electrical wiring

[VJ]

That's not funny...

Ok...

Yes it is...

[Fat Tone]

hehe

Presumably you own this apt, to be spending all this time and money on it?

[VJ]

Yes, I bought an "apartment, fully renovated in 2006". But the price was quite good IMO, and when I bought it I knew I would have to do some changes. I currently guess it will cost me about double then what I first estimated. But I was aware that was a low estimate: I did not estimate to have to do the full electricity or the bathroom (but this is limited in cost). I could do it cheaper (e.g. not go for the intelligent system), but I feel it is now or never. If it were in Belgium though, I would see if I could get some money back, as I feel the sale may have been a bit false. But here it gets far too complicated...

The changes I make will be: electricity, floors in livingroom and bedrooms (there was a high quality parquet under the cheap panel floor, so that one will be restored), radiators, painting (all rooms, completely), bathroom and kitchen... Good thing I bought a renovated apartment...

But I did get confirmation that in 2006, all the plumbing (water pipes, drainpipes, ...) and windows were replaced and now a full renovation of the common electricity and of the outside of the building has been scheduled.

[VJ]

A guy from the company that will now do the cabling came on Friday to go over things. Yesterday, he came with the electrician that will do the work, to again go over it all.

They are scheduled to start tomorrow! It is expected to take 1-1.5 weeks. They are more expensive the the previous one (about 4x ), but the previous one had a ridiculously low price and unrealistic timeframes (it would only take 4-5 days according to him, and he was there much longer and did not even do half). They current guys seem to know their stuff, so if they manage it all, it will be well worth the price.

Jörg

[VJ]

Ok, time for an update...

Their scheduled time of 2 weeks got extended... Partly because I went on holiday and they needed my feedback on some issues, and partly because the walls are harder then they expected (concrete mixed with pieces of granite).
The were said to finish yesterday or today, but as it turns out they forgot some things... and need to redo some other things (2 light switches that are about 1m apart, but they are not at the same height: really visible). But the new fusebox is there and the circuit is live now, all the old cables are disconnected.

Contrary to what they promised, I do not have sockets in the bathroom anymore (old circuits, but before they said it would be no problem), and I had to ask for the 3 time to put a temporary socket for my refrigerator.

Biggest thing that needs to be done is the main cable to my apartment. I got permission from the building administration to do this in the common corridor, outside my apartment, provided it is restored to its original state (walls/painting). The electricians would rather do the cable from my side to not have to deal with the administration (they say they fear they might have me pay to have the whole corridor painted), but it looks so much more complicated to do it from inside my place (and it would mean I have to destroy walls everywhere, and be in this dusty situation for a long time to come). I also feel it would be much more complicated as it would be on the wrong side of the ventilation shafts.
So I am considering telling them to do it on the outside of the apartment. Any thoughts?

[UtwigMU]

If you don't own the place and the costs don't subtract from rent, just don't bother too much. At one place I was renting, where the landlord allowed me to anything I wanted (cabling, painting, drilling) I calculated that it would cost me 100 EUR just to pull 2 LAN cables above wall to 2 rooms, which is the more than 2 wireless routers and configuring them as bridge.

Or we could form a MURC crack team and come to Poland and do your wiring.

[VJ]

I own the apartment. The main question is: do I put the new main cable on my side of the wall (implying I need to remove walls in toilet and bathroom (bathroom was scheduled for in 6 months, toilet was not really planned), or do I put it on the side of the common corridor (which I would then have to have fixed and painted, and hope that the administration does not screw me over in painting the whole corridor).

[degrub]

new paint never matches old paint - color / tone/ reflectance.
Get it in writing with signature that is enforceable, ie a legal contract, that you will do what is possible to restore, but no guarantee it will match exactly and no requirement to paint more than the disturbed area.

Otherwise do it on your side.

[VJ]

Great suggestion!
There also is this handyman who does most of the repair jobs in the common parts of the building. I also plan to get him, to minimize the chance of conflict (the administration is less likely to criticise their own guy).

[UtwigMU]

Even if you go outside you still need to drill and paint your inner wall when you come back inside. So is it worth it to go outside - might be more expensive to restore and your flat is construction yard already. If you're doing new wiring, you can go all the way.

[VJ]

The situation is that there is about 2m of cable between the common fusebox (where each apartment has its main fuse) and my meter, and then about 2m between my meter and my frontdoor (my own fusebox is close to that). The first part is for a small part on the outside of my bathroom, and for the majority on the wall of my neighbours apartment. The second part is on the outside of my toilet- and bathroom wall. The first part theoretically should be maintained by the administration - my responsibility starts with my own meter.

Putting both cables inside my apartment would mean using the back wall of the toilet and bathroom and then find a way to go to the corridor to go to the main fuse. But my apartment wall on that side is... 1m thick and no documentation of what is there (most likely it houses ventilation shafts, pipes, cables, ...). So 1. I'm scared of surprises (it is thus not sure we will find a suitable way to make the connection to the outside), and 2. it would mean that I would have to renovate my bathroom now. In the fake ceiling, we put a camera, and could see that three of my bathroom walls seem to have many layers: plaster, tiles, wooden panel, profile, gipscardbord, tiles and then the showercabine. So it will be a huge issue...

The biggest issue is with the cable between the central fusebox and the meter, but this part is less urgent. It will be required for my kitchen renovation (to put induction cooking plates), but that one is only scheduled for next year. The administration plans to renovate the common electrical equipment (which includes my cable from the central fusebox to the meter), but have not yet put forward a time frame.

Putting the cable on the outside allows me to exit my apartment near the front door, and then just go to the meter cabinet.

The current idea is to do the cable between my fusebox and the meter on the outside, and then wait... Either the administration schedules the rest (problem solved for me - and they will do it on the outside), or the administration does not schedule it, and then I can still do it inside (when I do my bathroom) or outside.

[Fat Tone]

Maybe its time for some pics, eh VJ?

[VJ]

The electricians plan to finish today or tomorrow... but we had some conflict yesterday. At one point I said: "yes, it is all not a problem until you have to do it". Basically, for that conflict they will do what I suggested in the beginning.

I can't really put this main cable situation in photos... My main fear is that they would start breaking walls in toilet and bathroom and then see it does not work anyway. Their main fear of doing it outside is that the administration may be difficult about the repairs. But I will take pictures of the corridor beforehand (including some places where there have been other repairs), to prove that we did not do it worse than other places in the corridor.

[VJ]

Well, the finishing touches take more work...
Monday was said to be the last day, but they were stupid, stood on a shelf in a wardrobe and of course fell through it. So that shelf had to be fixed. They also had to clean (it was not done well) and still needed to connect some forgotten cables.

So now yesterday was said to be the last day, to wrap up everything, but as you can guess they did not have all the necessary cable with them. In the evening, I decided to go over all the connections to thoroughly double check: 19 network connections in the apartment, and only 17 are connected on the patch panel... Oops...

They also realized they forgot to bring the incoming phoneline to the central point where all the phonelines meet. It will now be connected inside one of the phone connections, but this of course means that if I will put a PBX, this one phone will not belong to it. And to think I mentioned that a couple of times. Ok, it is not such a big deal, I'll probably get a cordless phone anyway, but how come I think of those things and those guys - it is their job - don't?

Yesterday I also had my painter come over, and he nearly fainted... It will be necessary to replaster the walls in all the rooms, as the openings in the walls are just too big (it will be visible). So my anticipated finishing date of November (2-3 weeks for paintwork + 1 week for floors) may be moving forward again...

[VJ]

And again it pays to be paranoid. I tested all the socket with a simple desklamp, and lo and behold: 1 is not working!