Rewiring Old & Relocated Queenslanders — Noosa Hinterland & Gympie

Old Queenslanders get moved. It's been happening around Pomona, Cooran, Kin Kin and Gympie for decades: a house comes off a block in the suburbs, goes up the highway on a truck, and lands on acreage with a new lease on life. They're beautiful houses. They also arrive with wiring that's anywhere from forty to a hundred years old, and once a house has been cut, lifted and re-stumped, the electrical almost always has to start again.

It's work we know well. Relocated and old timber Queenslanders across the hinterland and Gympie have been some of our best jobs, and it's a job that goes a lot smoother with a sparky who's done it before.

Why a Relocated House Nearly Always Needs a Full Rewire

• The wiring is old. Pre-1960s homes often have rubber or cloth-insulated cable that has perished. Later homes have early TPS that's brittle and often has no earth on the lighting circuits.
• The move damages it. Cutting the house into sections and craning it severs and stresses cables. Joins made under the floor by whoever did the last renovation come apart.
• It has to meet current standards to be reconnected. Energex won't connect a house that doesn't have a compliant switchboard, safety switches on every circuit and a proper earthing system. A relocated house is treated as a new installation.
• Smoke alarms. A relocated or substantially renovated dwelling must have interconnected photoelectric smoke alarms in every bedroom, hallway and level. There's no grandfathering.
• Decades of "improvements". We regularly find circuits added by previous owners with no protection, hidden joins, and switchboards that ran out of room three renovations ago.

What a Queenslander Rewire Involves

1. Inspection and plan

We walk the house with you, usually before it's moved or as soon as it's on the new stumps. We work out what's salvageable (occasionally some), what's not (usually most), and where you want everything to end up. Old Queenslanders were wired for a couple of lights and a power point per room. You'll want more.

2. Coordination

A relocation is a team job. We work in around the house movers, the restumpers, the builder, the plumber and the plasterer so the rough-in happens while the walls are open, not after they've been lined. Get us in early and it's a clean job. Get us in after the VJ boards are back on and it's a harder, dearer one.

3. New consumer mains and switchboard

A modern board with a main switch, RCBOs on every circuit, surge protection and room to grow. If the house is on acreage with an overhead supply, we'll advise on the private pole and point of attachment, or run it underground.

4. Full rewire

New circuits throughout: lighting, power, dedicated circuits for the oven, cooktop, hot water, air con and anything else you want. Data and TV points while the walls are open. Ceiling fans in every bedroom if you've got any sense.

5. Smoke alarms, safety switches, earthing

Interconnected photoelectric smoke alarms, RCD protection throughout, a proper main earth. This is the stuff that gets the house connected.

6. Energex connection and certification

We prepare and lodge the connection application, arrange the meter, and issue your Certificate of Testing and Compliance. You get a house that's safe, insurable and ready to live in.

Things to Know Before You Move a House

• Asbestos. Many Queenslanders from the 1940s onwards have fibro sheeting somewhere, usually the bathroom, laundry or under-house enclosure. We don't remove it. We'll tell you if we see it, and we'll work around a licensed removalist.
• Ceiling access. Old Queenslanders often have low roof pitches and no manhole. That affects how we run cables and it's worth planning access while the builder's there.
• Council approvals. The relocation needs building approval and the electrical work is part of the final inspection. Have your certifier's requirements handy.
• Budget for a switchboard. There's no version of this job where the old ceramic-fuse board stays.

Not Moving It, Just Old?

The same applies to Queenslanders and older timber homes that have stayed put. If yours has ceramic fuses, no safety switches, lights that flicker, or you've been told by an insurer or a building inspector that the wiring needs looking at, we do full and partial rewires scoped to what actually needs doing, staged if that suits your budget. See House Rewiring.

Why Ultralec for This Work

• One licensed electrician from the first walk-through to the final test. No subbies, no revolving door.
• Based in Pomona, so we're close to where the houses land: Cooran, Kin Kin, Federal, Pinbarren, Traveston, Imbil, Gympie.
• Comfortable working in with movers and builders, and used to the timing a relocation needs.
• 17 years on the tools, a lot of it in old timber houses.
• Certificate of Testing and Compliance on every job.

Call Alex on 0431 714 922 or request a quote. If the house hasn't moved yet, ring us anyway. The earlier we see it, the better the outcome.