Opinions on 60s pyro cable

[Jackrae]

Methinks it's time someone devised a British standard termination plate for fitting inside the sunken box that wires terminate onto. The plate then has three connection points that the front plate (with outlet sockets) plugs into. That way home decorators can remove the front plates without mucking about with the wiring. Cat's now in the pigeon loft.

 

[Lectrician]

If its left well alone it would likely be fine. It's when it's messed with, as said. I wouldn't think it would be targeted for rewire unless a fault was present?

 

[JohnW2]

If its left well alone it would likely be fine. It's when it's messed with, as said. I wouldn't think it would be targeted for rewire unless a fault was present?

Isn't the point being made that regular/repeated testing to determine whether a fault was present is one of the forms of 'messing' which, ironically, could result in the introduction of a fault?

Kind Regards, John

 

[Lectrician]

An electrician testing an installation every ten years or change of occupancy? It's not going to have much of an effect if he respects the installation and takes care. It's yanking around and stressing the pots that cause issues.

 

[JohnW2]

An electrician testing an installation every ten years or change of occupancy? It's not going to have much of an effect if he respects the installation and takes care. It's yanking around and stressing the pots that cause issues.

Yes, I'm sure that 'respecting the installation' would minimise the potential problems. However, as we know, there are electricians and 'electricians' and even a lot of the former (and, one assumes, most of the latter) probably have little, if any, experience of pyro, and hence may not even realise that it requires additional 'respect'! ... and, of course, as is so often being said/discussed here, some testing will often happen a fair bit more frequently than you suggest.

Kind Regards, John

 

[AdrianUK]

Keep the pyro..... replace the Insurance Company!

 

[Jackrae]

As an apprentice many years ago, we used to megger pyro prior to installation. Because the insulation medium is hygroscopic the ingress of atmospheric moisture could result in the insulation tests giving low results. "warming" the ends of the run with a gas torch, for a metre or so, usually drove off the moisture and recovered insulation quality. Proper sealing of the ends, once sufficient length of cores had been prepared, by the compound glands then ensured permanent sealing of the insulation from further moisture ingress.
Perhaps that particular insurance inspection company should have asked themselves why pyro is the applicable wiring medium for fire and security alarm systems.
A case of "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" ?

 

[Lectrician]

Pyro is always delivered with the ends waxed, and you're encouraged to do the same when cutting lengths that will be open for a while prior to terminating. In reality, even the manufacturers say the moisture will not penetrate further than 100mm or so, and this is lost when stripping.

 

[Millennium_Boy]

The only weakness of Pyro, is that the cores have an annoying tendency to snap off cleanly at the Pot Ends, causing extreme disruption, as you have to chase out the wall, in order to make a joint, re-splicing in a new connection and pot-end termination.

 

[sparkwright]

Starting to think pyro is a bit rubbish.

Many flats of that age were done in concealed round conduit, which should mean easy re-wiring.

That said, I've seen flats in conduit, and still re-wired in PVC twin and trunking.

Now that is crazy.

Slightly understandable for sockets, as never enough or in the wrong place.

But lights??

I think common sense is out of fashion nowadays.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

 

[SimonH2]

And every time a room is repapered the accessories are going to be loosened and the wiring disturbed.

I thought painting/papering under accessories was the exception - with the norm being to carefully paint/paper every wallplate onto the wall so as to ensure maximum visibility of the damage caused when you do need to take one off. Put another way, I've seen far more houses with the sockets & switches painted to the wall that I see nicely done ones. In fact, I've only seen a single job done by a pro where they painted under the switches & sockets - it was "something of a surprise"

 

[JohnW2]

I thought painting/papering under accessories was the exception - ...

The decorator we've used for donkey's years must be one of those exceptions, then - but I do wish he could be made to understand the wisdom of isolating circuits before 'doing it properly'!!

Kind Regards, John

 

[SimonH2]

Yes, I think he must be. I recall at my last job removing a few nails/screws/brackets (used for various stuff, including IIRC a fire extinguisher) from a wall just before the decorator went along it. He went to the trouble of putting them back in before painting them and round the things they were holding

 

[Jackrae]

One of the old tricks was to put matchsticks into "wanted" screw-holes before painting or papering to preserve locations. If papering, push the sticks in full depth then snap off the excess leaving about 6mm projecting. paper over then puncture the paper at the bumps so's the sticks can be taken out once the paper has dried.