Lived- in rewire

[telectrix]

there is a a knack to doing these.
i sometimes used to get sent with an old lad who was called the ghost as he could rewire an occupied house and you would not know he had been in.
he was scrawny old man who all the old widows would take pity on and if you were with him you were guaranteed a nice bit of home baking or mince n tatties for your lunch.result.
he once told me to go and wire a doocot in some house we were wiring which had about 100 birds going mental in , i let them out and they all took off.
i thought then that maybe that wasn't too clever and asked the woman if her pigeons came back,
yeah son they are homing pigeons!panic over.
in all seriousness he showed me loads of wee tricks that still can get you out of a jam to this day

wasn't geordiespark by any chance?

 

[Dcf]

ha unfortunately not.
one bit of advice ill give is know your structure.
as in to be quick you really need to know the layout of the house and the routes to the board etc

 

[7029 dave]

Yep there is a knack with this type of work,try and pull through as much as you can with conduit systems ie switch drops property's (circa 1930)to 60's, normally in slip tube so easy to cut back. Start upstairs and work down, whilst upstairs floor boards are up think about downstairs lighting circuit, look for switch drops in conduit it saves a hell of a lot of time. (tin hat on) Maybe think about joint box system on lighting circuit downstairs less floor boards to lift fish across where you can less cable usage no loop feed to worry about . Plan a rout down for your risers, you may be lucky and pull through on conduit or even voids in wall. Keep work site tidy at all times and respect the persons home, speed is of the essence here. Good luck.

 

[Dcf]

sterling advice from dave above.
a joint box for the lighting does lend itself in this case.
make sure your back is strong as you will no doubt have a double bed on it while trying to lift a board in the middle of it.
i found this was the one domestic electrical job where the boys who were more into the commercial industrial side were completely lost.
not electrically but in the dark art of how to go about it.
its hard graft alright

 

[iamelectric]

and the kitchen ???

 

[lockhes]

i try and put a new board next to old then start from up to down and as go putting new circuits into board so they always have power

but there a bloody nightmare and i hate doing them

 

[telectrix]

talk customer inot gas appliances.

 

[SPARTYKUS]

and the kitchen ???

Well, you can't!

 

[GMES]

and the kitchen ???

Is there a rat in it what ya gonna do

 

[GMES]

Another useful thing I find is to either number or letter the floor boards as I take them up, so that when I end up with a pile stacked up at the end of shift you know where to put them back.

 

[PEG]

As mentioned by Dave and others,know the layout of the property and use already fixed voids and conduits as much as you can. If you THINK the plaster is bad in an area,bank on that all falling off...a few years ago,i assisted a pal on a lived in rewire and he spent an hour skillfully chasing a 4" path floor to ceiling on landing in the middle of the 2 foot gap between bedrooms. Dead pleased he was,but as he tacked the capping over all the cables,the jolly lot,both sides came down. Think of that dust cloud when the twin towers came down,and we enjoyed gritty tea and biscuits as we hoovered...

 

[Geordie Spark]

pmsl I've been doing mine for 3 years! So its not just me lol. New CU due to the new bathroom with a shower and spa bath, bonding done for the house whilst I had floorboards up at the time. Since then nothing has been done! I have'nt even got a earth yet!!! Just using the water mains at 0.32 Ohms atm lol. I'll put a rod in at the weekend. Or I might do a DIY PME from the incomer :rofl:

I've told Mrs M that whatever room she wants to redecorate next gets a rewire. That planted a seed.... "The living room." Bloody hell, a new gas fire so we have to rip out the chimney breast, re plaster, wall paper all before xmas. I should not have opened my big gob. Early next year she wants to re-do the kitchen. This involves knocking down 3 stories of chimney breast throughout the house, plastering the walls and ceiling, decorating then its the bloody cost of the kitchen with the new range cooker that will "fit nicely in the old chimney space my love!"

