Rewire in a day ........

[Deleted member 93172]

Many moons ago the company I worked for hired us out to another firm to do occupied council house rewires. There were two sparkies to a house and the time given was 2day's start to finish. Needless to say it turned into a race with the guy's next door, we were working away one day and heard all this shouting and hollering coming from next door and later found out at dinner break that our guy's next door had to tip up the beds to get the the lazy son's out of bed. Ah! those were the day's!, we put up with the rewires for about a fortnight and then refused to go back, the standard of work was total crap and it was all put in to the site agents spec.

 

[Dave OCD]

Me and my son did our most recent rewire [old 3 bed Victorian house] in 6 days and I thought that was good going, but now I realise I'm just slow ! But in my defence it was all done nicely.

 

[Leesparkykent]

Me and my son did our most recent rewire [old 3 bed Victorian house] in 6 days and I thought that was good going, but now I realise I'm just slow ! But in my defence it was all done nicely.

That's good going for a sparks and a mate/apprentice.

 

[Dave OCD]

Cheers Lee, some bits were easy due to boards being previously lifted for central heating and it's surprising where you can fish cables from a run of boards up down the length of the upstairs landing, but on the other hand all the bedrooms had pull cords so we had to fish new switchwires down through lath and plaster and cut in flush boxes although the old plaster was just the right depth for a 16mm metal box.

 

[Specialist]

Never did a 1 day rewire, best we got it down to was 2 days for an unoccupied 3 bed terrace.
That was me, a mate & apprentice. All finished & tested.

 

[Leesparkykent]

Done a few occupied rewires when I was an apprentice.....there would have to be lots of money involved to even consider doing one now. They can be graft rewires and dirty but always feel like you've achieved something once complete and the customers singing your praises for doing a top job.

 

[Dave OCD]

Yes it always feels good to finish the job, you wouldn't want to do the whole thing again starting the next day though.

 

[NDG Elecs]

although the old plaster was just the right depth for a 16mm metal box.

I'd be waiting for that inevitable call two months from now......can you change two of the switches to dimmers please!

 

[Dave OCD]

Good point ! Well I'd be forced to fit two of those 10mm spacer plate things behind the switch.

 

[NDG Elecs]

47mm white patterns perhaps!!

 

[Dave OCD]

47mm white patterns perhaps!!

That could be a bit extreme, when I said two spacer plates I meant one for each dimmer.

 

[NDG Elecs]

And that was meant to be pattress obviously...!

 

[Santa]

Back in the 60s I had a housemate who was an electrician. He got a job with a firm that was part way through re-wiring several hundred council houses. On his first morning he was 'given' an apprentice and told what needed doing; as soon as the boss left, one of the old hands warned him that they "only did one house a day." They were paid by the house.

All the houses were occupied so they couldn't start before 9am after the kids left for school. Sometimes they would hammer on the door and it would be opened by some woman who they had obviously woken up. These were all two bed terraces and sometimes there would be three double bunk beds in one room. On one occasion he told me that he moved a bed and there was a child asleep in it.

Given a prompt start and reasonable access, they were finished by 4pm at the latest. The Leccy Board followed on, tested and reconnected the power and that was that. From memory we was paid around £10 a house and the lad got a fiver.

 

[GlenTavener]

Many moons ago the company I worked for hired us out to another firm to do occupied council house rewires. There were two sparkies to a house and the time given was 2day's start to finish. Needless to say it turned into a race with the guy's next door, we were working away one day and heard all this shouting and hollering coming from next door and later found out at dinner break that our guy's next door had to tip up the beds to get the the lazy son's out of bed. Ah! those were the day's!, we put up with the rewires for about a fortnight and then refused to go back, the standard of work was total crap and it was all put in to the site agents spec.

Some may think that an exaggeration about the son being in bed. However, as an apprentice with the local board in 1962, yeah am old now, that is exactly a problem we had. Son saying we could easily take the floor up in his room without him getting out of bed. Electrician I was with then, not long back from national service, he got him up! The sort of house you wanted to be in and out as quick as possible.

 

[Ian1981]

I used to do 1 day rewires when I just come out of my time with the company I'd served with and the money was good.
4 of us 2 electricians and 2 mates.
Pretty good standard as well as we had a full day on the Friday for any snags like connecting up electric fires and bonding the new bathrooms when they were fitted.
Used to have to drop back when each bathroom was newly fitted so no danger was present and all bonded with power on.
Hard going and I'd never ever go back to it!