What's lurking behind the wallpaper

[jmcp]

Hi,

been working on a house doing some basic diy like stripping wallpaper, patching walls, painting them, building retaining walls in the garden etc... nothing major and in no real order, been doing it all as and when I had time and the energy but got to the stage were I was about to tackle the kitchen, thought it would be a case of stripping off the old vinyl wallpaper and tile it but what I found with the electrics was pretty scarey, to me anyway, pictures below, oops, please view these pictures form the bottom of the note as they are in the wrong sequence. This last picture is of the consumer unit, can you tell by this picture that if it looks like only half the house has been rewired ? I am currently arranging for a qualified electrician to come out and do a full report on the electrics but thought I would let you see this and find out what you think.



Cheers, John

[Colour Republic]

This one I like very much because i've never seen a compression joint leak

[ultimatehandyman]

OMG, that was a disaster just waiting to happen!

[jmcp]

Any comment about the consumer unit, does it look like there is old styling cabling running out of it as well as modern cabling ? I was thinking it looked like there has been a partial rewiring of the house rather than a full rewiring ?



Cheers, John

[jmcp]

Colour Republic, can you comment more about the plumbing issue you see, I guess it is to do with the plastic pipes etc... but not being a plumbing expert or anything like it I don't see any issues there ?


Cheers, John

[ultimatehandyman]

Any comment about the consumer unit, does it look like there is old styling cabling running out of it as well as modern cabling ? I was thinking it looked like there has been a partial rewiring of the house rather than a full rewiring ?



Cheers, John

It's a strange setup to be honest and I am not sure if someone has been messing about with it, possibly to steal electricity at some point.

I have seen plenty of consumer units, but I have never seen on where the main incoming cable goes to the main fuse before the meter. All the ones I have seen go to the meter first and then the main fuse

Also that main incoming cable looks like a right bodge job, is this in a rural location?

The cables exiting the consumer unit look ok from here, the cables at the back of the unit or they white or have they been painted white?

[thescruff]

Mine go into the main fuse first chez, although mine has live and neutral going into a 100amp fuse box or whatever it's called.

[dave.m]

Ours went Main Fuse -> Meter -> CU. when we had the last house, but, as Scruff says, both live and neutral went into the fuse casing.

dave

[northwales4u]

Just checked mine and here it is Meter > Fuse > CU but over the road it is Fuse > Meter > CU

[jmcp]

Any comment about the consumer unit, does it look like there is old styling cabling running out of it as well as modern cabling ? I was thinking it looked like there has been a partial rewiring of the house rather than a full rewiring ?



Cheers, John

It's a strange setup to be honest and I am not sure if someone has been messing about with it, possibly to steal electricity at some point.

I have seen plenty of consumer units, but I have never seen on where the main incoming cable goes to the main fuse before the meter. All the ones I have seen go to the meter first and then the main fuse

Also that main incoming cable looks like a right bodge job, is this in a rural location?

The cables exiting the consumer unit look ok from here, the cables at the back of the unit or they white or have they been painted white?

Hi,

the house is an ex council house in a housing estate. I was thinking that someone at some point has paid to get the house required and that someone has just done a partial job ie upgraded the fusebox and fed new cables down stairs. The walls in the house are all concrete and I suspect that is why they did such a shoddy job with the chasing in of the cables, probably was too much hassle for them.


Cheers, John

[thescruff]

If the walls are concrete it is likely to be a prefab, and you don't go chasing into that,

[royaloakcarpentry]

Ha ha someone used to enjoy going to B&Q on a Friday in readiness for a bank holiday weekend!!!! I bet their wife used to say how lovely it all looked and gob off to her friends about how handy her hubby was...........mind you, could also be a womans handy work lol

[Crooksey]

Haha RO far to true!

[ultimatehandyman]

I have seen some really dodgy work done in council houses. Normally when the walls are concrete you just use trunking to conceal the wires!

I once had a friend who lived in one and he shower was not working, so I took a quick look- someone had wired it into the lighting circuit I told her to get the council out to sort it

Of all the houses I have been in I have never seen the main incoming cable go to the fuse first!

My mate had an incoming mains cable in his house that was split before the meter and then went through a hole in the wall into next door, where that then went to her meter. I guess there are all kinds of weird arrangements up and down the country

[jmcp]

Hi,

I have an Electrician coming to see it on Wednesday evening and he has experience of the houses in this road so hopefully things will be a lot clearer after that visit. Will let you know how it goes.


Cheers, John