Finally - (partial) Electrical Rewire!

[malcolm]

My house used to be a pub so most of the wires were surface mounted. Many more ran above the false ceiling and ended up in a rats nest of electrics and fire alarm cables when I took the false ceiling down.

Electricians are 3 times more expensive than they were in the before times (I guess they don't really want to do fiddly jobs just now). Half of the house has already been rewired and I can do the other half by extending cables which turns out to be within the rules. For £10K If it takes me 3 months I'll be in profit but I've set aside a month. Thanks @Zebra for the advice and book loan. I'll bring them back shortly - work got busy for a couple of years but it's happening now and the books and my notes are very useful.



Floorboards are up. On one side of the house they've been notched to death on the top and the bottom which will weaken the joists. With the double height room and staircase there is only one secret path to the other side and there the services are running through holes drilled through the centre of the joists as they should.




I'm starting with the fire alarm system. It's a nice wired system to industrial spec on the ground floor and residential spec on the upper floors. The wires are fire resistant which makes a lot of sense as the only time the fire alarm needs to work is when the house is on fire. It's expensive wire but I saved some money on the dispenser.



After 4 days of going up and down the stairs I'm close to completing first fix fire alarm. A lot of the cable runs through the loft space and I want to be neat up there rather than filling the loft with cables. I've gone for trunking to keep the cables out of the rockwool insulation and where I can't I've screwed the cables to joist support beams so at least one side isn't completely insulated. The boards in the photo are temporary to make crawling around easier.

 

[Zebra]

Did I lend you books? Which books? I've forgotten, at least, I'm not missing any... Good work there, your cable dispenser is perfect. I remember that spaghetti mess in the first image... can't remember what we did with it but it's familiar. Give me a shout if you get stuck or need any proper testing done at the end. I am not Part P any more but can still do EICRs (unless they've changed the rules) because you don't need to be Part P to issue them.

 

[malcolm]

I finished the fire alarm today. Once everything was finished I checked the wiring for faults then switched the system on and tested it some more. It works!

The outer sheathing of the fire alarm cable is very tough and the inner wire insulation is unusually soft. I damaged the insulation the first time I tried to strip the outer sheathing off so bought the Knipex Ergostrip tool. £30 is a lot for a bit of plastic but it works brilliantly on round wires.



I can remove all that ugly mini-trunking upstairs now which will allow access to the last bits of woodchip wallpaper.



Next the electrics. The consumer unit is now marked up with what the trip switches do. I've dug the cables intended to connect the rest of the house from the underfloor and labelled what they are. There are some mystery wires coiled up there too.

I think I'll need to strip the old wiring out before fitting the new wiring to avoid getting confused. There are at least 2 rewires already under the floor and being an old pub none of it is up to spec. I've got a spur feeding half the house including two water heaters and two hand dryers which must be naughty. With a couple of extension leads and some temporary lighting it shouldn't be too inconvenient to switch off the old consumer unit.

The workshop lights are fed from the upstairs lighting circuit rather than the workshop consumer unit. I'll fix those first as I'm not planning to wire them from the house.

 

[RBailey]

Quite a project Malcom, , looking good.

What book? Is it worth a "read"?

 

[malcolm]

Quite a project Malcom, , looking good.

What book? Is it worth a "read"?

The books are to do with building regs for electrics to keep me honest. I've been referring to the Collins book of DIY for how things should be wired.

Anyone want an 18 gang switch? Handy if you are a pub but very annoying if you just want to go to the loo and forgot to switch the light on.

 

[Cubist]

Anyone want an 18 gang switch? Handy if you are a pub but very annoying if you just want to go to the loo and forgot to switch the light on.

No.

But have you considered a proximity switch for the loo lights? I used to get seriously miffed when others forgot to switch the lights out when leaving - but these days the culprit tends to be yours truly.

 

[malcolm]

No.

But have you considered a proximity switch for the loo lights?

I'm going for a light switch just inside the door. It'll be a luxury to have light switches in every room.

The 18 gang switch has now been removed and that has dealt with the rats nest of dangling wires.

 

[RBailey]

Think of the all reclaimed copper you'll be able to get from the removed wiring

 

[malcolm]

I've been collecting a good pile of old cables. I'm planning to weigh them in tomorrow. I'm not expecting much but the scrap place is close to the place that has been rebuilding some ancient Renault seats for me and they are ready to pick up. A good excuse for a trip in an ancient Renault 4 van.

