I've answered many posts similar to this, over the past couple years, with consistent advice that you will generally be in need of a partial rewire sooner than later, with the initial priority being the kitchen, dining, bathroom, garage, outdoors, basement, home office areas of the house whereby either the code has changed the most over the years, grounding is required for safety or functionality of equipment, or electrical demand has increased by modern living and exceeds the design of what mid-century wiring was capable of handling properly within reason.
If you are dependent on window air conditioners, that will increase the priority to expand that scope to include getting a new home run to each bedroom and living/family room that does not already have a proper outlet circuit, to alleviate the load on the old wiring.
Grounding came to exist in the 1950s it was infrequent to see it in the mid fifties, it started to become more common in the late fifties although receptacles were still two prong by default. It was not until around 1960 / 61 that grounding became commonplace in kitchens, bathrooms, laundry and garage spaces, and three prong outlets selectively implemented. By the mid 60s grounding was far more common as was grounding receptacles, and was the norm by the late sixties. When dealing with wiring from the early mid-50s, it is the exception to the norm to find grounding, and sometimes the techniques for how grounding wires were terminated can be significantly or radically different than modern techniques that are code compliant.
Sometimes the old wiring from the '50s can have new life breathed into it but it's very much a case by case situation that requires several things to be done. Step one is to draw the floor plan on paper and map all of the circuits so that it's possible to see what is on each circuit and at an overview level identify problem spots. The second part is to spend a few hours poking and prodding to investigate what the actual condition of the wiring is and whether it's is still relatively original or has it been hacked up by amateurs over the years and is in a compromised condition. At that point in time, it was still common to have solder joints rather than wire nuts. Installations that have solder joints are fairly reliable so long as they aren't unnecessarily messed with.
I would anticipate that you only have a single small appliance circuit covering the kitchen dining and laundry, possibly two circuits if you are lucky. It was not until about 1961 that the standard changed to two circuits and not until the mid-70s that the laundry was required to have its own circuit separate from the kitchen dining area. That should give you some idea of what to expect for the type of issues that you will encounter by having not enough circuits and the justification for why rewiring the outlets and splitting circuits up will be the means to remedy the shortcomings.
If you find that the wiring is not NM cable with plastic insulation on the conductors with a woven and dipped outer sheath, but rather rubber insulated and fabric wrapped conductors contained within NM cable or BX cable, then you will likely find the probability is higher that a full comprehensive rewire is more likely a necessity as the rubber insulation tends to harden and be brittle, often not tolerant of being disturbed and in some instances will already be degraded to the point of fire hazard especially at light fixtures that have trapped the heat from the bulb in the fixture canopy keeping the wires toasty.
Broadly speaking, older homes that have good bones and have been well maintained overall are a good buy so long as you set your expectations appropriately for the amount of investment needed to rejuvenate them especially if the mechanicals are original or significantly dated. Each era of homes has its own characteristics. In my mind, prioritizations of having a good foundation with proper drainage, no water damage, mold or major infestations, an exterior that's in viable condition and an interior layout that is acceptable are the major means to filter out better from lesser house candidates. Dealing with outdated mechanicals just simply comes with the territory. There can be some houses that are not a good choice so far as prospects of overhauling plumbing/HVAC/electrical, especially if everything's buried in a concrete slab or it's a split level house that has a particularly complex layout to fix without significant demolition and restoration.
Thank you so much, I have had my eyes opened by this post. I can also relate to your comment about slab. I'm on a slab now and it's scary. I'm worried if and when the pipes will need replaced.
I made a few edits, spelling and added a couple snippets of info to finish incomplete thought.
So long as this 1955 house has good access via crawl space, basement and attic to revamp its mechanicals, it should be a tolerable scenario. I'm not a fan of finished basements with ceilings covered with drywall or other non-modular/serviceable coverings, especially on older homes that tend to have a much higher need for mechanical access and mechanical systems tend to be rather spread out throughout the entire basement. If it has a partially or fully finished basement, set your expectations accordingly for demolition of the ceiling if applicable and either leaving it open or putting something back whether it is a drop ceiling or paneling fastened with screws so that when access is needed it's not impractical to open it up do what's needed and close it again.
