Re-wire 80's lighting circuit or not?

[amuiphoto]

Hi All,

Have just bought a Victorian first floor 2 bed conversion. Am having it re-wired but the lighting circuit is difficult to access as there are people living in the flat above whom I'm sure wouldn't let me pull their carpets and floorboards up to access the wiring. Also there are nice ornate ceiling roses and coving which I'd like to retain which means cutting a chase up the walls and across the lath and plaster ceiling would be pretty difficult too.
The lights all work and have the white sheathed red/black twin and earth cable.
I'm thinking about putting a new loop cable under the floor and up in to the switches and re-using the switch wire to connect to the ceiling roses.
Any comments gratefully received.

Many thanks

Angus.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

I would suggest confirming that you have continuity of earth/CPC and checking that the insulation resistance of the conductors is in good order.
That will help assess if any rewiring of the lighting circuit is required.

 

[amuiphoto]

Thanks, will commission a (registered) sparky to test those things.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

I don't see any great benefit to running a new cable up to a switch point.
1) Unlikely to improve the existing installation by much
2) I would be surprised if you found all the required conductors (live, neutral and CPC/earth) at the one switch. Don't be fooled by switch lives believing them to be neutral.

 

[AndyPRK]

If the lighting circuit has an earth I wouldn't bother rewiring!

 

[phatboy]

80's wiring is often perfectly good and doesn't need replacing. The only issue you will probably encounter is a lack of sockets!

When I recently renovated a mid 80's apartment, we just added some extra electrics and had the consumer unit replaced with a fully loaded RCBO one, and of course a full inspection.

 

[RF Lighting]

I've rewired flats with ornate plaster ceilings and no access above the ceiling.

This is where a good electrician earns his money.

 

[securespark]

So you lost money on that job, then RF?

 

[RF Lighting]

I was earning a wage working for a firm back then

 

[amuiphoto]

Wow, nice job RFlighting, don't spose you'd let us in on how you did it?

 

[OwainDIYer]

I've rewired flats with ornate plaster ceilings and no access above the ceiling.

This is where a good electrician earns his money.

And that isn't learnt on a 5 [day|week] wonder course.

 

[OwainDIYer]

80's wiring is often perfectly good and doesn't need replacing. The only issue you will probably encounter is a lack of sockets!

I am installing one new cable from the CU to the far end of the lighting circuit (it'll loop through the smoke detectors on the way). Then I'll connect it to the lighting circuit far end and split the circuit at the midpoint, to give 2 separate radial.

 

[RF Lighting]

Wow, nice job RFlighting, don't spose you'd let us in on how you did it?

You need to spend years working with really skilled electricians as well as other trades too like builders, joiners, plasterers etc, working on a really wide variety of building types, whilst building up a comprehensive tool kit of both shop bought and home made tools.

 

[securespark]

What he hasn't told you is that's the (relatively) easy bit... try delicately chasing behind the coving when you've found a blockage and can't drag the new cable through by tying it onto the old fabric covered stuff.... you discover the reason is two lengths of galv. capping of different sizes butted up together.

Behind the coving?????

And trying to delicately stitch drill a wall for a socket box, knowing you must not damage the anaglypta wallpaper.

At all.

Or your b*lls are history!

And that's just the customer, never mind your boss....

 

[ban-all-sheds]