France Property Renovation

Start with a large sheet of paper and a floor plan for your project. Even better get several photocopies so when all the lines and scribbling become to much you can start again! You are best preparing this plan although you will not be installing the system yourself, for the sake of clarity in discussions with your electrician.

Firstly designate the ‘critical’ sockets – those that must be in the correct position. These include the sockets for the appliances such as the oven, the washing machine, dishwasher, fridges / freezers, boiler and ‘above the work-surface’ kitchen sockets. The position of these sockets needs to be shown very accurately. Because all these appliances need dedicated electricity supplies from the main distribution box it is not possible to simply use ‘a spare socket’.
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I strongly recommend that you do not do your electrical installation yourself, unless you are a qualified electrician and familiar with French electricity regulations There are also regulations concerning this.

There are some factors you should consider when you buy an old property. See PLANNING AN ELECTRICAL LAYOUT (elsewhere in this electricity category) for some suggestions about how to approach the planning of your electrical system. See below for general information.

Old Installations

First thing, if your property has an old electrical installation, your priority is to get a qualified electrician to verify that it is still safe to use at all. Ancient ceramic sockets, dangling wiring, wooden conduits and plugs that fizzle when you unplug them are all often encountered. You will almost certainly want to replace your electrics if you have any or all of these.

I suggest getting this done at an early stage in the renovation process. Apart from the ‘physical danger’ aspects of an old wiring system, the channelling of walls to add new electrical wiring can be very disruptive to the entire house.
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