Electrical rewiring aluminum wire

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By Dave Rongey Summary: Electrical Rewiring Question: I'm working on electrical rewiring of a remodel and I have found the wiring in this home to be a mixture of aluminum and copper.

Electrical Rewiring: Electrical rewiring aluminum wire

Electrical Rewiring Question:
I'm working on electrical rewiring of a remodel and I have found the wiring in this home to be a mixture of aluminum and copper.

The guy was pretty slick because he has used several methods to get the result he wanted. some are very scary and i do not want to duplicate them-even if i could. for example he has used the ground wire to pull current to accomodate a switch/outlet in a single gang bow using 3 wire cable.

His switches are confusing to say the least, help me here if you will. Two switches in a double gang for two lights. here he is using the white netural line for power.

One cable of three wires going up the wall for the fixtures. He is pulling power from the outlet just below the switch. all in alumunum. This is old school and must be illeagle, so how do i go about trouble shooting and making this up-to-date.

I can not leave this for my customer to deal with at a later date, like I said it all works but I do not feel good about the safety of this work. be-it-all-said, this guy must have really been on the top of his game in his day.

Could you send any help in the forms of books.
Thanks, Tim

Hi Tim - Great Electrical Repair Question!

Tim, I'm not sure where New River is, however I know that you cannot use aluminum wire for smaller circuits here in California, but it is still used for larger 220 volt range circuits etc.

As for the remodel wiring that you are working on - If it was my job I would strongly recommend that all the questionable wiring be totally removed and rewire from scratch.

In the long run it will actually take less time, and time is money. Make a good plan of what the customer wants to have installed, remove the old wiring and start fresh installing according to code.

Don't forget to install smoke detectors and GFCI outlets where they are needed.

Take care!