Maximum age of wiring

[benwyatt]

Hello,

I live in a house where part of the wiring dates to 1960 (exact). Now I know after ~30 years old, a rewire is advised. And at 58 years it should definitely be rewired, but it's going to be difficult to convince my parents to have the house rewired soon - as we have 5 people living here and it's going to be expensive.

What do you think is the absolute limit you can have with age of wiring? To the point it turns from strongly advised to must happen, i would like to know this to get an idea of the amount of time ticking left until it becomes too dangerous to use.

Thank you

 

[driverman]

Agrees with above comments. Have an EICR carried out.
I not too sure about any actual time span given for cables.
Many years ago 25 years was a given guideline for rubber cables. Some didn't get there, others went way past it!

 

[NDG Elecs]

1966 I thought ?

Yeah I have 1966 in my head too. If that is incorrect I would like to know.

 

[NDG Elecs]

1966 I thought ?

Bloody duplicate again....

 

[davesparks]

I have done (sort of) a visual inspection myself. All the backboxes have 4 holes for screws rather than two. The cables are solid core, rather than stranded. The earth cable is not insulated except in the backbox itself with solid green insulation. Light switches have no earth, the new bathroom has brand new wires. Will I have to check in the loft to see if those brand new wires go all the way back to the CU? I'm worried that they could've been connected to the unearthed 1960 cable so there's no 'continuity' (

The number of holes in the backboxes has no relevance to the safety of the installation, but it will almost certainly mean they use imperial threads rather than metric.
We still commonly use solid core cables for lighting and small power in domestic installations.
The earth in a modern T&E cable is not insulated and would only be sleeved where the cable is stripped for terminations, the only difference is that we use green and yellow stripes now.

Yes a lack of earth in the lighting circuits is a safety concern and should be rectified when possible. Be wary of people advising that an RCD and a yellow sticker are a suitable alternative, they are not!