New siding, lost power to 2nd floor

[AntaresSupernova]

I had siding done recently and have basically lost electricity to my second floor. The contractor paid an electrician to come out and they thought there was a loose wire in a junction box, and that would be on me to pay for repairs. After paying for siding I can't really pay for electrical work. I went in the attic and found no junction boxes. This is an old two wire knob and tube setup by the way. For all the connections and splices I could find (about positive found it all) everything seems well connected. Oddly enough, light switches have anywhere from 4-25 volts but outlets are reading zero. It looks like the entire second floor is fed off of one hot and one neutral wire with each running up opposite corners on the back of the house. Any ideas why I get low voltage from switches and nothing from outlets when they run off the same circuit? Any thoughts on what else I should be looking for? Thanks

 

[JWelectric]

blown fuse

 

[Sponsor]

 

[hj]

"He THOUGHT there was a loose connection"? He should have been able to tell you EXACTLY what the problem was, not make a wild guess.

 

[AntaresSupernova]

Tested each breaker individually and they are all good. No fuses anywhere.

 

[Ankhseeker]

Maybe the siding guys put a nail through the wire for the upstairs?

 

[Reach4]

Are you looking for techniques in tracking the break?

Assuming that you are, I suggest you get a long wire that you can hook to plumbing or other known ground. Connect the other end of this wire to one of your meter probes. Hold it with whatever.

Use the other probe to probe places. Normally in an outlet, one (the narrow one if they differ) should have about 120 VAC on it. The other one should read between zero and maybe 4 volts. You can probe light sockets. The shell should be about zero and the center contact about 12o volts.

I am not an electrician.

 

[ActionDave]

You have at least eighty year old wire inside the walls of your house and you spent all your money on siding for the outside of the wall...........sigh.

The 4-25V on the lights is meaningless. It is a by-product of the sensitive electronics of a digital meter.

Reach4 has a similar technique to what I would use. I would use an extension cord plugged into a properly wired receptacle and test from the cord to the non-working receptacle, hot to hot, neutral to neutral, neutral to hot both ways, then at least you know which wire is bad. Then start looking for the bad spot.