1950s electrics

[Steve]

I know there's a few "seasoned" electricians here. So here's my question to you guys.

I have a house built in the 1950s for the local authority. On peeling back the decor, plaster, ceilings, etc we have revealed interesting combinations of wiring.

On an original (pink) plastered wall, a socket wired in pvc in undisturbed pink plaster. Yet in the ceiling above there are (unrelated) VIR cables. Were houses ever wired with a combination of VIR and pvc? When did pvc start being used? What were the standards in the 50s?

Am I mistaken that this pvc cable is original? Could it be newer?

By the way we had the house fully rewired last year. None of this stuff is live. We're just getting stuck into the kitchen. It's getting a new concrete floor, ceiling and plaster on walls.

 

[JohnD]

I don't think PVC cable can be original to the house. I have seen lead-sheathed and VIR of that age.

However, it could be the same age as the plaster, which is not the same thing.

How many strands in the cores, and what colours are the strands, and the insulation on the three cores? What shape are the pins in the sockets?

 

[Steve]

The pvc is stranded so imperial sized. Now I think on the house had a late 80s rotary type main rcd consumer unit when we bought it. So at least this had been replaced.

But see my picture of the socket back with a mysterious pvc wire disappearing into old plaster. When was pink plaster last used? This wall certainly looks original. There is no visible capping or conduit.

Then the switch position on external wall. The capping contains a mix of vir and pvc, then the pvc cables coming from the cavity were in use when we bought the place. I just can't work any of it out!

The place has cavity wall insulation now so anything in the cavity was bad news.

None of this really matters but I love peeling back the layers. Some of the construction methods in this house have dumbfounded modern trades we've had in. Upstairs the door frames were fitted. Then the ceiling boarded. Then they built the thermalite walls. Onto the floor boards. No additional support. Hurray for modern building techniques.

 

[flameport]

PVC insulated wiring was available from the late 1950s, and in common use by the early 1960s, at which time rubber insulated wiring was no longer used.

 

[sparkwright]

In the 50s there were houses which were wired in both PVC and rubber.

This was simply because at the time both were available, and one would use whatever was in the van.

I have seen a house built in 1953 with both systems.

Since it was all neatly buckle-clipped to the joists under the floor it was clear this was all original.

The pvc was in excellent condition, and hardly needed replacing - the main issue was no earth wire in the lighting cables.

As I recall the cooker cable was rubber, so no doubt the electrician had some old 6mm2 equivalent to use up.

Send more pics if you can, always interesting to see old wiring, and how well it is usually installed.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Some of the construction methods in this house have dumbfounded modern trades we've had in.

I had a '50s house - the people who built it were obviously themselves dumbfounded by what at the time were modernities.

Like tape measures, squares, levels, plumb lines.....

Then they built the thermalite walls.

Breeze block, surely?

Onto the floor boards. No additional support.

But nothing had collapsed, had it?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Since it was all neatly buckle-clipped to the joists under the floor it was clear this was all original.
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always interesting to see old wiring, and how well it is usually installed.

If you'd seen the '50s stuff in the house I had, you'd have seen 2"-ish lengths of cable used as cable clips, nailed through the ends into the joists.

 

[JohnD]

When was pink plaster last used?

I used Sirapite in the 1980's as a finish over bonding or browning. it dried pink, but plasters used to vary in colour according, I suppose, to the materials used in the batch, or possibly where they were sourced.

But judging by the variety of colours, I think yours is a later patch or refurb applied to the old wall. The whitish colour plaster might be lime, which was out of general use before my time.

 

[Nige F]

Now't wrong with 50's L.A houses - built by tradesmen - flogged off cheap by politicians.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

And flogged off not to allow more people to own their own homes - if that had been the underlying motive councils would have been allowed to use the money to build more, thus providing a pool of more for people to buy in the future.

That was forbidden because the underlying motive of the Tories was, and still is, an ideological desire to destroy the State.

 

[stillp]

And flogged off not to allow more people to own their own homes - if that had been the underlying motive councils would have been allowed to use the money to build more, thus providing a pool of more for people to buy in the future.

That was forbidden because the underlying motive of the Tories was, and still is, an ideological desire to destroy the State.

More likely an underlying motive to destroy the Labour-voting council estate ghettos.

 

[stillp]

If you'd seen the '50s stuff in the house I had, you'd have seen 2"-ish lengths of cable used as cable clips, nailed through the ends into the joists.

As done by a local electrician in my house two years ago!

 

[phatboy]

As done by a local electrician in my house two years ago!

1mm 3-core and earth was used in my last house, with a clout nail through it, made adding cables nice and easy!

 

[phatboy]

I have a late 50's property, and it was entirely wired in rubber cables - 1 single socket per room, with PVC additions in the 70's.

The lighting cables had been replaced in the mid-2000's, and the cabling all went back to a wonderful big box in the loft, making it a nightmare to remove un-needed circuits. The old rubber cable was all still lying around in the loft. I tried pulling on a piece to see what happened, and it basically stripped itself in my hand!!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

a wonderful big box in the loft

Could have been collectible.

Hope you tried eBay before dumping it.