Full rewire - Avg terrace

[Roadhousezamora]

Morning everyone, I've posted a few times but I'm new here and thought I'd see if there's any interest in me doing this...

I've recently purchased a property (Avg terrace) and I'm looking to do a full rewire on it. Ive done the domestic qualifications and have completed rewires in the past with another spark but this will be my first go at doing this alone.

I will be approaching building control to have my work checked and will be getting an isolator fitted to the below setup before I disconnect everything and fit a temporary board.

Is there any interest from perhaps more inexperienced forum members in me documenting this as a thread over the coming couple of months?

It's worth noting I won't be living there so this process won't be the quickest as I will be taking on plenty of other aspects of the renovation alongside the electrical work.

Anyways if there isn't a lot of interest I will be more than happy to pull the thread but I just thought I would test the water and see.

Cheers everyone...

Oh here's a pic of my starting point...

^

 

[ferg]

If you have thick enough skin to be posting pictures of your work on the open forum then go for it.
You will certainly get feedback!
Probably not a bad thing. It will either boost your confidence due to the collective awe at your perfection or more likely identify areas where you might be able to improve.
It's worth noting that it is extremely rare for pictures of work to be posted without getting some form of..... constructive criticism.

 

[Roadhousezamora]

I admit to being inexperienced and would hope that given my work is going to be checked by building control it'll need to be up to scratch or it won't be passed.

As long as feedback is constructive then a mistake is a mistake and will need correcting so I'm happy to give it a shot (as I say if ppl feel there's an interest in it).

As I was once told mistakes are the best way to learn.

 

[timhoward]

Go for it. I think you've set the tone well.
It would be interesting to know how many circuits are in use between those three CU's, as it all looks a little bit OTT for a terrace!

(I'd probably just take the long tails from the Wylex and use them to feed the Proteus as a temporary supply as it looks as though there's an RCD main switch - it has test sticker at least!).

 

[Roadhousezamora]

Thanks Tim, it'll be sporadic when I post to the thread given everything else but I'd like to see how it goes.

Agreed it is overkill and next time I'm there I will open all the boards and show what's going on.

The Rcd you mentioned is actually an RCBO which has been added for the electric shower upstairs.

I intended to build a small temporary board with an A3 radial on from a new garage CU and a 20A RCBO. Hopefully I can remove this and transfer this between houses if needed in the future.

 

[timhoward]

I intended to build a small temporary board with an A3 radial on from a new garage CU and a 20A RCBO. Hopefully I can remove this and transfer this between houses if needed in the future.

Very good idea. I did similar years ago and it's been invaluable countless times.
One approach that has worked really well for me is to connect a breaker on the garage CU to a 16amp female socket. Then use standard (caravan) 16A leads to get power to where you need it; these can be daisy chained too.
Finally if you get a metalclad socket, some flex, some stuffing glands, and put a 16A male and female socket on either side of it you can then have power wherever you want it and daisy chain on to somewhere else. This makes a modular system that can grow easily.

 

[Roadhousezamora]

I will look into this Tim instead of running 30m extension leads everywhere. Thanks for the idea. I will put some pics up when I've built these.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Yes , document your progress through the 1st and 2nd fox stages of your re-wire, add lots of pictures of your work in progress. pictures are quite handy reminders of where you ran cables especially when it comes to putting up shelves and picture hooks in the future...

don't forget lots of pictures of your consumer unit as well, everyone loves evaluating a consumer unit for neatness

good luck with the rewire , take your time and it will be fine

 

[Roadhousezamora]

So along with stripping wallpaper and removing baths and finding the stopcock, I've been building myself a temporary board to replace the consumer unit(s) that are at the property and that can be moved with me to any others in the future. Below are some pictures of how it's turned out.

I've fitted two circuits for now, a 20a radial with 3 double 13a plug top outlets and a 16a radial with one 13a plug top outlet and both 16a commando sockets.

I bought a relatively big BG unit considering what I was doing but felt it would allow me to extend in the future if I needed to and it also didn't break the bank. I've used RCBOs as the breakers but have yet to shorten and properly terminate the neutral fly leads with ferrules... I also need some more blanks for the spare ways in the board.

This is my first go, be gentle lol.

 

[pc1966]

Looks like you are making a decent start.

If you can, I would post your analysis of what is currently in use and what you propose to replace it with. That way any obvious oddities can be commented on. I'm thinking here of your original photo as it appears to have some heavy T&E going up the way, are there other CU in the property? If not what is it for, a very big shower, etc?

In most cases the IET On-Site Guide is your best starting point as it gives typical "standard circuits" with acceptable installation methods (i.e. thermal insulation) and maximum lengths so you quickly check if it is good to go for most cases.