What determines if you need a complete rewire or not?

Legacy_user

I'm refurbishing the kitchen, 1 x living room and 1 x upstairs wc in a victorian terraced house.
The problem is that there are electrical faults with the general system and have had an electrician come and have a look at everything and he said he can fix the fault upstairs but the wiring system is a bit unusual and if it was his house he'd rewire the entire thing.

Another electrician has told me that I needn't have the entire thing done.

I'm wondering though as the house is empty wouldn't it be better to rewire the entire thing or would it take lots of work to do this?

When you chase wires into walls for example does it mean you need to re-skim the walls or can they just be patched?

The electrician will need about 5 x days anyway for definite so probably rewiring the entire thing wouldn't be that much more would it?

Ectophile

The big decider is what the wiring is made of. Anything from the 1960s onwards is likely to be PVC, which lasts pretty much forever unless exposed to strong sunlight, overloaded, or chewed by vermin. Anything older than that is likely to be rubber, or even lead sheathed, in which case it's well past its "best before" date.


Other than that, it's a judgement call. If the existing wiring would require too much modification to adapt it to modern needs, it may be easier just to rip the whole lot out and start again.

System

Thanks Ectophile, the wiring is definitely newer than 60's, it's just I know the previous owners had problems with the electrics and I've been given two bits of opposite advice by two different electricians.

I know there's two different types of attitude towards refurbishment in that some people prefer to start from new wherever possible so they know it's all done properly from the ground up whilst others try to save as much time and money as possible and leave as much of the original work as possible even if it means more work at a later date

I tend naturally to fall into the mindset of if a job is worth doing it's worth doing properly but the problem I find is that occasionally I do unnecessary work which is why I'm often here bouncing questions off of others.

Thanks again!!

Fire_Fox

I have lived in three period properties as they were rewired. Two Victorian houses, one Edwardian cottage: all a mix of plaster over brick and lathe and plaster, all in poor condition so all needed anything from patching and skimming, right up to nothing left but the lathes (keys gone).

My ex-husband rewired the cottage and I 'helped' (in the most basic sense!). Under the surface was a series of bodges.

In several places cable running at right angles to, but laid directly over the top of, copper pipework for central heating (pipes notched into joists). Melted. Also floorboard nails through cable.

Downstairs one rogue socket as a 'spur' off the kitchen lighting. Cable between the two buried in the wall in a wavy diagonal-ish line! :eek:

Property developers and electricians have many much more hair-raising tales. I suppose what you see sticks with you. I would rather rip out too much than too little now.

Davesnave

Sometimes, the electrician you choose chooses.


When we wanted a staged rewire to match with a gradual refurb involving demolition, the only firm that would quote at a good price was one that didn't wish to sign off anything involving others' work.


They fitted us in as a 'filler' between various commercial contracts, so it worked for both sides, though they weren't always timely in attendance for fairly obvious reasons!

System

Davesnave wrote: »

Sometimes, the electrician you choose chooses.

When we wanted a staged rewire to match with a gradual refurb involving demolition, the only firm that would quote at a good price was one that didn't wish to sign off anything involving others' work.
They fitted us in as a 'filler' between various commercial contracts, so it worked for both sides, though they weren't always timely in attendance for fairly obvious reasons!

Sounds like it was a fair size job and so hope you weren't living in it at the same time all of this was going on!
I would think it's probably a sign of a good company that they'd not really want to sign off on other electricians work especially if they didn't know them. I think some electricians will sign off work if they know the person involved and the work is quite easy to inspect visually.

Davesnave

beanfarmer wrote: »

Sounds like it was a fair size job and so hope you weren't living in it at the same time all of this was going on!

Yes, it was an adventure, but having both been children of builders, it didn't worry us as much as it might have worried others. We just kept moving around the property as various bits were tackled. Think we used 4 rooms as kitchens altogether.

To be fair to the electricians, all who quoted saw it with the loft insulation in place. As all the ceilings had to come down, I shifted that horrible stuff for them before work commenced. I think they were very relieved!