Rewiring cost

garak112

garak112

garak112

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About to move into our first home and went to take a look at the place again yesterday and came away with some concerns about the existing wiring (which was not picked up on the survey).

Basically after the meter it splits into 2 boxes, one of which has a date stamp of 1994 and has fairly modern wiring coming out of it. The other one was of unknown age and has a load of rubber and cotton covered wiring coming out of it.

There were approximately the same number of cables coming out of each box, so I am assuming that they cover approximately half the house each.

How much would it cost to get the old rubber wires replaced and a new consumer unit put in? House is a 3 bed 1920s semi detached house.
 
Should have had an EICR inspection done to give you an idea of the state of the elecs, cost should be around £150-200 ish and take 1/2 to 1 day if done properly.

Results of the report will give you a list of things that should be corrected with a 1/2/3 score for how important they are. Then you can ask for a quote to correct the defects from the inspector and a couple of other sparks.

Cotton and rubber wiring is recommended to be replaced, cost would depend on how many circs, what type, how easy access is in the property, how many points on each circ, just in general how long it will take and how much of a pain its going to be, cant really say without seeing it in person
 
Wiring as described should have been picked up on the survey, wiring and insulation are on every survey ever!

Maybe cause to complain there.
 
From the brief description in the OP, it is fairly obvious that a full rewire will be required.

You are looking anywhere from £2000 to £3500 depending on the contractor and the work involved.

Please make sure you get all the sockets you require in every room, also ensure you get an installation certificate with test results when the work is complete.
 
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Shimmyhill said:
Wiring as described should have been picked up on the survey, wiring and insulation are on every survey ever!

Maybe cause to complain there.
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The survey said:

"The electric meter is located under the stairs. The dated fusebox is also located under the stairs and the wiring is dated"

and marked it amber.

Other things marked amber included the dated door knobs and aged kitchen cupboards, so it didn't cause much concern.

Given everything I have read about this type of wiring it seems to me that it should have been marked as as fire hazard.
 
garak112 said:
The survey said:

"The electric meter is located under the stairs. The dated fusebox is also located under the stairs and the wiring is dated"

and marked it amber.

Given everything I have read about this type of wiring it seems to me that it should have been marked as as fire hazard.
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Doesn't matter which survey you have, it is usually only a visual inspection of the electrics, which is what you got, it doesn't do a EICR inspection.

Seen fuse boards like your & it's flagged up as amber, even seen one house which had three or four wooden fuse boxes with a glass doors & rewireable fuses scattered around the house, some of the wiring in the attic was totally bare of rubber & cotton sheath, just bare conductors & live, yet it was flagged as amber.
 
VIR (Vulcanised India rubber) was generally said to have a life span of 25 years, it was phased out in the later part of the 50s / earlier part of the 1960's. You do the maths!

When you find it, some of its in near perfect condition, others will crumble away if you even so much look at it in the wrong way... seems to depend a lot on environment and batch etc.

What is clear is that VIR is well past its sell by date and it would be *very* poor sighted to start doing other renovations such as decorating or carpets etc before having it replaced. And yes it can be a fire risk if in deteriated state.

I'd suggest 3k-3.5k for your size property to be rewired, more if down south.

Ensure your electrician is registered with one of the schemes that enables him to self cert his work. And also ask how long he has been doing it and what his background is, there are a lot out there doing house bashing after doing a 6 week course.

