Whilst this may be true for DIY, I can't see a pro adopting this. It would likely be more work to check what is OK and what is not than simply starting afresh. The chances of a '60s installation being exactly as installed is remote - it will likely have been added to.
Of course, a pro wants to charge as much as possible and would rather guarantee their own work
As a diyer one only need replace sockets and ideally CU, and test. And add main bonding.
NT
Indeed...
IME most customers also want a nice fuzzy feeling that comes from it being "all new", and often don't like the thought of old wiring still being in use even if you demonstrate that it tests ok.
Still on a hiding to nothing is most cases... you might find the original wiring only has half a dozen sockets - it hardly makes them worth keeping... and just gives you extra circuits to test.
And '60s back boxes have a different thread to modern ones - so will make it difficult to fit new sockets etc unless you re-use the old screws.
That sounds more like 1930s
I'd replace with new doubles, but of couse its trivial to reuse the old screws if you decide
NT
The old holes were 4BA, current ones are 3.5mm. I keep a 3.5mm tap in my toolbox to ease out the holes.
when we moved into our first house it only had 4 15A outlets; one in each bedroom and one in the kitchen. Wiring done in 1946.
And if it has not been added to.
A 60's installation has one or maybe two single sockets per bedroom and has probably only has one 4mm 30A radial circuit feeding all the sockets in the house.
It's cheaper to rewire the socket circuits into three new ring circuits (kitchen, up and down sockets) with sockets where the customer wants them and not f*ck about with the old socket wiring.
Nope mums 50s house was like that. Rubber insulation in (earthed) steel conduit, with a bit of PVC I put in in the 70s..
I guess the new owners totally gutted it and rewired it., I would.
yuup
One of our (1953) bedrooms had no sockets at all.
I mean what did you need electricity fir? Except hoovering...and a fridge
And one socket on the landing was all you needed
a fire in each bedroom and a kettle in the kitchen, I reckon. The socket in the kitchen was obviously repeatedly unplugged since it was hanging loose from the hole in the wall.
I did rewire before we moved in.
My previous place was built in 1956. When I rewired the adjoining property that had rubber insulation, and 4 or 5 single sockets (although on the bright side it did have wide enough heavy steel conduit in the walls to pull new wires through).
Even many places wired in the later 60s are woefully under provisioned by modern standards.
Note I am not saying you can't reuse old serviceable PVC if its there in some cases, just don't count on it saving you any money or time.
And later than that too. Our previous house (3 bedroom semi, spec built in the mid 60's) had 8 doubles. My parents' house built in the late 50's (also a 3 bedroom semi) only had 5 single sockets. all wired in rubber - and 3 of those were on spurs.
Some are adequate, it just depends what's there already. The main point is there's no reason to assume one must rewire everything.
NT
Were the old ones 2BA? They changed somewhere around the early 60's to the M3.5.
Now why are they called screws? Bolt or stud would be better names:-)
Back boxes used 4BA, BESA boxes 2BA. Now 3.5mm and M4.
Yes, but people now call the bit in the wall a plug-socket or even just a plug.
A bolt has a shoulder. A stud has no head, and a shoulder smoewhere in the 'middle'. Think the correct name is set or machine screw.
Running a 3.5 mm. tap through the metal tabs seems to give satisfactory results i.e. allowing use of metric screws. But YMMV.
Yup machine screw I would say... (set screw seems to be american for what we call a grub screw)
:-)
As for the date of the change over from 2BA to M3.5. Well an original Volex socket that I removed from a 1964 built house had both 2BA and M3.5 screws supplied with it (the screws were attatched to the back of the socket with small plastic lugs and labelled for the installer). The house did have M3.5 backboxes
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