Talking of building, I had a WTF moment today.
Backdrop: I had an old lean-too conservatory on the back of the bungalow, access through french doors from the lounge. Been demolished and replaced with a dwarf wall pitched roof conservatory.
The old
Back wall of conservatory was the rear bunglow rendered/pebbledashed wall with a Light fitting and 13 amp plug on R/H side cabled via visible trunking (two 2.5m t&e to plug and 1.5mm t&e to light) and light fitting and switch on L/H side cabled with in render wiring. L/H switch operated l/h and r/h light
The power needed to be isolated when the old was coming down and the new was going up, I found a spur from the loft room 13 amp ring main, isolated that and power to all conservatory was removed. The logic of it all looked confusing but left that till later
The new is up, and I am doing first fix electrics prior to plasterer arriving and now dealing with the left till later"
The WTF moment
There was a cable from spur junction box, across eaves space, to and down the R/H wall to 13 amp plug, a cable from the 13amp plug back up the wall then across the eaves space, then back down behind L/H wall render to light switch, from light switch to l/h light fitting, from light fitting back up l/h side wall, back across eaves space then down r/h wall to R/H light fitting!
It is of course being redone by me to building and IET 17th edition regs.
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The first house we bought in the UK was a semi built around 1920. It needed "modernisation".
The wiring had black rubber insulation even though the electrical sockets and switches were all modern. So the first job was to completely rewire. While rewiring the downstairs lighting circuit I found a length of 1.5mm t&e connected to the hallway light switch that ran behind some door architrave and disappeared through the wall into the living/dining room. At the other end was a 13A socket that the previous owner's wife had used to do her ironing while watching TV. Neutral and earth were both connected to the patress box.
Another downstairs 13A socket had been connected as a spur to an upstairs socket with 1.5mm t&e run down the corner of a chimney breast and covered with cardboard secured to the wall with Zinc Oxide tape (hubby and wife were both nurses) and covered with wallpaper.
Glub knows how the place hadn't gone up in smoke.
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Late father-in-law had an old aluminium bodied Wolf brand drill he used to use in the garage connected via a light. I went to use it and thought I'd check it. The case was live. He had no notion of colour codes.
Moving into this house, I lifted floorboards that had obviously been lifted before. Found a loop of cable under a bedroom floor. Investigation revealed a kitchen feed had been drilled through and the ring had been split into two spurs. Why the loop had never been used to repair the ring I couldn't imagine. The ring was easily re-installed with the loop of cable and the kitchen socket remained a spur off it.
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Our first house bought in the mid sixties ( circa 1930 ) had all rubber wiring in slip conduit but had no power circuits whatsoever. I assume an electric electric iron ran off a common Y shaped adapter plugged into the central pendant lamp holder , just like my mother did.
It also never had any running hot water in the kitchen.
New neighbours replaced an old guy who had attempted all sorts of horrible DIY bodges.
I was called in to view his efforts.
One cable ran from the fuse box under the stairs through to the next cupboard and there was a PLUG on it.
Yet another ordinary cable ran along the kitchen wall, along the work surface , immediately behind the taps under the " patio and eventually appeared in his DIY leaky garage.
Much more recently, my daughters flat ( house conversion maybe 20 years ago) has a 4 way Wylex consumer unit 2 x 5A and 2 x 30A wire fuses until I swapped to MCBs but it also has a familiar large MK cooker switch. Yes the cooker switch for the electric oven ( gas hob) is off a ring circuit. Not the best approach :-(
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Funny, you don't really come across ring mains outside the UK. Mostly they just use butcher wiring.
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Is there a tool to find out where cables run? (Behind plaster which is covered by plasterboard and then covered with standard wall tiles).
Three thicknesses potentailly; so not as easy as one might think, perhaps?
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I do not think I endeared myself to then future FIL when, on finding his garage extension was a cable with 13A Plugs on both ends, I just chopped them both off with cable cutters. I think it had been installed by his friendly DIY whizz next door neighbour.
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>>Is there a tool to find out where cables run
Google "cable detector". My son used one recently to rewire our kitchen porch light, to install the switch inside. It was originally *outside*; how daft is that? But then the old lady who lived here before us repaired a leaking gas pipe with Sellotape. There must be a special guardian angel for batty old women as wife's aunt of that type bought an old cottage that had the bath plumbed into the kitchen next to a power socket for an electric kettle and described how she could make a cup of tea while enjoying a soak.
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>>.......bath plumbed into the kitchen next to a power socket for an electric kettle and described how she could make a cup of tea while enjoying a soak
Not just old folks..
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/17/coroner-warns-of-dangers-after-man-electrocuted-in-bath-while-charging-phone
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Right, So the conservatory has now been rewired. Using existing wires where possible, I have connected into the loftspace 13 amp ring main in two places, and run a switched fused spur down the left hand side that serves two double sockets, single light switched light feed and electric roof vent*. another switched fused spur runs down the r/h side feeding two double sockets and an IP66 external socket. On this spur is also a light feed, and a single high level 13amp socket for potential mood lighting.
*its just an up/down switch at the moment, but pondering upgrading later to a thermostatic / remote system, but that will need a rain sensor, so have preinstalled some low voltage signal cable just in case.
Plasterer arrives tomorrow, so next stop is to buy a decent de-humidifier. The concrete slab is currently 24% damp (needs to get below 8% minimum to lay a floor) and a few sq meters of wet plaster is not going to help matters.
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A WTF house wiring moment - Kevin
