Hi,
I am planning to rewire a house of 1927 vintage. I am in process of notifiying the local council of the proposed works. It is important that the decoration is left as intact as possible throughout this project, hence some of the questions below.
I am not a certified electrician (but have done a lot of domestic wiring over the years) and have a few questions which hopefully somebody can help with:
1) All wiring except in the ktchen is rubber and needs to be replaced. The kitchen wiring was installed more recently and is PVC but is wired as a radial rather then a ring circuit. Is it acceptable under modern practices to leave this as a radial (from reading the wiring regs I believe it is) - there are only 3 double sockets to be served - one of which will power a new central heating boiler?
2) The fuse boxes are in an under stairs cupboard and the stair well is used to carry existing cables to the upstairs under floor and loft spaces. Will it be acceptable to run cables on the surface of the stair well walls in conduit?
3) The understairs cupboard has cables run on the surface of the walls - I assume this practice is still ok if they are in conduit?
4) The wall between the stair well and the lounge is solid wood - about 1" thick. Currently there is one light switch and one single socket screwed to this wall on the lounge side with the cables being fed through the wall from the stair well. Is this acceptable practice?
4) I need to fit a consumer unit to replace the fuse boxes. If I get a certified electrican to connect this to the meter tails am I allowed to connect new circuits to it and then test and use them pending local council inspection, or does a certified electrician need to connect the new circuits to the consumer unit?
5) Some of the rooms have picture rails which will break conduit runs from light switches to ceilings. Is there a 'clever' way of making this cosmetically good?
Any help appreciated.
Many thanks,
Graham
