Possible fire hazard question

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shayyadin

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Location
Maplewood, NJ
My family lives in a 1923 Colonial. We recently took down the ceiling in the basement, and, unsurprisingly, found a lot of 100-year-old BX cable: to be exact, 14 cables and 4 junction boxes. Pictures are attached. It doesn't come through, but the places where the wires go into the J-boxes are a bit rusty.


One of the electricians that gave us an estimate, who is very respected by several neighbors, said that he highly recommends demolishing as much of that cable as is easy to do so, replacing it with modern wiring, before replacing the ceiling. He said the cable, and especially the junctions, are a serious fire hazard, and estimates that we could demolish 80% of the wiring for $1,600.


Two other electricians said this person was just trying to sell us something. So we called the Building Dept. The electrical subcode inspector said--without looking at the wiring--that old BX cable is fine, as long as the junctions are accessible.


Is this cable indeed a serious fire hazard? If it were your home, would this be worth the money to do during a renovation?


2019-03-15 09.32.17 4 megapixel.jpg 2019-03-15 09.32.27 4 megapixel.jpg

 

Dennis Alwon

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