40 year old house - original electrics

Jet

I'm in the process of buying a house and the survey has said that the electrics are likely to be original. I've got an electrician going in to have a look on Saturday to advise what is likely to need doing.

On the phone he said it's likely that the lighting circuits need earthing and I will need a new consumer unit and bonding. Not really sure what that means.

Obviously I will wait and see what he says when he looks at the property, but I just wondered if there are any electricians out there who would have an idea what would need replacing immediately and what could wait and what sort of money we are looking at.

jdavanport

Hi Jet
The best thing to do is get an est for a complete rewire and try to get the
price knocked off the house price.
The most urgent thing to do is the earthing, otherwise you could get electrified if something went wrong.
The consumer box ie: fusebox can wait, but not for to long if it has the old wire fuses.
The cost for a rewire can vary between £2000 to £5000 depending on the size of property.
Hope this helps.
john

HugoSP

To be fair you don't need to do anything unless you repair or alter the installation.

If you do any work to the system then you must bring the earthing and bonding arrangements up to the current regs. That is a requirement under the regs. I think he's right where he is coming from.

It may be cheaper in the long run to go for a completely new installation. His periodic inspection will cost you around £200, alternitively if you don't want a report and you just want his opinion, which may be along the lines of new installation, then that money could go towards it.

What he said on the phone sounds about right to me. Then you have you lighting pendants, switches and sockets etc.

Alternitively, you could do nothing and combine this work with a new kitchen etc if that's what you need as well. Then get all your sockets and lights put in the right place at once.

To do what he says - you a definitely looking at 3 figures but not much more.

Jet

HugoSP wrote: »

To be fair you don't need to do anything unless you repair or alter the installation.
.

I suppose what I'm asking is; "is this something that is important to be done the moment I move in, or do people live with original 1960's wiring all the time, and the survey is just panicking me"

Canucklehead

Good morning: Keep in mind...original 1960s electrics didn't have to cope with 21st century energy demands..in our projects, a rewire is standard practice.

Canucklehead

WestonDave

We bought a house 15 months ago that still had its 1950's electrics more or less intact (few bits added on here and there), and the house we moved from had 1960's electrics when I bought it - both were perfectly liveable with but nowhere near current standards.

That said rewiring both houses were among the first jobs in each house - it makes very little sense to spend time decorating only to have someone come and knock holes in the walls to replace electrics. Our second son was due 6 months after we moved into this house so it made sense on safety and convenience grounds to have the work done before he was born. It was a lot easier to shack up in my parents spare room for a fortnight with just one small child than with two! (moving out isn't necessary but in our case it made for quicker work and also meant we didn't have to be paranoid about what our 2 year old was getting into!).

12 months on from that work we still have unpainted plaster on channels down the walls in places but we have a fully up to date system, higher rated shower and mains wired smoke detectors. If you have other work planned and discuss it with your electrician it can often be factored in now - we have cables coiled under a bedroom floor ready for a potential extension (if we ever save up to do it!), and the kitchen wiring is capable of easy modification when we rip out the 60's monstrosity that is there.

What we don't have (sorry whoever didn't want to be alarmed!) is cables running down the inside of the wall cavity (ripe for being drilled into), and I'm no longer plugging my lawnmower (think outside wet electrical device!) into a socket which turned out to be connected to the unearthed lighting circuit - yes I used an earth leakage device but fat load of use that would have been with no earth! These sorts of things can quickly be identified with an inspection and test for a couple of hundred quid - if nothing this bad is found then at least you know.

Don't feel you have to do it in the first 6 months (we were in 4 before we had the work done and that was partly due to baby time constraints) but it makes sense not to put it off beyond other work.

Edited to add - on the other hand it makes sense to live in the house for a while so you know where you want sockets, switches etc. A builder friend gave us a good tip when we did ours - its common in 50's and 60's houses to find that the room doors tend to be hung so they open into the "middle" of the room (I think it was a privacy thing as you couldn't see into the room as easily) rather than against the wall which can be restrictive with modern larger furniture. Before you get the lightswitches put where they are now, think about whether you want to swap the doors to hang the other way so when they are open they stand against the side wall because if so you'll need the switches the other side!

adandem

jdavanport wrote: »

Hi Jet
The best thing to do is get an est for a complete rewire and try to get the
price knocked off the house price.
The most urgent thing to do is the earthing, otherwise you could get electrified if something went wrong.
The consumer box ie: fusebox can wait, but not for to long if it has the old wire fuses.
The cost for a rewire can vary between £2000 to £5000 depending on the size of property.
Hope this helps.
john

We sold a 1960's house 4 years ago and our buyers were fully aware that some of the electrics needed upgrading, however about 2 weeks before the move they desided to do as jdavanport suggests and held us to ransom over the sale. We held out and agreed some payment towards a new consumer unit which was all the electrical survey was really bothered about.You can loselot of goodwill in the late stages so be cautious. That said, we had other interested parties lined up so apart from the time factor, we were able to take the risk.

Shambler

The lighting circuit does not need earthing unless you have metal light switches/fittings.

If the consumer unit needs changing then the lighting circuit can still be exempt from earthing requirements ( and certifiable under part 'P' ) if it has plastic switches and fittings.

If you have the spare cash then I would get it earthed since you are then able to have metal switches and fittings installed.

vansboy

We just done the lot - admitidly we were trashing www.theipsidedownhouse.9f.com anyway!
Do your best to budget for re-wire.

As mentioned it may well work OK & be pretty safe, but all the sockets'll be in the wrong places anyway. The light will be poor & again wrongly located.

VB

HugoSP

Having re read my post and others here IMO there are two things to take on board here.

As for the electrics - you don't have to do anything - if you don't want an electric shower, more powerful cooker, new sockets etc etc. So if you don't want to change your installation at all you don't need to spend the money upgrading it. However you may need to carry out repairs, which in turn will mean upgrading.

A lot of people here have said that they would prefer to wait until they they know what they are doing.

I often get asked to go around to peoples' houses when they first move in to do any necessary repairs and quote for other alterations. A month or two down the line I may follow these quotes up to find that they have changed their minds about what they want done and may need quotes for different work. This comes about after they have been living in the house for a while - it's only natural.

To this end I would suggest that the OP does nothing for a while until she can decide exactly what she needs in terms of where sockets and switches etc are going - determined by future kitchen arrangements and desired furniture arrangements. Then her first job should be a complete rewire.

The other jobs can then follow on.

yorksguy11

Have a quick look in the consumer unit (fuse box) SWITCH OFF FIRST. Make sure the cables are pvc and the cores red, black and earth (bare) will most likley be covered in green sleeving. If they are the wiring should be ok.
The earth bonding, to gas and water will need replacing as the regs require bigger cable now 10mm instead of 6mm.
You might want to replace some of the light pendent drops and the fronts of the switches will need earthing if they are metal.
It would be a good idea to change the consumer unit for a Split Consumer unit with a RCD and circuit breakers that will protect you, plus fuses are a thing of the past (who wants to start rewiring a fuse in the middle of the night when its gone when you can flick a switch)
But if some of the cables coming iinto the consumer unit are black rubber or you are planning to do a lot of work on the house get a complete re wire and make sure you plan for sockets in the future
Sorry to go on a bit, but hope it helps