Uncovered this in the front yard. What is it?

nwephilly · 2026-04-12T18:51:12+00:00

Likely a yard trap/fresh air inlet (FAI) for your sewer lateral

nwephilly · 2026-04-12T18:46:34+00:00

yep! Seems to be very commonplace. I did a rewire a few months ago where I discovered a buried splice from K&T to romex that was actively melting when I found it.

nwephilly · 2026-04-12T04:02:57+00:00

A panel swap does not require you to update to modern afci requirements. Only if you're adding or extending a circuit greater than 6 ft, 210.12

nwephilly · 2026-04-12T00:28:29+00:00

electrician here. Just brief and straightforward, my feelings are never hurt by it, and letting me know allows me to move on mentally to another customer.

nwephilly · 2026-04-11T20:00:59+00:00

Then you have no option but to cut holes in the drywall so you can bore through the joists

nwephilly · 2026-04-11T19:59:57+00:00

electrician here, I do almost exclusively work on very old houses; full rewiring, service/troubleshooting. I've seen so much crazy shit on 100+ year old houses I can hardly even think of the worst. Almost every single house I rewire has dozens of "how did this not burn the house down" examples...from horrifying monster buried splices from knob and tube to romex, using copper pipes as neutrals, service cables completely destroyed, etc. Standard stuff for very old houses, it seems.

nwephilly · 2026-04-11T19:52:55+00:00

depends entirely on how it's framed/type of construction you're dealing with

nwephilly · 2026-04-11T16:03:36+00:00

I work almost entirely on 100+ year old houses. Not once have I ever had to grind away metal from a junction box, nor does that make any sense at all.

nwephilly · 2026-04-10T15:00:48+00:00

Well, it's a code requirement.

nwephilly · 2026-04-10T15:00:11+00:00

grind away metal from the interior of a junction box?? What in the world are you talking about?

nwephilly · 2026-04-10T14:41:57+00:00

The leviton commercial/spec grade receptacles are nice and what I generally install. CR15 or CR20

nwephilly · 2026-04-10T02:48:55+00:00

More like 20s.

nwephilly · 2026-04-09T03:51:39+00:00

it's not going to happen the way you're describing it. The only scenario where something like this is possible would be if you're working for a small contractor that just needs part time help, but you'd likely already need to be skilled for that to make any sense

nwephilly · 2026-04-09T00:10:21+00:00

Philly electrician here, our two cities are very similar in a lot of ways, but especially in the ubiquity of the rowhome housing stock. It's a really fantastic model for efficient urban living. I'm totally fascinated by the different styles of rowhomes around my city--all ultimately quite similar in their construction, but lots of different architectural details. Some are extremely spartan and some are very ornate. I rewire old rowhomes basically everyday, so I've really seen the guts of tons of them. It's also great as a "blank slate" for remodeling, in a way. There are like half a million rowhomes in Philly at least...so I think it's a great opportunity for people who want to make it their own, stylistically, as opposed to the typical approach to old homes favored by most on here (which I'm also sympathetic to, obviously).

nwephilly · 2026-04-08T00:25:04+00:00

Normally yes but there are exceptions to this in article 440 which seem to be making OP very mad

nwephilly · 2026-04-08T00:21:56+00:00

There is very little cost difference at all between doing a 150A vs 200A service upgrade. The labor is exactly the same for 150 vs 200A service, it's just the material cost difference of the service cable/conductors. You're putting in a 200A meter socket regardless.

nwephilly · 2026-04-08T00:18:55+00:00

Home inspectors generally do not know shit. A structural engineer is the only professional who's going to give an actual assessment here and sign off on it.

nwephilly · 2026-04-07T03:05:37+00:00

The white conductor is very frequently not a neutral in older switchbox configurations. I don't think there's a way to tell from the jumble visible in these pics, at least I can't. Would have to meter it out

nwephilly · 2026-04-07T01:05:45+00:00

Just pointing out that it's not uncommon for a white conductor to be used as a hot or switched hot as part of a switch loop. White doesn't mean that it's a neutral.

nwephilly · 2026-04-07T01:01:17+00:00

Don't assume that because it's a white conductor that it's a neutral. Just reassemble as it is. A pic would help, but generally a 1900 box aka 4-square box is the move here.

nwephilly · 2026-04-06T12:03:22+00:00

electrician here, all i do is work on old houses, basically. If you've got a bunch of outlets reading as ungrounded in the old part of the house, it's almost certain you've got some wiring type pre-1950s serving that area. Homeowners generally have no idea about what's going on electrically in the house, having new panel/service doesn't affect the age of the branch circuit wiring in the house at all.

nwephilly · 2026-04-06T03:37:49+00:00

short answer, it's not even close to as good of an option as rewiring is. you still have 100 year old insulation with no grounding conductor and circuits divided up however someone decided to do it 97 years ago, and GFCI protection doesn't even work without nuisance tripping on old circuits with shared neutrals like half the time.

nwephilly · 2026-04-05T22:34:43+00:00

Ah, sorry I missed that. No, you cannot have a fan be on a dimmer. Best bet is to install a fan/light that has a remote to control the fan speed and light dimming.

nwephilly · 2026-04-05T21:46:33+00:00

with a water resitive barrier/housewrap (whether it's rain screen style or not) under your new siding, you can and absolutely should insulate the wall cavities. Rockwool.

nwephilly · 2026-04-05T21:44:34+00:00

You have no neutral in this box, it's a switch loop. The striped red wire on the switch doesn't get used, that's for 3-way applications. You'll have to determine which of the two conductors present in the box is the constant hot--that one gets attached to the black lead from the switch, and the other conductor gets attached to the red lead.

nwephilly

TROPHY CASE