'Partial' Rewire / Adding new Sockets?

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Deleted User 298457

Deleted User 298457

Hi folks,

I'm in desperate need of additional sockets as my house has maybe 1 or 2 per room, all in pretty illogical places.

I also need to lift the floor to swap out some pipework, and insulate - the carpets are all trash so this is no problem. I also want to run some CAT6 to various rooms. I can't afford to do this all in one go so hence I'm quite happy with the ongoing disruption/dust as I'll be working through each job methodically.

Question 1 - the wiring looks reasonably new. The previous owner clearly not interested in adding many more sockets. Can I do a 'first fix' myself - and is there guidance on this? I don't want to be paying sparky money to chase walls, fit back boxes, and running cables in tight spaces. However, I won't be able to first fix every room in one go (unless this is really required). This means I can fit a 'ring' for living, dining, and then get them to wire this directly into a consumer unit breaker?

Question 2 - given I may just have a shortage of sockets, is there a way to assess what I have and understand where it is safe to spur off of?

Thanks
 
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Not a electrician but I think you can add sockets yourself according to the guidelines. It will all depend on how your current wiring is setup, radial or ring. You can always put the wiring in trunking if it will be safe, and away from little fingers etc. Obviously it goes without saying, electric isn't something to be messed with unless you are sure you know what you are doing and you are certain the power is off, it isn't worth it.

If you have a ring setup with two sockets in a room, there will be a two wires into socket A, the incoming supply, and a wire going from socket A to socket B. Socket B will also have two wires, the one from socket A, and one going off into your next room to continue the ring. If you can find the wire going from socket A to socket B, in theory you could disconnect the wire and replace it with a longer one. Fit the wire under the floorboard so it goes from socket A to where you want your new socket, run it up the wall to the desired position, back down again the floorboard and over to socket B. You just cut and strip the wire at the next socket location, connect it to a socket and you have extended the ring. You don't have to worry about spurs this way. You do need to be aware of the total distance of wiring in the ring however.

Again, not an electrician and honestly, sometimes it isn't worth messing due to the danger. It might be better just to pay a sparky and sleep easy knowing it is done correctly and safely.
 
If your current circuits are RCD protected you can modify yourself, if not you can't.

It's all pretty simple, chase, lay and protect cable, make good. I would extend the rings rather than spurring where possible
 
No RCD at the moment - so plan is to get the consumer unit swapped out and then probably do exactly as Casper said.
 
really easy to do - but deffo get your CU updated.
As an aside - if you’re thinking about light fittings and moving light switches - have a look at kinetic switches. It’ll save you having to chase stuff out.

Quinetic is the premier Brand I think - but they’re all much of a muchness.

They do RF and Wi-Fi versions.

I’ve just rewired 2 floors and prepped ready for the loft conversion - did it all myself under the supervision of my mate the spark (aren’t they always!) and had it certified for building regs.

New CU - which he did cost about £100 and changed all of the old RCDs for RCBO and a separated surge protection thing.

All of our lights are now on quinetic - with a sort of control board where all the receivers are in an easily accessible location.

Good luck. It’s great fun.
 
If you can find the original ring easily enough then one option is to just pop a junction box in there and run both cables to the new socket. You can run a single cable ( a spur ) with one socket on the end but personally I prefer not to do that. Running spurs from sockets tends to be difficult because there is often no room in the backbox. Spurs to multiple sockets require a fuse. You can also consider a new mini-ring wired in parallel with an existing ring, right the way back to the fuse box. Although this may seem stupid, it's better if you have a lot of sockets to add to a ring. Also, most rings these days do not need to be rings, you can happily downgrade the fuse in the fusebox if you are concerned about loading on any existing or new wiring. The only exception to that is a kitchen, that really still needs to be a higher capacity ring.
 
200sols said:
If your current circuits are RCD protected you can modify yourself, if not you can't.

