Hello,

I didn't look close enough at the electrics before I bought this
house. I have found that none of the sockets are on a ring: they are
all wired as radials, some with spurs. I know you can have a radial
with a 20A MCB but they are not wired like that (32a MCB in CU making
it look like rings)! I found at least one socket that did not have an
earth connection!

The lights are wired curiously. Some of it is red and black T&E. Some
of it is T&E that has stranded conductors. And some of it is (if such
a thing exists) "single and earth": grey outer insulation, with a red
insulated wire inside and an un insulated earth wire. Though earth
wires may be present in the cable, they are not always connected;
sometimes they are cut level with the grey insulation.

What is frustrating is that a professional firm of electricians fitted
a new consumer unit a few months before I bought the house. How did
they let the vendor get away with this? Shouldn't they have tested for
earths at the sockets, etc? It seems to me fishy that someone should
buy a new CU just before moving house. I wonder whether someone else
made an offer on the house, had a survey, and withdrew their offer
because of the electrics, so the vendor fitted a new CU to give the
appearance that everything was ok?

I thought I would begin by rewiring the lights. My house is like this:

ground floor: lounge and kitchen
first floor: front bedroom, rear bedroom, bathroom
second floor (loft conversion): bedroom and en suite

I thought I would start on the first floor as I am already doing some
decorating on that level.

The loft conversion above is making it very difficult to follow wires.
What do the professionals do when rewiring houses: remove carpet and
cut holes in the floor above or cut holes in the ceiling below?

Rather than move the bed and roll back the carpet in the loft
conversion, I went with cut a hole in the ceiling on the first floor.
It seems that the builders have run chicken wire between the old
ceiling joists and placed rock wool insulation slabs on top of this.
This has interfered with me using rods to push cables along. Why would
they put insulation between the first and second floors? Surely it
would be better to put it above the loft conversion, not under it?

It is very filthy up there, lots of black dirt has fallen onto me.

To make matters worse, the loft conversion is on new joists that run
between the old ones (which are still used to hold up the ceilings of
the rooms below).

The light at the top of the stairs is on the ground floor light
circuit, yet the light in the rear bedroom is connected to that lamp
for its live and neutral. It seems the loop connections on the light
at the top of the stairs are used for the upstairs light circuit but
the switched live for that light comes from the ground floor circuit!
I think this is dangerous as you would not expect one fitting to have
conductors from two circuits. Do you agree?

What is the best way for me to rectify this? Should I put the light at
the top of the stairs onto the upstairs circuit? Or should I leave
that light on the ground floor circuit and just remove the first floor
live connection to that fitting? What is the common practice with
stair lights; what circuit do you put them on, or do you give the
stairs a circuit all of their own (perhaps shared with fire alarms?)

Thanks,
Stephen.