Call in a professional for electrical additions

Question: After buying a beautiful 1936 two-storey home, I found there were too few outlets in the home. I hired someone to add outlets, but he wanted to cut out slots in the walls to run wires. Can outlets be added without damaging the walls? Answer: There are two things to think about when working on an older home: One is that a handyman cannot add electrical service to your home. The work must be performed by a licensed electrician.

Two is the health concern. A plaster home will have lead-based paint on the walls that should not be disturbed and the plaster may contain asbestos fibres.

Before cutting into a wall or ceiling, have a certified environmental contractor test the area and provide guidelines for the electrician to follow.

There may be other ways to add wiring without cutting slots into the walls. The home has either a basement or a crawlspace where wiring can be fished up and into the hollow wall space to add outlets.

Fishing is a process in which a strip of stiff metal tape, called fish tape, is pushed through the wall cavity to an opening that has been cut for a future outlet. Wiring is attached to the fish tape and pulled back to where the electrician can connect the wires to the electric panel.

Older homes have wood blocks in between each wall stud usually onethird the way up from the bottom and one-third down from the ceiling.

If there were a fire, the blocks were intended to slow the fire from spreading inside the wall cavity.

It’s the blocks that are a problem when trying to fish a wire from the attic or second floor.

I have seen older homes with surface-mounted outlets with surfacemounted metal or plastic-covered raceways that contain the wiring.

The raceways extend from the original outlets to all the added outlets in each room.

In a few homes, I have seen a plastic crown moulding added to the ceiling that contained the wiring in the cavity of the crown moulding.

Where possible when adding outlets, the older wiring should be upgraded to modern wiring that has a hot, a neutral and a ground wire so the new outlets can be properly and safely grounded.

If the wiring cannot be upgraded, add ground fault circuit interrupter protection for the added outlets. Don’t forget to add a smoke alarm in each bedroom, one in the hallway outside each bedroom and at least one on each floor level.