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Hi,
I hope I have posted this in the right place and the questions I have you don't get asked too often. I have tried searching but didn't find anything.

I have just moved into a new 4 bed detached house, prior to doing so I had an EICR report done that recommended a full rewire.
I have got electricians coming round this week to quote and have just put my spec together.
In your opinion, does my spec look reasonable, is there anything obvious I have missed off, what sort of cost should I roughly be expecting and what questions should I be asking of the electricians?

I am just trying to be as prepared as possible and have a little better understanding of the process so I'm not going in completely blind and naive.

Thanks in advance for any help.
 

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Firstly welcome to the forums :)

Before you dive head first into a rewire... you say it's a new 4 bed detached house. When you say new are you meaning it's a new build or it's just new to you? If it's the later, I would be interested to know how old the property is, and maybe some pictures of the existing fusebox/consumer unit.
 
Hi, thanks for the welcome. It is new to me, built in 1972.
We purchased it from the man who had it built and had lived in it ever since.

I have attached a photo of the consumer unit.
 

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Welcome to the forum.
Will you and your family be occupying the house whilst the rewire is being done? If so, the costs will be considerably higher than if you vacated the house for the duration - it will take a lot longer to complete in an inhabited house.
Have you budgeted for a plasterer and full redecoration? It looks like you'll need this judging from the new sockets and lighting.
 
Thanks for clarifying the age.

It's safe to say that fusebox isn't from 1972. It has RCD protection for a lot of the circuits but not all.

As @Dannyboybl00 says, if you're living in it, rewiring it will take longer so if you can budget for staying away from the property for the duration it may work out cheaper in the long run.

Whilst it may not matter to you and personally if it was my place I'd probably have it rewired to bring it up to modern standards and my specs, I'm just curious about the observations that were listed on the EICR. :)
 
Thanks for the replies.
We will be living in the property whilst the rewire is done, unfortunately due to work and school for my son we don't have any alternatives. We're aware of the mess and disruption that comes with a rewire, hence doing it as our first job before anything else gets done to the house.

My father-in-law was previously a plasterer so will be helping us with that and the redecoration will be done gradually afterwards, we don't mind the walls looking messy in the short term.

We are definitely going ahead with the rewire, there are some light fittings that when dusted have caused the fuse to trip, others that look original from 1972 and if we are going to have to do it at some point, we would rather do it now and bring the electrics up to scratch and try and future proof where-ever possible.

So advice on anything missing from my spec, time it should take to complete, cost estimate, questions to ask the electricians etc would be appreciated.

I have attached the EICR report.
 
I've just deleted the report because it contains personally identifiable information of both you and the company carrying out the inspection. I should perhaps have suggested that if you want to upload it that you do so by taking pictures of the pages and then redact the personally identifiable information, or print a copy out and redact it with a marker pen or postit notes, something of that ilk.

Or simply photograph the pages with no personally identifiable information on and upload those.
 
I'm also interested to know why a house built in 1972 needs a full rewire. Has it been bodged/added to badly?

Loving the old 1960s style toggle switch next to the consumer unit :)
 
If I was moving into a 1972 property, I’d probably consider a rewire, come what may. I suppose the only caveat is that it has only one previous owner.

I see that you’ve included Ethernet cabling, have you considered cabling for satellite tv, if that’s your bag? I can’t read your doc on my iPad very well.
 
I've just deleted the report because it contains personally identifiable information of both you and the company carrying out the inspection. I should perhaps have suggested that if you want to upload it that you do so by taking pictures of the pages and then redact the personally identifiable information, or print a copy out and redact it with a marker pen or postit notes, something of that ilk.

Or simply photograph the pages with no personally identifiable information on and upload those.

Thanks, I had forgotten to remove that info. I have re-attached and should have taken out all personal details.

We have Sky TV but only in the living room and no plans to have it anywhere else in the house.

Would appreciate peoples thoughts on the EICR.
 

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Only had a brief look, but noticed these:

Connector blocks located in DB is given a C2 code

The IR fail is with all circuits connected together - this could just be a fault on one circuit

Not sure what points towards a full re-wire being needed, but as I say I only skimmed it.
 
Yep, just looks like some alterations could rectify those things; is it me or does this property have SPD’s? Strange main earthing conductor is 10, and the bonding is 16, or are my eyes deceiving me.

@NotElectrician, I’d still consider rewiring a 48 year old house, if it’s been messed around with in its life.
 