It's all pretty simple, chase, lay and protect cable, make good. I would extend the rings rather than spurring where possible
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SpellowHouse said:
If you can find the original ring easily enough then one option is to just pop a junction box in there and run both cables to the new socket. You can run a single cable ( a spur ) with one socket on the end but personally I prefer not to do that. Running spurs from sockets tends to be difficult because there is often no room in the backbox. Spurs to multiple sockets require a fuse. You can also consider a new mini-ring wired in parallel with an existing ring, right the way back to the fuse box. Although this may seem stupid, it's better if you have a lot of sockets to add to a ring. Also, most rings these days do not need to be rings, you can happily downgrade the fuse in the fusebox if you are concerned about loading on any existing or new wiring. The only exception to that is a kitchen, that really still needs to be a higher capacity ring.
Click to expand...
What about creating an entirely new circuit?

I am in spitting distance of the consumer unit with floating boards. Instead of trying to suss out the existing network, can I just run an entirely new ring to the consumer unit?

I've got job one sorted - arranged EON to come and fit an 100 amp fuse and an isolator switch...! 98£...
 
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Of course you can fit a new circuit if the CU has room but if you are laying the cables yourself many sparkies won't sign that off.
 
dLockers said:
I've got job one sorted - arranged EON to come and fit an 100 amp fuse and an isolator switch...! 98£...
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i know that pain:( woman on the phone wanted to charge me for 2 isolators because i have eco7 and thus 2 cus. told her i would have one fitted then 49 pounds. guy turns up and fits one unit....its a double :) made him a cuppa then realised i trained him years ago when i was on the spanners:) small world.
 
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gc123 said:
i know that pain:( woman on the phone wanted to charge me for 2 isolators because i have eco7 and thus 2 cus. told her i would have one fitted then 49 pounds. guy turns up and fits one unit....its a double :) made him a cuppa then realised i trained him years ago when i was on the spanners:) small world.
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Lad on the phone didn't have a scooby so will try and chat up the electrician.

What does an isolator look like? Anything here look fishy?

8K9b4fF.jpg
 
For yer cat 5, see if you've got a stud wall located upstairs that pretty much follow through to downstairs.

I chopped a few 3" squares out of the plasterboard and bundled 12 runs of ethernet cable together and dropped them down the void.
Had to stick a weigh on a piece of string to find out where the noggins were ended up chopping a few and then left he cables under the floor with a good amount spare just in case.

Only ever used 2 of the cables lol

I bought a reel for about 35quid and had plenty left over, lookingnow the prices have jumped a bit :(

As for the dust side of it do as much as you can all at once, we did bits gradually and I've swore never again haha, living in a building site for months aint fun.
 
Can anyone advise what cable I need? I always used to go into Wickes and eyeball it but trying to be a bit savvy and order online.

Presumably 2.5mm?
 
dLockers said:
What does an isolator look like? Anything here look fishy?
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are you sure you have no rcd's ? .. whats behind the greenwhite CU door ? I mean it all looks pretty new.

not sure I'd be doing much diy work if I didn't have an rcd in the system ie cutting the lawn, drilling, .. the electric iron broke down this week (overzealous descaling) and triggered the rcd
 
dLockers said:
What about creating an entirely new circuit?

I am in spitting distance of the consumer unit with floating boards. Instead of trying to suss out the existing network, can I just run an entirely new ring to the consumer unit?

I've got job one sorted - arranged EON to come and fit an 100 amp fuse and an isolator switch...! 98£...
Click to expand...

Yes you can. It's sometimes better to create a new ring than mess and existing one about.
 
jpaul said:
are you sure you have no rcd's ? .. whats behind the greenwhite CU door ? I mean it all looks pretty new.

not sure I'd be doing much diy work if I didn't have an rcd in the system ie cutting the lawn, drilling, .. the electric iron broke down this week (overzealous descaling) and triggered the rcd
Click to expand...
I'm not sure on the technical differences between what I have and an RCD but the box you're looking at is apparently circa 1987 and just provides 'reusable fuses' as opposed to a proper RCD. So fuse will blow...but it'll need to be a major fault to tease it that far. AFAIK.

SpellowHouse said:
Yes you can. It's sometimes better to create a new ring than mess and existing one about.
Click to expand...
I'm taking boards up and I'll see what I can understand of the existing ring. The new ring approach needs me to find a willing sparks...
 
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