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When I purchased the house I believe or sometime thereabouts.

Some of you probably saw this picture in my other thread but I was just wondering how old you think my CU is. I've lived here since 1997 but the house is a 60's semi-detached. Do you think the CU is the original one? It's undoubtedly been messed with over the years, there's some sort of bell...

It's somewhere along that Lansdowne Road stretch to get into the town centre. I think they were put in as trial replacements for the old low-pressure sodium lamps.

Hi there Martin, I'm not sure to be honest. I will check tomorrow - you mean on the unit farthest to the left, correct? Watching the darts on Sky Sports right now, it must take priority :lol:

Okay, I am going to have a look inside the CU tomorrow. I understand that some parts will remain live so I will be cautious. I'll also take a photo of the inside for your curiosity. Judging by the state of the work elsewhere in the house, no doubt the CU will be equally worrying. Thanks...

All of the bare earth wires are snipped off at every point on the upstairs lighting circuit i.e. at the switches, at the light fittings and at the junction in the attic as shown. I'm not sure about the downstairs lighting circuit junction as I can't lift floorboards to get at it but the...

Thanks for the replies. I've never actually used the test screwdriver anyway, its just sat in my toolbox. I do have a multimeter though. There is no RCD protection in my CU. If I just put the pos and neg leads from the multimeter onto the live and earth wires respectively, could this give me...

Hi Lucia, By test lamp, do you mean one of those screwdrivers where you put the tip on the wire and touch the metal pad on the handle? If not, what do you mean as I have one of those.

That sounds good. I reckon I'll be finding a reputable firm that does sandblasting soon then. I won't be getting it done for a while anyway but wanted to be sure I could sort the problem before tearing the conservatory down.

Do you think sandblasting would bring it back to bare brick and pointing or leave some little bits of white paint behind? I don't want it to look awful. If it does I may as well just get the conservatory replaced with a new one and plasterboard over it. In the region of how much would...

Hi all, I have a bit of a dilemma. My house has a really bad DIY metal conservatory that I want to take down in summer but the problem is that the wall which is the back of the house has been painted white. Not only this, but it seems it was once painted with white emulsion, but the top coat...

I have no doubt that the guy that occupied the house before me cut off the earth wires. He was truly awful. He did everything himself - wallpapering, painting, electrics, plumbing. He fitted the kitchen and the bathroom. He built the conservatory and the patio. He basically refitted the whole...

Oh right okay. That's fine as I plan on getting an electrician in sometime soon to wire up an extractor fan that I plan to fit in the bathroom. Out of interest, when did it become mandatory for lighting circuits to have an earth?

That's right.

Thanks for the replies. There is 1 metal light fitting in the second bedroom which I'm currently looking for a decent plastic or double insulated fitting to replace it. Could you please describe (in some detail) how to test that there is an earth present on those cut back earth wires? I have...

That's nothing! The fella that occupied my house prior to me constructed a DIY metal conservatory (which is more like a greenhouse than anything) and of course built his own concrete base. However, he built the concrete base up on top of a patio, laying bricks or slabs and then covering or...

I know that you like pictures on this forum from time to time - I have this in my attic screwed to one of the beams. Never had any problems it but it doesn't look very clever. One of the cables running in is most probably from the CU but I haven't checked. The rest of the cables...