I recently bought a new house, mid 1930s mid terrace house, and had an electrician come to have a look at the electrics before I move in
He initially said the circuits were fine after testing but suggested installing a new fuse box to bring things up to date.
Then at the last minute he noticed something after pulling out some of the cables that are attached to the fuse box and started opening wall sockets. Tt turns out that some of the sockets would need some earthing work. So he suggested a partial rewire of the house which will take a week. He quoted about £3000.
I was OK with that, but now on reflection I am now worrying about something else: the ceilings have some of that swirly designs on them and due to the house's age they could contain some asbestos. So I am concerned the work could disturb it.
The electrician made no mention of it as being a concern when he did the testing yesterday and talked about the work needed but I woke up in a cold sweat worrying about this possibility...
Has anyone had to deal with this type of issues?
I am planning on booking an asbestos survey at least and ask them for advice before doing any invasive work.
I wonder whether there are ways to do that rewire without disturbing/drilling the ceilings. (It is obvious some work has been done/would have happened on the electrics before over the years in the 80s and 90s...).
Any thoughts?