# Bored think I might rewire the garage



## MrGrumpy (31 Oct 2020)

Planned to do this anyway , extend the ring main in my garage , possibly switch out the consumer unit with a 4 way RCCB protection. Got a wired armour running round my garden by the previous owner . Prefer that on its own breaker rather than a spur.
Best make a shopping list for Screwfix


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## screenman (31 Oct 2020)

MrGrumpy said:


> Planned to do this anyway , extend the ring main in my garage , possibly switch out the consumer unit with a 4 way RCCB protection. Got a wired armour running round my garden by the previous owner . Prefer that on its own breaker rather than a spur.
> Best make a shopping list for Screwfix



Tool Station is sometimes a cheaper option, worth comparing.


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## Mo1959 (31 Oct 2020)

MrGrumpy said:


> Planned to do this anyway , extend the ring main in my garage , possibly switch out the consumer unit with a 4 way RCCB protection. Got a wired armour running round my garden by the previous owner . Prefer that on its own breaker rather than a spur.
> Best make a shopping list for Screwfix


Didn't understand a word of that......but have fun.


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## fossyant (31 Oct 2020)

Should do mine really. 4 sockets already mains, but got loads of extension leads...


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## MrGrumpy (31 Oct 2020)

That’s what I have 4 sockets all in one corner lol . Had a quick squiz at the consumer unit and it’s the old cartridge fuses no rccb protection. Time for an upgrade!!


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## MrGrumpy (31 Oct 2020)

screenman said:


> Tool Station is sometimes a cheaper option, worth comparing.


Will see if there is one near by .


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## bikingdad90 (31 Oct 2020)

Are you self signing off as a sparky or getting someone in to certify it all? 

We had to fix some dodgy outside electrics, the outside electrical ring was still connected up to the house fuse board, the previous owners had just taken out part of the wiring at the house board and the fuse but left it semi connected and without it’s own fuse so only the RCB would trip out. Good job I never put a shovel through the cable outside when gardening!


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## fossyant (31 Oct 2020)

MrGrumpy said:


> That’s what I have 4 sockets all in one corner lol . Had a quick squiz at the consumer unit and it’s the old cartridge fuses no rccb protection. Time for an upgrade!!



My garage was spurred off the down stairs ring main on a separate fuse by a sparky. Ideally i need more, much more, mains sockets. Two sockets each side of the garage at present.


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## screenman (31 Oct 2020)

Put twice as many doubles in as you need now, you will still want more in a few years time. I have 7 in my garage and another 5 are going in soon.


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## Beebo (31 Oct 2020)

I don’t have a garage 🙁


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## oldworld (31 Oct 2020)

Is it correct you can do your own wiring but have to get it inspected by an electrician to make it legal?


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## MrGrumpy (31 Oct 2020)

Supposed to yes, law might be different up here in Scotland. Got my 18th wiring regs , still waiting on installation and testing course 

edit

also depends if a new circuit or just extending. As to what needs signed off


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## SkipdiverJohn (21 Nov 2020)

oldworld said:


> Is it correct you can do your own wiring but have to get it inspected by an electrician to make it legal?



I'm not bothered about the legalities of DIY, no-one can prove who did what and when anyway. Most of my house wiring was put in by me and it's been working fine for 30 years so far.
The important thing is doing your homework, especially with regards to correct cable sizing in relation to the expected loads. Extending a ring main into a garage is not really good practice, even if the regs allow it for integral garages. It's better for garages, workshops and any other outside stuff to be fed from dedicated radial or even ring circuits, if for no other reason that a problem in one place doesn't put your whole supply to the ground floor out of action. 
The more you subdivide your whole installation the less overloading potential there is on any one circuit and the less inconvenience any faults can cause. I have about a dozen fuseways which is twice what was the norm 30-40 years ago for a relatively small house. All old-tech fuses, no MCB's and no RCD devices and I have more than one consumer unit/switch fuse so the main double pole switches are not run close to their max current ratings.


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## bikingdad90 (21 Nov 2020)

@SkipdiverJohn i get your not bothered about DIY electrics and totally understand the logic of doing the research and installing the right width of cabling but do wonder where you stand on the house insurance front? If the worst were to happen and you had an electrical fire I do wonder were you would stand if you had to make a house insurance claim for any damage (assuming you don’t own outright and still have a mortgage so still require the insurance).


