Does our house need rewiring?

Slinky

IvyFlood wrote: »

The carpets in every room are disgusting anyway so I’m not bothered about these coming out if floorboards need to come up.

Are the carpets held with gripper rods? If you're pulling the carpets up in advance you'll either have to pull the rods up too or you'll be treading on them pretty regularly. You could save some money if the old grippers don't need to be replaced when you have new carpets put in.


One way of getting around this issue is to cut the carpets out with a Stanley knife, leaving a strip of the old carpets over the grippers to protect your feet.

IvyFlood

Just thought I'd provide an update.


We had an electrician round initially to do a EICR except he didn't get that far.


He checked some sockets and it turns out none of our upstairs or lounge is earthed. He said its fine and safe and he could do the report and it would probably all pass but there is no way of knowing how long it could last.


As we want sockets moved and changed he suggested it would be worth a partial rewiring at the same time which is what we want to do anyway before we start decorating.


Our current fuse box for the new rewiring also doesn't meet regulations as apparently it needs to be metal? But we're not bothered about that.


Still waiting on the quote but he said for a full rewire of a house our size (3 bed semi) would usually be 2.5-3K, so fingers crossed it will come in less for a partial rewire.

Ectophile

IvyFlood wrote: »

He checked some sockets and it turns out none of our upstairs or lounge is earthed. He said its fine and safe and he could do the report and it would probably all pass but there is no way of knowing how long it could last.

No earths on the sockets? :eek:


That would normally be a C1 instant fail on an EICR.

cybervic

OP you might want to check if your wall and ceiling is asbestos free before you start any work.

IvyFlood

It’s only dangerous if you have chrome/metal facings. Ours are all plastic.

Surely any risk of asbestos would have been flagged in our survey?

Owain_Moneysaver

IvyFlood wrote: »

It’s only dangerous if you have chrome/metal facings. Ours are all plastic.

On light switches, perhaps, and with some restrictions such as all double-insulated fittings on the whole circuits, and warning labels at the consumer unit.

Not on sockets, though.

More than a C1 instant fail, the electrician should have immediately blanked them off to prevent immediate danger. There is a serious risk that a fault in one appliance could cause the casing of another appliance, or unearthed metalwork elsewhere in the building, to become fatally live.

cybervic

IvyFlood wrote: »

Surely any risk of asbestos would have been flagged in our survey?

Not necessary, most survey might mention the possibility asbestos due to the year it's built but you won't know for sure until a specialist test has been done on each area/room.

We recently bought a place built in 60s, whole place need updating, electric switch and sockets are very old so and only 1 socket plate per bedroom. We wanted a full rewire but builder asked to see asbestos test certificate as there are artex in the ceiling and insulation board in some room. Test came back clear for wall insulation but positive for Artex ceiling. We can't do a full rewire without disturbing asbestos so had a EICR done first, turned out lighting circuit is completely fine so there's no need to replace them.

IvyFlood

Well what a nightmare this is proving to be!


We have had three quotes now - two came back the same but the most recent one was 1K more.


Turns out the first electrician who said there was no earth wiring confused us because there is earth wiring, its just not up to date earth wiring (i.e. yellow and green). Its only our lighting circuit that isn't earthed.


The third electrician who gave us the highest quote had a good look round and was confused because although the wiring in (one side) of our kitchen is new, he couldn't see any evidence of it leading back to the fuse box which would suggest its connected to old wiring (somewhere). I say one side because one side still has the old earth wiring so we think its connected to that. He seemed to think it will be a really complex job and said that the price could increase!


Think we'll just keep getting more quotes.

IvyFlood

cybervic wrote: »

Not necessary, most survey might mention the possibility asbestos due to the year it's built but you won't know for sure until a specialist test has been done on each area/room.

We recently bought a place built in 60s, whole place need updating, electric switch and sockets are very old so and only 1 socket plate per bedroom. We wanted a full rewire but builder asked to see asbestos test certificate as there are artex in the ceiling and insulation board in some room. Test came back clear for wall insulation but positive for Artex ceiling. We can't do a full rewire without disturbing asbestos so had a EICR done first, turned out lighting circuit is completely fine so there's no need to replace them.

Thanks for the advice. It does sound similar to ours except I don't think we have any Artex ceilings - they are all flat bar one where the loft access is which is papered? The house was really outdated when the previous owners bought it and they put a new kitchen and bathroom in. Would the need for asbestos checking have been required for that do you think?

Slinky

Ours, which is 60s not 50s as I posted previously, has flat ceilings and one of those was papered. The electrician made no comment about Artex and worked happily without a test.