Post re-wiring advice needed - Walls

Mumha

Hi

Just trying to get an idea on what to expect. Will be getting a 1960s house completely rewired in due course. There are some 3 pin plugs but there are still 2 pin plugs there too, so it'll be safer to be starting from scratch, and there'll be a lot of chasing of walls, on walls where there is a mix of wall paper and paint.

My question is, will I be expecting to skim all the walls, or is there another option ?

Thanks

bunderoon

Mumha wrote: »

Hi

Just trying to get an idea on what to expect. Will be getting a 1960s house completely rewired in due course. There are some 3 pin plugs but there are still 2 pin plugs there too, so it'll be safer to be starting from scratch, and there'll be a lot of chasing of walls, on walls where there is a mix of wall paper and paint.

My question is, will I be expecting to skim all the walls, or is there another option ?

Thanks

An electrician wont be interested in feeding new wires down old chases, so expect a new chase for each drop.

Also, from experience, re-skim every wall you can afford to.
No matter how good the plasterer is, you'll see the seams in certain shades of light.

Off topic a bit, but consider more power sockets on the wall where the TV is and also multiple runs for Cat6 & SAT cable.

Mumha

bunderoon wrote: »

An electrician wont be interested in feeding new wires down old chases, so expect a new chase for each drop.

Also, from experience, re-skim every wall you can afford to.
No matter how good the plasterer is, you'll see the seams in certain shades of light.

Off topic a bit, but consider more power sockets on the wall where the TV is and also multiple runs for Cat6 & SAT cable.

Thanks for your response, yes I was expecting to do a lot of new chases (there were so few sockets anyway in the existing house).

Thanks for your opinion on the re-skim, I was a little concerned about that. I'd better factor money in for that so.

I'm completely with you on the TV sockets, I did something similar back in 2001 in my own house, only to be obsolete by 4 or 5 years later. I was thinking of putting in conduit to bring the cable all the way to the attic, so I could always remove & replace in the future. The one thing I've learnt over the last few years is that the electrician habit of looping on a double socket has adverse consequences when using powerline adapters/slave wifi routers. If you have something plugged into the other half of the double socket, the noise created cuts the bandwidth in half.

tradesman

Mumha wrote: »

Hi

Just trying to get an idea on what to expect. Will be getting a 1960s house completely rewired in due course. There are some 3 pin plugs but there are still 2 pin plugs there too, so it'll be safer to be starting from scratch, and there'll be a lot of chasing of walls, on walls where there is a mix of wall paper and paint.

My question is, will I be expecting to skim all the walls, or is there another option ?

Thanks

Definitely reskim the walls with the chases on, If you can afford it you might as well skim the whole room it would look lot better. Whatever you do don't just patch the chase it will look awful!

BoardsMember

Again a little off topic, but....have you thought about adding some internal insulation on external walls and running wires behind the new boards, might save with lots of messy chasing, and give you more snugness.

Dardania

BoardsMember wrote: »

Again a little off topic, but....have you thought about adding some internal insulation on external walls and running wires behind the new boards, might save with lots of messy chasing, and give you more snugness.

Came here to suggest this exact point. There are even grants to do it:
http://seai.ie/Grants/Better_energy_homes/homeowner/Step_1_Decide_on_work_to_be_done/

You should also consider heating controls upgrades at the same time (e.g. some positions for Nest type programmable thermostats if nothing there at present)

bunderoon

Dardania wrote: »

Came here to suggest this exact point. There are even grants to do it:
http://seai.ie/Grants/Better_energy_homes/homeowner/Step_1_Decide_on_work_to_be_done/

You should also consider heating controls upgrades at the same time (e.g. some positions for Nest type programmable thermostats if nothing there at present)

+1 for that also.

We went with a 3 zones. 1 for Bedrooms rads, 1 for rest of house and then one for water.
Have a 21kw boiler stove (Olymberyl Aidan model) and one bucket of stove 'coal' (ecobrite etc) will heat the water, the sitting room and the bedrooms.
Throw in one log on the depleted bed of eco before bed and the rads stay hot until about 4am.
Triple Coil hot water cylinder uses one feed for stove, one for boiler and one for future Solar Water Panels if we decide to. Personally don't think they are cost effective just yet.

We went with a condensing boiler aswell with heating controls (got grant) and it uses a lot less oil than the previous.


If you have an attic conversion or utility room, I would wire the house with Cat6 and bring them all down to a single point.

Mumha

BoardsMember wrote: »

Again a little off topic, but....have you thought about adding some internal insulation on external walls and running wires behind the new boards, might save with lots of messy chasing, and give you more snugness.

Hi, I had considered internal insulation though not running wires behind it. Someone suggested that external insulation on a 3 bed semi could cost in the region of 15K. If that's where the cost comes in at, then I'll certain look at internal, especially if it has that added benefit. Thanks.

Mumha

Dardania wrote: »

Came here to suggest this exact point. There are even grants to do it:
http://seai.ie/Grants/Better_energy_homes/homeowner/Step_1_Decide_on_work_to_be_done/

You should also consider heating controls upgrades at the same time (e.g. some positions for Nest type programmable thermostats if nothing there at present)

Thanks, heating controls are definitely on the list.