Before You Buy Your Home in Dinnington | Electrical Checks

Buying a house in Dinnington? Find out how old the wiring is

There are two Dinningtons, and it helps to know which one you are buying.

I’m Mat Orton from MP Electrical. I have been an electrician for 25+ years, and we cover Dinnington from our base in Rotherham.

The town the pit built

In 1901 about 250 people lived in Dinnington. It was farms and a bit of quarrying, centred on New Road.

Then Dinnington Main was sunk in 1905. Six years later the census counted 5,000 people. There was nowhere to put them, so the first miners lived in huts on Laughton Common that everyone called Tin Town. After that the colliery built them proper terraces around Laughton Road, and those streets are still the middle of the town.

The town the car built

The second Dinnington came after the war. People who worked in Sheffield, Rotherham and Worksop wanted a house with a garden, and the estates spread until Dinnington ran into Throapham and North Anston.

So a buyer here is usually choosing between a terrace that went up before the First World War and an estate house that went up after the Second. They can be ten minutes’ walk apart and forty years apart in age.

Why I ask the age before anything else

A house that old has outlived at least one set of wiring. The question is whether anyone replaced it.

When I open up an older house, I start with three checks.

Is the cable rubber? Rubber was the insulation before plastic. It hardens and splits as it ages, and once it has gone it cannot be patched.

Is there an earth on the lights? A lot of older lighting was wired without one. You would never know until someone fits a metal light fitting.

Are the gas and water pipes connected to the earthing at the fuseboard? They should be. In plenty of older houses I open up, they are not.

None of this shows on a viewing

The lights work. The kettle boils. The estate agent is not hiding anything, because the estate agent does not know either. And the surveyor’s report does not cover testing the electrics.

What I would do in your shoes

Have a full EICR before you commit. I test the wiring, the fuseboard and the earthing, and you get a report in plain English saying what I found.

I cannot tell you the result before I have tested, and I will not try. It is the seller’s house until you complete, so the visit needs their agreement. Ask the estate agent to set it up.

Questions I get from Dinnington buyers

It is an old pit terrace. Should I assume it needs rewiring? No. Assume nothing. Some were rewired years ago and are fine. The test tells you which kind you have.

The seller says it was rewired. Is that good enough? Ask when, and ask for the paperwork. If nobody can find any, have it tested.

Is Dinnington too far out for you? No. We cover Dinnington.

Do you only do big jobs? No. Any size, from a single socket up.

Before you ring

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Areas We Cover Near Dinnington

MP Electrical helps homebuyers in Dinnington and across Maltby, Thurcroft, Wickersley, Aston, Kiveton Park and Sheffield.

Page last updated: 4 October 2026