Replacing 1950's style plugs!!

DARYALS

I managed to find an old style 1950 plug sunk flush into an old skirting board. I simply want to place a new style plug in it's place. There are two wires coming from the plug blue & brown. Is it just simply a matter of turning electricity off for a few seconds and then rewiring like a normal plug or are there any special precautions / rewiring jobs which need doing?

Thanks ever so much!!! :beer:

silvercar

:eek: :eek:

Plugs generally have 3 wires, are you missing the earth?

Inactive

Well the wiring isn't " 1950's" no blue and brown in those days.;)

Sounds like this may be a low output type plug for lighting circuits, certainly do not change it for a standards 3 pin socket.

cheekymole

What is it connected to, you haven't said?

Some item or electrical goods, if they are themselves plastic, don't have an earth anyway but you need to find out what the plug is supplying electric to first

DARYALS

It's just simply connected to an old style three pin plug. The plug sockets are circular instead of the normal rectangular shape. I'm thinking of maybe just burying the wiring into the plaster work, would this be ok?

cheekymole

now you've lost me...

you have wire coming out of the skirting or a plug? do you plug the plug in to power anything or is it surplus to requirements and needs blanking off?

silvercar

Are we talking about a plug or a plug point?

Where does this wiring end? Your circuit board or a device?

round plug sockets are VERY old. The only time I saw one was feeding a light attached to the stair banister that had been "missed" off a re-wiring.

DARYALS

OK!! Firstly thank you one and all for your interest!! I'll try and simplify. Whilst removing a skirting board I uncovered an old three pronged type plug point which was considerably smaller than anything modern. On examination there are two wires coming from under the floorboards, these wires insert into the ??plug point?? I have no idea where the wire starts as I have not lifted the floorboards, but it finished in the ?plug point so I presume this mean the plug point is the end of the circuit. The floorboards are to be lifted because I have to have some gas pipes fitted in the next few weeks. There is no device attached to it so I presume it must go back to the circuit board, Silvercar's comments may be true it could be for a light or something with decreased power supply (thanks guys for suggesting this). I have had a quick examination of the circuit board and I cant see any wire of a similar colour so this could be loose wiring?

There hope this makes a little clearer! Any other ideas??

cheekymole

Ah much clearer, in your first post you said plug, not plug point!!!

If it's a socket and only has the 2 wires I would not recommend changing to a new socket as it would not be earthed. I would recommend blanking this off using a block, put one wire in the block and the other wire in a seperate block to avoid them coming into contact with other, tape round them with insulation tape and hide under floorboards when you lift them

cajef

DARYALS wrote: »

Whilst removing a skirting board I uncovered an old three pronged type plug point which was considerably smaller than anything modern.

It sounds like an old type 5 amp socket which were used for lights, first thing I would do is find out if it is live, have you got a voltmeter you can test with.

If it was behind the skirting board it may have been run as a spur from another socket or the cable may have been disconnected at the other end and is dead.

DARYALS

I will have to get a volt meter from somewhere or borrow one, thanks for that tip. If it's dead then I will simply follow cheekymole's advice and block the thing off, I;ll probably place insulation tape around them and bury them behind the skirting board. Thanks to everyone, I have thanked you all!