Domestic Electrician

House Rewiring

At worst, faulty electrics can be a severe fire hazard and can lead to injury or electrocution. That is the reason electrics were brought into the building regulations under Part P.

Existing wiring installations aren’t covered, but should you make significant alterations or new additions to the wiring in your house, the regulations come into force.If you are thinking of purchasing a property more than 25 years old, it’s crucial to check that the wiring is current before you buy.

Ideally, you will find a notion about what work is required and an estimate of the likely cost so that you can take this into account when assessing the feasibility of this project and how much to offer.Even if you already have the property you’re renovating; it’s crucial that you understand early on whether any purification work will be essential because it can be quite disruptive to the fabric and decoration of the building, therefore is best completed early on, before any re-plastering or redecorating work takes place.

When is House Rewiring Necessary?

When a property has not already been rewired over the past 25-30 years, the chances are it will need upgrading at least in part in order to bring it up to current standards. The wiring might be potentially dangerous and might not be able to deal with the requirements of contemporary living.

If you plan significant remodeling work that constitutes a material modification according to the Building Regulations, it is very likely that you will need to rewire part, if not all, of the property, such as upgrading the consumer unit (fuse box).

If you’re extending your house or converting a loft or garage, this will constitute new work and so each one the new wiring is going to have to conform to Part P:

Electrical Safety and most of the present wiring might need to be enhanced to ensure that it is ready to carry the additional loads safely, it’s earthed to present requirements and cross bonding is satisfactory.

The Way to Tell if Your Home Has Been RewiredYou ought to be able to tell whether a house was rewired recently by scrutinizing vulnerable regions of the wiring and from the power meter and fuse box (now referred to as the consumer unit).

You can request to do this when being shown around a house you’re thinking of purchasing, or by inspecting your home. If there’s an old-fashioned-style fuse box with large white ceramic-style fuses, then the chances are that the house needs completely rewiring.

With two or more collections of circuits, it can be exceedingly hard to know if all of them happen to be disconnected when undertaking work, and this is dangerous. Another tell-tale sign that a rewire could be necessary is a mixture of the distinct socket and switch styles.

In some rare cases of properties that have never been revived in years, you might still find an instance of old round pin sockets or original dolly switches, each of which is a certain sign that a rewire is necessary.

Another clue is the colour and type of the cabling, which you should have the ability to see in light fittings around the fuse box. Modern electric installations are wired into PVCu insulated cable coloured gray or white, and also, a modern consumer unit may have circuit breakers and residual circuit devices (RCDs).

Imagine if it’s been Rewired?Unless the wiring is the contemporary PVCu coated type, then a rewire is likely to be required. Even older PVCu cable may require replacing if it isn’t twin earthed cabling (with another earth cable operating inside the outer sleeve), but this may only be evident if you’re in a position to remove a switch or socket faceplate and look carefully.

Assessing for this running the screening, and certainly isn’t advisable unless you are able to switch off the mains first.If you’re in any doubt, suppose that a total rewire is a requirement and budget accordingly.

It may be that the machine can be improved for significantly less money by updating earthing and cross bonding.Should you proceed with the undertaking, then prior to trading contracts, you may arrange to get a qualified electrician to perform a questionnaire and discover exactly what work is necessary.

Rewiring a home is messy, disruptive work. It happens in two phases: the first repair, when wires and wiring are installed, and second repair when everything is joined up or made’live,’ once the front faces of sockets, switches, and lights have been fitted.

Those runs of cables move everywhere: under floors, through walls, and across ceilings, so the first repair is done without carpets or furniture; therefore, floorboards could be raised, and ceilings cut into.

To place new sockets and buttons legally correct heights, plaster normally has to be chased into, also.That is the reason it’s important to plan what is going where in each room before starting the first fixpoint, so you understand where you need lighting, plug points along with any other electrically driven items.

Additions mid-way through are costly, and a time-consuming.1 way to prepare is by simply drawing on a plan of your house with each room on chart paper and marking up the place of sofas, beds, kitchen units, and so on.