We were told by the person who completed the EICR report that one of the main issues was that it was at it's full capacity and adding to it would overload it. As all the bedrooms have at most 2 twin sockets we want/need to add more.
 
That report shows little evidence of alterations or the fact it should be rewired however there is no reason why you wouldn't want to start from scratch and rewire it.
 
I did download it and these are my comments... bear in mind this is without seeing the installation.

Obs. 1 - "Main bonding conductor undersized for the property - C2" If the bonding conductor is 6mm and shows signs of thermal damage or is smaller than that, then I would class it as a C2, but if it's 6mm or above with no signs of thermal damage I would C3 meaning it could be improved but does not pose a danger.

Obs 2. - This is a little unclear "Socket in the garage on ring main has been spurred off for more than one point - C2". Having just seen the picture included in the report, yes it's non-compliant and warrants a C2

Obs 3. - "Connector blocks located within the DB - C2" - Unless there is clear evidence of thermal damage, this in my considered opinion is bunkum and does not warrant any kind of code. They are accessible for inspection and when the board is closed it's compliant.

Obs 4. - "Bathroom lights not IP rated for type of room. Require replacing as no extract fan - C2" Depending on where the lights are located they may require different IP ratings, and whilst not ideal it is entirely possible the lamps are compliant, for example, the zones end 2.25m above the finished floor level so above that the lamp could be anything you like. Having seen the picture, I stand by what I've said here... it looks like the ceiling falls outside the zones and as such the lights are compliant, not sensible, but compliant with the requirements of section 701 and as such warrant no code.

Obs. 10 - "Provision of additional protection for cables installed in walls containing metal parts - C3" - This usually refers to metal framed partition walls that are quite common nowadays or the kind of partition systems you find in offices, so unless there are metal framed wall(s) in the property this looks to be a bit of a stretch. If it's the fact we put metal in the walls, then that should be earthed anyway and doesn't fall under the remit of this (IMHO).

Obs. 12 - "Additional protection by rcd... blah blah blah... for circuits passing through zones 1 and 2 and not serving a location containing.. blah blah blah - C3". Unless there are cables under the bath (i.e. above the floor and below the bath), then I think this is unlikely because the walls, the ceiling and the floor constitute an end of the zone at the most basic level. Cables running in them are not 'in the zones'. As such, this shouldn't be on there in my opinion.

The rest seem fair, but of course that's without seeing the installation.

Looking at the test results, I'd question the insulation resistance results for 7,8,9,10, looks like they've tested them as a block. I'd also question the r1, rn and r2 results for 9 and 10 as they are identical whilst other results are quite different.

The comment about the whole installation having an IR less than 1Mohm, that is most likely down to circuits 2 and 5 as they have very low readings, so much so that if I were testing, I'd probably have disconnected them or at least made some attempt to try and find why they are so low, particularly circuit 2 which appears to show a dead short for all the tests (worth looking at during the inspection in my opinion because that could present a real danger).

As for the statement that alterations could overload it, I think that unlikely given most of the socket circuits are 32A a piece.

As has already been said, there is little evidence in the report to support making the statement 'it needs a rewire' but, as you're going to want to make changes it's a good time to do it before you've decorated and put your stamp on the place.
 
Are you planning any other major refurbishments? The kitchen for example. I would consider using dedicated circuits for that, so it could be altered at a later date, without disruption to the rest of the house.

Neutrals at light switches as well; everyone seems to want smart switches. Supply for electric car charger, supply for garden shed etc.
 
I agree with some the general consensus that although a full rewire may not be needed, if you intend to live in the house for many years to come, now is the time to do it, it will at least give you peace of mind.

The original report may well be correct, but my gut feeling is it might be a little harsh.

Things to consider

Going for a full rcbo board will cost more but in my opinion is The better way to go.

Ensure that there is a neutral at each light switch location.
This will help if you later upgrade to any smart switching etc.

Fit more sockets than you think you will need
Consider sockets in some places with built in USB ports.
Consider adding cat 5 cables to future proof
CCTV cameras will use cat 5 too.

It might be worth putting some extra cables in for future expansion

From board to loft for solar panels
From board to suitable location for car charger
Garden lights
Hot tub
Shed
Pond

The above list is not a do all type recomendation
But if you are having the disruption of plaster off walls etc then now is the time to put the cable in.

I.e. in 10 years time when you are having solar panels all over the roof and the tradesman is trying to tell you where they are about to run a cable down the outside wall, you can point to the corner of the loft and say there is a 10mm cable there that goes to the board, can’t you use that?!!
 

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