Re wiring a house

[Paul the chef]

Ok first and foremost I’m not a sparkie, I did all the work in my own house 30+ years ago, which a sparkie checked and approved and I know the regs have changed etc.
My son has just bought a house was told nothing wrong it’s all hunkydoory you can move straight in, went to have a nose a bit of building modernisation required 2 rooms in to one, take out fireplace, replace one or two rads. So he says have a look at garage and I said “oh you’ve got electric in here, tidy” where’s the consumer unit? Haven’t seen one was the reply. Went outside to see where the feed came in, it’s only fed from the house 60 m away by 1 MM lighting cable. So alarm bells started ringing, the consumer unit in house is the old fuse wire type there’s switches here there and everywhere and the building survey didn’t pick this up!!!!!

Now then money is tight as he’s a low wage earner and his savings have gone purchasing the house. I’m hoping to find a sparky who will do final connections and me and my son will do ground work like chasing walls, routing cables, possibly wire sockets if allowed and purchase the items.

I’ve seen this BRITISH GENERAL 16-MODULE 10-WAY POPULATED HIGH INTEGRITY DUAL RCD CONSUMER UNIT (2920G) in screwfix
Which is £68 then went on TLC website an MK (which I believe is a good make) consumer unit with same rcd’s and comes up @ £154 would it be considered cutting corners to go with screwfix version. Would a professional use the screwfix one?

I know I’m not allowed to fit the consumer unit and as for the wiring, having seen what’s there I want to re wire the whole house to be on the safe side, my plan is to get a temporary supply to have electric in the house while I rip all the wires out for a refit

Finding a spark who will do this could be a hurdle as they have to sign it off, so off I go to find a spark

 

[DefyG]

Shouldn't be too difficult if you and your son are prepared to do the hard graft!
A sparky will need to be involved in design and agree cable routing and inspect at first fix stage though.

 

[7029 dave]

IMO, no electrician would be prepared to take that on in today's world, more trouble than its worth.
Dave down the pub might.

 

[Paul the chef]

IMO, no electrician would be prepared to take that on in today's world, more trouble than its worth.
Dave down the pub might.

Do you have Daves number?

 

[7029 dave]

Do you have Daves number?

My numbers is???

 

[telectrix]

Do you have Daves number?

his real name is Rodney.

 

[Paul the chef]

So should I get the screwfix CU or not?

 

[suffolkspark]

So should I get the screwfix CU or not?

No

 

[pc1966]

As a short-term improvement you can fit the Wylex MCB units in place of the rewirable fuses. But that will not address the lack of RCD protection or any other issues as you have found. For example:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/wylex-6a-sp-type-b-plug-in-mcb/48030

But it must be a Wylex rewirable board and you must be competent to do that and made damn sure the board power is off before you swap them.

For the garage feed in 1mm it was probably intended just for lights and someone decided that 13A sockets were an idea. The quick fix is to fit a 6A MCB replacement for that circuit, assuming it is on a separate fuse? If not, say it came from the ring circuit for the house sockets, then putting a FCU-RCD and fitting a 5A fuse would be the quickest and safest fix.

But really the only good solution is to get a professional electrician in to sort it out.

Out of curiosity, did the house have an EICR when it was bought? If that proves to be misleading you might well have redress from the seller and/or the company that provided the EICR.

 

[Pauls0212]

nowt wrong with the BG ... imo better than the mk one (they stopped producing the mk one now)

 

[suffolkspark]

nowt wrong with the BG ... imo better than the mk one (they stopped producing the mk one now)

MK have now given the rights to another company to continue production of MK boards in UK

 

[telectrix]

No

why not? the BG boards are just as good as any, better than others in the same price bracket. e.g. proteus etc.

 

[Paul the chef]

But really the only good solution is to get a professional electrician in to sort it out.

Out of curiosity, did the house have an EICR when it was bought? If that proves to be misleading you might well have redress from the seller and/or the company that provided the EICR.

I’m not sure on EICR certificate but would have thought the mortgage surveyor would have made changing the CU a stipulation of the mortgage

 

[Vortigern]

I would not use that screwfix board. Nowadays we are trending towards individual RCBO for each circuit. I suggest you get an EICR for the house (about £200 give or take) and see what really needs doing for safety reasons. You could just put an RCD up front to make it safer. Downside, if there is a fault everything goes out together. I only suggest the above as you say you are strapped for cash. I am part of Trustmark, who offer finance for house rewires. Personally I am quite happy for the kind of arrangement where you do the graft and I sign it off, with certain caveats as mentioned above basically. Shame you are in Wales. I am in the South West. The 1mm 60 metres gave me a chuckle. I have seen worse and it works wonder of wonders! T&E is not suitable for outside use due to lack of tolerance to UV, but the I have seen it done and it has worked for donkeys years. Bear in mind if you are feeling adventurous, you must notify Building control before you undertake any such work. That can cost a few hundred alone. Get a spark in and you save that cost.

 

[dodger421]

I’m not sure on EICR certificate but would have thought the mortgage surveyor would have made changing the CU a stipulation of the mortgage

I'm in the process of buying a house at the moment so I can tell you surveyors are not electricians by any means. Unless the installation is blatantly dangerous or there isn't a metered connection they're unlikely to mention anything other than "may require modernisation" and caveat it with the IET recommendation to have an EICR carried out every 10 years or on change of ownership.

Scotland is different in that there's a home report done for every house, but its still qualified surveyors who carry it out so I don't imagine they go into any more detail elsewhere.