Sometimes we can take for granted the electrical system in our home. When everything appears to be working just fine why would we question the safety, the condition or the age of the electrics?
We fit new kitchens, new bathrooms, decorate everywhere with nice wallpaper, plaster finishes, flooring and new furniture. Quite often, we can neglect the vital components that keep our property liveable and safe to be in. Electrical systems degrade with age, use, modification and general wear and tear. They can become obsolete with regulation changes as newer and better safety devices and installation methods are invented and brought to market.
What happens when your home electrical system fails after decades of no issues?
We very often hear the phrase “We have never had a problem” from our clients. This tends to be spoken to us late at night when the power has tripped off and we have been called in to investigate the emergency. Electrical installations can give decades of service and degrade slowly over this time little by little whilst giving no signs to the untrained eye of any issue or pending problem. Quite often the installation is NEVER inspected after having been put into service when the property was built or rewired. By the time the electrical installation has failed and we are called we regularly find that wiring is old, decayed and often beyond repair or salvage.
Good quality cabling, installation methods, light use and modification only be a done by a qualified electrician and they can see an electrical installation which has given many decades of service. Then there are some installations like the one in the photograph. This rewire had been carried out just ten years prior to our visit. Unfortunately we found poorly terminated connections, inaccessible poor quality junctions, damaged wiring which appeared to have been caused at the time of installation and several other poor workmanship issues.
Whilst we were finding the issue we lifted several floorboards and under each one we found a new problem! Every installation is different and in this case we recommended that the rewire was carried out again. We were even too busy to offer to do the work but we knew that it needed to be carried out!
See the help sheet on our website about rewires and when they might be needed for more information.
Paul Higgins
V&A Burgess Ltd
www.electricalfaultsfixed.co.uk