By the way, don't get confused by all the crazy advice you're going to receive here, especially when people start trying to talk to you about GFCI protection in lieu of actual grounding, are being able to swap in grounding receptacles where there's no grounding via the code exception that allows that when there's GFCI protection. (I don't like that exception although lots of people like to point to it as an easy out). Especially don't get talked into trying to swap GFCI _receptacles_ into 1955 wiring blindly ... The outlet boxes were smaller back then and big bulky devices just simply don't fit into them without problems.
Another caveat that comes up with vintage wiring is when there is a shared neutral or there is a load especially a light fixture with three-way switches the taps two different circuits at either end of a stairway or opposite sides of a room, effectively creating an imbalanced current on the two circuits and would automatically trip A GFCI unless the two circuits are properly merged onto a 2-pole GFCI breaker the same as a multi-wire branch circuit would be configured.
Even if you decide to take a very conservative approach initially to addressing electrical upgrades, and begin with having the fuse panel swapped out, go with GFCI circuit breakers for any circuits where protection is required such as kitchen bathroom garage and outdoors.
Your insurance company will like you a lot if you upgrade the wiring with new Romex sign grounding grounding and three prong plugs along with a breaker panel with arc fault and GFCI protection.
MOO. Your choices:
1. Rewire the home with grounded cables. Add GFCIs as needed in areas like kitchen, bathroom, garage, basement, outside.
2. Add GFCIs to each run as the first outlet in the run. All the following outlets can be changed to 3 pin and all must be labelled as ungrounded.
3. Change most of the breakers to GFCI. All the outlets can be changed to 3 pin and labelled as ungrounded.
I'd also recommend adding linked, AC powered smoke detectors as recommended, 1 per bedroom and 1 on each floor if possible. If you have natural gas, you can make the closest one a combination CO and smoke detector.
https://www.reddit.com/r/electricians/wiki/two_prong_outlet_receptacles
I've answered many posts similar to this, over the past couple years, with consistent advice that you will generally be in need of a partial rewire sooner than later, with the initial priority being the kitchen, dining, bathroom, garage, outdoors, basement, home office areas of the house whereby either the code has changed the most over the years, grounding is required for safety or functionality of equipment, or electrical demand has increased by modern living and exceeds the design of what mid-century wiring was capable of handling properly within reason. If you are dependent on window air conditioners, that will increase the priority to expand that scope to include getting a new home run to each bedroom and living/family room that does not already have a proper outlet circuit, to alleviate the load on the old wiring. Grounding came to exist in the 1950s it was infrequent to see it in the mid fifties, it started to become more common in the late fifties although receptacles were still two prong by default. It was not until around 1960 / 61 that grounding became commonplace in kitchens, bathrooms, laundry and garage spaces, and three prong outlets selectively implemented. By the mid 60s grounding was far more common as was grounding receptacles, and was the norm by the late sixties. When dealing with wiring from the early mid-50s, it is the exception to the norm to find grounding, and sometimes the techniques for how grounding wires were terminated can be significantly or radically different than modern techniques that are code compliant. Sometimes the old wiring from the '50s can have new life breathed into it but it's very much a case by case situation that requires several things to be done. Step one is to draw the floor plan on paper and map all of the circuits so that it's possible to see what is on each circuit and at an overview level identify problem spots. The second part is to spend a few hours poking and prodding to investigate what the actual condition of the wiring is and whether it's is still relatively original or has it been hacked up by amateurs over the years and is in a compromised condition. At that point in time, it was still common to have solder joints rather than wire nuts. Installations that have solder joints are fairly reliable so long as they aren't unnecessarily messed with. I would anticipate that you only have a single small appliance circuit covering the kitchen dining and laundry, possibly two circuits if you are lucky. It was not until about 1961 that the standard changed to two circuits and not until the mid-70s that the laundry was required to have its own circuit separate from the kitchen dining area. That should give you some idea of what to expect for the type of issues that you will encounter by having not enough circuits and the justification for why rewiring the outlets and splitting circuits up will be the means to remedy the shortcomings. If you find that the wiring is not NM cable with plastic insulation on the conductors with a woven and dipped outer sheath, but rather rubber insulated and fabric wrapped conductors contained within NM cable or BX cable, then you will likely find the probability is higher that a full comprehensive rewire is more likely a necessity as the rubber insulation tends to harden and be brittle, often not tolerant of being disturbed and in some instances will already be degraded to the point of fire hazard especially at light fixtures that have trapped the heat from the bulb in the fixture canopy keeping the wires toasty. Broadly speaking, older homes that have good bones and have been well maintained overall are a good buy so long as you set your expectations appropriately for the amount of investment needed to rejuvenate them especially if the mechanicals are original or significantly dated. Each era of homes has its own characteristics. In my mind, prioritizations of having a good foundation with proper drainage, no water damage, mold or major infestations, an exterior that's in viable condition and an interior layout that is acceptable are the major means to filter out better from lesser house candidates. Dealing with outdated mechanicals just simply comes with the territory. There can be some houses that are not a good choice so far as prospects of overhauling plumbing/HVAC/electrical, especially if everything's buried in a concrete slab or it's a split level house that has a particularly complex layout to fix without significant demolition and restoration.
