When Do You Need A Rewire?

So how do you know if you need a rewire. Well in this video I give you some examples of why you need a rewire.
The rewire process can be very intrusive but necessary.
I also explain when the best time to carry out a rewire.
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Please watch: "HOW TO INSTALL OUTDOOR LIGHTS - WIRELESS SWITCHES EASY INSTALL"
• HOW TO INSTALL OUTDOOR...
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[@tonywatson1412]

Yip proper eicr. done first ...all the tests , and evaluated as per regs . and i mean all the tests.... not just plug in mft....and check loop...etc

[@petehiggins33]

What's missing from the discussion is the age of the wiring. My wiring is over 60 years old but is all PVC and appears to be in fine condition. So do I need a rewire? No-one seems to know how long PVC is good for. Another consideration must be the building construction method. My house has solid brick walls with plaster in every room making rewiring particularly expensive.

[@ef7480]

No green goo?

[@petehiggins33]

@@ef7480 No, I think that came later, in the late 60's. My house was build in 1959ish.

[@davidnorth1021]

Well said. I have a 1967 house with original PVC and it's just new enough to have earthed lighting circuits. EICR says it's fine, the previous owners laminated or tiled every floor so a rewire would be horribly expensive. Thankfully with a few clever external routes, adding more sockets has been possible without major surgery.

[@dieseldragon6756]

I live in an early 80s council flat, which is still using the original PVC T&E wiring. Though the CUs were upgraded 15 years ago I can't help but think 40 years is probably getting quite close to the design life for cable of that nature, especially in a north-facing flat where previous tenants will have likely put heavy loads on the wiring with plug-in heating equipment in the past. (The lowest temp I've ever recorded here was -21°C, so for those who could afford heating they probably had a *lot* in service. Lucky folks to have had that level of income...)

[@toolboxtalking]

When buying a house, there’s always a few diy jobs

[@dieseldragon6756]

I wonder if that'd be the case in other countries like Germany, where *all* electrical work is strictly regulated and if DIY'd has to be signed-off by a professional before being commissioned?... 😇

[@andypdq]

What people forget is that being an electrician is all about conforming to regulations, all they do is connect conductors according to the rules. What was deemed safe thirty years ago, will now be a huge risk and guarantee almost certain death. Similarly in thirty years time, todays standards will no doubt be deemed dangerous and will guarantee almost certain death too. How many people die from electrocution per year?

[@petermichaelgreen]

Wiring practices in the UK really haven't changed that much in the last 30 years. If a property was wired in a fully compliant manner 30 years ago, hasn't been messed with too much in the years since and wasn't wired with a bad batch of cable, then it shouldn't need more than a new CU to get a clean EICR. It's got a pretty good chance of getting a "satisfactory" EICR even without any work. This installation sounds like it's a lot older than 30 years though.

[@lukejames7613]

I know full well my house needs a rewire. I have been priced up at 7k. I don't think I will be able to move out while they do it. Also, I can afford that. I can't get a loan out. I know the argument is 7k in the long run is nothing but i don't have money now what can I do but bring dave in

[@dieseldragon6756]

I'm getting scared that I might have to be the _DIY Dave_ for my own home, whose 40 year old wiring might now be getting very close to needing replacement. I'm invalided from employment and survive on DWP, so I have even less spare income to fund a rewiring compared to most people. 💸 The main concession I would make that hopefully makes a future electricians job much easier - In view of the fact that I *much* prefer services to be placed where they can easily be located and inspected/repaired - Is that my new wiring would all be trunked and conduited _on_ the walls rather than _inside_ them, which at least means any bad wiring is easy to identify, rip out and remedy once I've moved to the local crematorium and this flat gets reallocated to somebody else... 👍

[@maidsandmuses]

The endlessly changing inconsistent regs don't help. When we moved into our house, we got the entire wiring checked. The consumer unit was an on old metal one, and had to be replaced by a plastic one, because the regulator deemed metal consumer units no longer acceptable and they now had to be of an electrical insulating material. Then they discover plastic consumer units are a fire risk (who would have thought? 🙄 ), so now they have to be metal (again) on new installs. The industry not being able to make up its mind about such issues doesn't help customers' perception of genuinely needed improvements vs. those that are a money spinner for the industry. What is deemed "dangerous" today, can be the new requirement tomorrow. On top of that, many installations compliant with UK electrical regs would fail the regs in some mainland European countries and vice versa. Too little consistency between regs for consumers to be convinced all quoted required changes are genuinely necessary from a safety point of view as opposed to just a legal/insurance point of view.

