Owain wrote:

You may run into trouble both with conduit capacity factors and also
derating the cables for grouping.

Possibly, but the one(s) with most load (CU to loft) are only 1m long

If this guy is doing the place up to sell then

Nope, he plans to stay there for the time being IIUC.

(a) the number of sockets must be adequate - inadequate electric sockets
is the sort of stating-the-bleeding-obvious to be picked up on survey.

I did suggest that, and expect that in reality one could add more with
very little disruption in some places (like the kitchen etc). There is
no point saving 500 now if it causes a future buyer to bargin you down 3K.

If the job can't be done to current expectations of number of sockets,
perhaps better to leave it for the buyer to modernise.

Given that he may be there for another 10 years, I would not be keen to
hang about with insulation in that sort of state though.

(b) the place probably needs the decoration freshening anyway, whether
he wants to or not - so better to bite the bullet, chase in the cables

Decoration was done recently alas (before mom departed)...

and re-emulsion. IIRC you said the sockets had old mounting holes, so
you'll probably have to break out the old back boxes from the conduit
anyway.

Sockets are on standard metal back boxes from what I have seen - so no
problem with them. The light switches however have wood ones that will
not fit current switches, so some delicate work with the SDS will be
needed for them!

(c) if the sisters are getting 2/3rds of the profits from sale, perhaps
they should be prepared to chip in 2/3rds of the cost of the upgrade.

I think they may be prepared to cough up some contribution (although
they probably figure that letting brother live rent free in their
inheritance contributes a way toward it!). I don't think he was that
bothered by the cost, but just wanted to avoid too much disruption, and
hates the smell of paint!

--
Cheers,

John.

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