Narval

Thinking about having our French flat re-wired. The wiring seems to be run in
very narrow flexible tubes in the wall. Understand these normally come pre wired when one buys them from a supplier. Does this mean the old ones have to be ripped out and the walls re plastered after new wiring has been installed? Or can new wires be drawn through these flexi tubes in the usual way as they seem incredibly narrow and a tight fit?

imagine this could also seriously affect the end cost.

Pulaski

I believe that standard French electrical conduits are 20mm diameter, which seems narrow, however the French norm (electrical code) is to use single conductors, not bundled "twin & earth" cables that are a code requirement in the UK and US. A 20mm conduit can carry up to five individual conductors.

cyrian

Are you considering doing this yourself of getting an electrician?

Narval

No, I was planning on getting an electrician in. I wanted to inform myself as to what the job might entail, and of course cost me.

Narval

Thank you. That is useful to know. Conduits here appear to be flexible plastic and installed in +-1986 when they still used unearthed plugs and sockets.

Pulaski

Yes, those conduits are commonly installed with the wires already inside, but can be reused with cable fishing equipment.

BTW Near the bottom right corner of every post on BE is a button labled [ " Quote ]. If you click on that when you make your reply we can see which post you are replying to. If you only want to address part of a post you can delete the words you are not addressing - just make sure not to remove or corrupt either the "[QÜOTE=John5;12345678]" or "[/QÜOTE]" tags which mark the start and end the post that you quoted.
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cyrian

Yes I would do the same but you should always get a few quotes if possible in France because even the French don't trust their tradesmen.
As well as the price, you need to confirm details such as duration of work and start date.
I had scheduled work to be done on my kitchen and the guy simply did not appear on the agreed date.
My only direct experience of this was installation of fibre optic cable where they just pushed the cable through the duct - took about 15 minutes.
I would expect that they could just attach the new cable to the old one and pull it through.
Get some quotes and see what they say.
HTH

Chatter Static

The conduit “Gaine” does come pre-filled most folk will do it the fishing way as it saves money it comes with a wire in it to aid pulling a nylon puller through.

Annetje

Duration of work and start date are very important, especially the start date and, if possible end date.
I was quoted 8 working days, starting the 23-01 and it's still not finished.
The contract doesn't say 8 consecutive days .... Beware !

cyrian

Hope you get it done soon.

Narval

Thank you for the advice and the useful tip re replying to posts.

Narval

Some really useful advice which I will certainly heed. Thank you.

Narval

My exisring wiring would need to be changed and I was particularly concerned as the electrician will also need to add an earth wire. I am not sure just where the flexible conduits run and how tight any of the bends might be to get new wires pulled through.

Narval

Thanks for this tip. Much appreciated.

Narval

It is unfortunately going to take some time. I need to work out just how I could also improve things (e.g. number of sockets) first before going out to get quotes.