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My dad lives in a home built in 1956 here in Maryland. The only upgrades to his electric has been having the fuse box converted to breakers back in the 90s.

He hit the light switch today and it tripped the breaker. He went to turn it back on and he said he could hear some crackling at the breaker box and then it tripped again after about 10 seconds. So my assumption was the switch could be bad, a receptacle in the series is bad, or some connection either a wire nut or on a terminal is loose and causing arcing or something.

He doesn’t have the cash for an electrician until it’s a must so I figured I’d give him a hand and upgrade a few long overdue things and hopefully catch the issue. I figure I would go through and find the first receptacle in the series and see if unhooking still allows the breaker to trip. If it doesn’t then I’d upgrade that receptacle to a newer one. I figured I’d go down the line until I have replaced them all and hopefully find the bad connection (he said one of the outlets hasn’t worked for a few months and possibly another). Then do the same process for the switches. At the same time I will replace all wire nuts too in case the internal springs have lost their spring constant over the past 70 years. Probably 8 outlets and two switches.

Then if this doesn’t fix the issue I would check the two light boxes just in case since the one light has a ceiling fan that definitely isn’t balanced/rocks and could create potential vibrations over the years to effect a connection.

Does this seem like the best course of action before calling an electrician?

In addition, I figured since there isn’t a ground in his wiring and I don’t think the metal boxes are grounded either (I'll test that when I get there), I figured I would add a GFCI/AFCI outlet to the first in the series to provide some additional protection and then I could use three prong outlets for the receptacle replacements.

For a circuit with no grounding does only the first outlet need GFCI outlet and downstream does not or in this scenario does every outlet need to be GFCI for this protection to take place? I’ve seen mixed info from electricians and DIYers for this old home style upgrade.

FreeMan
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Irish Redneck
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  • Can you post photos of the insides of the boxes in the circuit in question please? – ThreePhaseEel Feb 21 '23 at 04:08
  • Just a comment, not an answer, but my brothers have a rental that was tripping a breaker. Asked me to figure it out. So I went there and flipped on the breaker, then the switch to a switched outlet ....LOL It blew out some sparks, So as Jeff Foxworthy would say: "There's your clue!" Turned out that at some time someone must has have moved the outlet a bit and the ground was touching the hot. Easy find, easy fix. – George Anderson Feb 21 '23 at 04:52
  • make sure you bone up on common issues replacing outlets and switches. https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/168564/first-time-changing-switches-and-outlets-receptacles-anything-special-i-shoul – Harper - Reinstate Monica Feb 21 '23 at 06:12
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    You should pull out the "In addition" part and ask that as a separate question. It makes this too broad... – FreeMan Feb 21 '23 at 17:25

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I have a similar age house in Maryland. Your general plan is reasonable, including GFCI (if no ground available) at the first receptacle, and then 3-prong receptacles following as long as they are labeled "GFCI protected, no ground".

However, you may be in luck as far as grounding. In my house I have so far (haven't replaced every ungrounded receptacle yet) found that every ungrounded receptacle actually had a ground wire available - often already attached to the metal box, though not always in the proper (at least by modern standards) way. So I was prepared to replace 2-prong receptacles with GFCI but have not had to do so yet.

That being said, I do suggest you make sure that the house has GFCI protection in the kitchen and bathrooms, as there it is important for safety beyond just as an alternative to proper grounding.

The specific trigger here may have be the light fixture and not a switch or receptacle, but you should be able to figure that out when you are examining the circuit.

manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
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    The gfci not ground label is something I add correct? If there is no ground connected to the receptacle isn’t it a dead give away? – Irish Redneck Feb 21 '23 at 02:46
  • So did you determine it was grounded by placing a volt meter on the hot wire and then the other lead to the box and saw 120volts? Or did you just happen to see it physically was grounded? So many questions lol. – Irish Redneck Feb 21 '23 at 02:48
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    Both. In some cases I found the ground wire wrapped around the clamp on the outside (i.e., inside the wall cavity) of the box. Of course, your Dad's house may be different. And I have found many other problems too - e.g., hot/neutral reverse in a few places, boxes too small to even hold a modern quality receptacle (let alone a GFCI). – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact Feb 21 '23 at 02:54
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    You need to add the label because while *you* know there is no ground, a future user may not know. And it doesn't matter much from a safety standpoint, for *most* situations it won't make any difference. But it is a code requirement. As is, more generally, the 99% ignored "mark any GFCI protected receptacle to indicate it is protected" - I remember 23 years ago when my electrician finished my kitchen and I called him up to tell him a receptacle in the kitchen wasn't working, that he had just installed, and he almost came back before realizing and telling me to "check the GFCI elsewhere in the – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact Feb 21 '23 at 02:58
  • kitchen". In a kitchen or bathroom it is pretty obvious (at least to me, now...) But some random receptacle elsewhere in the house? Not obvious at all, and the natural instinct would be to check the breaker and not think to check for a GFCI anywhere. – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact Feb 21 '23 at 02:59
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    The only way, @IrishRedneck, to know that there no ground connected to the receptacle is to open the box up and take a look. Either that or read the "GFCI protected, no ground" sticker that you put on there while doing your work. – FreeMan Feb 21 '23 at 17:28
  • I guess I had assumed this guys test would truly show if the box is truelly grounded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu5be04dDGs . Him and basically some other videos also show that if the box is properly grounded the volts should stay around 120volts when flowing from the hot wire through the volt meter to the metal box. Is this not actually the case? – Irish Redneck Feb 21 '23 at 19:07
  • That is 100% the case. The catch is that your average homeowner is **not** going to check the grounding like that before using a receptacle. They will, *correctly*, assume that if there is a 3rd prong then the receptacle is properly grounded. So if it is *not* properly grounded to older wiring without a ground wire available but you install GFCI to provide protection then you need to label that you did so. – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact Feb 21 '23 at 19:22
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    So I checked the metal box does seem grounded as I get 120v when touching it and the hot wire. So it must be similar to your house in that sense. So I will forego the gfci/afci outlet I was going to put in. It doesn’t fit anyway. The metal box is too tiny lol. So far replacing the outlets has stopped the breaker from tripping so far but will update as I finish. – Irish Redneck Feb 22 '23 at 17:19
  • I have found some boxes so small that I couldn't even fit a modern ordinary duplex receptacle! Fortunately, those have (so far) all been in open walls so no big deal to replace with bigger metal boxes. And actually I think they were "homeowner specials" because they also had other issues. YMMV. – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact Feb 22 '23 at 17:21
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    Yea any that are barely fitting I’m wrapping in electrical tape to keep it from contacting the box. Another thing is this wire is like braided fabric and inside there is some thermoplastic type stuff but just touching it disintegrates it and it falls off. So I could almost guarantee maybe something shorted at some point. The breaker is relatively new so I maybe see if we can add some afci breakers to help protect for any fires that could happen from arcing. I tested a spare afci outlet I had and no trips but it wouldn’t fit in the outlet so I put in a regular one. – Irish Redneck Feb 22 '23 at 18:36