Rewiring a 1950s CA duplex with grounded sockets?

[aMp]

OK, just moved to the friggin' earthquake state, and my new duplex apartment has almost entirely ungrounded outlets. The box out back has been upgraded, as per local law, and the bathroom socket is a grounded GFCI. But other than that, it's old-school ghetto wiring. The conduits are fifty-year-old fabric-covered 14ga copper.

I've got two problems with that state of affairs. First, the house wiring is noisy as hell. Every time the neighbors dryer powers up, my lights dim. And don't even get me started on the living room dimmer switch. That's bad enough when you're trying to maintain an overclock, but it's another thing entirely when you're an audio geek with an expensive high-fidelity setup. Anyway, I've been thinking of picking up a line conditioner to smooth things out, but without a ground that's more than pointless.

Second, my rig is watercooled, and after the 5.6 earthquake we had here two weeks ago I'm more than a little paranoid about killing myself running my rig off an ungrounded outlet.

So, what it boils down to is this: I'm mechanically and electrically competent...more or less...and I want to know how big a deal it would be to run a grounded conduit from the box to my gear room. I could get an electrician to do it, but I'll be :banana::banana::banana::banana:ed before I'll spend a couple hundred bucks upgrading somebody else's property.

Ideas? Pointers? Warnings of impending death?

[fart_plume]

Have the city inspector come out and inspect it. Cloth covered wiring is outdated and extremely dangerous. They give your landlord a notice to upgrade it. With heavy loads on that wiring as old as it is your in danger of a house fire.Old copper gets weak and very brittle any overheating of the wire and poof everything you own is gone.

[Sparky]

Have the city inspector come out and inspect it. Cloth covered wiring is outdated and extremely dangerous. They give your landlord a notice to upgrade it. With heavy loads on that wiring as old as it is your in danger of a house fire.Old copper gets weak and very brittle any overheating of the wire and poof everything you own is gone.

What he said. Cloth covered wires is totally unsafe, especially after 50 years of rot. And if your lights dim when the neighbor runs the dryer, that is even worse because it is showing how bad connections and things are.

At least you got a warm welcome to the earthquake state :p:

[Polizei]

Your land lord should be the one paying for the repairs, as he owns the property.

Rewiring an entire house or a half of a house or anything substantial like that is not something somene who asks "How do I do this?" should be doing. Im not trying to make fun of you or anything, its just not something someone with no electrial background should be doing.

[Entity_Razer]

ya rly

get your landlord to fix it or get a decent electrician, this is NOT something you do yourself tbh... way to important for fire safty, not to mention if you do it yourself you still need it "certified" (in belgium at least) otherwise most fire ensurances won't cover you

[aMp]

Problem is they're grandfathered -- the landlord doesn't have to upgrade the ungrounded sockets unless he remodels, which he ain't going to do. The cloth-covered wire angle is a good one, though. I'll have to call the local fire authority and see what I can make of it. Of course, that's just asking not to have my lease re-upped if and when I decide to stay another year. C'est la vie.

I've already dropped in an ungrounded GFCI by my entertainment center since a vase full of water went all over my old TV during the quake. I guess that's going to be the extent of my personal modifications.

Thanks for the input, fellas.