Houses We Rewire…
Every house rewire is different, but there are certain houses we rewire more than others…
Heres an insight to the typical houses we rewire across Glasgow and Paisley.
Rewiring Glasgows Tenement Flats
The majority of Glasgow’s tenements were built between 1880 and 1914 and constructed of red and grey sandstone. You will find these iconic tenements scattered all across Glasgow and Paisley, many of these flats still need rewired. HomeRewire rewires loads of these flats particularly in areas such as Shawlands, Dennistoun and the West End of Glasgow.
According to Glasgow City Council research around 70% of all Glasgows homes are Flats!
The flat position can have an impact on how difficult they are to rewire. Generally top flats are easier to rewire as there is a communal attic space which we can access and can carry out the lighting wiring from above.
Rewiring bottom flats can be easier if there is good space below the floor. Some Glasgow and Paisley Tenements have a basement area which makes the electricians job to rewire easier. This space allows the electrician to wire the sockets from below and clip the cables easily as they can crawl around underneath.
The lighting circuits can be very difficult in bottom flats because there is no access for the electrician to wire above. The electrician would need to access the neighbours home above to carry out rewiring, but this is not practical.
Middle flat rewiring is the most difficult. The rewiring electrician will have no access above and no access below. The only way to do the lighting on these flats for example, is to cut small holes in the ceilings.
The floorboards are usually big thick tongue and groove timber boards which can be difficult to lift, or have been lifted so many times before they are needing replaced. Some tenements have really small timber floorboards that look fantastic but can be very difficult to work with.
The walls in these flats are mostly made of brick and lath/plaster. Between the floors of the flats there is thick gravel and dust called “deafening” this can be very messy when rewiring. The ceilings are usually very high at over 3m and have decorative cornice throughout which is a beautiful feature, but difficult for rewiring.
The wiring usually found within these flats is old VIR cloth core or even lead wiring which dates back over 80 years.