Should I pull out?

infectedeggs

RHemmings said:

infectedeggs said:

RHemmings said:

infectedeggs said:

dinkylink said:

infectedeggs said:

For what it is worth my home of 30 years - built in the 1930s - has no felt under the (original) slates either. It has never been an issue and I doubt it will be until I am long dead.

Many older properties have rising damp but the proofing for over £3000 is very expensive. I would get some more quotes if you decide to go ahead and buy.

The electricity will need looking at of course but a new fuse board can be bought for about £50 and an electrician will fit it for about the same.

I my view - which is worthless - the right "feeling" - means alot. Listen to your gut.

Please let me know where you can get a new fuse board for 50 quid, and the sparky you use to fit it for another 50!

eBay. Amazon. Take a look yourself.

To my non-expert eyes, the £50 fuse boards on ebay look well dodgy. 

Really. New branded ones? Oh well. To each his own. Anyway we are digressing. But even if you are prepared to pay twice that (I am not) we are still looking at £200 fitted.Screwfix do a

British General Fortress 16-Module 8-Way Populated High Integrity Dual RCD Consumer Unit with SPD

for £102.49 including VAT.

But maybe that - and Screwfix - are dodgy too.

Thank you for backing up your claim.

I didn't see new branded ones on ebay for £50. What I saw looked old and dodgy. 

The ones on Screwfix look good to non-electrician me, and should be legal and safe given that Screwfix is an established and reputable company. Nothing dodgy there that I can see. 

How did you calculate the fitting cost? When I looked up the average fitting cost of a consumer unit the numbers I see are about £300 or more. https://www.homehow.co.uk/costs/fuse-board-upgrade

Considering one poster suggested replacing a consumer board would cost over £1000 I would ask you to cut me some slack with this reply.

I have already established a perfectly adequate unit would cost less than £50.00.

Now. Let us not forget where the OP lives. The north-west of England, so we can forget London/South-East rates.

I also realise most will not be able to get "mate's rate", but changing a consumer is at most half a day's work for a half decent spark (unless there are exceptional circumstances).

Prices have risen since Brexit since trademen now command much higher salaries, but even so, by contacting a local independent electrician (in the Cumbria area remember) I am confident £200 would cover it. Not £100 I admit but £1000? Let us return to reality please. This is a money saving site after all.

And for what it is worth, this is a job a "competent person" is not allowed to do, even if an electrician checks it afterwards.

And apologies again for hijacking the thread. I will be quiet now.

Mutton_Geoff

infectedeggs said:

Considering one poster suggested replacing a consumer board would cost over £1000 I would ask you to cut me some slack with this reply.

With respect, the OP said this:

I'm a 35 y/o first time buyer, 5 months into buying my first house, a 2 bedroom 1930's property around 45 minutes from the Lake District, England. However, I'm currently facing a dilemma on whether to continue with the property purchase or not following a bad Level 2 Homebuyers Survey. The report detailed various issues, include 11 red flags, 10 orange, and only 1 green. The most notable ones include damp, an outdated and potentially dangerous electricity unit, no underfelt beneath the roof slates, no gas safety certificate, and more. 

I was that poster and my advice still stands, budget £1,000 for putting this right. Just because you feel you can find a sparky to fit a consumer unit for £100 won't help the OPs cause for properly budgeting for his purchase.

What would people prefer? Budget £1,000 and spend £700 or budget £200 cos someone on the internet said this was an accurate figure, then still spend £700?

As I said, I've done loads of renovations in 45 years of buying and selling houses and can put my finger in the air and guesstimate fairly well. I would prefer my electrician does a full test and certification of the electrics in a newly purchased property rather than a quick half day swapping old for new. You can guarantee there will be other work needed apart from just swapping a box, the old cables won't reach for a start. What about the supply? Is it 80A or 100A?

To some, price is everything. For me, VFM is the most important. £1k to bring somewhere up to date electrically (assuming rewire not needed) is money well spent.