Lived- in rewire

[telectrix]

haha, from reading some of your old posts, are you sure you didn't snaffle some substances from there?LOL.

 

[Paul.M]

House rewire when I was a mate at 18 years old. Spare bedroom had 28 caged rats as pets! The carpet was soaked in the "yellow stuff", also the floorboards and the joists. Fastest I've ever worked ripping up carpet, boards and running cables. Now that was when I was younger. Never do that gain, I was lucky and did'nt catch anything.

Note to you all, If its going to be bad for your health just dont do it.

A mate of mine a couple of years ago did a kitchen rewire and got some mouse ---- in his eye from the wet floor under the counters! He was on the toilet for 4 days, his face was swollen for a week and his eye site went back to normal after 10 days so he could drive again.

Another friend/workmate I was working with at the time got pigeon muck in his face one day. He spent the next 3 days on the toilet passing out water from a "number 2 area" of his body and almost ended up in hospital with dehydration.

This is not an HSE speech. Lads, just be careful out there. The HSE tell us these things for a reason, I've seen it face to face. Lets make the correct choice on the job.

 

[ipf]

I'm doing one now - my own house.

It's been "in progress" since 2008.

These things just cannot be rushed!!

So far, the old CU has been changed for a nice new one stuffed full with a shedload of RCBOs ( you know it's the way to go ) and a main switch.

The downstairs ring is done but plaster needs patching but there's no hurry - it's been like that for about 3 years now - and the garage which has been converted into a sun room & utility room / cloakroom ( that's a downstairs netty ) has been wired with sockets & lights.

Staircase and landing lighting is in progress - 2 gang switch at bottom of stairs - same at the top and a 2 gang intermediate on the landing so I can switch the hall light & landing light on / off from either upstairs or down. There's nowt much worse than struggling all the way upstairs and then realise you left the hall light on !!

All fittings are Crabtree and the board is ..... Wylex .. (couldn't get Crabtree board off the back of the lorry - only Wylex)

Cabling is all Prysmian - 1.5 & 2.5 but now thinking about it, as the lighting is spread across 3 6 A RCBOs I can get away with 1.00 cable which would be a bit cheaper & easier to handle.

Edit:

Getting back to the OP, maybe the best way is to start at the top & work downwards?

Upstairs lights and tidy up

Upstairs sockets & tidy up

then downstairs etc.

There you go, then. Do a Geordie............swap houses and do a 'live in yourself'

 

[ChrisElectrical88]

I'm never off the bog anyway!

 

[Pete999]

Used to rewire a three bed house in two days, and before anyone says anything like "bet that's a rough old job" no it wasn't inspected by the C of W Electrical, all surface, buckle clipped, floors down,carpets relaid, no making good that was done by others.

- - - Updated - - -

Used to rewire a three bed house in two days, and before anyone says anything like "bet that's a rough old job" no it wasn't inspected by the C of W Electrical, all surface, buckle clipped, floors down,carpets relaid, no making good that was done by others.

 

[Pete999]

Blasted send button

 

[thekingiam]

did one a while back was always told that i was drinking too much the night before and to have a shave etc
my mother is so fussy.

 

[telectrix]

geordies in houses??? bloody 'ell. next thing will be welshmen in grass huts.

 

[thekingiam]

i prefer grass skirts

 

[ipf]

geordies in houses??? bloody 'ell. next thing will be welshmen in grass huts.

Well, Scotsmen already wear grass skirts................just watch 'em at hogmanay

 

[camerabloke]

Used to rewire a three bed house in two days, and before anyone says anything like "bet that's a rough old job" no it wasn't inspected by the C of W Electrical, all surface, buckle clipped, floors down,carpets relaid, no making good that was done by others.

- - - Updated - - -

Used to rewire a three bed house in two days, and before anyone says anything like "bet that's a rough old job" no it wasn't inspected by the C of W Electrical, all surface, buckle clipped, floors down,carpets relaid, no making good that was done by others.

