"Matthew Durkin" wrote in message ...
My Sister has just bought an old house pre-20th century house. We've found a
couple of mains cables running from the fusebox that have a lead sheath
(they looked just like the modern plastic ones until I scratched the paint
off and they revealed shiny lead.

Is there any way of safety testing them?

Pointless, they wont pass any tests.

Lead was generally earthed, but lead is soft so it is hard to grip
with much pressure, so the earthing joints may not be gas tight. And
as youve seen, lead corrodes in air. So it may not be earthed.

You wont need to worry about the exposed rubber insulation causing a
fire as it will probably all have fallen off decades ago. So dont move
the wire at all, not a bit.

The wiring will all be filthy by now: add the 2 above factors and its
very possible the lead may be sitting at something around 120v with
continuous leakage. Ditto everything connected to it.

Leakage degrades insulation, causing more leakage, causing more
degradation, causing hotspots causing charcoal that conducts fairly
well and causes fire.

With such old wiring I expect the only protection is wire fuses, which
would not stop any of the above in most cases.

Now you understand the problems. If only the lighting is on lead you
could disconnect it and use sockets for lights until its rewired. But
an installation like that in has to be thoroughly suspect in all
areas, and almost certainly long overdue for complete rewiring.

I dont know what your insurance co would do in the event of a fire,
whether theyd pay out, someone else may know.


Regards, NT