I've been replacing some switches in the house with standard plastic ones and ditching the horrible metal dimmers the previous owner had fitted.
The back boxes installed are presumably dating back to when the house was built in the 1950's, and appear to be cast iron. Its been rewired at some point, probably late 70's early 80's given the CU and whatnot. All the cabling is PVC and switches and sockets are of a 70/80's style. However it seems that the back boxes have a narrower bolt pitch than modern switch plates have. I presume the sockets are the same, but i've not got round to digging those out yet.
They all have weird steel adaptor things fitted, which are like a flat strip of metal, screwed into the original two holes, and provide a pair of holes at the correct position for the current style faceplaces. In theory this sounds fine, however the new PCD is such that the screw holes overlap the edges of the old backboxes. This means that normal lenght faceplate screws bottom out on the edges of the back box, and clearly the hamfisted previous owner hasnt bothered noticing this and mangled the scerws in anyway wrecking the threads. This means quite a few of the switches are now held in by one screw. Not ideal.
I'm sorta resigned to digging these crappy old backboxes out the wall and replacing them with modern ones, but i figured i should ask here if anyone has come across this before and solved it in a non-bodged manner?
The back boxes installed are presumably dating back to when the house was built in the 1950's, and appear to be cast iron. Its been rewired at some point, probably late 70's early 80's given the CU and whatnot. All the cabling is PVC and switches and sockets are of a 70/80's style. However it seems that the back boxes have a narrower bolt pitch than modern switch plates have. I presume the sockets are the same, but i've not got round to digging those out yet.
They all have weird steel adaptor things fitted, which are like a flat strip of metal, screwed into the original two holes, and provide a pair of holes at the correct position for the current style faceplaces. In theory this sounds fine, however the new PCD is such that the screw holes overlap the edges of the old backboxes. This means that normal lenght faceplate screws bottom out on the edges of the back box, and clearly the hamfisted previous owner hasnt bothered noticing this and mangled the scerws in anyway wrecking the threads. This means quite a few of the switches are now held in by one screw. Not ideal.
I'm sorta resigned to digging these crappy old backboxes out the wall and replacing them with modern ones, but i figured i should ask here if anyone has come across this before and solved it in a non-bodged manner?