Got stuck for 4 hours on a simple 3-way switch in an old Seattle apartment

I mean, everyone says to just trace the travelers, right? This was a kitchen remodel job, and the wiring was a mess of old cloth-covered stuff. I found the line and load fine, but there was a third red wire in the box that wasn't on any diagram. It took me forever to realize it was a dead leg from a long-gone switch for an old pantry light. I had to pull up a floorboard to trace it and finally capped it off. Has anyone else run into a phantom wire like that in a retrofit?

3 comments

3 Comments

josephmartin3d agoMost Upvoted

Rowan658 is right about the DIY ghosts, but my last phantom wire just turned out to be a really bad splice I did myself years ago. Spent an afternoon chasing my own tail before I remembered. Old houses are full of surprises, even the ones you put there.

rowan6584d ago

Yeah, that "phantom wire" situation is a classic headache in old places. It's never just a simple three-way when the building has decades of DIY changes. Pulling up a floorboard to solve it is next-level dedication.

adamk953d ago

Actually, pulling floorboards is pretty standard in old house work. You find abandoned gas lines, old knob and tube, all sorts of stuff. It's less about dedication and more about the only way to see what you're really dealing with.