The wires inside your walls might not often be on your mind, and you usually don’t see what state they are in, since you just plug your appliances into the outlet the wires connect to. If your home is old, however, there could be potential hazards hiding in the walls. Most likely, you will not notice a problem until you need to disturb these wires.
You will find that wiring that once worked well can all of a sudden exhibit all kinds of problems when the insulation on wires bends and cracks. You could just blow a fuse, but in the worst case, you could start a fire.
If you know that your wiring is very old, you should contact an electrician before doing any modifications, especially since wiring standards used in past decades can be very different from what we use today. You might find that you have aluminum wiring, or even knob and tube wiring.
While these systems might work ok for a long time when not disturbed, once you start messing with them, they can be an unending headache, sometimes necessitating a complete rewiring of your home.
