Save us from cowboys...

I've been removing the fitted furniture in our bedroom. The room has always been a bit short of sockets, so imagine my surprise when in the wall behind the wardrobe was a pattress box, containing the ends of some mains cable, wrapped in insulation tape. I didn't have a spare socket, so I cursed a little, put a blanking plate over it and carried on.

It was only today when I was fitting the new socket I'd bought that it suddenly occurred to me that two of the sections of the ring were joined by insulation tape holding the conductors together, and had been for 15 years or so...

Andy

Reply to
Andy Champ
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Maybe the previous owner done it?

Reply to
George

Did this spur you on to greater things?

Reply to
Andy Hall

Well, he was a bookmaker... but I think it was a pro job.

Andy

Reply to
Andy Champ

I'm sorry, I don't quite get the point of that remark :)

Seriously I can't even be bothered to chip out the box and put a double in. It'll be handy for SWBO's bedside light though, rather than having a flex from my side.

Andy

Reply to
Andy Champ

Could have been h tosser who installed the wardrobes? because he could'nt get wardrobe flush with wall.

Reply to
George

Well I laughed. It's a pun. If you have to explain it, it's not funny.

Reply to
newshound

Whoever did it, I agree with your description of his character.

Andy

Reply to
Andy Champ

Socket to him Andy:-)

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

The message from Andy Champ contains these words:

My ancient hovel had been 'modernised' by the cowboy builder who had had it before me and some of the electrics were very suspect. The fusebox was just a three way affair with one ring main, one cooker outlet and one lighting circuit.

The sockets in the kitchen (apart from the one on the cooker outlet) were on a spur and used to misbehave on occasion. I eventually found the junction and the reason why. The junction was buried in a huge block of concrete that was the threshold of a new opening through a wall upstairs. The ring main had been sliced open and the ends from the spur just twisted quite loosely round the ring conductors and the whole wrapped in insulation tape before being buried in concrete.

He had had some woodworking machinery in the barn but that too was on a spur although that was at least off a junction box.

And I think I mentioned recently the earth wire from the fuse box that terminated at a rusty nail.

Some of the wiring is still original but I think I have by now eliminated all the nasties.

Reply to
Roger

No need to saddle him with that.

Reply to
Andy Hall

You conduit if you try.

Reply to
Frank Erskine

Now you all understand why I wasn't going to essay a sparky reply to Andy!

Reply to
Andy Champ

Wire you all trying so hard?

Reply to
Rod

Yep, that sounds likely - removed the socket, but didn't have terminal blocks or crimps to make good properly.

Reply to
Steve Walker

Reply to
Andy Burns

A couple of weeks ago I did a days work for a regular client who left me a key & a list of jobs. Last on the list - almost a p.s. was "refit double socket on kitchen wall". New kitchen had been fitted.

Finished all the other jobs & looked at the socket. In the back box were two lives in a chocky block, two neutrals in another chocky & two earths in another, all neatly taped up. No problem, turned off the power, connected the socket, turned the power back on to be rewarded by a huge bang.

The 30 amp cartridge fuse had blown, 4:50pm on a Friday night. Nearest electrical wholesaler the other side of the Medway bridge. Drove like a madman to get there before they closed, bought a couple of 30 amp fuses. By the time I got back the client had arrived home from work.

"Any problems?" I explained about the socket, the big bang & my mad dash across town.

"Oh, funny that - that's exactly what happened when the kitchen fiter tried to connect it!"

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

Go on, keep us in suspense...

Did you fix it?

Reply to
John Rumm

Conductors transposed somewhere?

Reply to
Andy Hall

That would be my first guess...

Reply to
John Rumm

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