Flat Intercom myth?

blacklight124 · 26 Oct 2016

Hey, hoping someone can shed some expert light on this.

So this has happened twice now over like 4 years. Building is 8 years old. Intercom suddenly stopped buzzing when someone pressed our button. Factor sent a company out, under my suggestion, they pulled the wire for me to Talk TO the front door and used that for the buzzer to sound. (Only 6 cores in the cable and all 6 needed).

So we then hear about another flat in the same block having an issue with being unable to unlockt he door with the intercom. No idea what came of it but we were all billed by the factor.

Long story short, last week, suddenly we cant buzz people in now. A contractor from the factor comes out today and they swap the wire for me to hear people at the front door. Now I can buzz people in again but he's saying "sometimes these wires just break"/"Theyre brittle"/"It may have been knicked behind a joist"... etc

My question is, if theres no movement in the wire, well beyond any possible settlement in the building...how the hell can it just stop working??!! I reckon when they had someone out for the other flat that they may have pulled cables etc and caused the original issue to worsen.

Cheers for any input.

SimonH2 · 26 Oct 2016

Does sound a bit questionable, but it can happen that something is "on the edge" and when you disturb it to fix something else, it goes. I've certainly seen cases where a phone cable is damaged, and you have to pick another pair as each fault appears - until you run out of working pairs. At a previous job, we had a site with constant problems with their phone lines - it was almost "musical chairs" as to which lines worked on any day, until BT finally replaced the old corroded aluminium cable.

sparkymarka · 26 Oct 2016

IF wired in BT cable and depending on the intercom type ( eg all wired to the speech amp ) the last repair job may have broken the door release wire for your flat at the panel if they where working in the entry panel.

SimonH2 · 27 Oct 2016

Of course, if one ignores the "never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence" rule ...
One would never suggest that there's any incentive for the contractor to (for example) loosen any screws a little so as to create future faults for them to be called out to

Chri5 · 27 Oct 2016

Why are you being billed for a common service?

Do you not pay a yearly fee to cover common areas, would that fee not include service costs / maintenance?

SimonH2 · 27 Oct 2016

It varies, often leaseholds are done on a simple "xth share of any bills" basis - in the case of my properties, the flat is due a 1/4 share of anything to do with the communal areas of the flats, and the freehold house next door is (along with the flat) due a 1/9th share each of any work to the other shared spaces (ie car-park at the back). In my limited experience, larger developments tend to have all the management company, regular service fees, etc , malarky - smaller ones (like where my flat is) tend to be less formal.
In our case, we get billed for the annual buildings insurance and freeholders accounts fees, but other than that we tend to just get together and organise repairs ourselves - cut out the middleman and save money !
For example, when the lock on the front door was getting a bit "iffy" (old lock, keys that are copies of worn copies of worn copies ...) I went and got new locks, fitted them myself, and we split the cost of the hardware. Saved the cost of paying someone to do a simple maintenance job, and also got rid of a key off everyone's keyring by getting a new back door lock with the same key

- which the others didn't even know was possible.

securespark · 27 Oct 2016

Can anyone explain the "myth" the OP talks about in the thread title?

blacklight124 · 28 Oct 2016

securespark said:
Can anyone explain the "myth" the OP talks about in the thread title?

The myth im referring to is the contractor saying that these telephone wire type cables can just stop working without any movement or changes because "they get brittle over time" or "theyre very thin" etc etc.

He sounded like he was fobbing me off, not knowing that Im an engineer.

blacklight124 · 28 Oct 2016

sparkymarka said:
IF wired in BT cable and depending on the intercom type ( eg all wired to the speech amp ) the last repair job may have broken the door release wire for your flat at the panel if they where working in the entry panel.

Yeah

Thats what I assumed, or if not "broken my connection" but may have moved my cables about "worsening" an existing break/issue with my connection. It seems too convenient that I have this issue 4 years ago then no issues, not even a crackle then a week after they "repair" someone else's issue, suddenly by buzzer wont release!

securespark · 28 Oct 2016

To my mind, these systems should be wired in stranded cable like alarm cable. More forgiving under movement.

blacklight124 · 28 Oct 2016

Chri5 said:
Why are you being billed for a common service?

Do you not pay a yearly fee to cover common areas, would that fee not include service costs / maintenance?

We were all (6 flats in our block) billed for a "repair" recently. Ive no idea of the details but ill be asking for them. If it requires a full re-wire for my flat I dont know if Ill be billed personally or not. Im trying to ascertain if the contractor's "actions" may have caused my issue.

Although there's really no way to prove it unless i find a cut cable lol

/sigh

blacklight124 · 28 Oct 2016

securespark said:
To my mind, these systems should be wired in stranded cable like alarm cable. More forgiving under movement.

Yeah its 6 core alarm cable. It looks fine to me too, but this guy was talking like its 60+ years old and so brittle.

securespark · 28 Oct 2016

That ought to make it less likely to cause wiring faults by snapping, unless they are ham-fisted.

blacklight124 · 28 Oct 2016

securespark said:
That ought to make it less likely to cause wiring faults by snapping, unless they are ham-fisted.

I guess it is possible its been jammed under a joist or something like that but yeah, they should be using 8 core too, so if this does happen you have 2 spare cores to use. pfft! Im gonna do a bit of snooping as our cupboard and the control box seems to have been left open, so ill see if I can see any obvious tampering/damage.

sparkymarka · 28 Oct 2016

Post pictures of system , if it's alarm cable it won't break unless it's the cheapest of the cheap tissue paper alarm cable !

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Flat Intercom myth?

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