# BX rewiring questions



## Bowfin47 (Oct 29, 2008)

My 1935 erea brick/stucco house was added on to extensively in the 50's.  The original sections of the house are wired with the original BX cable, filled with two wire wiring that has crumbing rubber cloth insulation.  The BX has open junction boxes throughout the system that allows for easy access to the wiring.

The newer sections of the house have  mix of silver-papered covered Romex and plastic covered Romex.  The 200 amp breaker panel was was upgraded in the '70's (or 80's).  It has more than enough circuits and is fine.  

All the outlets throughout the house are all two-pronged, and I assume not grounded.  Several rooms onlly have three outlets per room and about 50% of these outlets no long work. Throughout the house, all receptical boxes are metal, and the walls and ceilings are all plaster.  

I would like to: 

1.   Re-wire the BX with 12 awg i.e. pull three wires (or four where necessary) to replace the old crumbing two wire system; 

2.   Replace all two-prong outlets with grounded, three-pronged outlets; 

3.   Replace all switches; and

4.   Add more recepticals for additional outlets and lumenaires, including GFCI's.   

Questions:

1.  Is rewiring the BX with three (or four where necessary) wires acceptible... i.e. wise and efficient or costly and/or just stupid?  

2.  Or should I attempt to fish Romex through the BX? 

3.  Alternatively, should I just remove the BX all together and replace with Romex?   

4.  Can the old, mounted (i.e. somewhat rusty) metal receptical boxes be re-utilized or do I need to remove and replace them all from the plaster walls?

R.  In addition, do I need to replace the silver-papered covered Romex?

As I have more time than money, I plan on doing the work myself.  

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanx,

Bowfin47


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## JoeD (Oct 29, 2008)

BX is a cable not a conduit. You can't pull the wires out and replace them. You need new cables.


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## kok328 (Oct 29, 2008)

My Personal Opinions:


1. Is rewiring the BX with three (or four where necessary) wires acceptible... i.e. wise and efficient or costly and/or just stupid? rewire the BX?  you mean replace the BX w/romex; yes this would be wise.

2. Or should I attempt to fish Romex through the BX? 
Not even sure what your talking about here

3. Alternatively, should I just remove the BX all together and replace with Romex? Heck yea, if you can do that w/o tearing into walls & cielings, by all means, replace as much as possible (kinda confused on Q1)

4. Can the old, mounted (i.e. somewhat rusty) metal receptical boxes be re-utilized or do I need to remove and replace them all from the plaster walls?  If it's just surface rust and not rot, the old boxes are just fine although I really don't know how your going to get to the box clamps w/o tearing up plaster

R. In addition, do I need to replace the silver-papered covered Romex?  Silver papered wiring should be OK, you'll have to make that call on it's condition but, could be lacking the ground wire.

FYI- 12 awg is not common in living areas but, common for appliance runs.  save yourself some money and use 14 awg where applicable.
Changing your outlets to 3 prong will not ensure a grounded outlet.  Your may have to run a ground wire off a plumbing line somewhere.  Your switches should be reusable too if you want to save some more money.


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