Littlespark A Thread A Day (3) “My Turn For A Rant”

Existing customer and close friend of the in-laws have just moved house and asked me to give it a quick look before getting me in to do a few jobs.

Old…. Very old building… red/black twin and earth, with an earth in the lights… so not ancient.
Accessories could do with being changed, but all in all, fairly standard for the age.

I get to the consumer unit. Recently changed with an RCD dual board…. Oh well, at least it’s not plastic.
Sticker says it was done in 2021. Maybe the time the kitchen was renewed… seems to be the only room with more modern fittings.

straight away, I’ve noticed the pendants are a little too old. The dropped flex is old, twisted and braided… and surprisingly completely worn through in places… right down to the metal cores.
How the heck they haven’t shorted out, I don’t know…. And how the heck it passed an EICR not 3 years ago….

I’ve made that circuit safe, and I’m going back this week to replace the pendants for a start off… will do the switches too and then see about the other jobs… (severe lack of sockets throughout)

I’ll take photos and add them to this thread when I get them.


Really… I’d like to take a read at this “satisfactory” EICR and see what was actually written.

Braided flex on the pendants, pre 70s ish IMO certainly before metric cables (1977)

Unless the really cool new colourded, braided flexes you can get for a "cool" or "period " look...but if they are bare in places then they won't be those new ones!

Certainly the “period” style…. Likely fitted originally while that “period” was still going.

I think the house was a really old cottage… then sometime in the past they built on the back, added a staircase and an upstairs to the original part… there’s a big thick wall between the front and back halves.

All this remodelling means the main fuse cutout is now smack in the middle of the house…. Which is going to be interesting to get a supply out to his garage.

Promised a photo…. Remember, this was working…. And they managed to move in without hitting it…