Does our house need rewiring?

IvyFlood · 4 October 2018 at 12:33PM

Hi All

I appreciate this may be a long shot but just looking for some advice really!

We have just moved into a 1960s 3-bed semi which has had some areas of the house rewired (the kitchen and extension are new and done about 5 years ago which we have the building regs cert for).

The rest of the house and bedrooms I think need rewiring. But I am no expert!

All the sockets and light switches look 'old' and discoloured although no round pins but they are very low to the skirting boards, in awkward places such as behind doors and only 2 single sockets in each room. Some are also embedded into the wall. Also the switch needs to be down for on which is unusual. I don't think they have been replaced since the 1960s but I could be wrong.

We have a number of boxes/meters in the under stairs cupboard which relate to the gas, new electrics, old electrics and we also have a smart meter so I'm not sure what I would be looking for! One of them in a wooden board though? Sounds bad?

Obviously it requires an inspection by an electrician which we are in the process of finding and if it does need doing then I'm keen to get it done before we start decorating. This is also our lifetime home.

Any advice on what I have described is much appreciated! And also an indication on cost would be helpful, we are in the North East.

Thanks

Skibunny40 · 4 October 2018 at 12:46PM

I posted a vaguely similar question yesterday, and what I think I'm going to do, and sounds like it might be right for you too, is getting an EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report) then getting several quotes on the work highlighted in the EICR.

Slinky · 4 October 2018 at 1:49PM

We bought a 50s house last year and had a partial rewire including a new fuseboard. The electrician tested everything, we were adding in extra sockets etc plus a couple of light switches were added. Some wiring was replaced, some remains. He knew that we intend it to be our final home and so did it to a standard that reflects the needs of maybe another 30-40 years use.

In answer to the question, some of it may need replacing/upgrading, some may well be fine as is.

Carrot007 · 4 October 2018 at 1:54PM

Pictures?

The wiring needs looking at not the switches. The switches can be easily replaced.

I assume you mean the lightswitches are the othjer way than you are used to? They can be wired either way and put either way up so it means nothing! My house can with random up/down configurations! Also those horible knobbly ones that break (look like old(er) ones but are modern cheap crap!).

Does not sound too old from the descriptions but again pictures (ESP of consumer unit(s)).

Skibunny40 · 4 October 2018 at 2:19PM

Slinky wrote: »

We bought a 50s house last year and had a partial rewire including a new fuseboard. The electrician tested everything, we were adding in extra sockets etc plus a couple of light switches were added. Some wiring was replaced, some remains. He knew that we intend it to be our final home and so did it to a standard that reflects the needs of maybe another 30-40 years use.

In answer to the question, some of it may need replacing/upgrading, some may well be fine as is.

Can I be nosey? How much mess and upheaval did the partial rewire cause? Could you still live in the house whilst it was going on? Sorry for all the questions - it's just that we're probably going to be doing this and I want to be prepared!

dunroving · 4 October 2018 at 2:58PM

Skibunny40 wrote: »

Can I be nosey? How much mess and upheaval did the partial rewire cause? Could you still live in the house whilst it was going on? Sorry for all the questions - it's just that we're probably going to be doing this and I want to be prepared!

Unless you are going to get any new wiring boxed in (can be pretty unsightly), if you want sockets and switches moved, or new ones installed, this may involve chasing into the wall (cutting channels in the plaster). It's the plaster damage and repair that would cause most mess, rather than the wiring itself. Electricians may leave bits and pieces of wiring, screws, etc., lying around if they are untidy, but this is easy enough to clear up.

It's also possible that between the first fix (installation of wiring and boxes) and second fix (fitting the faceplates for switches and sockets), when you are having the walls replastered, you may have limited electricity - the electrician may, for example, give you a circuit with some sockets, and you'd run extension cords to supply electricity elsewhere if you wanted it.

Slinky · 4 October 2018 at 4:00PM

Skibunny40 wrote: »

Can I be nosey? How much mess and upheaval did the partial rewire cause? Could you still live in the house whilst it was going on? Sorry for all the questions - it's just that we're probably going to be doing this and I want to be prepared!

At the time it was done we were 'squatting' in the house doing it up (sleeping on an airbed) as we don't live in it yet, we are renting it out for a while. We didn't have the new wiring chased in in some places, as we didn't have time for the plasterwork repairs, so the current new stuff is surface mounted, we'll have it chased in and replastered properly, hopefully before we move in.

I would imagine it would be pretty difficult to do a rewire and live in the house at the same time unless you didn't have much furniture. Quite a few of the floorboards upstairs had to come up to access the lighting circuits downstairs which meant the carpets coming out (we were replacing most of them) to get at the floors. We ended up sleeping in most of the different rooms of the house as it went on around the house, the electrician was there for about 12 days in total (4 bed house).

If you've got a garage you can get most of your furniture in, I'd go for doing that so there's minimal upheaval. It's amazing the number of times you can keep picking stuff up and moving it about (and losing it) whilst the work goes on.

Skibunny40 · 4 October 2018 at 4:04PM

Thanks Slinky - although that wasn't what I wanted to hear! But better to know what we'll be dealing with...

Slinky · 4 October 2018 at 4:08PM

I wish the rewire was the worst of our issues, we've got cracked lintels that will need replacing also.

My recommendation to you would be try and get the rewire done before you move in if at all possible. We took an electrician round before we exchanged so we had him lined up to start the job the day after we got the keys.

Oops, sorry, I see you've already moved it.

SG27 · 4 October 2018 at 4:34PM

IvyFlood wrote: »

Hi All

I appreciate this may be a long shot but just looking for some advice really!

We have just moved into a 1960s 3-bed semi which has had some areas of the house rewired (the kitchen and extension are new and done about 5 years ago which we have the building regs cert for).

The rest of the house and bedrooms I think need rewiring. But I am no expert!

All the sockets and light switches look 'old' and discoloured although no round pins but they are very low to the skirting boards, in awkward places such as behind doors and only 2 single sockets in each room. Some are also embedded into the wall. Also the switch needs to be down for on which is unusual. I don't think they have been replaced since the 1960s but I could be wrong.

We have a number of boxes/meters in the under stairs cupboard which relate to the gas, new electrics, old electrics and we also have a smart meter so I'm not sure what I would be looking for! One of them in a wooden board though? Sounds bad?

Obviously it requires an inspection by an electrician which we are in the process of finding and if it does need doing then I'm keen to get it done before we start decorating. This is also our lifetime home.

Any advice on what I have described is much appreciated! And also an indication on cost would be helpful, we are in the North East.

Thanks

Thats sounds almost exactly like ours. Some very old wiring ad fuse box and a recently added new kitchen with new box. We also have all the old brownish switches and sockets. With just 1 single socket in each double bedroom!

We are going for a full re wire, we want it all up to standard as even the new wiring in the newish kitchen is badly done with a socket fixed into the undersink unit directly below the join of the waste pipe for the sink! :eek: if you are going to be redecorating anyway then now is the time to do the rewire.

For our 3 bed 1960s semi its costing £3300. This includes some spot lights, outside lights, security lights. Plus garage. This is in the south east.

SG27 · 4 October 2018 at 4:39PM

Skibunny40 wrote: »

Thanks Slinky - although that wasn't what I wanted to hear! But better to know what we'll be dealing with...

Re wiring is a very messy job, my house is currently a total building site and no way we could live there. There is no power for a start, so no heating/hot water. Our electrician said he will leave us one connected socket to use between first and second fix. There are floor boards up and holes in walls where cables have been chased
If you have furniture in currently you will either need to constantly shuffle it about of remove it completely.

Does our house need rewiring?

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