I can see that 2014 will be me doing a lot of work to pay for this + a lot of work me doing it all lol. And yes we will be living in the house whilst all this goes on, just to get this thread back on track.

Don't forget to underpin that chimney stack otherwise you'll have a Hell of a lot more work to do!!

 

[Geordie Spark]

Yeah the one's like that are hellish.

The one i mentioned, lady (and i use that term as loosely as possible) greeted us at the door with baby in one arm and ciggy in other hand. I kid you not! There was crap all over the carpets, some of it didn't even know what it was and dont want to know lol.
Dirty clothing all over the floor's and bursting from wardrobes. Her bloke surfaced around ten ish and proceeded to just sit around all day. Really was a bleak place to be. But the worst thing by far was the kitchen! Literally filthy dishes everywhere, and some stayed there for a few day's! cooker was just a metal cube of grease, cups with mold the hole shibang. Just couldn't believe how little they cared. They showed no embarrassment or even apologized for the condition of the place.

Was a bad couple of weeks lol

Yep .... just like the one I was on - except I had the bloody dogs as well.

The place stunk to high heaven and at the end of the day so did I and no matter how long I was in the shower or how much soap & shower gel I used I couldn't get rid of the smell

 

[ipf]

Yep .... just like the one I was on - except I had the bloody dogs as well.

The place stunk to high heaven and at the end of the day so did I and no matter how long I was in the shower or how much soap & shower gel I used I couldn't get rid of the smell

So now we know where the attraction came from...

 

[Geordie Spark]

Is there a rat in it what ya gonna do

This : UB40 - Rat in mi Kitchen (Original) - YouTube

Takes a little while to get going, but worth the wait.

(I would have loved to have been their sound man!)

 

[Pete999]

No 2 9 hour days me and a mate, it was council houses, maybe a bit misleading the kitchen was wired during the rewire, but chased in later by someone else about 1 day 1st fix and 2nd fix

 

[Aindowsimon]

I did a lived in in may , private x council house , attic converted bedroom , 7 people living in the house 1 a baby but most in there 20's + parents imagine every room packed with stuff. in the day time the house was a crèche !! I took a week off work to do it . Started on Saturday 8-7 to 1st fix where was used for crèche purposes , to be out the way of children on Monday morn , earliest I finished in 9 days was 7 and latest was 10 ! I did two days 1st fix on my own realised I was trying to peee in a tornado and got my father out of retirement to help me witch was invaluable and my apprentice gave me a half day on 2nd Saturday to 2nd Fix lighting. I finished on 7o'clock 2nd Sunday , I gotta say I was absolutely exhausted in actual work the week after ,
Investments you should make while doing such jobs
> chasing machine + vacuum attachment ( essential! )
> pack of super rods with all the trimmings !! Huge time saver
> telescopic mirror
> cable drum jacks
> lucozade
> dust sheet's every where
> sense of humour
> plan job well,witch client, and material exetra ( minimise wholesaler trips )

 

[MDJ]

I have wired probably close to a hundred myself over the years and the same again at least with others doing them for me with people living in the houses. My verdict = unless you have no other work avoid at all costs, I wouldn't wire one for 5 grand and I am serious about that. Bloody nightmare, especially in the summer holidays. If you have no work and need to earn money every week then do it, but as I mentioned before allow 3 days on top of the quote for lifting and laying carpets and boards, dust sheeting everything all the time, vacuuming daily and moving everything about including the Dog, Cat, playstation, Tv, DVD etc etc. have fun.

 

[GMES]

This : UB40 - Rat in mi Kitchen (Original) - YouTube

Takes a little while to get going, but worth the wait.

(I would have loved to have been their sound man!)

One of my favourite groups Geordie, and impossible love is probably my favourite song although they had so many classics

 

[Geordie Spark]

One of my favourite groups Geordie, and impossible love is probably my favourite song although they had so many classics

I had a cassette tape of them in the car.

I think I wore it out - it was played all the time.