Heads up about those old apartment wall plates in the East Village

My buddy Jake, who's been doing this for 15 years, told me to always assume the old coax outlets in those pre-war buildings are live with AC voltage until proven otherwise. I thought he was being overly cautious until I got a nasty 120v buzz from a plate in a 5th floor walk-up last Tuesday. My meter confirmed it was a neutral fault from some ancient, messed-up wiring. Anyone else run into this and have a safe way to test before you touch?

2 comments

2 Comments

dakota_burns961mo ago

Yikes, that's a nasty surprise.

the_miles1mo ago

My buddy found a snake in his toilet once.