isolating lighting

[annemarie]

Hi
We are hoping to buy a lovely barn conversion. We found out that the vendore had done the wiring themselves. A visual inspection by our elcetrician revealed many faults. They have spent over a week trying to make good the work without a full rewire. Now we have been told that it is as good as it gets. It has not been possible to isolate some of teh light fittings so I understand we will have to use plastic fittings.
How much of a problem do you think this is?
Thanks
AM

 

[Steve]

get a few grand knocked off the price. Do you mean the guy wired the lighting circuit without an earth???? Just make sure the electrician leaves you a certificate and details of what exactly is and was wrong, so you can prove to the vendor that his wiring is seriously screwed and he should never attempt it again.

 

[RF Lighting]

we have been told that it is as good as it gets. It has not been possible to isolate some of teh light fittings so I understand we will have to use plastic fittings.
How much of a problem do you think this is?
Thanks
AM

If this is the case, then the wiring is not safe and needs to be sorted.
As crafty says, get the vendor told.

If you found a bad leak on the plumbing, and the vendor got it so it was still just dripping a bit, would you be happy with this?

 

[annemarie]

Thanks.
The certificate can't be issued to us because we didn;t commition it. The vendor has to pay for all the work done and then we can ask to see the detail of the problems.
The electrician definitely said 'isolate', I'm not sure if that means earthing. I think there has been a problem accessing things... underneath oak floorboards.
The worry is that even if we do get a few thousand knocked of it will still be difficult to sell again if it is something that would put other people off even if we could live ith teh plastic lights.
AM

 

[Steve]

you can spend the few thousand rewiring the place.

 

[RF Lighting]

If you get some money knocked off, use the savings to pay for an electrician to sort the wiring properly.
No problems when it comes to selling either then.

 

[annemarie]

At the start the electrician said that ideally an entire re-wire would have been performed. However, this was likely to alter the character of the property. (wires are concealed in stone walls etc).I think that at that time the vendor did also not believe that the situation was so bad. I think now he will easily be paying as much as an entire rewire would have cost.

And he dod do his own plumbing. A few problems there too!

AM

 

[Steve]

DIYers who think they can do everything . . . tut tut. The fact is, rewiring a house is well out of the reach of your average DIYer, but it doesn't stop people having a go and making a balls up of it and lowering the value of their house! Same with plumbing - without the proper training, how's a DIYer going to get it spot on???

 

[plugwash]

i've never understood why people think rewires are so hard, if you can do one light fitting and one socket correctly why can't you do a house worth of each correctly. Single appliance cuircuits for the shower and cooker aren't rocket science either.

that leaves the CU though its often possible to do a rewire without one and make a marked improvement in the safety of the install and changing the CU after the rest of the wiring is done should be a relatively small job.

 

[Steve]

i've never understood why people think rewires are so hard, if you can do one light fitting and one socket correctly why can't you do a house worth of each correctly. Single appliance cuircuits for the shower and cooker aren't rocket science either.

that leaves the CU though its often possible to do a rewire without one and make a marked improvement in the safety of the install and changing the CU after the rest of the wiring is done should be a relatively small job.

Dave9 anyone?

 

[plugwash]

sorry i meant its often possible to do a rewire without needing to change one. Obviously wiring without one in place at all is very dangerous.

 

[annemarie]

Hi
Just wondering how long it has been standard to earth a lighting circuit?Estate agent was suggesting that it is a new regulation in last few years. Or that the circuit is earthed just not well enough for metal light fittings. Was in John Lewis yesterday and they have three light fittings that can be used in non-earthed circuits instead of plain pendant. They were quite nice so not too bad.
Thanks
AM

 

[Pensdown]

Hi
Just wondering how long it has been standard to earth a lighting circuit?Estate agent was suggesting that it is a new regulation in last few years. Or that the circuit is earthed just not well enough for metal light fittings. Was in John Lewis yesterday and they have three light fittings that can be used in non-earthed circuits instead of plain pendant. They were quite nice so not too bad.
Thanks
AM

Since the beginning of time. Your estate agent is talking out of his back side.

Using plastic light fitting will not solve your problem and the lighting installation will still be very dangerous to use with no earth

 

[Job_n_knock]

AnneMarie,
The Earth conductor protects the cable as well as the fitting/appliance its connected to. Your Estate agent was bang out of order for saying that and I think you could consider recouping the cost of rectifying the problem not only by knocking a few Gs off the price but also by sueing the Estate agent for telling you a barefaced lie in order to get the sale.
Annemarie wrote

The electrician definitely said 'isolate', I'm not sure if that means earthing

He was referring to isolating the circuit from the rest of the installation so as to provide a certificate for safe wiring. In other words, he can only provide a cert. by disconnecting that circuit. Best get a proper job done throughout in my opinion.

 

[Adam_151]

Hi
Just wondering how long it has been standard to earth a lighting circuit?Estate agent was suggesting that it is a new regulation in last few years.

1966 I beleive, though I'm told that before the early 70's the earth quite often wasn't connected (thus not continuous) because ceiling roses didn't come with earthing terminals