Full house Rewire, loft boarding not replaced.

[K-Duffy]

Hello all,

I’m the client in an occupied full rewire at the moment. I’m aware that these jobs are pretty messy and annoying for the spark, and that floorboards need to come up and damage MUST be done to get the work complete.

After working in my loft, which was boarded, has lighting and sockets (I’ve recently moved here and was ready to re-carpet it and use it as my office) he has told me there’s no way to re-fit the boarding as he’s had to cut it up. It was tongue and groove flooring grade boarding.

I was wondering if this is standard with most electricians or something I should be miffed about. I can’t fault the job they’ve done- the rest of the house is dusted, filled and tidied so I’m hesitant to say anything, but it does feel a bit frustrating I now have this extra cost of re-boarding on top of everything else.

 

[ETAF]

our electrician who has done a partial rewire , a lot in the loft use a hole tool, and some inserts , no idea what they are called - but it takes out probably 6" ish and then a cover is put in, which stays flush with the floor. Also a few sections have been lifted and then screwed down.
Edit - found on screwfix
https://www.screwfix.com/p/armeg-sbc-cover-111mm/10648

When i did a rewire on my brothers house back in the 80's and the flooring was tounge and groove , i managed to easily break the tounges I think i used a knife to get the boards up and then relaid. Although some went under the partition walls, so had to work that out.

i guess as it was a loft, they did not think it mattered so much - or maybe these days , its difficult to do , and timely adding to cost - I'm just a DIYer, so i suspect you will get better response's from the trade members here

 

[K-Duffy]

our electrician who has done a partial rewire , a lot in the loft use a hole tool, and some inserts , no idea what they are called - but it takes out probably 6" ish and then a cover is put in, which stays flush with the floor. Also a few sections have been lifted and then screwed down.
Edit - found on screwfix
https://www.screwfix.com/p/armeg-sbc-cover-111mm/10648

When i did a rewire on my brothers house back in the 80's and the flooring was tounge and groove , i managed to easily break the tounges I think i used a knife to get the boards up and then relaid. Although some went under the partition walls, so had to work that out.

i guess as it was a loft, they did not think it mattered so much - or maybe these days , its difficult to do , and timely adding to cost - I'm just a DIYer, so i suspect you will get better response's from the trade members here

Yeah I was hoping they’d just dismantle it and put it back together but I guess they’d have been here for a day or 2 longer

 

[crystal ball]

I would have hoped they might discuss it first

 

[securespark]

What he said!

 

[Colin Brenton]

Daft question, but will it not go down again OK, even if not quite as well as before? If covering it with underlay and then carpet, a hardboard layer should hide a multitude of sins and be a lot cheaper and easier than new flooring.

Or do they mean that cables are now on top of the joists, so no flooring can be laid?

 

[sparkwright]

I'm quite respectful when it comes to lifting floorboards and working with chipboard floors.

But to be honest, in a loft, rewiring the lights below, which is a lot of cables, I think there is a chance I might be tempted to destroy that floor rather than mess about - if it really is the nightmare I am imagining.

You see, once the boards are up, there needs to be a way of getting the cables below the floor WITHOUT drilling the joists.

One solution (albeit unsatisfactory) is to fix battens to the tops of the joists to allow for cables passing through.

Of course - the floor may have been done for a loft conversion, where new joists are laid alongside the old joists - even more difficult for the electrician.

So I don't really blame the electrician for the damage.

Photos would be very interesting here.