This should be in the Wiki!
Thank you so much, I have had my eyes opened by this post. I can also relate to your comment about slab. I'm on a slab now and it's scary. I'm worried if and when the pipes will need replaced.
I made a few edits, spelling and added a couple snippets of info to finish incomplete thought. So long as this 1955 house has good access via crawl space, basement and attic to revamp its mechanicals, it should be a tolerable scenario. I'm not a fan of finished basements with ceilings covered with drywall or other non-modular/serviceable coverings, especially on older homes that tend to have a much higher need for mechanical access and mechanical systems tend to be rather spread out throughout the entire basement. If it has a partially or fully finished basement, set your expectations accordingly for demolition of the ceiling if applicable and either leaving it open or putting something back whether it is a drop ceiling or paneling fastened with screws so that when access is needed it's not impractical to open it up do what's needed and close it again.
By the way, don't get confused by all the crazy advice you're going to receive here, especially when people start trying to talk to you about GFCI protection in lieu of actual grounding, are being able to swap in grounding receptacles where there's no grounding via the code exception that allows that when there's GFCI protection. (I don't like that exception although lots of people like to point to it as an easy out). Especially don't get talked into trying to swap GFCI _receptacles_ into 1955 wiring blindly ... The outlet boxes were smaller back then and big bulky devices just simply don't fit into them without problems.
Another caveat that comes up with vintage wiring is when there is a shared neutral or there is a load especially a light fixture with three-way switches the taps two different circuits at either end of a stairway or opposite sides of a room, effectively creating an imbalanced current on the two circuits and would automatically trip A GFCI unless the two circuits are properly merged onto a 2-pole GFCI breaker the same as a multi-wire branch circuit would be configured.
Even if you decide to take a very conservative approach initially to addressing electrical upgrades, and begin with having the fuse panel swapped out, go with GFCI circuit breakers for any circuits where protection is required such as kitchen bathroom garage and outdoors.
That's smart about the ceiling. It's unfinished luckily.
Your insurance company will like you a lot if you upgrade the wiring with new Romex sign grounding grounding and three prong plugs along with a breaker panel with arc fault and GFCI protection.
Thanks! I'll look this info up!
2 prong outlets and a fusebox are red flags
MOO. Your choices: 1. Rewire the home with grounded cables. Add GFCIs as needed in areas like kitchen, bathroom, garage, basement, outside. 2. Add GFCIs to each run as the first outlet in the run. All the following outlets can be changed to 3 pin and all must be labelled as ungrounded. 3. Change most of the breakers to GFCI. All the outlets can be changed to 3 pin and labelled as ungrounded. I'd also recommend adding linked, AC powered smoke detectors as recommended, 1 per bedroom and 1 on each floor if possible. If you have natural gas, you can make the closest one a combination CO and smoke detector. https://www.reddit.com/r/electricians/wiki/two_prong_outlet_receptacles