Advice please - old VIR cabling to be rewired

[dhutch]

What she probably meant was that she had remove the connectiond to the light switch and temporarily 'made them safe' in a 'connector block' behind the switch - thereby ensuring that yoiu could not switch on either of the lights.

Ofcause. About the only block you could put behind a switch to stop it working, I was invistaging a lump of timber!

I too would be supprised to find the VIR/VRI and unearthed earth lighting ring was not replaced in 1998, but clearly it hasnt been.

Obvisouly something has to be done to correct the damaged cable by the mirror. I would start by trying to confirm the cable runs here (half decent chance only one of the two conductors has been damaged) with the eye to replacing said cable and metal switches/fittings this side of christmas to get your lights back on assuming thats important to you. I would also remount the mirror with new holes.

You then have the decision about what your going to do with the rest of it, which the electrican can and forum members can help you with.

If you turn off the circuit that leaves the consumer unit as VIR you should be able to identify what it powers, ie, which sockets/lights go dead.
You and or an electrian can then look behind these fittings to see if its rubber throughout, and from there make a stab as to where the wires go, and how much work it would be to replace.

Channeling out walls does sound a bit dramatic, but they may be in conduit which can have new cables pulled through, and even if not its not a stupidly big job to chase them out, change the cable, and have a decorator/plaster cover them back over and repaint. A little more involved if its wall papered.


Daniel


Daniel

 

[JohnW2]

Ofcause. About the only block you could put behind a switch to stop it working, I was invistaging a lump of timber!

Yes, it took me some time to twig what was being said!

I too would be supprised to find the VIR/VRI and unearthed earth lighting ring was not replaced in 1998, but clearly it hasnt been.

Indeed. And, as I said, I'm also rather surprised that a ~1960 house had VIR in the first place, although the absence of a CPC on the lighting circuiit is about par for the course for that era. [BTW, I'm not sure what "VRI" is!].

Obvisouly something has to be done to correct the damaged cable by the mirror. I would start by trying to confirm the cable runs here (half decent chance only one of the two conductors has been damaged) with the eye to replacing said cable and metal switches/fittings this side of christmas to get your lights back on assuming thats important to you. I would also remount the mirror with new holes.

I get the impression that Kate probably wants to achieve a definitive solution ASAP. If that's the case, then she may well not consider it appropriate to waste effort and cost having that damaged cable (which appears to have been satisfactorily isolated) dealt with in the short-term when it is pretty clear that the whole of the lighting circuit, and probably one of the sockets circuits, needs to be re-wired soon. Forking out on temporary non-metallic lights and switches might be a particular waste of money, if she wants to return to the present metal ones once the lighting circuit has a CPC.

Things should become clearer once she has had an electrician or two look at her installation properly.

Kind Regards, John

 

[dhutch]

Things should become clearer once she has had an electrician or two look at her installation properly.

Absoluteley, hard to be sure about anything from hundreds of miles away. I only mentioned that as there was talk about not wanting to cause disruption this side of christmas.

Obviously the cost/effort of fitting plastic fittings (if she doesnt still have the old ones) might well not be considered worth it, but it is an option to 'get you back up and running' quickly in the interim, I dont know how significant the lights are to the ilumination in the room. The cable will need replacing a some point eitherway up.


Daniel

 

[Gizasmum]

If you turn off the circuit that leaves the consumer unit as VIR you should be able to identify what it powers, ie, which sockets/lights go dead.

Thanks Daniel, I was going to go round the sockets in the next few days to check this. All the lights, except for those in the extension, are powered via the one trip switch.

The kitchen sockets, cooker, extension sockets, central heating and shower all have their own trip switches. However there are two trip switches both just marked 'sockets' and one of these has one VIR cable going in to it. So I know I need to check all the sockets in the hall, livingroom and two bedrooms. In 1998 I got lots of extra sockets put in. I am wondering if one of the marked 'socket' trip switches is for the new sockets and the other for the old.

