What do crews find behind the walls of an older Riverside kitchen

The musty smell when the first sheet of plaster comes off a wall is the preview, and work booked through riverside kitchen remodelers sancd plans for what follows. Houses in Riverside, CA built between the 1920s and the 1970s hold the same handful of problems inside their kitchen walls.

Ungrounded outlets

Two-prong receptacles mean there is no ground wire in the box. Replacing the outlet with a three-prong one without a ground is wrong, so the choices are new wiring or ground fault protection on the circuit. In a kitchen remodel the walls are open anyway, so new cable is the clean answer.

Old cloth-covered and knob and tube wiring

Some bungalows near the Mission Inn still hold cloth-covered cable whose insulation cracks when moved. Knob and tube, if present, is left behind insulation in the attic. Neither one meets current kitchen loads, and both have to come out or be isolated before an inspector will pass the new work.

Small panels

A fuse box or a 60 amp panel cannot run a kitchen with a dishwasher, a microwave and an electric oven. The upgrade involves the utility, a new meter base in some cases, and a permit. It is a good reason to get the electrician in early in the planning.

Galvanized supply lines

Steel water pipe from the mid-century clogs with scale from the inside. Pressure at the faucet drops, and a new fixture does not fix it. The kitchen branch is replaced with copper or PEX back to a point where the pipe is clean, which is easier to do with the wall open than later.

Asbestos and lead

Vinyl floor tile and its black adhesive from before the 1980s, and popcorn texture on ceilings, can contain asbestos. Paint from before 1978 can contain lead. A lab test of a sample from the kitchen comes before demolition, not after, and any positive result calls for licensed abatement across Riverside County.

Surprises that are just ordinary

Notched studs, missing fire blocking and old termite damage near the Box Springs Mountains foothills show up too. Each one is documented with photos, fixed in the open wall, and signed off by the inspector before cabinets cover it. Photos taken before the drywall goes up are kept with the job, so a later repair knows where cable and pipe actually run.