Tracing Wiring in home with damp walls

[mbga9pgf]

Anyone got a way of how to trace chased wiring when there is a little bit of damp intefering with the cable detector? I get within 2 feet of the skirting and the meter is indicating cable all over the place.

Before I can cost up, I need to see how the apes that wired my place have routed the wiring. I have already done under the first floor and in the loft, have a basic diagram down so I can start to understand what they have done) but I now want to trace the route of the wiring in the living rooms, kitchens and bathrooms to see exactly how non-compliant this house is in terms of safe zones.

At the same time, any suggestions as to how I can find where the underground conduits are supplying the garage, gates, garden light circuit and woodshed?

(other) inquiries, with the 17th mandating RCD for kitchens and bathrooms, is it not just easier to protect the entire upstairs and downstairs light circuits on the 30ma RCD protected side, or usean RCBO for these circuits?


If you had a annexe to the house (with a seperate CU), currently supplied with under-rated SWA cable that required replacing, how would you go about it? Its currently powered from the main CU to the annexe CU. Where on the split box CU would you put the supply cable? On the 30ma or 100ma side?

I have three ideas of how I want the leccy to go about it.

1) Buried SWA cable
2) Route through the main house. Whilst the most expensive in terms of wiring and time, it will be the neatest solution...
3) Plastic conduit on the external of the propery.


what are the pros and cons I might be missing from each solution.

Dumb question now, I can see difficulties and potential issues with this, what protection would I have to add to split the supply (using a henley block?) and routeing one supply cable to the annexe from the henley block then adding RCD and mcb protection at the annexe CU rather than routeing it through the main CU then to the annexe? What would be the most suitable way of routing the cable to the annexe (SWA buried or plastic conduit attached to house wall)?

To cap it off, I was checking earthing on the light switches (metal-faced switches through the house) to discover they have used 3-phased wiring (blue, yellow and red with the neutral wire clipped) color schemes from the roses to the switch. How easy is it to re-cable oval conduit? The walls have only recently been re-skimmed (before I moved in) and I wouldnt want to have to re-chase the conduit... is it an easy job re-cabling using twin and earth plus 3 core for the 2 way switching?

Thanks again. Can we please stay off the part P discussions, all I want is advice to at least think about how I am going to put right this complete bodge job.

Regards.

 

[ColJack]

if your walls are that damp then you'll be chopping the plaster off anyway to cure it probably, you'll see where the cables run then..

 

[mbga9pgf]

if your walls are that damp then you'll be chopping the plaster off anyway to cure it probably, you'll see where the cables run then..

The plaster itself is fine at the mo, no salt migration that is visible at least. We are tying to eliminate the damp via better drainage, but with walls being made of stone and dating back to 1890, I think we are pushing sh*t uphill and are going to have to accept a little damp and suck it up.

Are there any test sets I could rent, or will the pipe detector pick up wiring?

We are not helped by the fact we have substantial oak flooring in the main living room which I dont want to touch... I suspect the downstairs ring is supplied from the first floor using spurs or chased ring circuit, which is a bit of a bummer to be honest... I would have preferred chased horizontal wiring around the room above the level of the skirting. We need to put in a few more sockets and are putting in "flat" faced sockets with metal covers rather than those horrid sticky out white ones (one is wired into the 1st floor ring, clipped to an oak beam and sent down white box conduit down the wall... YUK!).