How to Replace a Push-Button Light Switch

The type of push-button light switch with two round buttons that alternate position as you turn the lights on and off is still available, but it's not as common as it used to be. However, if you want to preserve the historical authenticity of your 1920s home, you won't have any trouble finding classic accents push-button switches.

If your old light switch button is stuck, you can replace it with any type of switch you want, even a dimmer switch. The replacement doesn't have to be another push-button light switch. The only consideration is that, if the switch is really old, you may have to update the wiring to provide grounding.

Switch wiring may be easy if your home circuitry is up to code, but it can get complex in homes served by outdated wiring. The consequences of a miswired circuit can include frequent shocks and even the possibility of a fire. Don't hesitate to hire a licensed electrician if you're in doubt about any aspect of your switch replacement project.

No matter what mechanism you use to turn a switch on and off, it works in the same way. The switch is installed in the hot leg of the circuit, and when it's off, no power can flow to whatever it is that the switch controls.

Most switches have two hot wires, usually black, and a ground terminal. The exceptions are illuminated switches. They also need a white neutral wire to power the lights. You can replace your old push-button switch with one of these if you want.

Wiring a switch is one of the easiest electrical procedures.

1. Turn off the power at the breaker.
   
   
2. Connect the black circuit hot wire to one of the switch hot wires or brass terminals and connect the hot wire going to the lights to the other hot wire or terminal. A switch isn't polarized, so it doesn't matter to which wire or terminal you connect either wire.
   
   
3. Splice the neutral wires by twisting them together and capping them. When installing an illuminated switch, use a short length of white wire to make a pigtail that connects to the switch's neutral (chrome) terminal.
   
   
4. Finish up by connecting the ground wire, which is bare, to the ground terminal on the switch or the green wire. Once the wiring is complete, screw the switch to the electrical box and install a cover plate.

Older push-button switches are often artifacts of a time when grounding in residential circuitry didn't exist. If so, you'll only find four wires in the switch box: two hot and two neutral, and the neutral wires might be red, not white. You can treat the red wires as you would white ones because they were installed before white became the required color for the neutral wire, but how do you handle the lack of a ground?

The answer to that depends on whether the panel is grounded, and unless it has been upgraded, it probably isn't. If not, you can ground the switch by running a 12-gauge bare wire from the ground terminal to a metal plumbing pipe (not a gas pipe). You can also just leave it ungrounded, but you risk getting a shock when you use the switch. Modern devices are well insulated, though, so the risk is small.

If the panel is grounded, you should run the bare wire all the way back to it and connect it to the ground bus. Better yet, pull out the wires to the switch and replace them with 12-gauge, two-conductor electrical cable, which includes a ground wire. You should update the wiring to the light fixture as well so that you can ground the fixture.