 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Cable is white, with back and red and unprotected earth, I know newer wiring is generally grey with brown and blue now. So how old could the white stuff be? I ask as some of the plug sockets look very old, direct onto skirting board not the common rectangle shape, with a on switch a thin switch that you slide down for 'on'
60's - 70's & into the 80's
Plugs upstairs are these hobbies, vintage Bakelite by the looks of it
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Ivorine-Vintage-Bakelite-13A-Square-Pin-Switched-Single-Surface-mounted-Socket-/252482948400?hash=item3ac9280d30:g:Ni0AAOSwRoxXnc~3
Vintage 🙂
My grandmother's house that we finally sold a couple of years ago was round-pin (and when she bought it, no pin at all).
Those are 1960's MK sockets so the wiring will probably be the same.
We have some old round ones in the skirting deeply coated in gloss so presume long defunct. Are those plugs from the 70s then?
Basically trying to work out how urgent a rewire is....haven't found any really old cabling yet.
60s then. Are they dangerous to use? Advice received from surveyor was rewire needed. Plugs are only upstairs downstairs had a new kitchen from wren 4 years ago so the wiring must have been updated / checked then.
(Probate buy so have very little info to work with)
I think square pin standard came in in the late 1940s though my grandparents used round when they wired the house in the mid-50s.
As for safety, well we kept using it without incident but it did develop an odd buzzing sound occasionally in recent years...wouldn't recommend it really. For that matter, my FiL's wiring also has perished and cracked insulation on the exposed main power line inside the house and that only dates from 70s. Visiting electrician (dealing with something else) said "well I wouldn't live here" which he managed to interpret as "that's no problem". Shrug.
If you're worried about safety, get a sparky in to test/check, that won't cost too much. The wiring isn't old rubber stuff by the sound of it, it should be fine. The sockets could be a bit worn and the screw terminals in the circuit could be a bit loose. If you've a multi meter and know how to safely disconnect from the supply at the consumer unit you could do a continuity test on the live wire in the ring mains, the neutral, the earth, and check for earth leakage from the live, all fairly easy.
oh and colour of outer insulator means nothing.
It will probably need a full rewire, if you put in a new fuse box with RCDs you could easily be plagued by endless trippings from problems with the wiring....
Or just leave it, my parents house still has loose wire fuses and they're still alive. Admitedly I no longer have a fingerprint on one finger after shoving it in a light fitting at the age of three.....