How should these messy mains cables be fixed?

[pamela]

I would like some advice from those who know about electrics.

We recently had a walk-in shower installed under a local authority grant. Last week we saw this electrical wiring in the loft: -

The cables come out from under the floorboards of a room on the left and go off to the right into a loft space. The boarded walkway was there before the shower work started.

Shouldn't those mains cables be passed through a hole in the joists? The electrical firm accepts the work was not done correctly and has offered to now secure the cables with clips. Is that sufficient to meet the regs?

Would it better to have the cables cut and routed through the joists and then have them joined in a junction box?

The job specification says all work is to be done to the "highest standard in line with the relevant trade legislation".

Thanks for any info.

[ARW]

I would be more worried about the crack down your gable end.

[T i m]

Can you say that sort of thing on here? ;-)

Is that a crack or the top of the chimney Adam?

Cheers, T i m

[John Rumm]

Electric shower by any chance?

In this case, with all that insulation about, no they are better off on top of it.

Yup, nothing wrong with a cable clipped to a surface.

If one is a shower feed, then no, fewer joins the better since it carries a high current.

Nothing there worth getting too worked up about.

[ARW]

It's the ghosts hand that worries me.

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , ARW escribió:

especially as it looks like the bricks have shifted laterally.

[pamela]

Thank you for pointing it out! I'll get that looked at later.

Right now, I need to focus on electrics because the council works supervisor wants to finish this job and close the file.

Have you got any thoughts about what I was asking regarding the cables?

[T i m]

Hehe, I saw that as well. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Tim Watts]

It's a bit of a can of worms. If you clip them to the joists they are now under 8" of insulation which will involve going up a cable size (assuming you have a 10mm2 cable there to a 10-11kW shower - it would need to be upped to 16mm2.

It could have been clipped to the underside of the rafters, along the brickwork and down again.

But dangling cables in a loft is not uncommon and it's not in an area that is likely to get them stepped on or otherwise damaged.

[pamela]

Well spotted!

[Tim Streater]

Right by the "e" of "entrance" - isn't there a poorly done cable splice?

[pamela]

It was a bit murky in there, so he's shining a light to let my camera focus correctly. :-)

[pamela]

That cable is for the existing lighting. I've no idea who installed it but it doesn't look professional. The switch, which you can't see, is lashed under the rafters in a strange way.

[pamela]

Yes, one of the cables is 10mm2 for the shower and the other two are for a fan heater, lighting and extractor fan.

Maybe some slack has been left in the loft space on the right where the cable runs for about 5 metres before reaching the bathroom.

Although I wonder if any slack is going to be sufficient for the section of cable I showed you to get clipped completely out of the way.

By "dangle" do you mean where the cables are now? Or do you mean the cable could go up the wooden post on the left and then across to the rafters with a section of cable in the air?

All in all, what do you think is the best option?

[tabbypurr]

I'm not seeing a problem.

NT

[F Murtz]

Why? what have they done to you. Unless there are people tramping through there yus leave them alone. Any way they are safer there than clipped under the insulation (air cooled) Just stay out of your roof space and have a cup of coffee, watch tv.

[PeterC]

Before I boarded abot 60 - 70% of the loft, the cables ran over the joists and insulation. Moving araound up there was a bitfraught, as usual in an unboarded loft. When fitting the boards, I ran the cables over the boards and the areas of exposed insulation. Moving around is much easier, I avoid th cables and have left enough slack that a trip won't tug on the terminals. The joists are 3" high - I wouldn't want to drill through those. Wherever cables go through to a fitting, I've marked the boards with the position and ID to make future work a bit easier.

[Jonno]

F Murtz scribbled

There's a history of this poster being a PITA with anyone foolish enough to have dealings with her.

[John Rumm]

What, just below the disembodied hand? Yup possibly, although I was assuming that was not part of the "new" wiring....

[John Rumm]

Unless they are particularly in the way for some reason. leave them alone. They are better over rather than under the insulation. There is unlikely to be enough slack to take the cable right up to the top and back down again, and you don't really want any unnecessary joins in the shower cable. I can't see them getting the electrican back to rerun the entire length of it just to add a metre or two of extra cable.