How to wire a house?

Question

i want to rewire my house as its about fifty year old and in bad condition. is there any good website where i can learn how to do it. i've no experiance with electrics at all.

any help?

Answer 1

Obviously you are joking. No experience with electrics? Carry on and do it but make sure no-one is in it when it burns down.

Answer 2

I dont know of any websites that you can go on but it is such a risky job to do especially if you do not have any experiance in working with electrics.

If you did do it yourself then you have to pay for someone part p registered to come in and do a test and inspection on your work, and if anything goes wrong then it has cost you the money for wiring your house, to have it inspected. You will def need to get it doen by someone whom is qualified in the trade. Good luck finding someone.

Answer 3

don`t even try, get an electrician

Answer 4

You've answered your own question I'm afraid..."no experience".

Contrary to what some people seem to think, safe house wiring is not as easy as it looks; especially if you're doing it 'from scratch' or re-wiring (modern standards are different from those of 50 years ago).

It is now the Law that electrical wiring installations must conform to the standard BS7671 (IET Wiring regulations 17th edition). This is a weighty tome that will cost you about £60. You would also need the IET Site Guides, that will add another £10 or so.

Part P of the Building Regulations mandates that all electrical installations MUST be tested and certified according to the specifications of BS7671. This certificate must be issued by an approved technician registered under a scheme such as IECIET.

If you do not conform to the law in all respects then you will be committing an Offence and almost certainly invalidating your property insurance. You probably won't be able to sell the house without a certificate either.

Your electrcity supply company probably have rules about not connecting uncertificated installations to their supply line.

It is unlikely that you will gain all the knowlege necessary to safely and efficiently do this job from a website. Your best bet is to look up  City & Guilds approved IET electricians courses at your local college of Higer Education (formally known as Technical Colleges).

You will have to sit a series of exams to gain your certificate and then have to register with an approved body in order to be able to issue the certificate.

Alternatively, if you have a skilled friend then you could do the wiring yourself and get an approved tester (to the final "Test and Connect") from your local electricity supplier or Local Authority. This will cost you but it will be a lot less than paying a professional to do the whole lot.

Answer 5

In most places you need to be a certified electrician to do that because it is very dangerous and there are strict electrical codes you need to follow.

That said, go to Home Depot, and get the book "Ultimate Guide To Wiring, Complete home projects". I recently used it to replace the receptacle for my dryer and re-wire it to the circuit box, but it basically tells you how do do everthing, and it has almost 1000 photos and illustrations, and meets national code standards

Answer 6

The house is about a 1960 home, so it may or may not have ground wires in the cable, the panel is probably a 150 amp panel as is the feeder to the house. If this is your personal residence, you might be able to legally rewire it yourself, with the proper inspections.

  Rewireing any structure is a major project, in this case, you will need to upgrade the service, the panel must be at least a 200 amp, all cables must include a ground wire, an outside receptacle is required on each side of the residence that is GFCi protected, 6 circuits are required for the kitchen for receptacles, add the lights and an electric range, also a dryer and a  utility room circuit.  After you open the walls for access to old wiring, it must be removed and the new wiring installed. Allow that the time it will take you working full time to do this is about 8 weeks, and you will still need to have it inspected, it is hardly worth it.

Call a qualified contractor to do this type of work. It is easiest on the contractor if you have the walls open entirely and then put up new Sheetrock on the walls.

Your wages at your job should run about $600/ week. that means you lose $5000 in wages. A professional contractor should be able to do the work in 2 weeks if the walls are open, add another $3000 in material as your cost.  If you can find a contractor who will do the job for less than $10K hire them and keep working. By the time you have learned all of the codes and the skills needed to do the job correctly, it's cheaper to hire it done by a qualified professional electrician.

  I worked for a elctrical contractor for many years. One of our journeyman was building his own home and was just about to take a vacation so he could wire the home himself. He stopped at the local electrical contractor the friday before his vacation and got an estimate for work. It was less than his cost for the materials, and the time frame was 2 days rough in, 1 day hookup, 1 day finish, he hired the contractor and came back to work.

Answer 7

We don't know if you're in the UK or the USA, so at least some of the answers given in good faith won't apply to you in their entirity.

You've asked a specific question so I don't want to lecture you about whether or not you should be doing this. I would prefer to answer the question in hand.

Anyone with your knowledge in the UK would be well advised to do a C and G 2381 course. This introduces the 17th Edition of the Electrical Installation Regulations BS7671. Last time I did the 16th it cost around £250. I would also be tempted to learn about Inspection and test via a C and G 2391 course.

These two courses would give you a good insight into best practices and the correct design and installation of a domestic system. We are not talking about commercial applications here.

Answer 8

You've got an awful lot to learn if you are to do it right.

there are a lot of nasty little details that can be critical,

and they're not all obvious at first glance, (some not

even on the second look).

Believe it or not, rewiring can be a lot tougher than

a new installation.

There is a Code Handbook for Residential wiring,

(by McPartland?), that might get you started, but at a

minimum, have the main panel professionally done.

The NFPA has a website for purchase of Codes & Manuals.

Answer 9

It would have to be done professionally. Or you could take up being an electrician for a trade, and you could do it yourself  in about 4 or 5 years, or less if you are a fast learner.

Answer 10

it would be better to pay an electrician to do it. yes it will be costly but here are some of the benefits.

your house will be worth more, your insurance wont cancel you if they find out you did it, you will be able to sell your house, the city wont come after you because you didn't have permits, your mortgage company wont recall the loan, your house wont burn down.

Answer 11

Don't know of any website but, and a big but, I believe it is illegal to wire your own home. You need to be a qualified electrician to do so - or indeed employ one!

Apart from that, dabbling in electrics with no experience is quite dangerous per se!

I'd advise against it!

Answer 12

You need to have wiring installed or at least certified by a qualified electrician. I'd seriously advise having it installed professionally since you've not had prior experience, this is one job you really don't want to mess up.

Answer 13

Your panel is probably the old Edison style (60 amp) twist fuses... make sure you have enough amperage for the house.. most houses with a garage need around 200 amps. id check google .. or diy.com be careful tho ...

Answer 14

Except for a few of the above answers,I would advise you to heed their comments. Save up,pay out,stay safe !

Sparky 34 yrs

Answer 15

NO!!!

No matter how easy it looks, or people make it sound; you cannot learn to wire a house (or even add a circuit) from any book or website.

I ask that you first see Article 90.1 of the National Electrical Code. Pay special attention to 90.1 (C); this tells you that the Code is NOT meant to be a design or specification manual for untrained persons.

Next, look in Article 100 for the definition of "Qualified Person", and ask yourself "Do I fit this definition?"

Next, flip randomly through chapters 1 -4, stop at any page and read it. If you don't understand anything you just read (actually, you better understand all of what you just read), you should automatically answer "No" to the above question.

Too many people watch too many home improvement shows and ask too many people (who don't have a clue) at home centers for advice. Too many of these same people then end up dialing "911" in the middle of the night.

Most jurisdictions will allow a home owner to do their own electrical work; they will then also require the work to pass the same inspection that any electrical contractor would have to. The problem then becomes "How many mistakes will the Inspector miss?" The answer depends on the Inspector, how much time he has, and, for too many Inspectors, how qualified is he to do the job?

You also must remember that the Inspector is limited in the scope of what he can inspect, and that the Code is a minimum standard. That's all the Inspector can require of the work. Now, ask yourself one more question. That is "Do I want MY HOME'S wiring system installed to ONLY the MINIMUM standard?" Or, would you rather hire a pro who will exceed that standard?