Does Your House Need Electrical Rewiring?
Does Your House Need An Electrical Rewire?
If your home is 10 or 20 years old, it is probably a good idea to have the wiring inspected to be sure that no problems have developed. Besides just age, there is the issue of pests. Certain animals like mice and rats like to chew on wiring to keep their teeth sharp. They must continually chew on things or their teeth grow too long. Your wiring makes perfect exercise for them. Also, if your home has 1950’s wiring, you almost certainly have wiring issues that can cause unsafe conditions. House rewiring is a major project that should only be handled by professional electricians.
One of the easiest checks to make is the color of the wire in your home. Older wiring may be all black. This type of wiring uses a material like rubber to cover the wiring and it breaks down over time causing unsafe conditions. Modern electrical cables are covered by a longer lasting PVC material that may be grey or white in color. If your home has the older type of wiring you should have it inspected for safety. There is a good chance your home needs rewiring.
The older rubber coated wires could give several warning signs that they are going bad and need replacing. If the insulation has broken away and the wires touch a bit, you may experience blown fuses and tripped safety switches that blow or trip again, often for no apparent reason. If this is happening to you, it is a serious issue and you need to have it resolved before there is a fire. Replacing the wiring may be the only choice.
Aside from the black color of the wire, you also need to assess other things like:
- Metal conduit instead of modern PVC in the sockets or lights
- Round pin plugs instead of straight blade type
- Outlets that don’t include ground plugs
People use a lot more appliances and electrical devices than they used to, so older house’s wiring may not be able to handle the demands of a modern family safely. This could result in overloaded circuits, smoke, fire or shocks.
As if the safety factors alone are not enough, if you ever sell your home you will have to bring the electrical up to current building code standards, which means you will likely need to rewire it before selling. A close inspection by a building inspector or fire marshal will reveal antiquated wiring if it is there and that will hold up your sale until upgraded electrical rewiring can be done.
If you have questions or concerns about your homes wiring please contact a qualified electrician in the Perth area to assist you and perform an inspection if needed. Also, due to the recent IEE wiring regulation changes, there are certain types of work that may only be done by a certified and licensed electrician. Some of those are:
- Replacing switches, sockets, and ceiling roses as well as any damaged cabling in the home.
- Kitchen and bathroom lighting and other electrical wiring.
In many cases, electrical rewiring must be performed by trained, qualified electricians that will issue a certificate of work to the home owner. Even if it were not required by law, it is still prudent since this kind of work is dangerous and can result in serious harm and property loss if done incorrectly.
