Is the electric in my garage hooked up?

[R-evans]

Bought a house a few months ago and would like to have access to electrical outlets in the garage. There is already an electric cable running to it and has wires running to an outlet and a light fixture (which is no longer there, just the hanging wire).

Looking in the electric cupboard I can't see anything labeled garage, so is it hooked up and just not switched on or does it pre-date this electrical panel and has just never been connected to it?

I know I will need an electrician to come and look at it, but would be nice to know what size job it is going to be to get power in the garage up and running.


Cable inside garage:

Garage outlet:

Garage junction box:

Cable into garage:

Cable out of house:

Electrical cupboard:

Panel 1:

Panel 2:

 

[R-evans]

i would wonder if it is the large cable exiting the bottom right of the fusebox but looking at the pictures of the cables in the garage i would back away slowly and let a professional deal with it. looks like armoured cable from house to garage , so may be salvageble but dont see how they terminated it into a round junction box .or indeed if they terminated the house end properly as from the pictures looks like old style flat cable in the house .

can you access the cable going into the house from the vent and does it go to another junction box?

not a expert but doesnt look right.

Thanks. I wasn't ever going to try to fix myself, I'm ok changing an outlet or ceiling fixture but this is out of my skillset. I asked my father in law that knows a little more about old electric than me and he just grabbed the cable in the garage to see if it was hot didn't even ask me if I knew it was live or not.

I can't access the cable without pulling the floorboards up, which I am going to do soon to assess the joists and plan for insulation but it's too cold at the moment for that.

I'm no electrician but that looks pretty suspect, is that one in the roof the armoured cable going into normal twin and earth but just electrical taped together?

You could find that armoured cable is just spurred off an close by socket in the house somewhere so it wouldn't be appearing by your consumer unit? You need to find where that goes around entering the house really.

Yes, to me looks like an armoured cable connected directly to a twin and earth, as you said.

Looking at the age of the wiring and outlet in the garage, that will all need replacing. Its hard to see but it looks like the outer sheath of the Steel Wired Armoured Cable has come away, exposing the steel wiring. So that will probably need replacing. You have some capacity on the smaller fuse board, so that shouldnt be a problem. Its hard to know how much trades are charging in your part of the world but I estimate 2 days of a spark's time plus materials. Somewhere between £700 - £1,000 if he does all of the work (if he has to dig out and replace that SWAC).

Thanks, we just changed electrical supplier (awful time for it) and have a smart meter appointment next week so I might mention it to them while they're out.

 

[R-evans]

just a tip if there fitting a smart meter may want to ask them about a isolator between the meter and the cu. they may already be fitting it but i would check then if any work needs to be carried out in the future your electrician can isolate the electrics without the main fuse needing to be pulled ( i know only dno allowed to remove it, but some electricians will risk it).

reason i suggest this is we are with eon and just before christmas we wanted our cu changed and the electrician wanted a isolator fitting...shouldnt cost that much but supplier has to fit it...cost us 98pounds +vat onto bill but heyho had to be done.

by the way we have 2 consumer units and the call centre wanted to charge us twice.. i told them that i only wanted the day unit isolating and the night unit could stay (by this stage was a bit annoyed with there attitude) guy comes out..hey presto fits a double unit same money,,

Thanks, I'll mention it to them when they come out.

As other have said, the garage wiring looks highly suspect. I wouldn't bank on being able to reuse any of it.

If you've got an electrician in I'd also look at getting the kitchen socket circuit breaker to changed from an MCB to an RCBO. If the board is still supported this should be an easy job and will give you a substantial safety upgrade.

We will most likely have a full rewire when we renovate (few walls to knock down) and convert the attic, but that won't be for a year or so. I was mainly wondering if I could hook the garage up for immediate use with not a lot of work, but it seems to be not the case.

Shudders, is that an asbestos roof?

It is, well spotted. It was flagged in our Building Survey and we got the asking price dropped considerably to cover the work to remove it, same goes for the rain water downpipes. All safe as long as we don't mess with any of it, so no real rush to get it removed but it will be sorted at some point.

I presume you tried plugging something into the socket right?
(Not your tongue/fork/screwdriver etc).

I didn't need to, as there is a hanging wire where the light fixture was I figured it can't be hot.

Thanks all for the replies, quite a lot of knowledge about electrical to say it's just a computer forum

 

[R-evans]

I think for now an extension lead is probably the best option.

Even if you don't go for a full rewire you will probably need to replace the board if you're making any big changes since the Proteus board isn't compliant with current regs. While the Wylex board is probably ok, it's best to consolidate it all into one board.

I'll see what the electrician says on Thursday when they come out to fit the smart meter, a friend of mine changed supplier and when he came to fit his they ordered a full rewire, he had to pay but was a lot cheaper than if he had hired an electrician to do it himself.

Very easy to self remove and dispose of if your local council is like ours and they have a recycling centre that can accept it.

You can order full protective gear and masks for around £50-£60 per person, as well as the bags and tape to seal it for disposal. As long as you arent breaking it up.

On to the electrical side of things, have you followed where that cable comes from inside your house? Is it possible that it is just spurred off a socket somewhere? A quick and simple check would be to plug something in in the garage, like a light, and then go through and switch off your fuses one at a time, and when the garage light goes out it will tell you which circuit the garage is on.

Thanks, I'll look into it. The garage probably needs to come down completely so will tackle the roof at that point when we are ready to build a new one.

@Reuben klang cheers I'd never heard of them so just looked up.

This is mine though so ops looks positively futuristic

We had a similar looking board in our previous rental house, kitchen would constantly trip if we boiled the kettle while the cooker was on. Mentioned it to landlady and she sent her electrician to update the board.