Wired up some lights

This one - NSFW

When I moved into the current house in 1991, I went round all the sockets to check them because previous owner had replaced all the naff brass wall plates with cheapo contract stuff.

The earth wire (1mm) had been broken (*) in two back boxes so that the single ring main had two radials for earth and two sockets has no earth because of the pair of breakages in other backboxes.

Every L, N and E screws needed tightening on most of the sockets.

(*) Original electrician had cut the wires are short as physically possible in most back boxes.

On the subject of heat shrink, I was in Aldi the other day and they were selling boxes of assorted diameter and coloured heat shrink tubing. Probably enough to last several lifetimes of the average DIY-er

Sods law says that when you come to use it again in a years time there will not be a piece in the kit of the right diameter, length or colour :)

My mothers house built in the 1960s is much like that - absolutely no slack in the cable for any socket or light fitting. It was extremely difficult to replace damaged sockets in the kitchen as the amount of free wire in the back-box only allowed the faceplate to come forward by around a couple of cm (possibly compounded by thicker tiles having been fitted later after the original build.)

The ends are tinned to make factory testing easier/safer.

Solder remains relatively soft. So a screw tightened on to it may come loose. If you look at a crimped terminal, this is never done to a tinned end. Always to the bare strands. For the same reasons.