Did you know household wiring comes in two colors? Pretty pretty copper and ugly ugly silver (aluminum), the latter a building fad of the 70's.
Guess what I have!
The weird thing is, not all of my wiring is aluminum. Some of it is copper. Perhaps it was added on later?
So how did I find this out, you ask? Well, my first clue was a note on my home inspection that some of the wiring was aluminum. Not a big loopy handwritten note that said "DEAR GOD THIS HOUSE HAS ALUMINUM WIRING!" but rather an "X" next to both the "Copper" and "Aluminum" boxes in the Wiring section. This in itself would have been a giant red flag to me had I known anything about wiring. But I didn't.
There are two schools of thought on aluminum wiring: 1) it is fine as long as it was properly installed and is properly maintained, or 2) it can spontaneous combust at any moment so run, run away!
My house has not burned down due to bad aluminum wiring for 36 years so it should not be a problem, except for the part where I am changing out all of my switches and outlets. The new switches clearly say DO NOT USE WITH ALUMINUM WIRING but I am going with the Lowe's guy's advice and just sticking a gob of anti-oxidant goop on the wire and the connecting screws before I tighten them up.
Pray for me.
I wonder how much it costs to rewire an entire house? I shall add that to my wish list, right below "brand new kitchen," "spa-like master bathroom," and "updated guest bathroom."
