40 YEAR OLD 3-Way Switch NEVER Worked. Is It FIXABLE?

"I can do it right, or I can do it fast. Pick one." You guys are awesome. Forget the critics.

I don't know how many 3-ways that I've had to correct over the years. But, a older lady customer had to go to the bottom of her basement stairs for 10-15 yrs just to turn the lights on just because someone wired the 3-way backwards. I was like..wow! You did good on this one Paul. Proud of ya.

As a sparky I found your approach interesting. Slow and methodical. I was trained with a great phrase in mind "There are old electricians and bold electricians but there are no old bold electricians". It's a shame that never worked right from the start, I've drawn that straw a few times. Glad you fixed it correctly, and the fact you pretwisted your wires, used an appropriate filler plate instead of a dummy switch , and all your screws were vertical are all signs of a professional. One thing I'll add about ohming out wires is the meter can read through incandescent light bulbs and some other loads for any would be DIY people watching the video.

As a Journeyman Electrician, I appreciate how you inform Peyton safety of not just construction but on basically everything you would run into! You do a great job explaining everything! I really enjoy your videos

That tip about wire-nutting the hot and the neutral and then checking for continuity elsewhere is very useful.

Dad's on the job are the best. Treasure these days, Jordan.

Trouble shooting is becoming a lost art.

Hey gang, at one point in this video when I’m tracing out the wires, we moved a couple of cables from their original location and that’s why it’s a little confusing. Hang in there with me, we sort it out eventually 👍👊 Thanks for watching!!

i always tell my customers that troubleshooting a circuit issue can take 5 minutes or 5 hours. but its such a great feeling to find and fix the issue and get paid by a happy customer

As a European I find it always very interesting to see American elektricity wiring. One thing that we do that could have saved you time is using wire in corogated tubing so you can later add an extra wire if needed. Something I'm a bit envious of is the flexibility drywall gives you if you want to add something later on. Here everything is brick.

This is more like a electrics wiring short course for anyone who wants to learn the basics and do a successful troubleshooting at home respecting safety rules first. Nicely done folks 👍

all your screws are straight up - you are a master!

Great job. One thing that i would add that I learned the hard way, you should put your tester in both, the top and bottom parts of the receptacle, just in case someone installed a split receptacle and did not mark it. I got zapped once because I only tested the top of a switched receptacle. I started pulling out the receptacle and pow. It only takes another 2 or 3 seconds to test both.

It's amazing what you find in older homes. I'm renovating our '78 Townhouse and I was constantly having WTF moments with electrical, plumbing, drywall, whenever I started working on something or going behind the walls. So called "professionals." While installing a ceiling fan in the master bedroom, I could not detect the studs. As I tried to find out what was going on, I noticed the ceiling drywall was hanging about 5-6" off the joist; another side job to reattach the ceiling to the joist. I spent a good amount of time in the hot attic wiring fans, lights, bathroom exhaust fans, removing insulation to reattach the ceiling to the joist and cleaning out the attic...we are selling this house.

I knew you were gonna end up in the attic on this one.

We moved into a house where the previous owners had lived for 42 years. They told us that they never could figure out why their 4-way switches never worked. Luckily, I had saved the old outlets when we replaced them in our living room. We discovered that the first owners had installed 2 outlets new and didn't do it correctly. Our other 6 outlets in the same room were still original. After making all outlets have the same wiring connections...they worked. It was a switched outlet for all 8 outlets in the room. We were so excited to have the previous owners over to show them that they all worked.

As a DIY I really appreciate how detailed your videos are including showing that it often isn't easy to correct problems but with thought and effort it can be done.

Good work fellas I bet those home owners were happy after all those years of goofy wiring. Now we just need to clone you two and ship ya all over the country so we can rebuild America with a little pride and quality work. Thanks for the video👍👍👍

I really love your videos. I'm a younger guy rebuilding a house and just finished electrical rough-in, so this is fun to watch!

You guys are awesome! No one explains things like you guys and does such great work! I've been a real estate agent for 20 years and renovating for past 5, hard to find good contractors like you guys! Keep it up!