Bought a house that failed EICR but I didn't know, now it needs a total re-wire.

GDB2222

For £8.49, you can buy a non contact tester. You just put it near a live cable, and it lights up. (Try it near a power socket, to see how sensitive it is.)   You can then tell whether the cables with the green tape are connected to the electricity.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-non-contact-voltage-detector-pen-1000v-ac/3222G

doodling

Hi,

WellKnownSid said:

C2 is only a 'potentially dangerous' issue.  The C2s mostly relate to the earth conductor sizes being too small and a non-working bathroom light 

Of course a total rewire will bring the entire installation up to modern standards, but it is far from needing a total rewire.

If this is a TT installation then it should be noted that the electrician may be wrong about the earth conductor size requirement - 16mm sq would usually be much bigger than required (unless the soil is amazingly conductive).  The IET regulations allow sizes down to 2.5mm sq in some cases but 6mm sq is a usualy a sensible size for most TT supplies.

For other supply arrangements (TN-S and TN-C-S) then yes, 16mm sq is probably the right size.

Of course, I haven't seen the installation so can't be definitive.

pjs493

I’m surprised your level 3 survey didn’t suggest getting the electrical safety certificate and gas certificate from the vendor. Mine did and these were requested by my solicitor. Did your survey not recommend it? If not, why not?

lifeofbrian2015

RAS said:

Sort out the earth conductor and replace the bathroom light fitting.  Hope that the problem there is just the light fitting. 

And ask the electrician to check that those cables with green insulation tapes are dead. Are any of them lead covered?

He's checked and they're fine.

RAS

lifeofbrian2015 said:

RAS said:

Sort out the earth conductor and replace the bathroom light fitting.  Hope that the problem there is just the light fitting. 

And ask the electrician to check that those cables with green insulation tapes are dead. Are any of them lead covered?

He's checked and they're fine.

Many years ago when plebs could do electrics, I removed a round pin socket from a wall I was demolishing,  wrapped insulation tape round each of the wire strands and curled it up into the ceiling void. I'd turned the mains was off at the time, but later we were re-wiring and discovered that this cable was live. I think it later powered the washing machine and fridge.