House purchase and rewire

[TalentlessAmateur]

Hi All,
I'm new to this forum, so please be forgiving....

We are about to purchase a house, selling ours to fund the deal. Nothing new here. The only fly in the ointment is that the new place needs a complete rewire which we have factored into the cost. I am smart enough to know that I am nowhere near qualified to do this myself, but could do with some advice as to the best and most cost efficient way of doing things.

We have two kids, one at nursery and one about to start school, and an 'emotional' cat! Obviously a minimum of disruption would be best for us, so think getting the rewire done before properly moving in would be the best long term, but what is the best way?

Move all the furniture in and camp in the house while the work is done?

Move the furniture in to part of the house and rent somewhere for a couple of weeks?

Place the furniture in storage?

I don't think we would be able to stay in our current property while the work is done as we are part of a chain.

I assume other people have been in this situation, how did you do it?

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

The best way would be empty house no furniture, no residents.
But if it's about money, you could have the furniture in the house and rent, you could live there. There is always away around things.
The property can be wired in a manner that will cause less disruption, just needs a little organization and planning!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

In-laws or other relatives? Friends? Kids to grandma and you two go away?

The cheapest way will be for the house to be completely empty and unoccupied - no furniture, people or cats. That way the electricians can use power tools on the walls without worrying about the mess, lift floorboards without moving stuff around or worrying about toddlers or cats falling in, not have to ensure that some power is maintained, or reinstated at the end of the day, only have to do one lot of sweeping up at the end....

The more things that get in the way, the more time it takes and the more it will cost.

But how the extra costs of inconvenience to electricians balance out rental and storage ones I don't know. They probably don't, but not being there means less hassle for you, which might be worth something.


Think hard about where to have sockets - it's difficult to have too many, and also about what circuits to have. The items on the list below won't all apply to you, but they are worth thinking about:

• Upstairs sockets
• Downstairs sockets
• Kitchen sockets
• Circuit for appliances
• Cooker circuit
• Non-RCD circuit for F/F
• Non-RCD circuit for CH boiler
• Dedicated circuit for hifi
• Dedicated circuit for IT equipment
• Upstairs lights
• Downstairs lights
• Immersion heater
• Loft lights
• Shower
• Bathroom circuit
• Alarms
• Supply for outside lights
• Supply for garden electrics
• Supply for shed/garage

Plus any peculiarities brought about by your house layout & construction - e.g. in mine because of solid floors and where the socket circuits run, I have a radial just for a socket in the hall, the doorbell and the porch lights.

Unless you want to go to the expense of RCBOs throughout, the CU should have at least 3 sections, 2 on RCDs and one not into which you can install a mix of RCBOs and MCBs.

It can be a good idea to put all wiring in conduit for ease of future changes. And if you specify metal conduit for switch drops, or BS 8436 cable it removes the need to have RCDs where you'd rather not.

If you live somewhere where supplies are dodgy in the winter, have the lights, the boiler supply, and a socket in each room wired to a separate CU, or a separate section in a large one, that can be supplied by an emergency generator - lights, heating, TV and a kettle/microwave make life a lot more bearable.

Flood-wiring with Cat6 or Cat6a cable is worth thinking about.


As ever, personal recommendations are always the best way to find a reputable tradesman, but if you're having to go ahead without much in the way of those, or references, don't put any store by registration itself - sadly it is possible to become registered with woefully inadequate qualifications and zero practical experience. You don't have to spend long here to see people cropping up who are registered and "qualified", but who are clearly seriously incompetent in reality and who should not be charging for their services.

It's your money, £'000s of it, and you have every right to ask prospective tradesmen what their qualifications are. Just being listed here is not a good enough guide. You want a rewire done - it's quite possible to become registered without ever having done one, or even having ever just replaced a CU.

No genuinely experienced electrician, with the "full set" of C&G qualifications will mind you asking - in fact he will wish that everyone was like you.

I feel sorry for people who have been misled by training organisations and (shamefully) the Competent Person scheme organisers into thinking that a 5-day training course, a couple of trivial examples of their work and some basic understanding of how to use test equipment will make them an electrician, but not sorry enough to agree with them trying to sell their services to Joe Public.

 

[LiamPope]

Rewire will be cheapest and quickest if the house is empty and if the sparks dont have to clean up and provide a temporary supply for you every day. Therefore, keep furniture in storage, hire a caravan to live in the garden/live at mum's/rent/go on holiday for a week. Then move into freshly rewired house. Should be done in less than a week in those circumstances.

 

[TalentlessAmateur]

Thinking that we need to be out of the house for the duration, maybe getting a caravan. Just not sure about the logistics.

I think putting all the furniture in storage would be prohibitive, so may have to move stuff around a bit.

I assume it would be bad to run cat 6 down the same conduit as electrical cable? Is this the sort of work a part P spark would do, or is the data stuff more specialized?

With my oldest child just starting school when all this is taking place, I can't really send her away as we have no relatives nearby.

Never a good time to move house, so I thought I'd get it all done with at once!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I assume it would be bad to run cat 6 down the same conduit as electrical cable?

Not allowed, as it's not insulated to the same strength as electrical cable.

Is this the sort of work a part P spark would do, or is the data stuff more specialized?

It's not really specialised - obviously better if they've done it before, but it's not difficult to do, as long as they do take the trouble to find out how to do it properly and use the right tool.

With my oldest child just starting school when all this is taking place, I can't really send her away as we have no relatives nearby.

She might find the caravan fun, as it's not for long.

 

[TalentlessAmateur]

I assume it would be bad to run cat 6 down the same conduit as electrical cable?

Not allowed, as it's not insulated to the same strength as electrical cable.

Thought as much. Same as for designing machinery. Ho Hum. More holes!

 

[nrwilliams]

Is this the sort of work a part P spark would do, or is the data stuff more specialized?

It's not really specialised - obviously better if they've done it before, but it's not difficult to do, as long as they do take the trouble to find out how to do it properly and use the right tool.

I think you might find that to do it properly and tested to the relevant standard it is quite specialised. The number of jobs I go on where someone not qualified has put network cabling in and it does not work as they have not had the tools to test and certify it.

 

[Chri5]

I'd like to point out that a clear house full rewire is do'able in a 2 week window in a 3/ 4 bed empty house.
One week in to the job and I'd expect you could get back the 1st floor for storage (and start of move in).

Think about other things being done adjacent to the wiring requirement. Since holes and chases will be required for the cable route and fittings, then the decor gets ruined.

Aim for painted ceilings and no (more) dust, So don't move in until the chases and holes have had a patch plaster and are in a ready to decorate finish (so minimum rubbing down / dust).

As for cat 5/6 then a micro ega tubeside by side to any open or closed (conduit / capping / ega) is allowed.

The old BS6701 from where the data world developed it's standard was very clear.
50mm gap in open clipped between the cat 5 and 230v cable
A phiscal barrier such as compartment trunking, a divider or seperate containment allows for butting up.

Not good practice if you have serious HV cabling adjacent to a cable tray with 500 Cat 5's on it.
But perfectly ok for domestic where the heaviest demans of 1 gig speed is simply not required, emf or anyother type of radiation / field from a 230v switch or socket really won't screw the performance of a Cat5 used outlet.

I bet that 75% of logic instals in houses with active centred controls for heat / light / data / security / Media have data and 230v running the same route to plates requiring both services.