properly connect aluminum to copper is to use a splice connector (butt connector or crimp type) and did in a way that the two wires do not touch each other.
 
That might be a possibility. I'll check into that. I've heard of the drawbacks, but they might work okay here.
 
I agree. I think the problem might be that he sent youngsters out here who had never dealt with aluminum. He never came around to supervise.
 
I agree get rid of the stuff. I don't care what the experts say. Aluminum is dangerous. I was doing load bank test on a building. The
attic went up in flames. After it was all out. We found out the building was wired with aluminum.
 

There are proper approved connectors for connecting copper to aluminum. Are you sure that they were not used?
 
Get together with your contractor and HIS sub-contractor(electrician). Show them what you have found and give them the chance to fix it. Who knows, there may have been some mis-understanding on what all was to come out and what could stay. As far as the junction box connections, you'd better dig a little deeper and check any other possible "bad connections". It is always good to check the work of your contractors. gobble
 
My nephew bought a very nice house years ago. You guessed it, all aluminum. Every single wire got pulled and copper installed. Another thing to watch out for the DAMN wall board from land of not so right. The board had sulphur in it. Moisture in the house and vapors from the board and EVERYTHING in you house starts to corrode fron sulfuric acid in the air.
 
Aluminum is alright but the wire is rated different than copper. Use 10 gauge for 20 amps where in copper a 12 gauge wire would work. I've never seen any problems with it but they recommend a copper pigtail to the outlets inside the receptacle boxes.
 
That is what I did. As it turns out, this was a jumper that was added to a lightly loaded circuit to add a receptacle in the garage. Late in the remodel, somebody saved himself a trip to Home Depot by dragging a scrap from dump trailer. Mule Meat's comment that using aluminum in this way is illegal, when I mentioned it, prompted my contractor to have the subcontractor call me. The sub was eager to get the problem fixed, and offered to send somebody right over. So, last night the young man applied the right connectors to the wires in the J-box I was concerned about. He opened up all the other j-boxes to check for more aluminum, and found none. The young worker is coming back this evening to replace that jumper with copper, then all the aluminum will have been replaced. I can rest easier now. Thanks for all the replies to my post.
Butch
 
We had a bunch of house fires in the Dallas area as a result of Al wire, even when attached to duplexes and switchs rated for Al/Cu. Problem is Al expands and contracts (unlike copper) and in doing so makes for a loose fitting. Loose connections and amperes spell fire!!!!!!

Some folks had electricians or handy daddy cut off the end of the alum and pigtail copper with a special anti-oxiding paste required for the Al. and then the redhead wire nut and connection to the service in the normal manner.

On sizing, Alum is not as conductive as copper so for 2% voltage drop or whatever the local code is in your area, you usually have to go up one size in Alum to equal the performance of copper.

Nice thing about Al. is for long overhead runs, like connecting out buildings, it's light and is easily routed overhead.
 
Yes, I can remember some of those house fires. I hired on with DFD in November 1972. This house is in north Dallas, and, best I can tell, it's never had any kind of treatment for those connections in the past and never had any electrical problems.
 
When I was doing insurance inspections, I had to report aluminum wiring when ever I ran into it. Also, when doing any house from that era I had to check for aluminum wiring.

I just reported what I found. I'm not sure what the outcomes were.
 

Aluminum electrical wiring ranks right up there with Orangeberg sewer pipe. How many of you guys remember that stuff?
 
(quoted from post at 10:48:52 10/03/18)
Aluminum electrical wiring ranks right up there with Orangeberg sewer pipe. How many of you guys remember that stuff?

There used to be Orangeberg conduit also. Saw it installed once underground when I was a third year apprentice.

Dusty
 
(quoted from post at 15:21:21 10/03/18)
(quoted from post at 10:48:52 10/03/18)
Aluminum electrical wiring ranks right up there with Orangeberg sewer pipe. How many of you guys remember that stuff?

There used to be Orangeberg conduit also. Saw it installed once underground when I was a third year apprentice.

Dusty

Worked just fine until the weight of the dirt above it caused it to collapse.
 
There's nothing automatically bad about aluminum wiring. It's just another metal that conducts electricity.

The problems come in when AL and CU fixtures, fittings, splices, and components are mixed. Follow the rules and use the approved methods and fixtures/fittings for working with AL and there's nothing wrong with it.

Ripping out wire and replacing it can produce its own set of issues. No mechanical or electrical system is 100% failproof.

Trailer houses burning down isn't an indicator of anything other than the legendary poor build quality of trailer houses in general. Trailer house--err, I mean "mobile home" makers were notorious for cutting every corner possible and then some for the best part of 40 years.

Grouse
 
Is that the black corrugated stuff that collapsed when you put dirt on it....but oops, you didn't know it because you didn't see it collapse (the dirt hid
it)....had to use it first. I was in a big box store a couple of days ago and something similar is still being sold.....buyer beware. My onsite storage no
longer uses the product. Rigid PVC for me.
 

Orangeburg pipe - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangeburg_pipe
Orangeburg pipe is bitumenized fiber pipe made from layers of wood pulp and pitch pressed together. It was used from the 1860s through the 1970s, when it ...
 
(quoted from post at 06:18:57 10/04/18)
Orangeburg pipe - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangeburg_pipe
Orangeburg pipe is bitumenized fiber pipe made from layers of wood pulp and pitch pressed together. It was used from the 1860s through the 1970s, when it ...

Very similar to many layers of tarpaper. Throw it on a fire and it does burn.
 
Dusty MI; Thanks for posting the link to the Wikipedia article. It was informative. I clicked on the hyperlink to the word "bituminized" and read some of that article. It made the point that the word "pitch" used in regard to the manufacture of Orangeburg pipe means asphalt, not tree sap.

Stan
 
Ah but there is things " automatically bad" about it. Lack of ductility is just one of the shortfalls. Oxidization is another major problem along with expansion rate.
 

It is possible to wire safely with aluminum but it is a skill and must be done correctly. In the 80s there were four children who burned to death in the basement of their home thanks to aluminum wiring and I vowed that next day to never have it. Now, most home around me have it for the 240 stove and AC wiring but for those run ONLY.
 

Aluminum/al wire expands more from heat than copper.
Code requires al wire to be one size larger than cooper for the same load. I've often felt that it should be two sizes larger.
That expansion sometimes causes problems at screw type terminations.

Dusty
 

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