Diy house rewire

[pete01]

Yeah i wont be putting in any hard wired smoke alarms

Why?, id definitely do that at the same time.

 

[Murdochcat]

Why?, id definitely do that at the same time.

Me too.

Daft idea to say the least not doing this

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Yeah i wont be putting in any hard wired smoke alarms or any out door sockets or lights also good point about the bathroom and kitchen extractor but i wouldn't feel the need for these to be on there own dedicated circuit these both could be ran on spur units from sockets or a spur break in the ring from the loft

Your aim, now, whilst these things are easy to add - should be to at least put the cables in place for everything you need, and everything you might need in the future. You should add to the list, Internet and LAN outlets.

 

[thomp1983]

If you genuinely feel competent to do then do it, if you don't have it signed off by a bco then that would only be an issue if you try to sell the property and it's upto you if your willing to accept the difficulty/loss in value.

From a safety point of view the first thing to sort out is an isolation switch so you can safely remove power to the consumer unit, the dno should do it for you for a fee, you'd not be the first person to pull your own cut out fuse and fit one yourself but you'd have to make the decision on the condition of your incoming supply and if it's safe to attempt to do so, if the cut out or supply cable fall apart while pulling a fuse you shouldn't be touching you'll be in a huge mess ranging from having to admit to the dno you were doing unauthorised work to potential death.

After your at a point of safely isolating the incoming supply carry on with the rewire, personally I'd get a multi function tester even if it's uncalibrated, it'll still perform all the main safety checks correctly you just won't be able to rely on it's results for disconnection times but you can work them out with a pen and paper the mft results are just to confirm your workings out, someone with calibrated kit can do that at a later date, the mft should still be reliable for ir testing and testing for shorts and connections, you can do them reasonably reliably with a normal multi meter.

 

[endecotp]

Yeah i wont be putting in any hard wired smoke alarms

Why not?

Here in Scotland, they are now a legal requirement. I guess that will be the case where you are soon enough.

 

[crystal ball]

I was going to say why bother with ring final circuits? 20A radials should be ample.

In the 80s, 1.5 for lighting was oddly seen by many sparks as "manly". You were a wimp if you used 1 milli.

But particularly today, when most stuff is LED, you don't need 1.5 for lighting.

When I was rewiring council houses for the local board 1.5mm was specced, 1.0mm any other time

 

[JohnD]

After your at a point of safely isolating the incoming supply carry on with the rewire, personally I'd get a multi function tester even if it's uncalibrated, it'll still perform all the main safety checks correctly you just won't be able to rely on it's results for disconnection times but you can work them out with a pen and paper the mft results are just to confirm your workings out, someone with calibrated kit can do that at a later date, the mft should still be reliable for ir testing and testing for shorts and connections, you can do them reasonably reliably with a normal multi meter.

You can get terrific bargains in kit that is out of calibration or not the latest model.

 

[markus2025]

Thanks again for the replies , i got the energy supplier to install a isolator couple months ago so i wont be pulling any mains fuse


but yeah regarding smoke alarms i feel there a personal choice battery alarms did good enough for years and i dont even have any in my current home


but yeah going back to the rewire yes i feel fully able to do it myself however i dont wanna avoid any legit paper work routes and then come a cropper with any future sales or insurance claims...


ive gathered its not illegal in the uk for a none trade to rewire there own home so im looking at options


i dont currently work and im not living in the house so even if it takes me months or building control take weeks to deal with i dont care about that


folk maybe say by time you deal with building control you can get a scheme spark in to do the job but can this be true ?


if a spark say wants 3/4k to do a rewire even if building control came out several times the cost would surley be no way near 4k...


so the sum of that is yeah if im only gonna save couple hundred quid doing it myself then likey not worth it but if im gonna save a couple of thousand quid even for a few months of my own time which i dont put a value on then its worth it but it still needs to be down a legit route and thats what im seeking out


its not illegal to rewire a full house of your not electrician yet you cant self cert if your not part of a scheme and anyone who is part of a scheme cant cert someone elses work... so its like what is the route ??


if it was clear and was like you cant rewire a house if your not part of a scheme then that would be that but its not....