fire damage job

[bristolsparky]

Hi Chaps,

I have been asked to price up a fire damaged flat and was after some advice...

I was thinking to carry our a EICR firstly to highlight any non compliances and obviously to assess the fire damage etc.

The fire in question apparently was only in the front room but almost every ceiling and wall is nearly black from the smoke not from the fire/heat damage. Most of the sockets and some switch's look not to bad but the front room looks buggered and the whole flat is wired completely in grey twin and earth. Surely the general heat from the fire would have not done any of the other close rooms wiring any gotsod so am thinking more towards the rewire side of things to be on the safe side?!.. The foreman running the job is a ex sparky and simply wants me do bare minimum if the megger readings are fine etc but i personally think it would be better practice to rewire or at least partially rewire?

Let me know your thoughts guys...

 

[uksparks]

Rip it out and start again as its all going to need gutting anyway if all the walls are black and shagged, my dad was a fireman for 35 years and has seen a thing or two!

 

[davesparks]

Let them remove whatever ceilings etc that they need to first.
Then go in and have a good look at the installation to start with followed by testing the parts which appear undamaged.
Then come up with a plan of action.
Look for damage caused by firefighters as well as fire damage, there will have been a fair amount of water in there!

 

[bristolsparky]

Thanks lads really appreciate the input never had to do a fire damaged property before! I am going to try and push for a rewire as i don't feel confident in reusing much of the existing wiring.

 

[Andy78]

If cables test out fine and there is no visible damage then you are going to have a job on justifying replacing them, especially to a skinflint landlord. Insist on replacing accessories, as Dave said, water damage is likely in most of them.

 

[ruston]

Thanks lads really appreciate the input never had to do a fire damaged property before! I am going to try and push for a rewire as i don't feel confident in reusing much of the existing wiring.

It will only take a small amounts of random , hidden damaged cables in places you don't expect that will muck your plans up. A thorough test is essential.

I had one years ago the cables were melted behind the capping - the wall didn't look too bad , so it just goes to show.

 

[TJ Anderson]

On the balance of probability, there will be damage that you will not see even if IR is good. In any case the installation will not be 100% as good as it was pre-fire. All I will say is, (and I am not saying take a blow torch to work) you can make of it what you want with the tests to justify the result you want e.g. rewiring. Good for you and also safe for whomever lives there.

 

[londonfire]

The place would be almost written off from an insurance point of view due to the smoke damage so in light of that don't sell yourself short when you price it up as its likely you will be paid by the insurer and may have to wait for payments etc.

 

[ruston]

On the balance of probability, there will be damage that you will not see even if IR is good. In any case the installation will not be 100% as good as it was pre-fire. All I will say is, (and I am not saying take a blow torch to work) you can make of it what you want with the tests to justify the result you want e.g. rewiring. Good for you and also safe for whomever lives there.

If the building has had a good amount of heat , as you say there will be a lot of none evident damage to cables in solid walls. It really depends on the extent of the fire.

 

[Engineer54]

Ask the Ex Sparky Foreman if he is going to be signing any assessments off to substantiate bare minimum corrective works to this fire damaged flat?? But i can guess the answer to that one!!

 

[DPG]

Surely it's false economy not to rewire. Who knows what damage has been done. And it's not as if you're going to have to move furniture or worry about carpets and plaster. Nice and easy! Daz

 

[7029 dave]

Test, if IR is good take it from there, replace what you need too.

 

[DPG]

Test, if IR is good take it from there, replace what you need too.

Not worth the risk. IR could be clear but cable could still have damage. House is already empty and gutted - nice and easy to replace it all. Daz