After that, you can consider the lighting and switches required. Little matters such as under-cabinet and bedside lighting are easy to do when planned from the start but expensive to undertake later. In addition to considering mood, task, and feature light, remember smoke and heat alarms, backyard RCD security sockets, and external security lights.

Today we are a super-consuming society hooked on technician’. Concerning electrics, this implies mood light, surround sound, high-speed Wi-Fi, kitchen gadgets, kitchen gadgets, and TVs in the bathroom. Electrical circuits must be around the job, and you need to plan beforehand.

Are you going to want speakers in each area or a safety system?Complete rewire usually happens when houses are vacant, but for hardened homeowners, it is likely to live in 1 room while having functions happen around you. If you can not move out, then dust-cover furniture and expensive items, rather moving electric equipment into a different room, since this isn’t your plumber’s duty.

Get your plumber to put in the new consumer unit and prep your living area using a temporary source of sockets.

Rewiring Work

The expense of rewiring, such as first and second fix with regular sockets and switches and excluding light fittings, should be around £1,000-£1,500 to get a kitchen expansion.

The UK average cost for rewiring a three-bed semi is £3,500; the cost will fluctuate based on where you live.

Other variables include the size of the house, how accessible/empty the house is, and also the complexity and caliber of the finish.Very often, a complete rewire can be averted, however; supplying the existing cabling is sound and able to carry any extra loads, it also might be possible to upgrade it by including a modern consumer apparatus, proper earthing structures and cross country bonding.

A kitchen may require two days, a three-bed semi likely two days to first fix, and the same again to the next fix. A larger property will take much longer.

If rewiring work is required, it should be undertaken at the first repair phase (before plastering) at precisely the same time as some other central heating and plumbing work. New cabling can’t be mounted, and so the installation will involve lifting the floor coverings and floorboards and possibly the skirting boards also, routing out channels in the walls and possibly in some ceilings which are inaccessible from over.

All of this work will cause major disruption, and thus it is best not to try and live around the job if possible.As well as installing new cabling, the first repair stage will involve fitting new back boxes for many sockets and switches.

Along with rewiring for many power and lighting circuits, it’s a good chance to rewire for contemporary central heating controls, alarms, smoke detectors, and doorbells, to add outdoor lighting and sockets, and to rewire the phones and television aerial sockets.

It’s also worth redesigning the wiring plan for sockets and switches to make sure it meets your needs and those of contemporary housebuyers.Think about specifying two-way or perhaps three-way shifting for halls and landings and other rooms with over one main access.

For a high-value property, think about adding a separate 2 amp circuit using different switching for dining table and standard lamps at the main living rooms and bedrooms that are principal.

It can also be worth considering adding automatic lighting, house network cablings, speaker cabling, and other contemporary technology.If the mains meter and connection need moving, this will have to be undertaken from the local electricity utility company.

There’ll be a fee, and several weeks’ notice will be needed.AdvertisementWhen the first fix stage was completed, the house could be re-plastered, or the ceilings and walls filled and created great, and the flooring replaced.

The next fix work may then go fitting outlets and switch plates, light fittings, the customer unit, and wiring some electrical fans, stoves, extractor hoods, electric showers, and the immersion heater, when there is a hot water storage cylinder.If you’re working on a time building utilizing vernacular materials, such as oak frame, cob, or solid stonework, make sure your electrician knows of this and has worked with such buildings.

Checking Earth Bonding Even if your renovation job does not need rewiring, make certain that the kitchen and toilets are ground bonded. Earth bonding will ensure that when a fault should occur causing the metal pipes, tub, taps, radiators, or boiler casing to become life, i.e., for current to flow, this won’t cause electrocution.

The reason the lack of earth bonding is often missed is that it does not influence the performance of the electric circuits in the house. To see whether your job has been ground bonded, look underneath the sink or bathtub for metal clamps around the copper pipes with green and yellow striped ground cable attached.

All plumbing in and outside of the boiler and heating systems require earth bonding.If you are building with plastic pipe instead of aluminum, then you do not have to ground appliances, but you must earth the mains stopcock. If that isn’t the case, then arrange for this work to be performed as it’s a crucial security requirement.