-
Yeah, noticed already the mad wiring in older houses. Shortest route possible seemed to be the choice for a lot of cables plastered into the walls. Often in a metal conduit of some sort at least, but still.
It's water pipes I'm more worried about. Which reminds me that I need to grab some of those Rothenberger Kibosh emergency repair things you recommended.
As I'm fairly new to the trade, and my main area of experience that is lacking is actual work in houses, I was keen to have something to try and help keep me out of trouble. I'm hoping I can find someone to take me on for a bit so I can learn my way around domestic jobs a bit better!
Nef-
They are worth having in the bag. I'm not sure if a really expensive one is a lot more useful because I've never had one.
When you're working with plasterboard walls the void can help you to avoid damaging any pipes or cables. Go very slowly and carefully into the wall and you can feel any changes in the substrate. Big drill bits and drills are the worst, I hit a water pipe in a block of flats with a core drill. Luckily no permanent damage done. Clean water is less of a problem than people think.
I'm quite interested to see what could be done with an IR scanner. It might help to find central heating pipes for example.
The more often you drill holes in walls the more cables and pipes you'll hit though. I've asked long serving pro curtain fitters and the answer to how many was 'lots'
Airhead
I've got a few of differing low budget makes and types, from £15-£50. They sometimes flag up an issue that you might have overlooked but they are not as important as experience. Most of the mistakes people make are avoidable. If you're not sure go slow and use smaller bits, investigate a bit. The finders help if you are outside of your usual property/construction type and trying to figure out what you are drilling into.
For example you already know all the zones for cables so you should always check in them if you had to hang a wall cupboard. That's a scenario where a cable finder can give you a big warning that there's power in that area.
Unless the property looks like the electrics haven't been updated since the 60's. In those cases you need to think about checking if you have any rcd protection as well.