The house we live in was built in the '30s and for an 80ish year old house, it's really not in bad shape. Once in a while, however, we'll find something that's really wrong.

We've been living in this house for about a year and a half. Most of the receptacles are badly worn and need to be replaced. I went to replace one in the kitchen this morning and the thing fell apart as I took the face plate off.

I made sure the power was off and got my keyhole saw to trim the paneling. Whoever paneled this wall simply cut a hole to access the outlet instead of mounting it properly.

I removed the two screws that should be holding it in the box and the grounding strap fell off. That's the long silver bar in the photo.

I grabbed my pliers and coaxed the device out of the box. It completely fell apart.

This is everything that fell out of the wall. The washers are not so unusual. We use them occasionally as spacers but not in a place where they may be energized.

I installed the new receptacle and everything checked out. (There's no ground wire in the box so by code I have to install ungrounded devices - two prongs instead of three).

I think that since I've found this I'll go ahead and get a count of how many I need and just go ahead and replace everything. I mean what are the odds that this was the only one in the house in this bad of shape?