Problematic Full house rewire

IvyFlood

phill99 wrote: »

You would be better trying to find the first socket that is fed from your new kitchen ring main and then wire it from there back to the new consumer unit. You may have to knock some tiles etc off the wall, but that will be a far better solution.

I think that's what he is planning to do but needs to find the connection to the old wiring first and strip that out. He'll need access to the wall/sockets and at present the kitchen is in the way?

DigForVictory

ratrace wrote: »

Can i ask why do you want to get the rewire done

I think the OP has mentioned this is the "forever home" - may as well get the wiring entirely up to current spec so it can be restfully forgotten about for ages.

Also the basic colours have changed from red & black to blue & brown, so any new wiring installed will declare itself new.

Plus the law concerning fuseboxes has changed - I don't know about you but I like the idea of a circuit box that is wired to protect not just the cabling but my life (& those of all who are in the house) and not burn in the event of a dodgy connection.

In your shoes, OP, I'd hope the team could save as much of the kitchen as possible but be ready to have it gutted (& plan to whack more sockets in every room, switch to LED lighting & check there are loops for showers ready In Case as now is the ideal time), as while electric shocks are unpleasant, the other electricity-associated problems can be much more difficult to survive.

Davesnave

ratrace wrote: »

our house is a 1930's and most of the wiring is still the original, i do agree that the old wiring is of good quailty than the new stuff but we have had no issues with it, not being harsh but wanted to know what the reason was for the rewire as we may do our in a few years time if it really needs it

The reason for the rewire is that the wiring is old and inadequate for 2018.

I appreciate that you are happy with your wiring from the 1930s, but I'd suggest that you are one of very few people who would be.

To put this in context, the first house I bought in 1977 had 30 year old wiring. The first thing I did was replace it, because it was dangerously perished in places and quite likely to start a fire. Goodness knows what yours is like!

Jackmydad

ratrace wrote: »

Can i ask why do you want to get the rewire done is here any problems with the wiring, our house is a 1930's and most of the wiring is still the original, i do agree that the old wiring is of good quailty than the new stuff but we have had no issues with it, not being harsh but wanted to know what the reason was for the rewire as we may do our in a few years time if it really needs it

If your house really has 1930s wiring, in all probability it'll have rubber insulation. As that only has a 25 year life expectancy you need to get it changed ASAP.
Even if the visible bits look OK, there's a good chance there are hidden parts that aren't. I've pulled out enough of it to know that for certain.

IvyFlood

Please can we turn this thread back to my problem?! Haha :-)


How likely is it that the connection would be in the wall and is there any way of checking for certain?


Really want to avoid having part my kitchen ripped out but if that's the only way than I will accept it.


If it helps, the kitchen is one long big room that used to be made up of a dining room and smaller kitchen. The previous owners knocked down the dividing wall and got rid of the dinning room making a bigger kitchen. I think the single socket I referred to earlier is the original one that belonged in the dining room.

notbritishgas

Why not find which fuse/ mcb feeds these new sockets and then see what other sockets do not work when it is switched off/pulled.
That might give you a clue as to where the join is.

bris

I can't see the new connection being in the wall. The new wiring will go down into the floor and connected somewhere pointing back to the consumer unit.


If your lifting the kitchen floor it would be easy to cut a hatch big enough to get your head down and have a look. I would do that first before ripping the kitchen apart.

ratrace

IvyFlood wrote: »

In the upstairs rooms there is only one single socket in each room and its by the doors so lots of extension cables. Its not practical for modern day living so we want more double sockets in each room.
Also light switches are behind doors which again isn't practical.
Because we want a number of additional sockets its best just to upgrade the whole system as it won't have been done for over 60 years.
Also the entire house is on one circuit. I think usually you have separate circuits for upstairs, downstairs and kitchen.

ahh ok yes we have a similar problem, its been on the to do list for a while, hopefully will have the money saved up fot it soon, although some of our wiring is old kitchen wireing is new and so is the bathroom one, the rest has been checked over and tested by our electrician and he says its not dangerous but will need doing to to bring up to current regs , let us know what sort of quotes you get for it so i get an idea cheers

IvyFlood

notbritishgas wrote: »

Why not find which fuse/ mcb feeds these new sockets and then see what other sockets do not work when it is switched off/pulled.
That might give you a clue as to where the join is.

Hmm that sounds like a good idea. Call me naïve but I'd like to think the electrician would have thought to do that!? We have a new-ish consumer unit and there is a port which says 'kitchen sockets' but its an old black and red cable goes into there.

IvyFlood

ratrace wrote: »

ahh ok yes we have a similar problem, its been on the to do list for a while, hopefully will have the money saved up fot it soon, although some of our wiring is old kitchen wireing is new and so is the bathroom one, the rest has been checked over and tested by our electrician and he says its not dangerous but will need doing to to bring up to current regs , let us know what sort of quotes you get for it so i get an idea cheers

I'm anticipating between 3-4K without plastering, but more if the kitchen needs to come out and go back in. We've already had 4 other quotes, 3 of them were around the 2K mark but that was for partial rewire and the guys that came, I don't think they knew the extent of the work i.e. the kitchen being so problematic. Another one knew and quoted 3K but he said that could rise depending what he found in the kitchen. and obviously we are still waiting for this one.