Will I need a rewire for 1950s house

[dhutch]

I presume it not VIR rubber then? 1958 is early for PVC I would have thought.....?

Our house was last rewired in 1965 we believe and because we are planning to be there long term, and wanted more than 2 single sockets per room, double lights and switch etc, we have had the lot re-wired.
We also had no earth on the lighting circuits, to the immersion heater, etc. You can get round that with fitting double insulated light fittings and switches etc, but again, we actually opted for a full rewire.

 

[AndyPRK]

see pic on first page.

cables are white. (low smoke), look modern to me (well 70s / 80's ) when you also look at the fusebox style.

 

[JohnW2]

cables are white. (low smoke), look modern to me (well 70s / 80's ) when you also look at the fusebox style.

Whilst it may be true today that white T+E is usually/always 'low smoke', in the past I think it was 'just another colour'.

It appears that, 'back then', there were considerable differences in the predominance of grey and white T+E in different parts of the UK but, 'down south' the general pattern seemed to be that wholesalers generally sold grey cable to electricians, whilst nearly all that sold to DIYers (e.g. in 'sheds' etc.) was white.

Kind Regards, John

 

[AndyPRK]

yes ok. noted. Either way it is safe cable and not VIR !!!!

 

[JohnW2]

yes ok. noted. Either way it is safe cable and not VIR !!!!

Yes, it certainly looks like PVC - and, as you have noted, the vintage of the CU gives some insight into the likely age of the installation.

Kind Regards, John

 

[Risteard]

Before fitting a new consumer unit the electrician should test the existing circuits to ensure they will not trip the new RCD's when fitted, as long as this is done, there is no reason why a new consumer unit can't be fitted. I would say for an older house all RCBO's so any leakage fault is limited to one circuit.

The testing required before changing the fuse box for a consumer unit will clearly take some time, but no where near the time taken to do a full EICR and one would hope the electrician would point out any really bad faults, he would not be removing every socket as with an EICR and checking there are grommets no signs of burning and all terminals are tight, however likely you will want to add sockets and other things, so getting a full EICR after you have finished means your work also checked.

It isn't usual to open up every socket-outlet during periodic inspection and testing either. Such a course of action would vastly increase the cost of it also.

 

[ericmark]

Where I have worked, what was required has changed vastly between jobs, and also names for the work, service, PIR, EICR, and PAT they were all really the same thing we were to test and since in house in the main, repair electrical equipment, in some cases down to checking the tightness of terminals, and unless this is done having access it really pointless.

Also plans, and records in some places every job would be entered onto the master record and every socket outlet shown, with all the readings for the outlet so in real terms simply testing showed if it had degraded or not.

When I moved from commercial to domestic I could not believe the change in culture, around 2000 some of the work done on domestic would never have been permitted on commercial, however by 2010 there was I am glad to say a change in the domestic wiring and in some areas it was reversed with domestic following the regulations closer than commercial.

However there has always been an element of DIY with domestic, and as a result one hasn't a clue what you will find. So the old idea of look at 10% and if OK stop, if not then look at 40% etc, does not really work with domestic. As with commercial one hopes everything was done right to start with, your only checking to see if some thing has degraded, with domestic your looking for what some silly idiot may have done.

Although of course electricians also make mistakes, I had one tell me how he had to put the upstairs and downstairs lighting MCB's on the same RCD to stop it tripping, he had no idea they should be on same MCB as well as RCD he still had a borrowed neutral, however we hope he was an odd one out.

But some one has to sign the EICR and that person has to decide on the general look of the house how deep they need to investigate, and likely will need to give an estimate of costs, so the inspect 10% then decide is not really an option. We are even told if there is no access to loft space from below we may need to remove tiles. The requires further investigation option I am told has been removed.

 

[Risteard]

A report should just state clearly what has and has not been done.

For a typical domestic premises mine will always say unless otherwise agreed (and priced!) that an external visual inspection will be carried out on all visible and accessible accessories/luminaires, with an internal inspection of a sample of approximately 20%. Should defects be found in this sample then I may recommend that the sample be increased (which would obviously incur additional costs).

It simply isn't realistic to suggest that you will open up absolutely everything and check it. Also dismantling of the electrical installation is to be avoided where possible.