Electrical e-wiring query

[Jethro]

Hi all

if we are decorating a room, and wish to rewire it (old black rubber stuff, which of the following options is best :

1) chase out plaster, disconnect old wire, put in conduit, replace old wire. The when the whole house has been done, remove old wire, and run new through the conduit.

2) Replace wire up to ceiling, then connect to old "loom" using one of those circular connecter blocks. When every room has been done, replace the loom back to the meter.

3) Replace wires all the way back to the meter in one hit, and hope that the disturbance to the block of wiring into the meters doesn't cause them to crack or break (the actual old cable seems to be steel, and rather brittle).

4) Leave existing wiring, and run everything new, in parallel ... although the whole re-wire is not going to be finished for a year at least.

I'd appreciate the groups thoughts ....

regards

[Christian McArdle]

Don't touch any of the old rubber stuff. It becomes unsafe. Therefore, your new rewire should not reuse any rubber cabling at any point. You shouldn't attempt to make connections to it.

Option 4 is the way to go. Frankly, I'd disconnect the entire rubber lot now, fit a new consumer unit with a couple of sockets and buy a number of long extension leads until you can rewire properly. Rubber wiring is a fire waiting to happen, particularly if it might be disturbed by refurbishment work. Rewiring the house will only take a few days (plus time to shift furniture), provided you have the right tools, work quickly and don't mind making dust.

Ensure you design the system correctly with modern numbers and types of circuits. This means having several circuits for a kitchen, not shared with other rooms and incorporating RCD protection, either with a split load consumer unit (cheap) or RCBOs (better, but potentially expensive).

Christian.

[Mike]

Agreed.

That's exactly what I did. Fortunately mosy wiring was in conduit rather than being buried directly in plaster. I simply replaced it, dragging PVC cable through with the rubber I pulled out.

All wiring was done in 4 weekends, then it was just the 7 years it has taken to put the rest right.

[deckertim]

Make sure you do it before the end of the year or at least start before then as the new Part P Building regulations will apply. (Look at previous posts for some discussion) This means that you will need to inform your local council if you intend to do the work yourself and will have to pay for testing, certification and Building control, which could be a hefty sum.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

That's fine provided you're just replacing things. Unfortunately most want a rather more comprehensive installation these days.

[Tim]

Or not bother and sort it out when selling (suggesting that the buyer pays the fees)?

Not serious advice for you (ie, if you take it, then you accept it's not technically corrrect) - but I'm damn tempted as all this Building Regs stuff is getting way out of hand IMO. Bah.

Anyway - who's going to bother checking half the time...

Timbo

[chris French]

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

Indeed, and anyway, while being a bit messy, chasing out for cables was fairly easy in this house -- the base coat 'plaster' (sand and lime?) was very crumbly -you could cut them with a Stanley knife. it's running the cables around under floors etc. that seems to be the most difficult part.

Certainly I'd go with the suggestion for leaving the old stuff alone, for the reasons given. Just put the new stuff in and leave the old alone. I'd also go with suggestions for doing it in one hit. While messy and disruptive it's good to get it out of the way in one fell swoop as much as possible - I did it bit by bit - nest time I'll just do the job in one go.

It's quite likely though that nor all the wiring in rubber, we had 13A sockets wire in PVC T&E - though mostly it seemed as radial circuits.

Top tip - get an SDS drill if you don't have one - for cutting out for backing boxes in brickwalls, drilling etc. I would now consider it essential. Google Groups on uk.d-i-y for SDS if you've no idea what I'm talking about.

[John Rumm]

If you have tall skirting boards or covings, then get a long (i.e. 400mm or more) drill bit to go in it while you are at it. It makes it so much simpler to chase up as far as the obstruction, and then drill behind it at a shallow angle to get to the ceiling or floor void.

[chris French]

Indeed it is, but rather than use an expensive SDS drill I use a cheaper standard masonry drill in a cordless drill - it only has to go through plaster so doesn't need anything fancy.

Drilling the hole in a floorboard behind a deep skirting board is much more of a faff.

[Brett Jackson]

Why not do option 4 and surface mount all your cable in conduit until you're ready to re-decorate a room at a time.

[Brett Jackson]

With the risk of being shot down in flames....

Is it not better - in principle - if you're buying a house to have some peace of mind that a proper job has been done on something as important as the electrics and that some numpty (professional or diy-er) hasn't botched it up.

Like many government initiatives it seems like a good idea but probably isn't that well thought out.

[Tim]

I agree with you about the buyer's peace of mind - but that's what surveys are for. If the buyer wants peace of mind, they're welcome to pay for as many (and as detailed as they like) inspections as they want (and retrospective certification if they're sold on that).

I certainly don't expect to seek my councils "permission" to do something which I've always been able to do uptil now and which I can do a competant job according to the IEE regs. I was "trained" by a C.Eng/MIEE (Dad) to do a safe and competant job and also understand the wiring regs + I'm a perfectionist.

I have a family and it's paramount to me that nothing unsafe is done in my house, but to be quite honest, with some of the dodgey contractors around, I'm actually be happier doing it myself - at least I can see what I've done and I'm not rushed for time or inclined to cut costs randomly or use cheap parts (I know many of the contractors out there are first rate, but how many dodgey ones will be self-certifying?).

An aside: My current (rented) house built 15 years ago doesn't even have any ring circuit RCD's, which I find appalling. Possibly not required at the time, but just plain cheap. Just one built into a garage socket (which I replaced 'cos it was broken). The consumer unit is a cheap piece of crap with cartrdge fuses which require a knee against the wall to pull out. Could certainly have done that better myself.

To my mind, bulding regs are for structural things, not for electrics and windows. Had enought of the damn nanny state...

Sorry for the rant - this one really winds me up.

Timbo

[John Rumm]

Yup - my point was more the need for "long" rather than SDS as such....

Having said that, it is supprising how well a SDS with hammer on will go through wood!

[ARWadsworth]

Or indeed a threaded bar with a lump hammer. Remember to put a nut on at the top to allow you to hammer the thing back out.

Adam

[raden]

In message , Brett Jackson writes

The principle, I understand

I'm just struggling with how any of this might work out in practice