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We are in the process of doing renovations on a home which was built in the early 70s in Toronto. The home has aluminum wiring in most places except the basement which was completed later.

When some walls were removed we noted that sheathing on some of the wiring is discoloured, looking almost burnt. Is this "normal" with aluminum wiring? Any thoughts on what could have caused this? How do you recommend that we address this?

Again appreciate any pointers from the experts here. Thanksenter image description hereenter image description hereenter image description here enter image description hereenter image description hereenter image description hereenter image description hereenter image description here

user105375
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2 Answers2

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Yeah, it looks like slow-cooked wires

The type of damage you have appears like the cable jackets have slow-cooked themselves from extended overheating due to overload. While properly terminated aluminum wiring is normally OK to keep around, the overheating damage means that the cause of the overheat/overload should be found/corrected, and the damaged cabling runs replaced outright.

ThreePhaseEel
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Overheating!!. The aluminum tendency is to oxidize and is incompatibility with devices designed for use with copper wiring. Problems with aluminum are found usually at termination points. It's a really tricky problem since you should remove and replace all the aluminum wiring.