Old Rubber Cable

[sparkyork]

Speaking to an sparky mate of mine this morning, said he'd just been round to a job that had all the sosckets done in the old rubber cable and same for the lighting. sosckets had an earth but lighting didnt.

i said ahh you'll be busy there then, what you doing re-wiring the lot? he said no im just rewiring the lighting as its got no cpc. i said surely your gonna want to get rid of that old rubber crap, ho said "no it can stop in for me"

i know we all have our reasons for doing things but ive allways ripped out the old 60 year old wiring!!

what do you guys do??

 

[montybaber]

spose it all depends what the customer wants and can afford at the end of the day

 

[Carter]

..."no it can stop in for me"

Not a particularly responsible attitude that's for sure. If the customer cannot afford to replace it then he can't force them, I suppose it depends what he's been called in to do.

I know we all have our reasons for doing things but ive allways ripped out the old 60 year old wiring!!

Again it depends what the client wants/can afford, if yer man's not been asked to replace the ring then so be it.

...what do you guys do??

When I come across TRS or VRI I begin to make loud noises in the ear of the owner of the installation along the lines of

"fooking hellski your a lucky man!"

then start backing it up with sarcastic tutting, copius amounts of drawing breath through clenched teeth and then for a finale I will find a few examples of cable (good and bad) and physicaly show them what happens to 30yr old rubber. If you look hard enough (usually on the kitchen circuits) you may well find areas where cores have fused/melted together that should convince anyone. Start into a general discussion about his domestic insurance policy and is it paid up? Tell him about the advisability of a couple of smoke detectors if he can't afford to replace the ring, that should get his attention.

If all fails then strongly reccomend that your man applies a full insulation resistance test to it, if the guy isn't willing to pay your chap for 30-45 minutes to do that then he's a total tw@t and deserves what's coming! Honestly, some people just can't be told.
In that case all he can do is go to town on the Elec Inst Cert. under "COMMENTS ON EXISTING INSTALLATION" Tell him to fill the box and add another sheet (correctly numbered) just to make the point clear that it's crap. The EIC becomes a legal document depending on what happens, insurance claim, electrocution, change of ownership etc and he won't want the fact that it's a potential death trap appearing on it will he. That should definitely concentrate his mind on realities.

 

[montybaber]

Honestly though guys I dont know how you do it? I get moaned at when say I have to fit an RCBO on a circuit im working on, stuff along the lines of....

'its always been alright without one up to now'

I seem to be throwing work away for trying to do things right when some cowboy will do it for half the price against the regs!

I can just imagine the reaction when I told the owner that a rewire will be required due to old wiring that could be dodgy

 

[spark-doctor]

If all fails then strongly recommend that your man applies a full insulation resistance test to it, if the guy isn't willing to pay your chap for 30-45 minutes to do that then he's a total tw@t and deserves what's coming! Honestly, some people just can't be told.
In that case all he can do is go to town on the Elec Inst Cert. under "COMMENTS ON EXISTING INSTALLATION" Tell him to fill the box and add another sheet (correctly numbered) just to make the point clear that it's crap.

All of that and personally i would ask the client to sign a disclaimer not holding me responsible for consequential loss. That old wire is going to be as crumbly as hell and you don't know what damage you are going to cause pulling in replacement cabling.

Honestly though guys I don't know how you do it? I get moaned at when say I have to fit an RCBO on a circuit I'm working on, stuff along the lines of....

I went out to 2 jobs last month for nuisance tripping, found both to be in VIR. Both jobs i recommended a rewire. 1 has not got back to me the other i know, "Dave down the road" carried out the work. Still undecided whether to inform LABC.

It happens all the time though. I have lost count of the times i have gone out to customers who have had a job done by "a mate" and then have to pay me considerably more to put it right and think you are having their pants down because the other bloke did it for "a drink".

 

[London Luke]

They need to pay their bills, we need to pay ours. Catch 22.

I hate the rubber stuff.....

 

[Carter]

customers who have had a job done by "a mate" and then have to pay me considerably more to put it right and think you are having their pants down because the other bloke did it for "a drink".

Dunno, some people think they deserve 'jam on everything' through some sense of entitlement. Don't know many electrical firms that conduct business on their 'registered charity status'. You'd think that by now the market economy would have taught them that Golden Rule, Y' gets what y' pays for

 

[PAUL M]

Honestly though guys I dont know how you do it? I get moaned at when say I have to fit an RCBO on a circuit im working on, stuff along the lines of....

'its always been alright without one up to now'

I seem to be throwing work away for trying to do things right when some cowboy will do it for half the price against the regs!

I can just imagine the reaction when I told the owner that a rewire will be required due to old wiring that could be dodgy

i once got a call from a bloke who had just purchased a house he wanted to rent out and he said his mate had told him it needed a full rewireso along i goes give him the price and got the jobwhen starting the rewire it soon became apparent that there was next to feck all wrong with what he had apart from bonds and rcd ccu,did i tell him,NO.if he is stupid enough to go on what his mate says its his lookout,i finished the rewire and he was very happy,.every one a winnermust remember to buy his mate a drink

 

[sparkyork]

cheers guys, i think id do pretty much the same, give it a ins res test and try and lay it on that it wants rewiring, whats more important than safety? of course the customer has apparantly just paid £15k for new windows all round, but dont know if they can afford a bag a sand for a socket rewire!!

like youse say all you can do if they dont want it is cover your own ---, thats what me nic assesor said about my test sheets, that i shouldnt right satisfactory on them etc.

dont get some people tho, one of the most dangerous things surrounding them everywhere yet they just ignore it and walk round with an earth rod stuck up the bum holes (technically not that good!!)

 

[tony.towa]

"walk round with an earth rod stuck up the bum holes (technically not that good!!)"

Surely that depends on how far you hammer it in!!!!

 

[sparky1ste]

i always find that in situations like this one i perswade the customer to do a periodic inspection on the property,and tell them if there is any problems with the installation then they can take the report to any electrician to get a quote[along with my report].but if i get the job then i take the price of the inspection of the price of the job.if you do your testing right -you have no problems with any person seeing it.but remember before you do any work in domestic the first thing you check is the bonds.

 

[rumrunner]

i did some council house rewires a few years ago and the lighting with no cpc was replaced but the ring circuit was left and just the socket outlets replaced ,the rubber cable passed an installation test and the standard of wiring was good ,so why change it?