Electical Work - Will I need a whole rewire?

pmartin86

Me again...

I've recently moved into a new house, the electrics are dated (30 years or so) thieve been checked and their safe, but recommended a rewire as its the older style Black and Red cables, however we can't quite afford this yet.

Basically, the previous owners had an all gas cooker, which I decided to replace as it was very old and rusted around the hobs and basically didn't look safe. I've decided on a dueal fuel cooker as I love my cooking and want to take advantage of the gas hobs with a fan oven, my question is, can i get this installed as a new circuit connected to the current consumer unit? or will the new regulations mean i will need to bring the whole system up to current regulations?

martinsurrey

pmartin86 wrote: »

Me again...

I've recently moved into a new house, the electrics are dated (30 years or so) thieve been checked and their safe, but recommended a rewire as its the older style Black and Red cables, however we can't quite afford this yet.

Basically, the previous owners had an all gas cooker, which I decided to replace as it was very old and rusted around the hobs and basically didn't look safe. I've decided on a dueal fuel cooker as I love my cooking and want to take advantage of the gas hobs with a fan oven, my question is, can i get this installed as a new circuit connected to the current consumer unit? or will the new regulations mean i will need to bring the whole system up to current regulations?

well, getting ANY notifiable work done will mean they have to check the earthing on the whole system, and on a system that old, I guess the lighting circuits wont be earthed at all, so will need to be rewired.

Adding a circuit for a cooker is notifiable, so if you do it by the book, you'll need at least a partial rewire IMO, and if you’re getting a partial done, a full would be sensible.

sorry to be the bearer of not good news.

pmartin86

I suspected that might be the case! I guess I'll just have to go without an oven for a few months until I can afford the full job then. Am I right in thinking that about £2500 should be a decent ballpark figure? its a 3bed detached, no final plaster skims have been (or will be done) when the job is done and no carpeting down so floorboard accessible (the house is a project!) All decoration will be done by myself afterwards so no worries there. Im based in south wales if regions make much difference?

martinsurrey

yeah, that would be a good ball park, depends on who pays for fixtures and how many of everything you want (6 double sockets per room and 100 spotlights will of course cost more than 3 sockets per room and pendant lights in every room).

vaio

30 years ago I'd have thought it would have lighting earths and a mcb/rcd consumer unit so not in need of a rewire.

More likely to be a problem is lack of sockets/lights and there comes a stage when adding things is just as hard as starting again.

I'd get a couple of guys in to have a look & give you a quote. No making good & an empty carpetless house will count massively in your favour as far as prices go

pmartin86

Expresso - I believe the cooker I'm after requires a 30A fuse, so would need its own circuit to the Consumer unit? I'd be happy to be corrected if wrong though!
http://www.newworldappliances.co.uk/range-cookers/spirit-100dft/

Vaio - Anyway I can easily check if the lighting circuit is earthed? The lack of sockets IS a problem, but one that we can live with for now, medium term (12-24 months) the whole place will probably be rewired anyway to combat this, we just don't have the cash right now.

macman

That needs a dedicated cooker circuit.
Earthing-whip off a light switch cover and check for any earth wire (be sure to isolate the lighting circuit first of course). But surely whoever did your test would have noted the absence of lighting circuit earths in the written report they gave you-if it is absent?
Mid-80's lighting circuits may well already be earthed though?
Rewiring after you've done other jobs is insane (eg plastering, decorating). It shoud be the first job to do after you've made the house watertight. Re-prioritise it.

pmartin86

There wasn't a comprehensive report done on the electrics, just the surveys report, which basically just amounted to something along the lines of "Adequate - requires modernization" I'll isoalte a light tonight and take a look. if Earthed, does that mean I would be able to get the cooker installed now while waiting for the rest?

fordfocus-chav-car

Are you sure there is not a cooker point already in the kitchen?.
It may help if you take a photo of the consumer unit so we can see what we are dealing with.

pmartin86

Defiantly no existing point, the old cooker was at least as old as the wiring and all gas. Besides that, we've moved the kitchen into a different room! I was one of those house with 2 reception rooms and a tiny "galley" kitchen, not something that will fly with me! I'll take a picture when i get home and see what you think.

Ectophile

If the only electric cooking you want is a single fan oven, then many of them can just plug into a normal 13A socket. If you want anything more than that, you'll need a proper cooker circuit.

If it's only 30 years old, there may not be anything significantly wrong with your wiring. Lighting circuits were earthed back then - that came in in the late 1960's. PVC cable lasts pretty much forever unless it's damaged (for instance overloaded, chewed by rodents or attacked by chemicals).

There are exceptions to that for the horrible aluminium wiring that was once used because it's cheaper than copper, and some 70's wiring suffers from "green goo" - a sticky liquid that oozes out of the ends of the cables.