Roof advice wanted, please

diplodicus

I am old...

john80

masjer said:

Are things safer nowadays with RCDs, rather than fuses? They seem to work well (trip) when you get a faulty electrical device- like a kettle about to go up in smoke.

When you look at a house fuse board the individual circuits are on MCBs. MCBs are essentially resettable fuses. These seek to prevent overloading of cables and prevent fires assuming you installed the right wire size for the fuse. The board will only have one or two RCDs which are residual current devices. These trip on imbalance in current between feed and return to the board. i.e. you or something else is getting electrocuted hence the current imbalance. These are set to trip at a speed and imbalance that is below killing a person.

So things are safer in terms of electrocution but in terms of fire it is about getting the system wiring and the fuses correctly sized.

Munsford0

When we bought it over 30 years ago our 1930s semi still had the original lead sheathed wiring for the upstairs lighting circuit. Surveyor told us not to go in the loft till it had been replaced
Finances were stretched cling-film thin so we only had the dodgy stuff replaced and a new consumer unit at the time. Would love to have the whole thing rewired to current specs but can't face the upheaval / mess.

Munsford0

The lead sheathed stuff was replaced pronto; we have that new-fangled plastic coated cable everywhere now. Just wish we'd been able to afford to tell them to rip out everything and start again from scratch at the time so we'd have more sockets in the places we need them

capt_slog

oxoman said:

As long as the old lead sheathed stuffs not in use your OK. There's still miles of it left under floorboards in older houses and the old gas light pipes as well. Along with the odd parkdrive packet and beer bottles.

My first house was 1890 ish. I found a cigaerette packet which was "Wild Woodbines" (perhaps a forerunner of Woodbine ciggies?) I just did a search and they looked something like this..



What made it really stand out was that it was a Five cigarette pack.

rjsterry

oxoman said:

As long as the old lead sheathed stuffs not in use your OK. There's still miles of it left under floorboards in older houses and the old gas light pipes as well. Along with the odd parkdrive packet and beer bottles.

We found a rusty gas pipe buried in our bathroom wall. Called out plumber who was very blasé until it started hissing (we'd already turned off the gas and the power).

jnoah5415FTfD_buP

It's not just the pointing, its the wooden laths that have been used for years in our older buildings. Laths are the interlocking parts at the bottom of the tiles which help hold the tiles together and allow for the expansion and contraction of the building. Tiles that aren’t secured properly can crack and cause the roof tiles to fall off the building. In the past people used to use wooden laths, but they were treated with a biocide to prevent rotting. These days people use synthetic laths which aren’t treated. They also use polymer connectors to secure the laths, these aren’t as effective as the older type of nails and are prone to working loose. I think the older wooden laths and nails were made of a better quality timber and so lasted longer, but I agree people should be careful when working with older buildings and check the laths are secure.