Beaumont, TX; April 26, 2023 – During Week 13 of the McFaddin-Ward House electrical upgrade, the team focused on wrapping up wiring work and mounting electrical boxes on fixtures throughout the house.
The crews from Oak Grove Restoration Company and Newtron Electrical Services began the week by identifying the wiring situation on porch, which proved tricky and required the use of a high definition inspection camera to locate where the current wire connected to the original knob and tube wiring within the walls. Closer inspection revealed the current wiring was updated within the past couple of decades, so the electricians were able to reuse some of the previous materials along with new cable and electrical boxes.
With wiring work mainly complete, electricians began mounting contactors for light switching purposes. Master control switches were added in the security office that will allow museum employees to turn on power for all light fixtures and receptacles in the house by flipping just two switches per floor. Prior to the upgrade, museum guards began and ended their days by manually turning on/off every light switch and lamp on all three floors.
Repair work also continued with Oak Grove addressing areas of exterior siding previously cut to access the Dining Room wall sconces. For outdoor repairs, Oak Grove is using Accoya®, a world leading high technology wood created from sustainably sourced New Zealand Radiata Pine. Accoya® undergoes a proprietary, non-toxic acetylation process that permanently modifies the wood to the core and results in an environmentally-friendly solid wood with rot resistance, durability, and dimensional stability that matches or exceeds even some of the best hardwoods.
