To rewire or not rewire?

[Danielwareham]

What would you be looking for when deciding if a house requires a full rewire or just updating i.e new consumer unit, main earthing, changing of some wiring and new circuits? What tests would you carry out and visual aspects would you be looking for?

Thanks

 

[RWJ]

eerrmmmmm... Allot of it's experience and how much the customer want to spend.

Have a look at the fusebox and the cables coming out. If they're not PVC T&E then probably a rewire (although we recently did a PIR on pub where the rubber cables had an IR of >200).

Check for bonding, have a look at some loop values on different circuits, IR tests.... Depends on how much time you want to throw at it

 

[telectrix]

IR circuits. visual check in accessories for any sign of cable damage/overheating. if rubber insulated or aluminium cable, or if green goo seeping. rewire.

 

[Adam W]

If all the IR readings were all too low with no logical explanation, the cable were in generally poor condition eg crumbling VIR, everything wired in some odd kind of cable (eg 0.75mm 2 core flex, esp if on the final ccts), odd circuit arrangements eg cpc used as 3rd core in 2 way lighting, sockets wired in some kind of 'spider final' or something, wiring run out of safe zones, or all of the above.

I'd try to avoid a full rewire if possible - doing unecessary rewires willy-nilly can give us a bad name.

 

[Danielwareham]

Some of what I was thinking and more! Cheers for the advice. Think I'll see what I can from the CU i.e if it's rubber insulated or aluminium cable, do some IR tests and check bonding. Then I'll do some loop readings. I think that will give me a good idea!

 

[Silly Sausage]

Or when your house has burnt down (not quite!), it's when I did mine.