Tracing ring main in kitchen

[Aldrich]

Hi

My kitchen ring main has a broken earth somewhere. There is a suspect region where a spur feeds off the main ring to feed a single socket above the skirting board. We think there must be a junction box hidden in the floor (concrete), behind the skirting or buried in the wall that makes this connection and maybe the fault is there.

I need to trace the spur wiring. I have tried using my Draper cable/metal detector but it is not up to the job. I've seen a recommendation from Andy Hall for the Zircon stud detector, but I think that is more aimed at detecting voids. Would a Cable Avoidance Tool be my best bet?

I may have to take the skirting off. What is the cleanest way of doing this?

Thanks

David

[Chris Cowley]

Do you know how old the skirting is, how it is attached, and how old the plaster around it is? Gradually, since moving in, I've removed all of the 120 year old skirting in our place and I think it would have been impossible to do without damaging a few cm's of the horse-hair plaster above it (in truth I was never in a position where I needed to care about the plaster too much), conversely there was a 2.5m run of new-ish skirting and plaster that had received some damp treatment in the recent past. The board was fixed to the plasterwork with some sort of adhesive ("No More Nails/Sticks Like Shit" kind of stuff, I presume) and came of very cleanly.

[John Rumm]

A zircon is also a metal and voltage detector. It will probably do a better job than your Draper. The other tracing tool you can use is the telecoms type when you use a signal generator connected to the wire in question and a tracing wand to follow it. The small ones don't have that much range however, and the big ones (like those BT use for tracing underground wires) cost a fortune!)

Depends on how it is fixed! If screwed, unscrew it, otherwise a wide pry bar and/or bolster chisel!

[Stephen Dawson]

I have just brought anew one from Fluke, very nice bit of kit and very acurate, but cost £350 plus vat

[Lobster]

Yes I have a Draper one (somewhere!) - total rubbish. I'm saving up for a Zircon!

Note there was a thread on this ng about a week or so back discussing whether a new cheap detector available at B&Q was actually a Zircon in disguise:

(or

I'd love to know the definitive answer to that! Cos I'm damned if I'm going to buy myself a *third* detector that doesn't work properly!

David

[Mogweed.]

If you know any telephone engineers (specifically cable jointers) borrow a "tone and amplifier" from them. If you happen to be in Preston, Lancashire, drop me an email (darkstar2004 AT btinternet DOT com) and I'll come round with mine.

Mogweed.