House electrical wiring

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Byrned

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#85290 16-Jun-2011 15:02

So, I've just going through the harrowing task of buying a house, but I am unsure of whether or not it will need to be rewired.

The house was built in the 50's and has one of the old ceramic style fuse boards, but from what I've been told, the old guy that lived there was a retired electrician and has rewired already. Does this sound right if it's still got the old school board? Does this mean I can just get someone in to replace the board and move the meter outside?

cyril7

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#481900 16-Jun-2011 15:14

Any changes to the switch board will not come cheap, basically if you touch it in any way then you will need to bring the whole thing up to full modern standards which requires RCDs throughout.

What is more important is that the cabling is TPS (white sheath) and no rubber (dull black sheathed cable) is anywhere, I would guess if the previous owner is a sparkie he would have hauled it out as its a serious and real fire risk.

As for the ceramic fuses, nothing really wrong with them, but replacing them with pluggin MCBs would be well advised, but I recommend you get a sparkie to do this as you need to check you have the right rating on each circuit.

My recommendation is to get a sparkie to look at it, get a report on how bad it is, and if not too bad then look at potential improvements ie pluggin MCB options.

Cyril

Byrned

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#481904 16-Jun-2011 15:23

Yep, its all TPS, so at least that is something.

Any idea what a rough cost would be to finish the job? I think i'd rather go the whole hog and have RCD's plus it's a selling point if I need to resell.

mattwnz

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#481909 16-Jun-2011 15:39

Byrned: So, I've just going through the harrowing task of buying a house, but I am unsure of whether or not it will need to be rewired.

The house was built in the 50's and has one of the old ceramic style fuse boards, but from what I've been told, the old guy that lived there was a retired electrician and has rewired already. Does this sound right if it's still got the old school board? Does this mean I can just get someone in to replace the board and move the meter outside?

Isn't this something you should have checked before buying the house when you got it inspected? If the wring is from the 50's it is likely it will need the wiring looked at, and you will also want to install additional hotpoints and lighting, as the old 50's houses often didn't include too many.

The ceramic bits are just fuses, which can be switched with plastic ones. But there is nothing wrong with the ceramic ones.

Jaxson

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#481918 16-Jun-2011 15:50

cyril7: My recommendation is to get a sparkie to look at it, get a report on how bad it is, Cyril

+1

Just get someone to look at it and tell you what they are seeing.
You can get quotes from there.

As mentioned above though, get any future work done and you'd need to bank on more than the job alone to upgrade the rest of it to modern stadards.

scuwp

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#481919 16-Jun-2011 15:53

Have you signed yet? If not then make it a condition of the sale that the electrical wiring is inspected and any issues brought up to spec before you go unconditional. Either that or negotiate a reduction of the sale price.

Failing that I would get an inspection/report from a qualified person and go from there.

IME tradespeople are the worst when it comes to their own properties.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

StarBlazer

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#481924 16-Jun-2011 15:59

We got our fuse board updated and a couple of bits of wiring changed and sockets installed - the bill was around $1500. But it gives you great peace of mind (esp with kids) that the sockets are much safer.

New Fuse board, 2 sections on separate RCD. Full MCBs and replaced the bell transformer. Wiring was really expensive esp for the light switches where the house had pipes for the wiring to go down - they had to use special wire apparently - which was probably more expensive per metre than cocaine or gold.

Best advice - get a sparkie you can trust.

Procrastination eventually pays off.

Mighty Ape

Shop now at Mighty Ape (affiliate link).

timmmay

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#481934 16-Jun-2011 16:25

StarBlazer: which was probably more expensive per metre than cocaine or gold.

If you're buying cocaine by the meter you have bigger fish to fry!

StarBlazer

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#481936 16-Jun-2011 16:27

timmmay:
StarBlazer: which was probably more expensive per metre than cocaine or gold.

If you're buying cocaine by the meter you have bigger fish to fry!

Ha Ha

- I think I'd be the one fried.

Procrastination eventually pays off.

bnapi

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#481938 16-Jun-2011 16:31

Byrned: So, I've just going through the harrowing task of buying a house, but I am unsure of whether or not it will need to be rewired.

The house was built in the 50's and has one of the old ceramic style fuse boards, but from what I've been told, the old guy that lived there was a retired electrician and has rewired already. Does this sound right if it's still got the old school board? Does this mean I can just get someone in to replace the board and move the meter outside?

What suburb and city is the house in?

LennonNZ

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#481941 16-Jun-2011 16:41

The ceramic bits are just fuses, which can be switched with plastic ones. But there is nothing wrong with the ceramic ones.

Except when you have to find a 1c bit of fuse wire to replace the one which just blew..