The survey codes are a bit hit and miss, the property me and missues just bought had electrics flagged as Red (1970's vintage wylex re-wireable board and but all PVC cabling leaving it- could use a re-wire, but would have been better identified as amber), the boiler was also flagged red for being a bit dated
 
Right, we now own the house and have got some pictures:

hvt2yr.jpg

6zbtoo.jpg

1417ed5.jpg
 
Could you route all the cabling your self and just get a sparky in to connect the ends up? I'm in a similar position to the OP just not to the same extreme and was looking at alternatives to make it cheaper...
 
puma luke said:
Could you route all the cabling your self and just get a sparky in to connect the ends up? I'm in a similar position to the OP just not to the same extreme and was looking at alternatives to make it cheaper...
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Possibly if he knows what he's doing, but its not just a case of dragging wires through to where you want them, I'm not a spark but I would guess that there would be a ring main for the downstairs , one for upstairs, same with lighting circuit one downstairs, one upstairs etc etc

Plus the Person signing the work off doesn't know how the cables have been ran ie if there just on the top of notched out joist or through it the required depth, Electrics and Gas have to be right and shouldn't really be an area of work where you try and save a few quid
 
@ the pictures

That installation appears to be in a dire state!

Much of the intsallation appears to be un earthed, there is likely double pole fusing, VIR cables are breaking down.

You need to get an electrician in to investigate further and make some temporary improvements if a re-wire is not happening immediatly
 
Adam_151 said:
@ the pictures

That installation appears to be in a dire state!

Much of the intsallation appears to be un earthed, there is likely double pole fusing, VIR cables are breaking down.

You need to get an electrician in to investigate further and make some temporary improvements if a re-wire is not happening immediatly
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It is bloody lethal, a instant fire risk, wouldn't even consider using the electrics any where in the house, seeing those photo's.

Earthing is poor to non- existent, very high risk of electrocution & death.

Wouldn't even consider trying to save money running the cables for new circuits, but you could chase all the drops for the conduit & metal boxes ready for the electrician to run the cables.
 
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Do not touch anything. This is severely antiquated kit and is lethal if you don't know 100% what you are doing.

With no main isolating switch every supply in that house/board will remain live unless you pull the 100A fuse looking at you in the face (It's illegal to cut that pin out and remove it unless it's an emergency by the way)

Step 1 - Phone up your electricity supplier and inform them you need an isolator switch installed. About £200 is the going rate. (£50-80 if your sparky knows someone that does it on the side)

Step 2 - Get 3 quotes in from a reputable firm.

They will be able to get materials cheaper than you. Saving money by throwing it in yourself is moot because if you don't do it to the regs then it's very easy to make mistakes.

A good electrician is skeptical of other electricians work. I wouldn't trust anything someone has done as a DIY job.
 
The black wylex box on the left looks like it would supply a couple of heaters, shower or something. Unlikely to supply half of the house but as others have said would need to see the premises to understand what it is achieving.

The other metallic box is a major hazard with exposed wiring present, get this attended to - at least make it safe in the short term.

Edit - there are three fuse boards (or isolators) splitting from a double pole connector block. The red/black conductors look like the LEB installed them when they changed the meter. Was it an ex-council property?
 
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Current position is that everything is set to off and I'm waiting to hear back from some sparkies about total cost.

We aren't living in the property at the moment as I wouldn't even consider it until the wiring is safe.
 
garak112 said:
Current position is that everything is set to off and I'm waiting to hear back from some sparkies about total cost.

We aren't living in the property at the moment as I wouldn't even consider it until the wiring is safe.
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If you are not living in it then that's fine. I have examined and worked on many electrical intakes over my career and have seen and reported far worse.

If you are going to have it re-wired (which is a no brainer) then plan to get more sockets as with properties of that age will probably only have one (double) per room.
 
garak112 said:
Current position is that everything is set to off and I'm waiting to hear back from some sparkies about total cost.

We aren't living in the property at the moment as I wouldn't even consider it until the wiring is safe.
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Where in the country are you mate? Might be able to recommend you a local spark
 
Just had a quote to do everything from a friend of my GFs family and it came to £4500!!

Couldn't believe it, main part of it was labour for 2 people and 14 days work. I had thought (and been told) it would take closer to 7. For comparison my sisters friends down the road got charged £3K for a similar sized mid terrace.

I'm now getting quotes from other people, but this has set us back and we need to move in by the end of the month.
 
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