Rewiring

[Raphael]

I just bought an old house (1900-1920). Could you please tell me how can I rewire my house? can I do it by cutting old cables connect the new ones and pull the old cables out? Is it easy? Can I do it on my own?

Thank you.[/b]

 

[supersparks]

I just bought an old house (1900-1920). Could you please tell me how can I rewire my house? can I do it by cutting old cables connect the new ones and pull the old cables out? Is it easy? Can I do it on my own?

Thank you.[/b]

ITS A PRETTY BIG JOB FOR A DIYER, in my opinion not for a diyer at all , but yes that is a commenly used teqnuique

AR

BTW what makes you think you need a total re-wire?

 

[breezer]

sorry to say but i must agree with supersparks, it is relatively easy to do, but it is also relatively easy to make a mistake. also you should change the consumers unit too, you should also know about earthing, i would strongly recomend you get several quotes to get an electrican to do it, but also to volunteer to do the donkey work which will keep costs down.

 

[Raphael]

Thank you for your replies.

Supersparks- There isnt any specific reason that makes me of rewiring my house but I thought that since it is an old house I need to rewire it. According to the survey the wiring is ok.

Breezer- I agree that an electrician it would be a better idea but I am not totally unfamiliar with the subject. I am an electronic eng and having a little experience as an electrician. The thing is that I am not familiar with the UK wiring method as I come frome Greece.

Any tips and hints will be very helpfull...even if you tell me that I certaintly cannot do it on my own I will accept it although I will be very dissapointed

Thanx

 

[breezer]

as i said its not really for the diy person too easy to get wrong, and you are not supposed to change the consumers unit. but for a rewire you may as well go ahead and have that done too.

you could get several quotes and ask the electricians will they let you do any of it. the problem is at the end of the day they have to put their name to it.

 

[Raphael]

Thank you breezer. I agree that it would be better to have the job done by a specialist so that he would have the responsibility.

I dont know if it is allowed to ask such a question but what is the average cost for a rewiring? (3 beds house)

Also when we talk for rewiring, does this mean that the floors and the ceiling have to be taken out? (Excuse my english )

Thanx

 

[breezer]

you can ask, but cost depends on:

Where in the country you are,

are you having any thing changed i.e. NEW external socket

what light fittings you want, number of sockets etc.

The ceiling stays where it is, but the floor has to come up, that is both upstairs and downstairs, because you do the downstairs lights from upstsirs.

but it is not that bad, not ALL the floor comes up just where required.
(when i rewired here, i fished a lot of it, so not too many floor boards up)

tip:

when floor goes down mark where cables are:

get Several quotes for job, ask for "refereneces"

 

[supersparks]

normaly floors only. but i still dont see why you want a re-wire?
also what part of the country are you in? it vary considrably from different parts

AR

 

[Barton]

I've just had a 3 bed house rewired at a cost of £1600 for approx 19 sockets, shower, 9 ceiling lights, new consumer unit with RCD on the circuits. Some of wiring was less than 3 months old and perfectly sound yet he removed every piece of it needlessly and replaced it. The electrician worked on his own as I was away working. Where he had chased the wiring in, I had to take the sockets off and empty the plaster out of them before a plug would go in. Some of them were tacked so near the surface that I couldn't get the plaster flat afterwards and the mess was incredible. Also, I wanted a landlord's certificate which he said he could give me but I found that as he had done the re-wire on his own, to have it officially passed as satisfactory would require an independent inspection. I believe it to be safe but I wouldn't employ him again.

In my new house, a recommended electrician inspected the wiring and told me that any wiring that complied with current regulations didn't need replacing and confirmed that all new wiring would be chased below the level of the plaster. His quote was for £1,900 but I do trust him.
You need clear access to the floorboards so it's much easier before you furnish! Hope this helps.

 

[il78]

I just bought an old house (1900-1920). Could you please tell me how can I rewire my house? can I do it by cutting old cables connect the new ones and pull the old cables out? Is it easy? Can I do it on my own?

Thank you.[/b]

As long as you have good clear access...it shouldn't be a problem rewiring, you could do with a hand though...trying to rewire a lighting circuit on your own can be frustrating...I would recommend that you get help from some-one with "house" electrical experience. The principle of rewiring is easy although does require skill (more like experience).....give it a go, your an engineer, whats the worst that can happen

 

[sterose]

The thing you want to ask yourself is do you want to pay close to £2000 for a rewire.
Personally, I always tell them '**** off' (sorry for the language) and do it myself.
But it depends on your skill and common sense. I put my first shower in at 14, yes 14, with no help and only a little bit of advice from my uncle. Although it took a bit to persuade my mum.

But lots of people would probably manage to hook it up to the toilet seat instead .

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Yo - see here for some absolute horror stories about what some DIY cretins have done. I don't exaggerate - some of these stories will make your blood run cold: http://www.screwfix.com/talk/thread.jspa?threadID=826&tstart=15

But not all of us are like that, and quite a few of us could safely rewire a house. The only thing I would advise is that Raphael learns about our wiring systems. He doesn't seem to be clueless, and if he understands ours, and the regulations, I'm sure he could do a safe job BUT (big but, that ) he might end up with a modern replica of what he had, so if there were earthing or bonding problems before, or circuit topography issues, or bathroom zone contraventions etc he might replicate those too.

 

[supersparks]

The thing you want to ask yourself is do you want to pay close to £2000 for a rewire.
Personally, I always tell them '**** off' (sorry for the language) and do it myself.
But it depends on your skill and common sense. I put my first shower in at 14, yes 14, with no help and only a little bit of advice from my uncle. Although it took a bit to persuade my mum.

But lots of people would probably manage to hook it up to the toilet seat instead .

why do you tell them to f off? if you tell them to f off you have obviously called them out, why did you call them out? just to tell em to f off?
and you post this in a forum filled with electricians? what is your problem?
and i wouldent recomend being offensive to one, cos when you cockit up it them you gotta call, your gunna be in a b*tch of a situation when you have to call back the sparks you told to f off cos you cocked it up, what would you do if he told you to f off?
just because you think you know more than the sparks, dosn't mean that everyone does, ive been going arround with my brother for ages now and im supprised that we meet people who have cocked something up, call us out because they don't have a clue and when you turn up, they still try and tell you how to do your job!
i cant say what i would realy like to, i hope you get my point

AR

 

[ban-all-sheds]

...But it depends on your skill and common sense. I put my first shower in at 14, yes 14, with no help and only a little bit of advice from my uncle.

Well did you/do you understand Ze, Zs, Ib, In? Zones in bathrooms? R1+R2? Insulation resistance? RCD testing? Prospective fault current? Main and supplementary equipotential bonding? Cable grouping factors? The difference between TT, TNS & TNCS earthing? You could very well have a TT system on an old terrace. What are you going to do about choosing the correct RCD's in this case?

 

[supersparks]

...But it depends on your skill and common sense. I put my first shower in at 14, yes 14, with no help and only a little bit of advice from my uncle.

and i like the way you try to impress us about you installing a shower at 14 and then repeat it asif we care, if age that people attempt these things at, then i was three when my dad showed me how to wire a plug. anyone can learn something. not hard to wire a shower. i doubt your knowladge goes as deep as you would like us to beleve.

AR