[@dieseldragon6756]

As somebody who had 15th(?) ed plastic CUs installed in 2007 (Replacing some older 90s plastic CUs) I often wonder why metal CUs were outlawed in the first place, when any metal CU can be made safe(r) by the simple installation of a CPC bond to a proven workable connection to earth. To clarify the oddness of this further, my best mate still has his early 90s vintage CU in his flat despite moving into his (And presumably being higher up the upgrade list) before I moved into mine! 😳 Then on top of that, what's the betting support for DC appliances (Perhaps 5v ring circuits for USB appliances) and circuits to allow back-feeding and power transfer via EV batteries will become a thing in the next few years? 🔋 One of the things that keeps me out of the industry - Despite having the natural skill-set for it - Is the _Regulatory Lottery_ which puts training and certification well beyond my means. I just can't afford top spend ten years in training just so I can then walk into work and pick-up whichever version of the regs gov't have decided the UK will use on that particular day... 📚💸😔

[@sergiofernandez3725]

I met DIY Dave down the pub the other week. Apparently his day job is as a kitchen fitter. I was lost for words

[@Sparks1Plumbers0]

And did he also tell you how everyone comes to him to do odd jobs here and there as he's a dab hand at fitting new socket circuits and downlights etc. Bet he's a real proud chap eh. 😉 🤣🤣🤣

[@dorianwylie9000]

As always mate great video, think they need an exterminator with all of those spiders on the walls and cupboards 🤣🤣🤣🤣 give's me flashbacks of gremlins the way they multiply haha

[@petehiggins33]

Spiders are good. Let's have more spiders.

[@dieseldragon6756]

@@petehiggins33 Ditto that! I'd probably put myself first in line for any jobs where an unhealthy number of Spiders were known to be present! 🕷😍😇

[@Ragnar8504]

There's definitely a break-even point where a rewire becomes cheaper and easier than trying to fix the existing mess. One KZbin electrician, might have been CJR Electrical, once worked on a house that had spaghetti with junction boxes under nearly every single floor board. Most electricians would have considered that place well past that point. Even if it had been my own home I might have ripped everything out and started fresh. I do like some good detective work but sometimes it's just not worth the effort.

[@Sparks1Plumbers0]

Mike... hope you feel a little better after this one. Sounds like it's been bubbling under for awhile 🤯. 😂

[@supersparks9466]

Every house I go seems to need a rewire,but my days of occupied rewires are long gone.

[@mikeb1417]

Probably because your lazy or not very skilled if nearly all houses you go to

[@supersparks9466]

@@mikeb1417 how very dare you,I am supersparks

[@ChrisLivingInYork]

What’s the difference in price between an occupied and unoccupied as a percentage

[@effervescence5664]

Impossible to say, depends on the property and the people living there. Can be up to 300% more if the clients are severely allergic to dust and you have to keep rooms sealed and clean at the end of every day, can turn a 3-4 day empty rewire into 3-4 weeks. Often at that point it's better for clients to move out but some clients don't think they need to even if they do have health risks.

[@chrisardern4594]

I always advise that the buyer has a full EICR done before they part with hundreds of thousands of pounds but unfortunately they dont always follow my advice and yes I enviably get the job to but thing right when things go tits up. Void rewires bliss even working on my own. If the home is lived in I just pass it on to others and add 10% for my trouble. That's even better then doing the rewire myself.

[@ef7480]

Even the 'EICR' is sometimes on a 'sample' basis and wait for it, the 'electrician' will condemn the non metal CU as it's 'not to regs' although the wiring regs does state that an istallation to previous regs can't be retrospectively doomed. Some NICEIC sparkies working for estate agents always take the p*ss- I want a FULL inspection with every fookin accessory removed and every cable run and cpc (excluding limitations) to be inspected, not a drive by inspection.

[@davidclarke2513]

Regarding not needing a cpc cable when your light fitting is plastic is irrelevant,for starters you run the earthwire in the twin and earth to protect the cable itself on its journey if the cable gets cut into the cpc could take the fault current down to earth and trip the breaker and 6 months after you rewire the house they could sell their house and take the fittings with them and the new owners want to fit metal based fittings so it's imperative that you carry out good electrical practice and run the cpc cable to the fitting even if you put it into the connector block and not required,as an Industrial electrician of 50 years recently retired I find your podcast really worrying

[@TheGorillahands]

Using plastic switches or class 2 fittings does not break regs as they don't require a cpc, but his point he trying to make is that is not feasible in this day and age of metallic fittings, hence his advice to the customer to rewire. What's worrying is how you have managed 50 years in the trade and you can't make sense of what he is saying.

[@davideyres955]

As an industrial electrician the cost are not going to be paid by a homeowner with a potentially very limited budget. With 50 years back knowledge I would have expected him to remember pre 70s when the lighting circuits were not required to have an earth. Commercially may have been different. He’s right in what he’s saying about twin and cpc but the letter of the law is that those circuits don’t need cpc unless there are metal fittings. Your choice then is remove the fittings or add a cpc either loose in the same run or replace the wire. All regulations are current at time of issue and installations have to adhere to those regs. Are metal consumer units better, yes. Do you have to replace a plastic cu. Not unless it was installed after the requirement for metal cu was in place. What greenhawk chappy is saying is the thought process behind do you fix or rewire and given the issues he’s walked through a rewire is the logical choice especially as it’s empty. What irks me a bit is the “DIY Dave” comments. It probably is, but I’ve seen terrible work from “professionals” in the electrical and plumbing trade and I’m happy to do work to fix issues myself and having the name Dave it does grate a bit.