How To Rewire House Without Removing Drywall
My skillful friends are looking to buy their first home together and judging past the photos on Rightmove, the property looks in great decorative status. All the same, information technology's quite old and my friend thinks that the wiring could do with being updated, perhaps a whole new rewire.
As information technology's in a proficient decorative state he wanted to know, Can you lot rewire a house without removing plaster? As I was running him through the diverse scenarios and possible workarounds to preclude violent downwards the walls during a rewire, information technology got me thinking this would make a good mail; and then voila!
Can You lot Rewire a Firm Without Removing Plaster?
Rewiring a business firm without removing plaster is possible, only the end result has compromises that most homeowners are not willing to take. The old adage that you can't brand an omelette without breaking some eggs, holds truthful when it comes to business firm rewires.
I completely understand why homeowners would like to rewire without having to remove the plaster. When a firm looks aesthetically great who wants to become to all the additional time and expense of trigger-happy down walls merely to replaster them again afterward?
Although I can empathise the wanting backside not removing the plaster, unfortunately, the practicalities of needing to go cables from A to B hateful that some harm (admitting temporary impairment) to the walls is required.
Someone on an electric forum recently wrote, "anyone who says you lot tin can complete a rewire without removing plaster is talking full s!$t." Whilst I don't totally concord with this argument (as in that location are a few possible alternatives) it is a pretty authentic answer if you just need a two-sentence summary!
We'll look at a couple of the options for rewiring a house while causing no impairment to the walls below, but I'll warn you in advance – they are non pretty.
Can an Electrician Rewire a House Without Removing Drywall?
An electrician can rewire a business firm without removing drywall but they volition have to make some incisions into the wall. Like a surgeon operating on a patient, electricians are careful where they brand their cuts but when finished, it is obvious that the wall has been through a major performance.
To say that we have to tear downwards walls in club to rewire a business firm is a bit of an exaggerated answer, but we certainly need to chase cable routes into the walls in order to bury the cables out of sight.
If the walls are the cavity type made of plasterboard or drywall, the mess is usually less severe but all the same exists. Electricians are unremarkably experts in the art of fishing cables downward cavity walls simply the pesky horizontal woodwork that keeps the wall supported often causes problems.
When angling a cable from above the ceiling (perhaps in the loft space) vertically down a cavity wall, the horizontal wooden supports almost always make it the way. To overcome the trouble, we notch out a channel in the wooden support to allow the cable pass. This means we must remove some of the drywall in the process.
Options For Rewiring Without Removing Plaster
Equally eluded to earlier, there are a few options for rewiring a house without damaging the walls, or at least causing less damage than a traditional rewire will do. All these options accept good and bad points and so it'south worth weighing them up in advance of shelling out any coin on materials.
1. Surface Mounted Containment.
Surface-mounted containment comes in many different styles, the most well known being mini trunking or conduit. This containment is designed to exist stock-still onto the wall itself and and so have the cables routed through it.
There's piddling mess created, except for a few small fixing holes which hold it to the wall. Only – and it's a big but – it doesn't expect great having plastic tubing running all around your living room. Near homeowners aren't willing to put upwardly with the finished wait of a surface-mounted rewire, which makes it rare in privately owned homes.
That being said, this method can be found in apartments due to issues accessing above the ceiling. In these cases, more detached types of surface containment – like the type disguised as skirting boards (linked to on Amazon here) are oftentimes utilised. The final finish is often a hybrid mix of surface and traditional rewire which can look tidy when done right.
ii. Using Existing Conduit In The Wall
It may be possible to route the cables through the conduit that is already in the wall from the original wiring. However – like the big but in the section above – this is a big perhaps.
It'due south usually only in much older homes that we discover containment systems already buried in the walls. Even if we go lucky and information technology is at that place, trying to pull new cables through it can exist very hard going.
If successful, at that place is no damage to the plaster or drywall during the rewire, and the cables are nicely hidden. Nonetheless, another downside of this method is that the homeowner won't be able to change the position of the socket outlets or calorie-free fittings etc.
Do You Need to Redecorate After Rewiring?
The vast majority of homeowners will need to redecorate later a rewire. Rewiring is an intrusive procedure usually burying cables out of sight within the fabric of the building. These cached cable channels, or wall chases as they are known, need to exist covered up subsequently.
Chasing walls requires cut channels inside the walls either horizontally or vertically in club to get the cable from A to B. Information technology can help to think of under the floorboards as the cable motorways and the chased channels in the walls as the exit roads that the cables travel down to become to their concluding destination.
These final exit roads that the cables travel down will all need to be re-plastered and redecorated later the rewire is completed.
I guess it'south worth pointing out at that place's no regulation that states the house has to be redecorated after a rewire. Once the electrical work is consummate information technology will be left in a safe land by the electrician, simply most homeowners similar overnice smooth walls neatly painted – not walls covered in scars from their recent surgery.
The only scenarios I can recollect of where redecorating later on a rewire would not be required would be if surface containment were solely used (fifty-fifty and then, some modest painting will be well-nigh likely needed)
Terminal Thoughts
Although I like to explore every angle, and I'chiliad sure someone somewhere tin prove me incorrect, in my stance, the answer to the question, "tin can y'all rewire a firm without removing plaster?" is basically no, for the majority of individual homeowners.
I mention private homeowners because I take carried out rewires that did non require plaster to be removed or walls to exist damaged, on behalf of local authorities (i.eastward in quango houses.) In order to salvage costs, local authorities sometimes inquire for a surface mounted rewire (explained earlier).
As the council tenant does not own the dwelling they usually have little say in what the local council chooses or much of a voice on the aesthetic outcome of the finished rewire.
Also Read: Alternatives To Rewiring a House
I don't think this little blog is the place to contend the rights and wrongs of this, but I bring it up to illustrate the point. Information technology is possible to rewire without removing plaster and having to redecorate, but it is not an option I have ever seen a individual homeowner willing to take.
Source: https://sparkybase.com/can-you-rewire-a-house-without-removing-plaster-a-complete-guide/
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