Kitchen rewire

[Ghummy]

Good Morning

just after some opinions, I at no point intend to carry out work, I am just clarifying something which has been mentioned to me.

early in the new year, we are having our kitchen fully refurbished, this includes a complete gut out, back to shell, rewire etc.

problem 1 - ancient electrics, old wylex fuse board, rewired around 1980's at some point, cables are grey pvc.

person 1 who is doing kitchen, his electrician says, he will not touch old board and ideally he will separate the kitchen ring from the rest of the house and install a separate ?4way consumer unit, upgrade gas bonding and water bonding. we like this as this means we can rewire the rest of the house in the summer as we planned.

Person 2 - states, rewire full downstairs floor, connect old wiring from upstairs to new consumer unit which will have all circuits.


we like option 1, not keen on option 2, but wanted to ask your opinions of if person 1 is all within regs and acceptable.

we appreciate any advice offered

 

[ivixor]

If the cables are PVC then they don't necessarily need replacing. Why would you waste money on ripping perfectly good cables out of the walls?

A new consumer unit and upgrade to RCD protection is probably a good idea however.

 

[AndyPRK]

option 2 sounds slightly better.

Is the wylex in the kitchen ? If, yes may as well replace now!

WHy are you keen to end up with 2 CU's ?

 

[Ghummy]

option 2 sounds slightly better.

Is the wylex in the kitchen ? If, yes may as well replace now!

WHy are you keen to end up with 2 CU's ?

the wylex is the front of the house, kitchen is at the rear. we were going to undergo a full rewire eventually however the state of the kitchen is worse than the electrics. usual story, inherit a house along with its problems. for example, the previous cowboys wired a 8.5kw electric shower to a disused cooker circuit (shower isolated and not used until sorted properly) option 1 also incudes running a new shower circuit onto the new CU

our thought process is, if we do whole downstairs, it pretty much blows our budget for the minute, whereas option 1 leaves us with a potentially safe solution until we have the rest of the hose rewired. although having said that, I could ask if the electrician was to test the circuits and replace the CU all together to end up with 1.

but worst case scenario, I imagine the electrician doesn't want to open up a can of worms hence why he suggests a separate mini one for the kitchen.

I have no professional knowledge in this regard hence we were wondering how the current regs would tie into either scenario.

currently whole house sockets are on 1 ring, kitchen included in that. kitchen only has 1 double socket and 2 single sockets for fridge and washing machine

 

[ivixor]

You say you have no professional knowledge yet you seem to be making a lot of assumptions.

Why exactly is using a cooker circuit for a shower a 'cowboy' practice?
What makes you think that the current wiring is unsafe?

You have to be careful with unscrupulous electricians using scare stories to drum up extra work. I'd say, put in a new ring for the kitchen, and replace the CU, and then get an EICR done for the whole lot.

 

[Taylortwocities]

I'd say, put in a new ring for the kitchen, and replace the CU, and then get an EICR done for the whole lot.

I agree, but in a different order.
EICR first. You don't want to install a new CU without knowing if the circuits are pukka.
Replace CU
New ring for kitchen