Bet that was a rough old job : )

 

[iamelectric]

how do you rewire a kitchen ? anyone

 

[Hawkmoon]

Used to rewire a three bed house in two days, and before anyone says anything like "bet that's a rough old job" no it wasn't inspected by the C of W Electrical, all surface, buckle clipped, floors down,carpets relaid, no making good that was done by others.

- - - Updated - - -

Used to rewire a three bed house in two days, and before anyone says anything like "bet that's a rough old job" no it wasn't inspected by the C of W Electrical, all surface, buckle clipped, floors down,carpets relaid, no making good that was done by others.

Is that 48 hours non-stop??? - I'm getting too old for that kind of performance lol

btw did you need to tell us twice?

 

[monkeyelectric]

Don't do it! Run away! Ignore the phone! Dear god i can't think of anything worse than an occupied rewire! Done one once and it was a nightmare, there were daily arguments that i couldn't turn any circuits off and whatever room i was in they wanted something out of there or wanted to be in there! They had a tw4t of a dog that kept robbing my tools, i nearly nailed it to the floor! No more occupied rewires for this monkey!!

 

[Dcf]

there is a a knack to doing these.
i sometimes used to get sent with an old lad who was called the ghost as he could rewire an occupied house and you would not know he had been in.
he was scrawny old man who all the old widows would take pity on and if you were with him you were guaranteed a nice bit of home baking or mince n tatties for your lunch.result.
he once told me to go and wire a doocot in some house we were wiring which had about 100 birds going mental in , i let them out and they all took off.
i thought then that maybe that wasn't too clever and asked the woman if her pigeons came back,
yeah son they are homing pigeons!panic over.
in all seriousness he showed me loads of wee tricks that still can get you out of a jam to this day

 

[telectrix]

there is a a knack to doing these.
i sometimes used to get sent with an old lad who was called the ghost as he could rewire an occupied house and you would not know he had been in.
he was scrawny old man who all the old widows would take pity on and if you were with him you were guaranteed a nice bit of home baking or mince n tatties for your lunch.result.
he once told me to go and wire a doocot in some house we were wiring which had about 100 birds going mental in , i let them out and they all took off.
i thought then that maybe that wasn't too clever and asked the woman if her pigeons came back,
yeah son they are homing pigeons!panic over.
in all seriousness he showed me loads of wee tricks that still can get you out of a jam to this day

wasn't geordiespark by any chance?

 

[Dcf]

ha unfortunately not.
one bit of advice ill give is know your structure.
as in to be quick you really need to know the layout of the house and the routes to the board etc

 

[7029 dave]

Yep there is a knack with this type of work,try and pull through as much as you can with conduit systems ie switch drops property's (circa 1930)to 60's, normally in slip tube so easy to cut back. Start upstairs and work down, whilst upstairs floor boards are up think about downstairs lighting circuit, look for switch drops in conduit it saves a hell of a lot of time. (tin hat on) Maybe think about joint box system on lighting circuit downstairs less floor boards to lift fish across where you can less cable usage no loop feed to worry about . Plan a rout down for your risers, you may be lucky and pull through on conduit or even voids in wall. Keep work site tidy at all times and respect the persons home, speed is of the essence here. Good luck.

 

[Dcf]

sterling advice from dave above.
a joint box for the lighting does lend itself in this case.
make sure your back is strong as you will no doubt have a double bed on it while trying to lift a board in the middle of it.
i found this was the one domestic electrical job where the boys who were more into the commercial industrial side were completely lost.
not electrically but in the dark art of how to go about it.
its hard graft alright

 

[iamelectric]

and the kitchen ???

 

[lockhes]

i try and put a new board next to old then start from up to down and as go putting new circuits into board so they always have power

but there a bloody nightmare and i hate doing them

 

[telectrix]

talk customer inot gas appliances.

 

[SPARTYKUS]

and the kitchen ???

Well, you can't!

 

[GMES]

and the kitchen ???

Is there a rat in it what ya gonna do

 

[GMES]

Another useful thing I find is to either number or letter the floor boards as I take them up, so that when I end up with a pile stacked up at the end of shift you know where to put them back.