Is this a reasonable process for electrical troubleshooting and upgrade?

Question

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.

Answer 1

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.