Moved house into a disaster zone

[fourtytwo]

Whew makes me wonder if a part P inspection should be part of the house move process!
The house I have moved into is a nightmare, I thought isolating the lethal external wiring would do the trick but today I was stupid enough to start inspecting some suspicious power sockets around the house.........Ohh myyy
The first delight was a mystery spur fuse turned on but what did it power ? well it seemed nothing, on further investigation the spur it fed in 2.5mm disappeared into the wall behind the back box and upon pulling came free with a cut-off end!!

As I continued I kept finding loose screws resulting in wires pulling free from the sockets (not sure about TV antenna in same back box behind blank plate either)

As I progressed along the loose screw brigade things got more serious, here we have a Neutral ring break

And then the worst uncovered so far a high resistance arcing live ring break that has melted the insulation, made contact with the earth and blown it in half resulting in an earth ring break also

Needless to say the damaged socket was replaced. I have many more disasters found and undoubtedly given the quality of what I have found so far more to come. My most serious worry is loose terminals in junction boxes under the floors (there are many spurs with no apparent source) that are now unfortunately covered with wretched laminate flooring over the floorboards.
I will add further horrors for those who can stand it!

 

[Mike Johnson]

Easily done the OP has three threads running at the moment.

 

[fourtytwo]

Sorry about the multiple threads, to continue this one with a few recent ahmmm discoveries!
First a spur to nowhere with a broken off earth together with a 3 way lighting cable hidden behind a blanking plate, no idea if the other end is connected so chocolate blocked for safety

A spur hidden amongst the boiler pipes in the garage ceiling (nice gaffa tape)

But today's prize goes to doorbell wiring (clear figure 8) inside the CU

The pic is upside down to get the camera in place, you can see a bell wire coming out the wall on the left & disappearing behind the CU it winds around inside and is finished off with a bit of black pvc tape that fell off when touched. Two other bell wires appear from a hole at the rear of the CU that goes up to the 1st floor, they are twisted together and screwed into the earth bar! Who knows why and until I can get under the floor upstairs (dreaded laminate) I have left them be whilst removing the taped up one.

 

[brianmoooore]

The wiring to three of the GEC MCBs is rubber, and that to the fourth looks like polythene. Tin plated earth wires as well.
That alone suggests that a full rewire is long overdue.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Rip it all out and start again

 

[Mike Johnson]

Has this hose turned into not so much of a bargain as you thought or is it just what you expected considering the price you paid?

 

[fourtytwo]

Has this hose turned into not so much of a bargain as you thought or is it just what you expected considering the price you paid?

It's very hard to say considering the then state of the housing market, we could have lost our buyer the first serious one in many months if we had prevaricated and there were a few people sniffing around this property. We had already rejected our 1st choice when on viewing it turned out to have a shared sewage system and long access road with a much larger property not revealed on the details and some other problems so we were under pressure to find somewhere. Frankly it is a lot worse than I had bargained for but not as bad as it could be, after all we like the style, size and location, just need a pot of gold to fix it all up, just need to buy time in the meantime, so the fire alarms are already installed!!

 

[fourtytwo]

Rip it all out and start again

As many have said quite rightly too, but for many reasons I am afraid this will be done somewhat piecemeal. I had a serious look at lifting the laminate flooring in the room above the CU to locate the VIR power cables & bell wires but sadly it has been installed BEFORE new skirting boards were fitted so it will require considerable damage to the otherwise ok decor. I am quite pleased that I have fixed many serious faults on the main ring just by tightening screws. I did a load (1kW) voltage drop test on many outlets today (2-3V) and I think that together with a ring resistance test the other day confirms the ring and it's main spurs are now free of high impedance joints. The only ongoing worry is the condition of the remaining invisible VIR cable hence the fire alarms.

 

[fourtytwo]

The wiring to three of the GEC MCBs is rubber, and that to the fourth looks like polythene. Tin plated earth wires as well.
That alone suggests that a full rewire is long overdue.

Your absolutely right Brian but as I explained in other posts this is somewhat impracticable atm mostly due to severe decor wrecking constraints so I intend a rolling program of improvements. So far I have eliminated the high resistance joints in the ring main and it's spurs together with any dangerous wiring in user touchable locations. My next project is to impedance test the old spur I found tucked up among the boiler pipes in the garage as I suspect this was the original garage feed. If it proves good I can eliminate the diy botch external unprotected wiring that currently feeds the garage. I have a theory as to why this was done that includes a hot tub in the garden (previous owner) powered from the garage and arcing ring joints!

 

[brianmoooore]

At least get some RCD protection on it, even if it's a single 30mA RCD in the tails to the fusebox.

 

[fourtytwo]

At least get some RCD protection on it, even if it's a single 30mA RCD in the tails to the fusebox.

I was thinking that but some opinioned on here with the state of the wiring it would just continuously nuisance trip! If only I had a megger but I only have a standard DVM. There is another thread on here by me about CU RCD protection as the CU was labelled as having it but it turns out not to.

 

[brianmoooore]

It might nuisance trip, but if it does, the insulation resistance is at a minimum 67 times worse than the minimum allowable. The RCD will be doing its job, trying to keep you alive, either from dying directly by electrocution, or in a house fire.

 

[brianmoooore]

I have seen lengths of VIR cable, several inches long, where the insulation has completely crumbled away, leaving three bare parallel wires. These will give an absolutely perfect reading if tested with a megger - right up to the point they are disturbed.

 

[westward10]

That doesn't look like laminate flooring more like Moduleo or Karndean or though I could be wrong. I do know it is seriously expensive as I have Moduleo but it can be lifted reboarded and relaid but you would need a suitable fitter.

 

[fourtytwo]

It might nuisance trip, but if it does, the insulation resistance is at a minimum 67 times worse than the minimum allowable. The RCD will be doing its job, trying to keep you alive, either from dying directly by electrocution, or in a house fire.

My feelings too Brian, I think you just tipped the balance, as if it nuisance trips the floors will have to come up anyway. Would you like to opinion if a spark would be prepared to fit a tail type RCD to this installation assuming I can find one (qualified spark) ?

 

[brianmoooore]

What state are the ceilings in? There's more than one way of getting into the ceiling - floor void.