What do I do with this? (192? home)

[Broke&Adventurous]

I need counsel!

The existing fixture was not 100 years but was apparently floating over the plaster?

No ground. No way to see which wire is which (does it matter in this case?)

There is no box on which to affix the bar to hang the new fixture and the existing...ummm insulation or something hangs out of the plaster around 5/8 of an inch. Nothing to affix anything to other than the wood you can see next to the wires.
What can I put in there to create space and stability since I am not qualified to redo all the wiring and plaster, and not able to afford a professional?

Thank you SO much for your counsel!!

 

[littlespark]

Not sure with American wiring, one for @Megawatt i think.

There was a time in the UK that there wasn’t earth or ground wires in lighting circuits, and the way we see it, if it’s a plastic or “double insulated” fitting, then it’s ok to put up…. Wholly metallic fittings, where a loose cable could fall out and touch the body of the fitting- not on.

For fixing to the ceiling, is there access above where a price of wood could be fixed in just above the ceiling to give something to screw to?

The ceiling appears to be thin strips of wood with plaster… but the age suggests it will be dry, and not strong.

We also have plasterboard fixings that push up through a small hole, and then open up like an umbrella… but I don’t think your ceiling is solid enough to take them.

 

[Dan]

Bet its a nice house though. I think mine is 1930ish and its fairly new for the UK.

As for electrics I'm not an electrician so I'd be posting on the forum too on that one.

Welcome to the forum

 

[Avo Mk8]

There is no box on which to affix the bar to hang the new fixture and the existing...ummm insulation or something hangs out of the plaster around 5/8 of an inch. Nothing to affix anything to other than the wood you can see next to the wires.
What can I put in there to create space and stability since I am not qualified to redo all the wiring and plaster, and not able to afford a professional?

We call that a "lath and plaster" ceiling here in the UK, and pretty well all the houses I have lived in have been like that!
You might see from the pic at the bottom below the rows of nails holding up the laths, nailed into the wooden 'joists' holding the ceiling up.
Often a light fitting is placed near a joist, and secured by fixing at least one screw into the joist behind the laths. It's possible one of your two screw holes is in this position, and that would hold up your light fitting OK.
My technique was to poke through the plaster with a thin screwdriver to see if I can find the joists. Makes lots of holes, but easy to fill those . If doing that, probably a good idea to turn the electricity off in case the old wires behind are fragile.

But you do seem to have boards covering the ceiling, judging from those straight cracks, so perhaps the 'laths' I see where the cable is, are just bits of wood to support the old lamp that was there?

You can buy surface mount fittings to support a ceiling lamp. Examples from Lowe's below.
If you are very unlucky, and your light wires are nowhere near a joist, you could try enlarging the holes you have, and poking spring toggles (already attached to a ceiling mount) into the holes. This sort of thing immediately below:
N


Pics more useful than words now

 

[Megawatt]

I need counsel!

The existing fixture was not 100 years but was apparently floating over the plaster?

No ground. No way to see which wire is which (does it matter in this case?)

There is no box on which to affix the bar to hang the new fixture and the existing...ummm insulation or something hangs out of the plaster around 5/8 of an inch. Nothing to affix anything to other than the wood you can see next to the wires.
What can I put in there to create space and stability since I am not qualified to redo all the wiring and plaster, and not able to afford a professional?

Thank you SO much for your counsel!!View attachment 118458
View attachment 118457

View attachment 118456

You can go to Lowes or Home Depot and purchase round old work ceiling boxes which is probably $ 5.00 or less. Cut the hole out to the size of the box and stick the wires through it and tighten the screws which has what I call ears on them which in turn tightens it to the Sheetrock or what ever material your ceiling is.

 

[Dan]

You can go to Lowes or Home Depot and purchase round old work ceiling boxes which is probably $ 5.00 or less. Cut the hole out to the size of the box and stick the wires through it and tighten the screws which has what I call ears on them which in turn tightens it to the Sheetrock or what ever material your ceiling is.

Do you think you could find and link to one on amazon mate?

 

[Megawatt]

I need counsel!

The existing fixture was not 100 years but was apparently floating over the plaster?

No ground. No way to see which wire is which (does it matter in this case?)

There is no box on which to affix the bar to hang the new fixture and the existing...ummm insulation or something hangs out of the plaster around 5/8 of an inch. Nothing to affix anything to other than the wood you can see next to the wires.
What can I put in there to create space and stability since I am not qualified to redo all the wiring and plaster, and not able to afford a professional?

Thank you SO much for your counsel!!View attachment 118458
View attachment 118457

View attachment 118456

Which ever way you choose to look at it a protective device operated and a number of trips later you decided to investigate why it continually tripped and then found a damaged cable if the fault had developed into a fire may be you would have found it sooner

If you had investigated why the MCB had tripped the first time would you be asking the question

This is a picture on Home Depot’s website