I distinctly remember helping the guy by pulling wires down through the main bedroom light fitting from the loft, so assume the wiring in that pendant was replaced. However when I knock off the 'lights' trip switch that light goes off, presumably because the VIR cable is still linking to it from the fusebox to the light switch.

 

[Gizasmum]

I don't have the old lights anymore and the new lights were very expensive. I hunted for a very long time to get exactly what i wanted. I have table lamps and a central light. However as the electrician pointed out the central light is exactly the same type of light fitting and switch as the side lights.

I would rather keep my light fittings and get all of the necessary work done at once so that I can feel safe in my home once more.

 

[JohnW2]

Thanks Daniel, I was going to go round the sockets in the next few days to check this. All the lights, except for those in the extension, are powered via the one trip switch. ... The kitchen sockets, cooker, extension sockets, central heating and shower all have their own trip switches. However there are two trip switches both just marked 'sockets' and one of these has one VIR cable going in to it. So I know I need to check all the sockets in the hall, livingroom and two bedrooms. In 1998 I got lots of extra sockets put in. I am wondering if one of the marked 'socket' trip switches is for the new sockets and the other for the old.

You may want to do that for interest, but the electrician will obviously want to go through all that (certainly the one conducting an EICR). What you say in your last sentence above sounds pretty likely - in which case it would presumably be the 'old' sockets circuit which still has VIR cable.

Kind Regards, John

 

[Gizasmum]

I know the electrician doing the EICR/ rewiring will need to do that, but I want to do it so I know which sockets are affected. I will try not to use them, without overloading the other ones of course. I will just feel safer knowing which is which. Thanks again for all your help.

 

[JohnW2]

I know the electrician doing the EICR/ rewiring will need to do that, but I want to do it so I know which sockets are affected. I will try not to use them, without overloading the other ones of course. I will just feel safer knowing which is which.

I can understand that. Can you remember which of the sockets trip switches had the VIR cables when the electrician showed you?

Kind Regards, John

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I too would be supprised to find the VIR/VRI and unearthed earth lighting ring was not replaced in 1998, but clearly it hasnt been.

Well...

He was quite old then and I doubt that he is still with us.

Old guy - been installing VIR and lighting circuits without earths for most of his life - near retirement/semi-retired, not keeping up to date with changes....

Yeah - I can see how he would have just left it.

 

[Gizasmum]

Can you remember which of the sockets trip switches had the VIR cables when the electrician showed you?

Just that it was one wire into one of the two, she closed it up too quick before I could count. She didn't have the mains power off when she did it so I know I could unscrew the box and see it at a glance and just count along (in that it would be safe to do this as long as I didn't touch anything). I roughly remember which ones are the old and new sockets so would soon catch on to which 'socket' trip switch was for which wall socket. That's if my theory of old and new for the two 'socket' trip switches is correct. A lot of the old sockets were singles that I got changed to doubles, but we got a lot of new ones in because there were so few to start with.

 

[JohnW2]

Can you remember which of the sockets trip switches had the VIR cables when the electrician showed you?

Just that it was one wire into one of the two, she closed it up too quick before I could count. She didn't have the mains power off when she did it so I know I could unscrew the box and see it at a glance and just count along (in that it would be safe to do this as long as I didn't touch anything). I roughly remember which ones are the old and new sockets so would soon catch on to which 'socket' trip switch was for which wall socket.

Fair enough, if you're confident to do that - but make sure that you switch the box off (with it's 'main switch') before opening it, and even then be very careful not to touch anything inside (some of which could still be live).

Kind Regards, John.

 

[JohnW2]

Old guy - been installing VIR and lighting circuits without earths for most of his life - near retirement/semi-retired, not keeping up to date with changes.... Yeah - I can see how he would have just left it.

Yep, quite possible - except that he was apparently doing a "re-wire", so one has to wonder what exactly he understood by that

Kind Regards, John