Old wiring - risk of failure?

[SRJDIY]

I'm planning to decorate my house, but I'm concerned about the wiring. It's old - I don't know how old exactly, but I suspect mid-80s. About 18 months ago the upstairs lighting circuit failed - the electrician had trouble finding the fault and ended up replacing the whole circuit.

My worry is that I'll spend time & money decorating, then another circuit will fail shortly after and we'll have to rip up ceilings and walls to fix it. Is there anything I can do to get an idea of how likely this is?

If the answer is there's no way of knowing I understand - I just want to check since I know nothing of electrical matters!

For context, a general EICR was last done in 2020 and found no faults. The kitchen was rewired in 2025 as part of an extension, and the electrician doing that replaced AC RCDs for type A while he was at it (no idea what that means - it's just what's on the certificate he left).

 

[Wayners]

Depends why wiring failed.
Crushed cable under loft board. Chewed by mice.
Screw through cable or damaged cable or loose connector.
Sparks gave up looking and recommend the rewire of the lighting.
Rest of house if fine then leave it unless it's been looked at and recommended to replace.
Millions of homes have older cables and are fine.
Take advice

 

[pete01]

Is the wiring pvc (red and black mayne)? If so should be good for years hopefully.

Or is it older black rubber? Doubtful as you recently had a satisfactory EICR.

 

[JohnD]

How old is the house?

Show us some pics of the CU, and the cabling where it is visible, such as in the loft.

PVC cable does not wear out with age, though there are fairly rare cases of faulty materials. Do you ever see green stains at switches?

 

[Murdochcat]

The biggest enemy of 1980’s wiring is DIY bodges