Electrics - anyone with knowledge

[Mrsladybirdface]

we purchased a 60s bungalow in Jan fully aware that the electrics needed doing but hopeful to do it section by section. as part of our extension we had the lights rewired (the extension part being signed off by building regs). We've now come to have our bathroom done and our new electrician isn't happy at all, he wants to do a full electrical report/test before he'll connect anything up. he says there are no RCD??
I'm happy for him to do the test but massively concerned he's going to say we have to have the whole place redone...which we simply can't afford in one go.

Will he be able to find a solution so he can just do the bathroom I.e. create a new earthed circuit and fuse box? (naively hopeful )

He's charging me £150 for the full test (I've had a search and this seems reasonable)

I wasn't happy with the work the last electrician did...with due reason it seems!

I am no expert here, but my understanding is that without a RCD on your fusebox your home isn't nearly as safe as it could be. Basically these switches are designed to cut out of there is any problem - and without them you are at elevated risk of electric shock and fire! You really, really don't want this! Especially in a bathroom where electrics are in proximity to water.

I fear that you'll need a new fusebox and possibly a bit of new wiring, which could be a few hundred. Talk to your electrician and see what he can do - they can be very helpful and flexible sometimes! I am currently having bits of my house rewired in stages for practical reasons, and my sparky does a section at a time. Maybe yours can do some of the work (e.g. upstairs sockets, lights, fusebox) and return later to do other parts (downstairs sockets)?

I think by law electricians can't wire in new circuits if the main fuse board / RCD doesn't meet current regulations. He wouldn't be able to certify the installation, which he has to do.

You should budget for an up to date RCD when you put in the bathroom, then can rewire the rest of the house as you go.

thank you, we always new the electrics were dodgy, but assumed as we'd had the lights and some of the socket rewired, the fusebox was safe and we could just get the bathroom and kitchen added to it.

Other electrician is a school mum's partner so it makes it really awkward to go back to them and ask what the heck he was doing

• knew

cointreau exactly...how did we end up with a signed off extension if the elecs weren't right!

Interesting that you've had problems with a shoddy installation too. The quality of electricians seems to vary a LOT. I have had four electricians out to my house in the last three years. Three were useless (and one of those was highly recommended by Which?/reviews), and it's only recently I've found a guy who is thorough and careful.

I am speculating wildly here, but I wonder if it's because electrical regs for older properties are looser than gas regs. There seem to be very different standards of what is acceptable: to my mind, a good sparky will sort things to the same standard as they would need to do in a new build, so you have the highest possible level of safety, but there seem to be a lot of electricians who just patch things up using old wiring etc. but charge you the same for it!

I've just paid to have a load of work redone, so I really can sympathize with your pain!

That said, OP, I think bathroom circuits may have higher safety regs than extensions, and this may be the reason for the difference. See this: www.neweysonline.co.uk/Electricity-In-The-Bathroom/Static.raction

Signed off by Building Regs is not the same as having the electrical installation Part P certified, I don't think.

If he is wiring a bathroom, then all circuits within the bathroom must be protected by an RCD, and must be "earthed" to current standards. This will include main earth bonds to incoming metallic services such as water, gas and oil pipes, which are usually undersized or non existent on older installations. As well as lighting, there might be an electric shower or an immersion heater, maybe a shaver socket or an extractor fan.

These can be fixed at reasonable cost, but he will want to find out what other hidden nasties there are before he starts a job which he is required to leave in good order. he may well propose to install a new consumer unit feeding a new circuit as he is allowed to leave anything that he doesn't touch in its existing condition. But whatever he does work on must be left compliant, and he will quite likely not be able to add an RCD to your existing consumer unit, which I speculate is quite likely a Brown Wylex and overdue for replacement. It is very likely that some or all of your lighting circuits, in particular, are not earthed (a) properly or (b) at all. He will not be keen on getting the blame for you being electrocuted in a house which he has recently worked in.

It is usually more economical, and far easier and safer, to rewire an old house complete rather than tinker with it bit by bit.

thanks everyone.

We have a Memera 2000 Ad so has been replaced in the recent past. PigletJohn youve said exactly what electrician said, so that gives me comfort! We have had the rubber wiring replaced in all the rooms apart from bathroom and kitchen...I had assumed this had been done to the correct standard though

We're having our elec shower removed and spotlights/extractor put in.

Mrsladybirdface

The Memera is an excellent product and can have RCBOs fitted which provides an individual RCD per circuit, a first-class job. They might cost the electrician £30 each.

maybe that's what they have done with the lights. There are other 3 older fuse boxes, 2 are redundent and 1 that looks after the garage circuit. it doeslook extremely messy and I can understand why a reputable electrician wouldn't want to go near it.

Just an update. He was here for 6 hours in the end. The lighting was ok but there was one socket circuit which had no earth. He didn't understand because we'd had new earthed sockets attached to it...so our last electrician must have been a crook. He put an isolater on it and fed it in to the main fuse box as he couldn't leave it as it was.

we do need that circuit rewired but he's happy to do the bathroom...phew!

Glad it's getting sorted, OP. And now you've found a decent honest spark, hang on to him for dear life. Electrics are not something you want to scrimp on.