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## SkipdiverJohn (21 Nov 2020)

No mortgage outstanding, but I still insure the buildings. I don't see the insurance thing as an issue. The rewiring was done at least to the then current standards at the time. A few bits are still in imperial multi-strand cable not metric solid core but the sizing is all adequate. Everything is polarity-correct and there's complete earth continuity, and all metalwork that should be bonded is bonded. All insulation is PVC, nothing braided cotton or rubber coated, which are known to deteriorate over time. I've added a few bits since then, but using the same switchgear (100% Wylex) and cable, so no-one except me knows exactly the order of installation. Given my conservative approach to loading cables and the fact I fuse some circuits lower than I could going on the cable ratings, the possibility of a wiring-related fire is remote in the extreme, because the fuses would blow before any cables could dangerously overheat.
I do the same thing with appliances and extension leads (which do easily overheat if loaded heavily whilst coiled up). Most electricals will come new with a 13A plug fuse apart from things like table lamps. All my stuff is fused at the lowest rating that it will reliably work at without nuisance blowing, so I have replaced a number of 13A plug fuses with 10A or 5A ones. The basics of electrical safety is you want the smallest fuse closest to the appliance to blow first, so any overload is applied to the shortest length of cable. If nothing you plug in to a socket can pass enough current to overload the circuit cables you won't have any problems.


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## Dan B (5 Dec 2020)

I was thinking about doing the domestic installer course - looking at online courses they seem to cost around £2000-2500, and, well, my house needs rewiring, which will probably cost at least double that amount (in London). But it wasn't at all clear whether the course was sufficient for self-certifying or if I'd still need to get building regs approval. Some of Teh Internetz are saying that once you've got the qualification you still need to go and work for a real electrician anyway, which kind of defeats the point.


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## jowwy (5 Dec 2020)

Dan B said:


> I was thinking about doing the domestic installer course - looking at online courses they seem to cost around £2000-2500, and, well, my house needs rewiring, which will probably cost at least double that amount (in London). But it wasn't at all clear whether the course was sufficient for self-certifying or if I'd still need to get building regs approval. Some of Teh Internetz are saying that once you've got the qualification you still need to go and work for a real electrician anyway, which kind of defeats the point.


How does that work if you want to become a self employed electrician???


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## Archie_tect (5 Dec 2020)

Has anyone heard from @MrGrumpy  since the end of October... if he's wired up his own consumer unit and taken out an armoured cable he may be lying in the back of his garage somewhat dazed with a faint blue haze, and the faintest whiff of crispy bacon, in the air


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## SkipdiverJohn (5 Dec 2020)

Anyone practical with half a brain can make a decent job of a domestic rewire if you have a methodical and sensible approach. It's only single phase and you're dealing with 240 volts on the live not potentially 415 volts between phases or weird stuff like having things with electric motors in them running in the wrong direction (you have to swap two of the phases over in the supplying isolator switch/fuse when this happens).
Most of it is donkey work, lifting floorboards, shoving or pulling cable between point A and point B, chopping out brickwork to sink flush back boxes or chasing plaster for burying cables. The actual connecting stuff up bit is only a small percentage of the total time involved. Much the same can be said of plumbing. it's 10% knowing enough to design your layout effectively, and 90% actually getting access to the places where you need to run pipes. A lot of trades like to blind punters with science, and make out that ordinary Joe Public can't possibly do all this really technical stuff themselves, but it's mostly hogwash. The main advantage a tradesman has is speed gained from experience, plus better optimised tools. Mr DIY will take a lot longer to do the same job as Mr Tradesman, but there's no reason why a DIYer can't achieve results that are just as good, and sometimes better. After all, if you are your own customer, you've got a big incentive to get it right first time. If you do a shoddy DIY repair or installing job, you're just cheating yourself.


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## itboffin (5 Dec 2020)

for some odd reason my garage only has one double socket so i've a 8 port surge protected extension for all the turbo TV music beer fridge gadgets and the other socket i've routed along a wall box mounted double extension using a plug so effectively just an extension lead, i use this to charge lights and garmin and the second socket for an LED beam light, no electrician required.


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## MrGrumpy (5 Dec 2020)

Archie_tect said:


> Has anyone heard from @MrGrumpy  since the end of October... if he's wired up his own consumer unit and taken out an armoured cable he may be lying in the back of his garage somewhat dazed with a faint blue haze, and the faintest whiff of crispy bacon, in the air


I’m tickety boo ! Not a hard job and now I have nice new ring round the garage and even managed to think about the supply for a security camera as well so sorted that out. I’m not a time served electrician but I do have experience on electrical circuits granted , low voltage stuff . My father worked in the power industry, so some stuff I learnt from him.


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