Discuss A complete house rewire where to start???? in the Auto Electrician Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net
I’d expect to find that during the route planning stages?Or they needed to beef up the loading by slapping a piece of joist between two joists at 90 deg thus blocking your carefully planned cable routing, have seen some floors where lou look at the way the joists are running, only to find in the middle of the room they change direction, that's a pain isn't it?
Not really theory Pete more tried n tested just trying to give the op some tips, we all have to start somewhere and a little encouragement doesn’t hurt..Sound and sensible ideas in theory, but of course if all goe to plan you could be on a winner, we all know that the best intentions hardly ever work, in my experience if you chase everything before any wiring is done, what would happen if when it come to actually doing any wiring you find that it's impossible to get the new cables where your chases are? get the cables in situ prior to any chasing.
Rewires done using obviously skill, but more importantly thinking on the hoof, you will never be able
plan your cable route 100% you have to change routing as you go most of the time, depending on how the House joist are laid out, yes I agree check the way the joist are running, but like most things it doesn't always turn out the way you think, knowing the theory of the circuitry required is only half of the story, solving routing etc is the rest, your ideas are sound in theory, but having done many rewires, they don't always pan out the way you would expect. Sorry for the ramble.
Not meant to be having a dig Mate, sorry if you took it that way, just my experience tells me it 's not always as cut and dried as you propose, but yes you're right we all need to start somewhere, guess it is a disagreement between 2 Sparkies, always good to have a debate.Not really theory Pete more tried n tested just trying to give the op some tips, we all have to start somewhere and a little encouragement doesn’t hurt..
Some of the places I have rewired leave tell tell evidence of cable routing, by spotting the floor boards that have been lifted a few times, at least that's my experience.Spot on @Pete999 I couldnt have described my approach better than how you did it.
I like to plan the cable routes from the new CU and how i will get them to the attic for the light and likewise use same holes wherever possible to route other circuits.
I also like to where possible have the new CU on the wall ready to connect each part up as it is done and then remove the old circuits as you go. this is my preferred approach if its lived in,
Not creative at all it's the Dogs do dahs of rewiring imoUp stairs lighting
Start by rewiring the upstairs lighting, this will give you a feel of how labour intensive a rewire is, if yo have any help you should be able to complete this area in a long day.
You don't mention, if you have a wooden floor on the ground floor, if you have, you could then tackle the ground floor sockets, cooker, bonding and anything else that may become evident whilst this area is being pulled apart, forgot to say leave the old switchgear inplace, by doing this you can if the client wishes temporarily connect a socket for overnight, this part with help could take up to 3 days, leave any making good until the rewire is complete, if you are making good yourself, if makes sense to do it all at once, not piecemeal on a daily basis.
Now comes the hardest part in my opinion, the ground floor lighting, and the upstairs sockets, this needs careful planning, try to get the homeowner to dissapear for the day, plan which areas you want to disturb, move the furniture around to suit, if you have employed a carpet fitter/floor layer to lift any carpets or laminate, this also needs planning beforehand. The biggest problem will be leaving the house habitable after you have knocked off for the day, 2 to 3 days should see this part to completion.
Remember to leave any old wiring still left in situ safe as well.
Once these areas have been rewired, time to fit new CU etc and testing and certifying, 2 days should be ample, if there are no problems, if you are making good a day should see this off, depending of course on how much damage you have caused.
Its been a long time since I have done a live in rewire, so there could be some omissions, on the last day it's always a good thing to take the client around the place, explaining why you had to do it this or that way, snagging I think it was called, if you are confident you have covered everything this shouldn't take long at all, good luck.
If I have missed anything, or miscalculated the time frame, I'm positive there will be someone on the Forum with something to say, as I mentioned it's been a while.
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