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My office building has been in my family for three generations... back to 1923. The building is older than that by quite a bit. A converted home with several additions. The original roof is still visible if you venture into the attic(s), complete with shingles!. We installed a drop ceiling in the second floor, and when we had the painters wallpaper the rooms, he got zapped while wiping the paste off the ceiling track. He had his palm against a light switch. Knob & tube wiring, still in commercial use. The hangers for the ceiling found the wire. Electricians solution? Go the the panel and switch the neutral with the hot. Problem solved (for now)!

The history of these old homes are something . Ours had gas lights at one time , when we started remodeling we found 3/8 gas lines in several rooms . I would hate to think about building codes if it was doe now , let alone the safety involved , we are on medium pressure lines . mot appliances now run on less then 3 in water column our service line pressure is well over 14 in , one failure of a regulator would spell disaster even with fire proof drywall .

Yes, the histories can be mind boggling. I found this in my office attic when I cleaned it out 35 years ago! What was it there for? My grandparents did have a stable early on!

LOL Must have been special to some one ?

We found a pair of ladies shoes from what we believe to be from 1915 and a news paper from 1915 that had a story of opening the Panama Canal. we believe the shoe to be the same age as the paper since they were together .

Nothing like a horseless shoe still on the hoof lol but still pretty neat history .

ChrisNeilan wrote:My office building has been in my family for three generations... back to 1923. The building is older than that by quite a bit. A converted home with several additions. The original roof is still visible if you venture into the attic(s), complete with shingles!. We installed a drop ceiling in the second floor, and when we had the painters wallpaper the rooms, he got zapped while wiping the paste off the ceiling track. He had his palm against a light switch. Knob & tube wiring, still in commercial use. The hangers for the ceiling found the wire. Electricians solution? Go the the panel and switch the neutral with the hot. Problem solved (for now)!

That is not safe, switching the neutral with the hot! Go today and get a real Electrician to fix your wiring and if you mean the "carpenters" hung off the knob and tube wires to hold the ceiling up get them back to fix it.

We have had no problem in the 20 years since.

Let me try to Follow your logic:
Building was wired correctly, remodel makes the ceiling grid hot, soo wire the building incorrectly.
Commercial building so put other people at risk.
Sounds like you would win any lawsuit once you explained it to the judge.

Not to hijack this thread, but the circuit has been checked specifically for any safety issues by two separate electricians plus the city inspector. By switching the neutral and hot, they effectively grounded the circuit, which is solely a lighting circuit with no outlets. Old knob and tube circuits such as this usually (i'm told) do not contain a separate ground wire. Two wire only. The point of contact with the hanger was deemed ok, but moved out of contact. No problems.

ChrisNeilan wrote:Not to hijack this thread, but the circuit has been checked specifically for any safety issues by two separate electricians plus the city inspector. By switching the neutral and hot, they effectively grounded the circuit, which is solely a lighting circuit with no outlets. Old knob and tube circuits such as this usually (i'm told) do not contain a separate ground wire. Two wire only. The point of contact with the hanger was deemed ok, but moved out of contact. No problems.

I can essentially condone that action IFF they also switched the hot/neutral at the other end of the run as well. i.e. all lamp sockets were properly polarized(hot center/neutral shell).

Separate ground wire was thought of several decades after knob and tube wiring was discontinued.

we first moved in to this home we had electrical issues ,first there was a 60 amp double screw in fuse switch box on the porch with no weather protection,second we had a cast iron claw foot tub ,all the plumbing was cast iron and copper and all the drains were metal / chrome , any time you were in the tub of water with the bathroom light was on and touched the faucet you got a tingle ,if you had your hand in the kitchen sink of water , cast iron sink ,,and touched the faucet , and the bathroom light was on you got a tingle,, took me a while to figure it out but there was a ground hooked to the cold water pipe in he cellar ,the ground rod out side was only about 2 ft long , replaced them , new electrical service ,new ground rod and still had issues come to find out there was still a small piece of knob and tube wire in the bathroom attic we missed touching the cast iron stink pipe, {the sewer vent} , the insulation was good on the wire but current was bleeding through , replaced the wiring in the entire house , problem solved . like they say , when its time , its time .