What the chuff is this?...........

[lizzieg]

Today have been going to add a new light plus switch ( to existing circuit, not in any "special" zone), and wanted to use the channel upwards from existing light switch, took wallpaper off and this is what I got after doing some chiselling.................

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v123/dizzyknits/100_0413.jpg


what is the wood/cardboard affair masquerading as a switch box?, as to the cables running west then north, cannot get any reading from the voltstick.........

do I continue with the excavations or just run my new cable and plaster it back up?
as always any advice would be most welcome....LOL

 

[Adam_151]

Looks like an old woodern box... rip it out and fit a 25mm metal one and plaster the rest of the hole, the cables leaving the top of the left hand side appear to be VIR.

My personal response when I find old cables that appear to be dead via neon screwdriver, voltstick, etc is usually to skank someone elses cutters, position them on the cable at arms length, look away... * ,then just remove most of the cable, then strip it back and twist the conductors together (so no one connects it up thinking it is something else**)


* Yes, I know....
**Admittedly not likely to be a problem on VIR

 

[JohnD]

I've seen those wooden boxes in old houses, they appear to have been fitted in the days before galvanised back boxes were used. Winkle out that plaster filling and see what the cables do. Maybe there used to be a wide switch, or pair of switches. It looks to have been rewired at least once in the past.

I don't like the look of that black cable, it it rubber or lead on the outside?

edited to say, not quick enough!

 

[lizzieg]

evening Adam

nice to know someone else is up....give me a clue...what is a VIR, had several glasses of the red grape and the brain cell is going to sleep

 

[JohnD]

Vulcanised India Rubber.

There used to be an even tougher rubber-covered cable called CTS

"Cab-Tyre Sheathed"

I think prewar - I'm not making it up!

 

[lizzieg]

Hi ya john
10 out of 10, house built in 1860, but lets hope it has been rewired since then!!!
black cable feels rubbery, if that makes sense, do you like the cable support???

 

[JohnD]

Probably had gas lighting when it was built. You should find screwed steel pipes in the loft and coming down walls under the plaster where you might expect a bed-head or desk to be.

May have been electrified in the 1920s or 1930s

I had some relations in Lowestoft who still had gas lighting in part of their house into the 1960s.

 

[Adam_151]

Found any Lead sheathed cable yet?

IIRC Lead (with rubber insulated conductors) was used into the forties, then rubber cable took over into the sixties, then PVC came about, but some of the PVC cables still had rubber insulation on the conductors, then I belive metric-isation cable and the sizes changed slightly, and then 2.5mm increased its cpc from 1 to 1.5 in early 80's

(Information gleaned from serveral forums, so might be slightly innacurate)

 

[lizzieg]

John

When we moved in 4 years ago and stripped back the artex you could see where the gas lights had been

there is still the odd piece of tubing about ( in loft and cellar) that had been used to run cloth covered cable.....

thinking of keeping for a while and selling on fleabay, would it come under an original feature, do you think???

cross posts Adam...nope have not come across any lead covered cables, just old lead water pipes.....
Think I will give "other half" insulated pliers and say "cut here when I tell you", not that I am a coward or anything...LOL

 

[Jaymack]

evening Adam

nice to know someone else is up....give me a clue...what is a VIR,

The correct abbreviation for this cable is VRI: Vulcanised Rubber Insulated.

Jaymack