house rewire

[toph]

Hi,

We have bought our first house and the wiring is as old as the property I believe (1975), We were considering a total rewire before actually moving in properly but decided to put it on hold (maybe a few years down the road) as money was tight.

Excuse my ignorance in all things electrical but I have a few questions..

1. When doing a rewire is it nessesary to pull up floors ?- we want to put laminate down in lounge/dining room but if it all needed to come up then thats not really viable.

2. Given the state of the wiring - is it possible to install a new kitchen and do the wiring at the same time, BUT leave the rest of the house as is. Can re-wiring be down in chunks and still be up to the latest regs?

3. At worst, it's safe/legal to just change the fuse box for a modern consumer unit and leave the rest of the house as is?

Thanks...

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Come on - use a bit of common sense.

You know full well that the answers to your questions are, in order, Yes, No, No.

But you're hoping someone will tell you otherwise.

Wiring is buried in walls, in ceilings and under floors. You wouldn't try to put your pants on after you'd put your trousers on.

Get everything that requires walls to be chopped into, floors to be lifted, ceilings to be dropped etc BEFORE you decorate the walls, put down laminate etc.

And if money is tight have the electrics done and put the kitchen on hold, not the other way round

 

[Chri5]

You wouldn't try to put your pants on after you'd put your trousers on.

Hang on

Some get away with it

 

[toph]

Come on - use a bit of common sense.

You know full well that the answers to your questions are, in order, Yes, No, No.

But you're hoping someone will tell you otherwise.

Wiring is buried in walls, in ceilings and under floors. You wouldn't try to put your pants on after you'd put your trousers on.

Get everything that requires walls to be chopped into, floors to be lifted, ceilings to be dropped etc BEFORE you decorate the walls, put down laminate etc.

And if money is tight have the electrics done and put the kitchen on hold, not the other way round

Thanks for the answers - I asked these questions as I geniuely wanted to know so I don't appreciate your tone - i'm not here for the fun of it. Anyways...

As to installing a new Consumer unit - a local NIC spark said he could just change it and leave everything else but I wanted to find other thoughts on this..

Thanks anyway....

 

[OwainDIYer]

1. When doing a rewire is it nessesary to pull up floors ?- we want to put laminate down in lounge/dining room but if it all needed to come up then thats not really viable.

2. Given the state of the wiring - is it possible to install a new kitchen and do the wiring at the same time, BUT leave the rest of the house as is. Can re-wiring be down in chunks and still be up to the latest regs?

3. At worst, it's safe/legal to just change the fuse box for a modern consumer unit and leave the rest of the house as is?

Thanks...

1. Yes if you want to put wires under there.

2 and 3. Up to a point it can be done safely, even if not to the latest regs. You can install a new consumer unit and reconnect the existing wiring provided the existing wiring is up to a minimum standard of safety. However that won't solve problems like inadequate numbers of sockets, overloaded lighting circuits and perished insulation in lampholders and ceiling roses from heat.

In fact you can leave the old fusebox in situ (if it's not actually dangerous), supply it off something like a 40A MCB with RCD protection from the new CU, and fit new circuits to the new CU as they're done. When all the old circuits are dead, remove the old CU. Things like cookers and showers should come off the old CU before doing this, but provided there are no heavy loads 40A is adequate for general lights and power, at least while rewiring is in progress.

One factor may be the size of earth wire in 1970s cable, it may be too small on socket circuits, but lighting circuits are usually okay.

If the old fusebox or wiring is actually dangerous then it needs replacing ASAP.

 

[toph]

1. When doing a rewire is it nessesary to pull up floors ?- we want to put laminate down in lounge/dining room but if it all needed to come up then thats not really viable.

2. Given the state of the wiring - is it possible to install a new kitchen and do the wiring at the same time, BUT leave the rest of the house as is. Can re-wiring be down in chunks and still be up to the latest regs?

3. At worst, it's safe/legal to just change the fuse box for a modern consumer unit and leave the rest of the house as is?

Thanks...

1. Yes if you want to put wires under there.

2 and 3. Up to a point it can be done safely, even if not to the latest regs. You can install a new consumer unit and reconnect the existing wiring provided the existing wiring is up to a minimum standard of safety. However that won't solve problems like inadequate numbers of sockets, overloaded lighting circuits and perished insulation in lampholders and ceiling roses from heat.

In fact you can leave the old fusebox in situ (if it's not actually dangerous), supply it off something like a 40A MCB with RCD protection from the new CU, and fit new circuits to the new CU as they're done. When all the old circuits are dead, remove the old CU. Things like cookers and showers should come off the old CU before doing this, but provided there are no heavy loads 40A is adequate for general lights and power, at least while rewiring is in progress.

One factor may be the size of earth wire in 1970s cable, it may be too small on socket circuits, but lighting circuits are usually okay.

If the old fusebox or wiring is actually dangerous then it needs replacing ASAP.

Great thanks for the info..

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Hang on

Some get away with it

 

[ChrisRogers]

toph, where abouts in Bucks are you? I cover most of the area.

Perhaps it'd be an idea to have a PIR done on the property - then you'll know how much work really needs doing.

The alternative would be to consider rewiring one room at a time, this would be more expensive, but allows the work to be done in stages, breaking up the cost?