I am buying a house, and have made enquiries about the electrical
system. I was told that a previous electrician had noticed a new
'Consumer Unit' had been recently fitted, under the stairs. Would an
electrician fit a consumer unit to old wiring, or does this mean that
the wiring itself would have been replaced/ upgraded? Any advice would
be appreciated.

I was told that a previous electrician had noticed a new
'Consumer Unit' had been recently fitted, under the stairs. Would an
electrician fit a consumer unit to old wiring, or does this mean that
the wiring itself would have been replaced/ upgraded?

It just means that it is more likely to have more recent wiring. There's
certainly no guarantee. You'd hope that no-one would stick a new consumer
unit in whilst not bothering to replace the disintegrating rubber wiring,
but you can't be sure. At least the rubber would be safer with the RCD (or
more likely not work at all with all the leakage).

Christian.

In article ,
Nick wrote:
I am buying a house, and have made enquiries about the electrical
system. I was told that a previous electrician had noticed a new
'Consumer Unit' had been recently fitted, under the stairs. Would an
electrician fit a consumer unit to old wiring, or does this mean that
the wiring itself would have been replaced/ upgraded?

It could be any combination of new or old wiring. Best to have it checked
properly.

--
*24 hours in a day ... 24 beers in a case ... coincidence? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 4 Nov 2004 08:54:45 -0800, (Nick) wrote:

I am buying a house, and have made enquiries about the electrical
system. I was told that a previous electrician had noticed a new
'Consumer Unit' had been recently fitted, under the stairs. Would an
electrician fit a consumer unit to old wiring, or does this mean that
the wiring itself would have been replaced/ upgraded? Any advice would
be appreciated.

Have it checked. Be warned by my experience :-

I did my own survey when buying my house a few years back. It all
looked ok - new sockets, new switches and modern PVC cable coming from
the consumer unit.

It was only after purchasing that I found that this PVC wiring
extended about 3 feet under the floor boards before being connected
into the old rubber **** using 'chocolate block' connectors.

How ****ed off was I?


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In article ,
Kalico wrote:
Have it checked. Be warned by my experience :-

I did my own survey when buying my house a few years back. It all
looked ok - new sockets, new switches and modern PVC cable coming from
the consumer unit.

It was only after purchasing that I found that this PVC wiring
extended about 3 feet under the floor boards before being connected
into the old rubber **** using 'chocolate block' connectors.

Always wise to remove a random switch, socket and ceiling rose to see
what's behind.

--
*Nostalgia isn't what is used to be.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Thu, 04 Nov 2004 19:29:51 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

Always wise to remove a random switch, socket and ceiling rose to see
what's behind.

How I wish I had - but you know how it is when you don't want to
embarrass people?

Actually, the whole buying of the house was a bit like that since I
had the 'cheek to make an offer'.

They turned me down flat. I upped my offer - they told me to get lost
- "How dare I make an offer".

Problem was that they wanted me to say that I had not found the house
via an estate agent, which I had.

Doing this, of course, would mean they saved about £2000 on fees. No
problem to me so I suggested we, in effect, share the saving £1000
each.

Mr Vendor had different thoughts and wanted the £2000 to himself.
Turns out later he was a bit bitter anyway as I think his wife wanted
out of the relationship. But certainly seemed to be one of those
unfortunates we all meet at some point in life who is not going to let
anyone 'get one over' on them, even if they are not.

So they found another buyer through the agent, also offering less than
asking price, something I couldn't understand since they would
eventually have netted less than my original offer, but hey! I was the
******* who dared to make an offer!

To cut the story short, I eventually called the agent and offered the
asking price (first time I had ever done that in my life), knowing
that they would have to accept my higher offer on the advice of the
agent.

I got the house, but the guy was incredibly ****ed off that it was me
who got it. Strangely, his wife was fine about it.

They left it in a shocking state and locked me out of 'my' new garage
(which was still full of their stuff).

BUT, all this sort of thing is nothing if not good experience and at
the end of the day, I've got a nice house, albeit with dodgy
electrics.

Rob




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