Found out office has a spur off a spur off a spur. How do I make this safe?

[GeoffSmith]

I've just discovered that the house I've bought has a spur off a spur off a spur, all going back to a 32a MCB. 

 

I've removed the middle spur, so it's now just a spur off a spur, but obviously this still isn't safe or ideal. 

 

My short term plan is to just not use the sockets in a way that might overload them, but is there a longer term plan I can do to guarantee safety here? My current plan is this:

 

I will have socket 1 completely unused, and then ensure that anything going into socket 2 is well below 13am peak draw. Is this OK in the short term?

 

The sockets are not on the kitchen ring. I'm wondering if it's worth switching out the 32a MCB for a 20a?

 

I will get an electrician in once the new year is here, but for the meantime, I need to decorate this room while there's time to do so, and if I can make this safe without having to get an electrician in, I would like to be able to do so. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[joth]

How far is it from the consumer unit? If you're decorating soon then getting a new cable chased in from CU to head of the spur, to convert to a new radial curt, before you decorate would be best. But obviously only works if it's near enough CU to be practical.

Else a short term fix would be insert a fused spur box (or even 16A MCB) at the head of the chain to protect all the cabling downstream from that point. Still far from best practice but an improvement on what you have.

[GeoffSmith]

Hi Joth,

 

Thanks for the advice. At the moment, chasing in a new cable isn't practical, because truthfully, there's no way to know where the head of the spur is at the moment without a ton of investigating. For all I know, there might actually be an FCU embedded somewhere making all this fine, but short of ripping up the floors to know where the cables go, it's never going to be known. It's on old house, with weird wiring, and it simply just needs redoing completely, but that's for another year. 

 

In this instance, then, is the best temporary measure to switch the 32a for a 16/20a?

 

For the short term, with as little faff as possible, I just need to make it so that I can rely on it to not blow the house up

 

Thanks mate!

[joth]

9 hours ago, GeoffSmith said:

there's no way to know where the head of the spur is at the moment without a ton of investigating

Normal method is to search for a socket with three cables, but yes old house it maybe a hidden junction anywhere.

An existing FCU should be obvious, as you'd need it accessible to replace said fuse should it pop. I think safe to assume there isn't one.

Even if you can't find where the spur is Tee'd off the ring you seem confident to know which socket is first in the spur chain? So you can put a FCU co located with it.