lead sheathed wiring

[Christian McArdle]

Obviously against the law to fit the stuff. Not against the law to use existing lead water mains supply in hard water areas.

Christian.

[chris French]

In message , PJO writes

I think it was mean that there is still a lot of lead mains pipes around

- we have some for one on our mains supply.

Rather than they still install the stuff.

[chris French]

I suspect at least some of this cable is in such a state.

The old 1930's rubber sheathed cables in this house still 'worked' in that the lights still worked - but it was fire risk because the insulation was perished and literally falling off the wires and switches, junctions etc.

I find it very unlikely that the insulation round the wires in this cable is not also perishing in a similar way

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yes. The building regs are rather good at lip pursing and preventing use of something that is no longer the best practice, without going apeshit and demanding it all be removed immediately...

Lead ahs been used less and less for everythuing, not so much because its dangerous, as becauuse its expensive, and often not the best material anyway. You can sill buy skads of teh stuff tho. For roofing. GASP better not drink from the water butt then had we? We might de of lead poisoning before the cholera got us...

[The Natural Philosopher]

That's the odd thing. My ageing mothers house is wired with rubber cable in steel conduit. Where it gets exposed to the air, it goes brittle and crumbly, but it doesn't actually short unless you f*ck with it. It holds is distance from the conduit. Inside the conduit it actually is not bad at all. I had to take a bit out a few years back, and it was only where it was in fresh air that it had degraded badly.

Since it is all well fused, and in steel, and properly earthed (good

50's practice) i judged it fine to leave. If it shorts, it will blow fuse. We stuck ion a new ring in teh kitchen some years back on a little cionsumer unit with MCBs etc. That all pukka 'modern' wiring, tho frankly the steel conduit is far better at stopping a drill bit...:-)

PVC can degrade - see polystyrene threads - as much as rubber can. Arguably encasing the lot on steel is far better than running an earthwire down the middle as T & E. Its not safety that has stopped steel conduit, but the expense of laying it. Lead coated wire is that way to stop fire hazards. Because the insulation can break down, abnd because they didn't have RCD's in those days, or MCB's - just bits of fuse wire.

In its day it was 'best practice'. Along with perfectly adequate 15A and

5A sockets and 3A sockets .

[Andrew Gabriel]

Degradation is caused by ozone. There's a small amount around all the time, but sparks at switch contacts generate more which has a significant effect at those points. Rubber insulation was always completely unusable in mechanical telephone exchanges where the tiny sparks increased the background level and the rubber disintegrated extremely quickly -- in some cases where it was used by accident, its life was less than a year.

[stefek.zaba]

Coo! Reasoned argument, detailed references, *and* perfect spelling, all in one post! Well impressed...

[Colin Wilson]

Most council estates and indeed many "private" housing areas in the Liverpool area have cleated wiring.

[Colin Wilson]

I know the two lads involved - I served my time with them !

[N. Thornton]

Hi. Going back pre-1930s the power sockets may have been 2 pin 5A non polarised, and of course not wired in rings. Each would have a fuseway on the fuseboard. In some cases there were only one or two sokets in a whole house. There should also be a main on off switch, but that may be it. There might not even be an earth on basic installs like that.

Regards, NT

[Lobster]

So, how long do you get for nicking lead from churches these days then? ;-)

As a slight aside... in almost every electrical installation I've worked on in various homes, I have come across old redundant wiring which has often needed to be investigated before being pronounced 'dead', and accordingly is a right PITA - does NICEIC (sp?) dictate that old wiring should be removed on a rewire, or is it regarded as best practice to do so? Or not?

David

[Colin Wilson]

`fraid i`m a little rusty - I haven`t been house bashing for ~13 years now - I moved up to distribution switchgear and ended up office based as my back went within about 3 years (found I was in tears in pain in the van one day, and it occurred to me that "somethings' not right here") - now office based and regd disabled...

[sro]

Definitely used to Dave - my Mums house was entirely lead - the cable runs were a work of art, seemed a pity to rip it out. The area that nearly caused a fire was where the cable went into the old bakelite fittings. My sister noticed a p*ss smell when the light was on in her bedroom......

Steve

[Jerry.]

Same here, but it was were the cable went into the / wooden / fuse box in the old kitchen [1], my brother was doing his homework lat one night after everyone else has gone to bed, noticed a burning smell and looked up to see the fuse box in flames....

[1] The house was 1895 with a new 1950's kitchen had been built onto the house but the room concerned still had the original coal fire range in place but dis-used (together with servants bells etc.) - worth a bloody fortune now I expect, both the house and the range !

[Dave Plowman]

Yes - I've seen lead used for 5 amp power sockets - just not any big enough for 15 amp ones, although I'd guess it existed.