Will my condo burn down?

[flyguy]

My wife & I just bought a 1-bedroom, 1-bath condo in Arlington, Virginia to use as a rental.

The building was constructed in 1946 and there are 9 units in our building.

The electrical panel is Federal Pacific Electric (FPE) Stab-lok panel. The wiring appears to be aluminum. The receptacles and switches have all been painted (the windows are all painted shut so there is no escaping ).

We are replacing the windows but don't know how to proceed with the electrical issues. We want a safe home for prospective renters, but because all of the other units have the same issues, whatever we do will be for naught if another unit catches fire.

For what it's worth, long-time residents have said there has never been a fire.

I'd like to replace the switches and receptacles and add GFCI's at the very least. Has anyone used Alumiconn as a means of connecting copper wire to aluminum?

Any help/ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[HayZee518]

GET RID OF THE FEDERAL PACIFIC SERVICE! IT IS NOTHING BUT TROUBLE. As afar as the aluminum goes, bare aluminum is problems. copper clad aluminum is more forgiving but still presents a hazard.

[flyguy]

OK, but I'll spend about $1500 to replace the panel and the place will STILL burn down because the neighbor hasn't replaced theirs!

What about replacing the receptacles?

[HayZee518]

bring the case against the federal pacific to light with the other homeowners. I worked for a utility in massachusetts and we had a test set for circuit breakers up to 6000amps. we put a 20 amp federal breaker on the test set and it is supposed to trip within 3 cycles. at quadruple its rating (80 amps) it failed to trip. we increased the amps to 100 amps, the breaker started to smoke and tripped within 6 cycles. so imagine having 100 amps on a 12 gauge circuit protected by a federal breaker. need I say more? when aluminum wire was installed the sizing was always one increase in wire size per one increase in amps. therefore a ten gauge aluminum for a 20 amp circuit, 12 gauge aluminum for a 15 amp line. the problem with aluminum is that it oxidizes in the atmosphere and forms a high resistance to the flow of current. this heats up and causes fires. receptacles may have the Cu-Al stamp on them but you must use a screw torqueing specification with an anti-oxidant. Copper wire has a sort of "spring-back" when it's tightened. Aluminum does not!

[Speedy Petey]

Isn't there a fire wall separation between the units?

DO NOT attempt to repair the AL wiring yourself. Get a QUALIFIED electrician to make any upgrades/repairs to this system.
Please. For the safety of your renters.

[HayZee518]

Thanks Speedy!

[flyguy]

Speedy, I don't know if there's a firewall separation between units - did they do that in 1947? How can you tell?

[HayZee518]

find the engineer that designed the condo. see if you can drum up the building blueprints. modern units have a fire barrier between units. older styles were just two sheets of fire rated 5/8" sheetrock. newer stuff have a fire abating layer - extinguishing urethane foam or something similar.

[flyguy]

If the engineer was 25 years old when he designed the building, he'd be 87 years old now.

[HayZee518]

ok, exterior brick construction always have the internal framing of 2x3 or a 2x3 or 4 laid flat. this made for very shallow boxes for the electrical. people felt that the brick afforded some protection from the elements because half was in a heated space and half was exposed to the weather. the more "expensive" brick buildings had granular vermiculite poured inside the walls for an insulation barrier. in answering you about foam in place insulation, it affords the highest r value because it makes the house air tight. it is wise to think about what you are going to use in the walls for electrical because it is an utter nightmare trying to snake a wire inside the wall after the sheetrock is in place and then deciding hmmm I need an outlet here or there. merely dropping a tubular heating element down a wall for a wire is next to impossible. it makes the insulation very sticky. I didn't mean to sound "smart" when I said to track down the architect or engineer that built the place just a thought that maybe the town hall had some sort of record of what was put into the house. you got it gutted so you got someidea what is there. ask your building inspector about fireproofing the building. he's has the bottom line say after all. you had to take out a permit for your renovations anyway.