Rewire on red brick early 1900’s Victorian house

[Georgemidnight]

Hi all,

Looking for advice on doing a rewire in an empty red brick house, no one will be living there or any furniture as there are new owners.

I have researched on how to chase red brick, as I already have a brushless grinder I think buying a diamond disc is my best way of doing it. As I want to keep dust levels low I have been looking at buying a makita dust collecting guard. As I can’t find how deep you can cut while using one I will assume I cant cut up to 50mm. Therefore I will need to cap the cables.

What’s the best way of capping them in a narrow space, oval conduit? But how do you get them to stay on top of the cables?


Is this the best way to go about the rewire? Any tips and advice is greatly appreciated as this is my first time working with red brick

 

[Simon47]

And something else to be aware of, or prepared for ...
You start chasing into the plaster and big lumps fall off the wall. At our last house, we took several walls back to bare brick and had them re-plastered as the original (1960s in that case) plaster was no longer attached to the bricks.
Also in that house, the bricks were 'kin ard. When I say 'kin ard, they were the hardest bricks I've ever come across. Fragile, so if you go at them with too much of a drill then they break up, and I ended up having top spend hours per chase with a 1" scutch comb slowly taking them back so as not to end up saying hello to the neighbours through the wall.

But, a mate told me a funny story many years ago. Old terraced houses, and the shelves in the kitchen weren't needed. So removed the shelves - which left some timbers sticking out of the wall. Cut them off with a saw, but they were still proud of the plaster - so he thought he'd just push them back into the cavity a bit ...
Some will be ahead of me at this point. He heard a lot of noise from the other side of the wall, and a not very happy neighbour who's shelf had just collapsed. Single brick leaf, and one piece of wood supporting the shelves on both sides.

 

[Georgemidnight]

And something else to be aware of, or prepared for ...
You start chasing into the plaster and big lumps fall off the wall. At our last house, we took several walls back to bare brick and had them re-plastered as the original (1960s in that case) plaster was no longer attached to the bricks.
Also in that house, the bricks were 'kin ard. When I say 'kin ard, they were the hardest bricks I've ever come across. Fragile, so if you go at them with too much of a drill then they break up, and I ended up having top spend hours per chase with a 1" scutch comb slowly taking them back so as not to end up saying hello to the neighbours through the wall.

But, a mate told me a funny story many years ago. Old terraced houses, and the shelves in the kitchen weren't needed. So removed the shelves - which left some timbers sticking out of the wall. Cut them off with a saw, but they were still proud of the plaster - so he thought he'd just push them back into the cavity a bit ...
Some will be ahead of me at this point. He heard a lot of noise from the other side of the wall, and a not very happy neighbour who's shelf had just collapsed. Single brick leaf, and one piece of wood supporting the shelves on both sides.

Last thing I want is to upset a new neighbour! Haha. I will be extra careful when it come to chasing walls back to back with the neighbour. Thanks for your comment. G