REWIRING A 70S FLAT

[Lily Black]

Hi all,

I have a 70s flat which needs rewiring. I have read an existing thread on this topic where the poster was rewiring his daughter's property but my plans are a bit different. Like the other poster, the wires currently run through steel conduits buried into the solid floor (actually hollow concrete beams but essentially solid). My hours of online research so far leads me to believe that the only option is to install a shallow suspended ceiling and chase wires down from there to each socket. I may use surface trunking in the bathroom and kitchen to save costs. Does anyone here have any alternative suggestions? I would have thought that by now there might be some kind of ceiling tiles or clever ceiling panelling that can be used to hide the wires rather than plasterboard and skim.

Do let me know if you have any ideas.

Thank you,

LB

[Someone-Else]

Part of being a domestic electrician is to lift floorboards, cut out cable chases in walls, flush back boxes into walls, move furniture, lift carpets, secure trunking to the wall, drill lots of holes, put it all back, use vacuum cleaner. Nope, nothing special. (Not to mention crawl through small holes)

Are you aware that you really should get an electrician in to do it for you, as you should also get the consumers unit changed too, also you will get all the appropriate paperwork and testing done, which you can not do.

By all means offer to do the donkey work for whom ever you choose, but don't expect to run all the cables, connect everything, THEN try to find an electrician to sign it off for you. (The electrician not only has the kit to test with, and at the end of the day, they sign to say all is as it should be and is safe, so it is their name on the paperwork, not yours.)

[Neelix]

The best alternative solution is to get a competent registered spark to do it all

[Razor]

It's not just a case of chasing into the walls which may not be all that easy if they are concrete - trust me I've been there.

The existing installation could well be pyro depending on the builder and there are very specific zones in which you can and can't run cables.

You need to find a sparky that willing to mark the layout on the walls then return once you have prepared everything to install everything then leave you to make good.

As it's a flat your work will have an impact on all around you

[OnlyMe]

About 20 years ago I rewired a load of flats and used cornice trunking. We did reuse the conduit to the lights by cutting into the existing conduit and pulling new cables in to save the cost of lowering the ceiling. But pretty much everything dropping down the walls from the coving to switches and sockets were chased in and plastered over.

[aeromech3]

I am staying at an Overseas Resort, the room is wired, with many outlets, the air con. and lights, using surface steel tubing from the consumer unit; it looks like a feature; only the on-suite water heater wiring is buried; . The resort has a pool but the cafe and bar is in process, though a similar layout I notice they are using black plastic tubing for the wiring. In this country most wiring in buildings is surface clipped with aluminium folding tabs at 100mm spacing.
I wonder for comments whether the Opp would consider something similar in all rooms

[ericmark]

There are many ways to get around problems, I have a problem accessing lighting wiring, my way around the problem is likely to install lighting track which gets me away from the single place where the wires drop out of the ceiling so can light other areas of the room without it looking like an after thought, another method would be use a long fitting to get the spread.

I watched my son who did domestic work using a chasing tool to get wires sunk into the walls, but in some cases that would affect strength of walls, same with floors, so there is trunking, some is special and replaces the skirting but tends to be expensive.

Over the last few years what we can do has changed, and I will admit I am not up to date with all the changes, the London Fire Brigade it seems started the ball rolling when a fireman got stuck in a building and died when the wiring fell down onto his BA kit. The practice of using stick on trunking clearly needed to stop, but the first knee jerk reaction would mean plastic raw plugs would be out, as they could melt in a fire.

Since then there has been some talk about what is an escape route, I would have said stairs and landing plus hall, but it seems a true escape route is devoid of anything which can burn unless no option, so no carpet for example, so in a normal house we don't have escape routes as such, and to be frank this house has 6 doors to the outside, and upstairs we have a roof we could likely get on, and in one room we passed the floor boarding for loft through a window as being on a hill the drive is higher than the middle floor.

There are special clips which fit into plastic trunking so although the trunking may melt, the wires will not fall on the floor, in the main we are looking at where they cross door ways, but the question arises what is a flat? It does matter as with high rise flats there are different rules to a flat over a shop.

The flat below my main house has a suspended ceiling, think it was originally a large double garage, on the wall plaster board hides all the wiring and pipe work.

In the main house ceiling are too low to fit a suspended ceiling, and to rewire likely the ceiling would need to come down and be replaced as the floors would not easy come up. Although some cables may be able to be fished through between the beams.

The ceiling finish can change things, asbestos was used on many ceilings, so to remove is a really big job. Can't drill it, so often surface rewire is the only way.

In Wales the LABC charge £100 plus vat for first £2000 worth of work, and to DIY a rewire it is a case of power is removed, you rewire, the inspector agrees it is to standard and then power is returned, so no electric until inspected, this for most people is a non starter, so only way is to use a scheme member who can self certify so freezers are turned back on before they defrost etc.

So even as an electrician as not a scheme member it was not cost effective for me to rewire my mothers house, the cost of a room in an old peoples home mean speed was important, so at one point there were 6 electricians in the house to finish it on time.

Theory you can DIY a rewire, practice simply not cost effective. Before 2004 yes I could have done a bit at a time while still living in the home, but not today, once the LABC is involved one has to follow the rules to the letter, this includes all the testing and inspecting, and the test equipment needs to be calibrated, so to hire it needs re-calibrating after each hire, so even hiring it works out expensive.

Yes I have my own test equipment, but not calibrated, and when I did a wet room in mothers house the LABC inspector wanted to see the calibration certificates. At that time son was working as a sole trader with his own test equipment which was calibrated. But calibration can cost more than the meter. My insulation tester and clamp on meter cost me £35 each, but the loop impedance tester and RCD tester are more like £200 each, so to buy looking at around £500 to £750 for the meters.

Some times the LABC can arrange inspection, it means you only have a completion certificate no installation certificate, but likely you will pay at least £500 for the third party inspection, so however you try to do it, likely you will need to pay around £1000 to be able to DIY the work, as said you can still do it, but not cost effective.