rewire with people living there

[Andy™]

At the moment, we have a place we are trying to get into that has wood block flooring in the bedroom above the lounge, and the punter doesn't want us to have it taken up, OR have the ceiling down. That's on hold until they have come to some satisfactory arrangement with the council. Horrid place - hope it's not me that gets landed with it!

coving

 

[GreekIslandLover]

Suggested that, but the woman doesn't want 4" stuff - only wooden thin coving. Besides, you can't get it round two of the walls. Can't please some people!

 

[Andy™]

how about a socket next to mains board, and a little light there too so you can see the only socket?

 

[sellers]

This is based on a surface rewire.

Cheers. J

Whats a surface rewire??

thanks

 

[Zeespark]

Plastic patress boxes with drops from the ceiling or the floor in mini trunking. A favourite of councils.

AndyGuinness

 

[revjames]

as opposed to a 'sunk' job. I recently went to a job in a house that had been converted to flats. There was a fault in the lighting circuit. I ent to the flat above and worked out where on the newly laid T&G chipboard I would have to lift a trap. Spoke to the builder and found out the original floorboards were under the chipboard and about a foot of insulation and a false ceiling before I would get to the light. Decided to smash a 6" hole in the ceiling and fix it that way!

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Hi there I wonder if you could give me your thoughts , i have done loads of rewires but they have all been empty or new property's. so it was rip out, 1st fix , 2nd fix , test , job done!

I have got a bugalow to rewire , but the bloke is living there also.

I was wondering how to tackle it so he wasn't inconvinianced ... any thoughts

I have lost count of the number of "lived in" rewires I have done now...

They are not difficult, Obviously Not as easy as empty..

But NOT difficult! :|

It just a matter of sorting a suitable approach based on that particular building, how many occupants are living there, etc.. etc..

Few tips for consideration.

Uncle Spec Locs General tips for Houses as well as bungalows!

{in NO order of prefernce... just how they came into my headBlushing}

1/ Allow more time on the job.. therefore price it appropriately.

(don't price a lived in same as an empty property)

or looking it another way...

Consider your time calculations just as you would if planning to travel to a main shopping centre during rush-hour, -vs- late at night on a bank holiday when its all closed. could easily be double the duration!!!!

2/ Some jobs are better approached on a room by room basis rather than circuit by circuit basis. e.g. if a lot of furniture is shifted out of one room, you can fully attack that room then vacate it so that then becomes the furniture room.

3/ Putting furniture into a row in the middle of a room leaving leaving a gap 5 or 6 floorboards width at either side, allows for carpet to be rolled back toward the middle, then 2 or 3 rows of floorboards can be lifted the total width of the room. Then Using access rods / curtain track / trunking lid or similar you can usually fish cables across the room easy

4/ Work out your cable routes going up between floors quite early on. They can be pivotal to how you run cables later.. e.g. in an occupied property to minimise damage to decoration it may be likely that routes up between floors are NOT the shortest routes. (allow extra in you cable costs as well!)

5/ Suss out your joist / Floorboard directions... And beware of the changed direction phenomena, ie. two rooms joist run front to back... landings/hall & other room joist run left to right (often with properties that have previously been extended! )

6/ Wago/Ideal/Push fit connections are very useful for providing overnight temporary power to parts of the property that need to be disconcerted the following day.

7/ If you are working you way round from the fuse box "building up a ring circuit" but then ends don't yet join up... Stick a temporary 20A MCB on to work it as two radial branches until the ring is completed.

8/ Try and work out if the owner can move out for a few days.. e.g have a short break / long weekend away with friends family, to let you blast on and break-the-back of the job! without needing to keep getting floorboards up and down and up and down and up and down each night!

9/ Obviously surface wiring is easier to do.....

But IMHO it looks a bl00dy mess and craps things up later when people have to decorate.. Personally I always do concealed cables flush fitted accessories wherever possible, looks 120% better and I can look back a job I am proud of. IF you need to patch up around an accessory for a "quick" get power back on requirement, Coving adhesive is cheap and drys really hard really quick. Other brand-name Ready mixed fillers are helpful but often need to wait 24hrs for them to be really dry!

10/ Always try and roll back carpets horizontally parallel to a wall NOT diagonal from a corner. Diagonal tends to leave more carpet rolled back than is useful for accessing the boards below.

11/ Beware of moving self build IKEA/Flat-Pack furniture.. It has a tendency to break or fall apart in your hands.. treat with caution!

12/ Allow at least 1 Day per room +1 Day for hall/stairs/landing + 1 Day for CU + 1 Day for testing + 1 Day for outside fittings & bonding + 1 Day for overruns or unforeseen items!

13/ Have two spare long leads and a suitable power supply in case you need to keep power on Fridge and/or freezer. Remember Fridges & Freezers can often be in different places.. e.g. Kitchen & Garage

 

[Lurch]

9/ Obviously surface wiring is easier to do..... But IMHO it looks a bl00dy mess and craps things up later when people have to decorate.. Personally I always do concealed cables flush fitted accessories wherever possible, looks 120% better and I can look back a job I am proud of.

What I've done before if there's a room or 2 people have just decorated is do that\those room(s) surface and then tell them to give me a shout when they redecorate.

13/ Have two spare long leads and a suitable power supply in case you need to keep power on Fridge and/or freezer. Remember Fridges & Freezers can often be in different places.. e.g. Kitchen & Garage

Bear in mind a fridge\freezer will be quite happy all day long with no power on as long as it isn't on the drive in the burning sun and the door is kept closed. Most people panic as soon as you turn the power off and think everything will perish within 20 minutes.

 

[sellers]

Plastic patress boxes with drops from the ceiling or the floor in mini trunking. A favourite of councils.AndyGuinness

Oh, haha, I thought it was some domestic sparky code. Didnt realise it actually meant surface in that way.

 

[user 6351]

...that rooms been decorated, you can't touch anything in there...

...don't you dare leave me any squeaky floorboards...

...I won't be going out at all, so I'll need power for the TV all week...

...oh no, you can't chase out for any switch drops...

So you end up trying to stuff new wires down the old conduit, fit sockets just above the skirting (and to hell with part m of the regs) because it means no chasing, and then they wonder why the job takes longer than it really should do!!!

Having had my moan, I think pretty much the same as mentioned before. Get a lighting cct done the first day, and temporarily added to the old board (if you're really lucky and everything goes to plan, then get the new CU in and stick it straight in there), lighting 2 on day two, then the rings days 3 and 4, allowing half of day 5 for finishing the rings and/or doing the shower, then the second half for testing and commissioning.

On an aside, I rang a local company about a job they had advertised the other week when things were quiet... they expect you to do a full rewire of a three bed house (with tenants in) in a day!!! (ok, so it was a team of three lads, but I think that they were taking the p!!!)