Edit- I got £93 for the cable!



It's nice restoring stuff. You get to know the people who were there before. There's the person who didn't bring any earth sheathing and the person who didn't bring a screwdriver to tighten screws so just did them hand tight. I'm convinced most of the work done on this place was done by pub customers while they were being paid in beer.

 

[Zebra]

Perhaps during the Great Earth Sleeving Shortage of 1982.... back in the days when screwdrivers were considered unmanly...

 

[a twig]

Ah yes, that was when “real” sparks twisted the wires together with their teeth while forgoing such fluffy comforts as isolation and fuses

 

[Zebra]

Yes, when you tested whether it was live or not using your tongue, and stripped cable with your teeth....

 

[Toby Newell]

I finished the fire alarm today. Once everything was finished I checked the wiring for faults then switched the system on and tested it some more. It works!

The outer sheathing of the fire alarm cable is very tough and the inner wire insulation is unusually soft. I damaged the insulation the first time I tried to strip the outer sheathing off so bought the Knipex Ergostrip tool. £30 is a lot for a bit of plastic but it works brilliantly on round wires.

View attachment 10586

I can remove all that ugly mini-trunking upstairs now which will allow access to the last bits of woodchip wallpaper.

View attachment 10587

Next the electrics. The consumer unit is now marked up with what the trip switches do. I've dug the cables intended to connect the rest of the house from the underfloor and labelled what they are. There are some mystery wires coiled up there too.

I think I'll need to strip the old wiring out before fitting the new wiring to avoid getting confused. There are at least 2 rewires already under the floor and being an old pub none of it is up to spec. I've got a spur feeding half the house including two water heaters and two hand dryers which must be naughty. With a couple of extension leads and some temporary lighting it shouldn't be too inconvenient to switch off the old consumer unit.

The workshop lights are fed from the upstairs lighting circuit rather than the workshop consumer unit. I'll fix those first as I'm not planning to wire them from the house.

View attachment 10589

Ha! That looks like the floors I have to deal with

 

[malcolm]

I've started the second fix electrics before the first fix. I wanted to figure out where the chandeliers will go. Thank you @LadyArowana for the chandeliers - they are going to look brilliant.

There will be two but I've spent the whole day figuring out where to put the first one. The ceiling is confusing as the wood mouldings above the curved part are set well inboard and that makes anything you put up there look too close to the edge. Turns out if I hang the lights on a long enough chain I can change light bulbs using a step ladder rather than the scaffold tower.

 

[malcolm]

Now the second one is in. Are they too far apart? I'm not planning any wall lights and the chandeliers are positioned at 1/4 and 3/4 of the room length.

 

[Cubist]

That vestibule/hallway is throwing my eye off so it looks a bit odd to me but that could also be the camera angle.

 

[Zebra]

I think that looking up at them and with the brown ceiling frame like that, makes them look too far apart, but it may be that looking across the room at eye level with them on, they look right.

 

[malcolm]

It is a funny room. I'll buy some bulbs and connect the lights up to an extension lead and see what they look like. They are 10 feet apart and the joists are on 1 foot centres. I think 8 feet apart is going to look better.

 

[ThornhillMike]

Now the second one is in. Are they too far apart? I'm not planning any wall lights and the chandeliers are positioned at 1/4 and 3/4 of the room length.

I'm interested in this, given we have generally 10 foot ceilings on the ground floor and 9 ft on the others. Are you planning on central lighting, i.e. your chandeliers (which look great by the way; we've inherited some and I'm not yet convinced) and/or are you going for lower level additional lighting, e.g. wall lights or table lamps? We're some way off a firm decision yet, but first fix electrical will be on me at some point I'm intrigued by what others have done to light high/big rooms.

 

[malcolm]

I'm not planning any additional lighting - I reckon 24 bulbs will be enough. I'm thinking about including a dimmer switch and it would be cool to have a single dimmer control while still being able to flick the lights on and off with switches. Haven't figured out the system for that yet.

I know nothing about lighting. In the adjoining room there is a dark spot (actually the whole ground floor has been a bit dark since I removed the wiring). I'm thinking one ceiling light and one or two wall lights in there.

In the main room the two lower mouldings are picture rails and I'm avoiding wall lights so I have somewhere to hang all the Picassos.