Hello. Sorry for the long post, my first or second I think! I am looking for reassurance, I can hardly believe what has happened yesterday. After nearly 2 years, (seriously), I finally got our kitchen fitters back to finish off the final snags and jobs in the kitchen, (the wife has been very very patient!)
Kitchen fitter is Part P registered and I would genuinely say very good ability wise, (used him before), delays have been due to his very busy schedule and a bit of a disagreement I had with one of is guys who bodged some plumbing very badly! PArt P guy was on site yesterday along with one of his guys, litterally the final job was to secure a custom built cupboard to the wall in the corner next to Fridge freezer, (litterally last job after 2 years!). .......Kitchen guy fitted and l bracket to the top, marked it, drilled into the wall, fitted rawlplug, drilled the second marked hole, found some as he described "resistance" and BANG, I just saw a flash from the cupboard and the guy screemed......RCD tripped..
He turned it back on, everything worked, but the trip to the hob was off, turned that back on and it worked, but this was the damaged cable.
When they wired it, they wired two 32 amp (I think, cooker cable anyway)supplies, one to the electric hob one side of kitchen and another the the double ovens on the other side. ONly the hob one is damaged, the Kitchen fitter boss (part P) was offsite on his way home with the cheque, when it happened, His guy stayed and dug out the plaster, found the damaged the drill went dead centre trough the cable and shorted live to earth, the neutral is untouched. Also the earth is intact, not even a mark, I think the drill bit made the connection, flash and off it went.
This is inside a backless cupboard, so they say they can repair it with a connector inside an inspection cover, either recessed in or surface mount. The boss returned and temporarily fixed it using a huge choc box connector (60 amp he said), but he ONLY repaired the nicked live wire, the damaged was very small, only one "strand" was knicked and not cut through, but he snipped it through and reconnected it. He manged to pull enough cable through to fit a surface mount if needed, but when i called him this morning, he said one option if to just repair the knicked live, ie fit the cable into an inspection cover and fit one terminal connector to the ONE damaged cable, leaving the others intact, sort of bypassing it but within the box....
Now I supose this makes sense to me, if the other cables are undamaged why cut them, but it just seems a slightly messy way of dealing with it.
I would agree with them that to replace the whole lot is a massive amount of work and will dsiturb a lot of compelted work including a very expensive floor so I have no problem having a permenant repair, it will not be on show after all.
I read on here last night about crimping it and heatshrinking it, whihc I presume is possible on just theone cable, but would their solution of a terminal block or connector box, with just the damaged (now cut) cable routing though it be OK.
Sorry to rattle on, but it has been very expensive so far, we have run into lots of trouble, and to have it go wrong litterally right at the end just does my head in.
Any reassurance and advice is greatly appreciated. I do trust these guys, but also know how busy they are, how difficult it was to get them back to finish and not they have been paid, I want to make sure that any solution is firstly legal and suitable.
ONly other thing I should mention as it may complicate thigs is there is a water fitler for the fridge freezer icemaker fitted in the same cupboard. Would this mean any cable repar needs to be outside the cupboard, ore buried in plaster, or will a surface mount be ok. Do they need to do any additonal waterproofing?
They are good guys I am sure, it was a careless mistake at the end of a long day, so i can forgive them that, but I need it fixing satisfactorily.
Cheers
Kitchen fitter is Part P registered and I would genuinely say very good ability wise, (used him before), delays have been due to his very busy schedule and a bit of a disagreement I had with one of is guys who bodged some plumbing very badly! PArt P guy was on site yesterday along with one of his guys, litterally the final job was to secure a custom built cupboard to the wall in the corner next to Fridge freezer, (litterally last job after 2 years!). .......Kitchen guy fitted and l bracket to the top, marked it, drilled into the wall, fitted rawlplug, drilled the second marked hole, found some as he described "resistance" and BANG, I just saw a flash from the cupboard and the guy screemed......RCD tripped..
He turned it back on, everything worked, but the trip to the hob was off, turned that back on and it worked, but this was the damaged cable.
When they wired it, they wired two 32 amp (I think, cooker cable anyway)supplies, one to the electric hob one side of kitchen and another the the double ovens on the other side. ONly the hob one is damaged, the Kitchen fitter boss (part P) was offsite on his way home with the cheque, when it happened, His guy stayed and dug out the plaster, found the damaged the drill went dead centre trough the cable and shorted live to earth, the neutral is untouched. Also the earth is intact, not even a mark, I think the drill bit made the connection, flash and off it went.
This is inside a backless cupboard, so they say they can repair it with a connector inside an inspection cover, either recessed in or surface mount. The boss returned and temporarily fixed it using a huge choc box connector (60 amp he said), but he ONLY repaired the nicked live wire, the damaged was very small, only one "strand" was knicked and not cut through, but he snipped it through and reconnected it. He manged to pull enough cable through to fit a surface mount if needed, but when i called him this morning, he said one option if to just repair the knicked live, ie fit the cable into an inspection cover and fit one terminal connector to the ONE damaged cable, leaving the others intact, sort of bypassing it but within the box....
Now I supose this makes sense to me, if the other cables are undamaged why cut them, but it just seems a slightly messy way of dealing with it.
I would agree with them that to replace the whole lot is a massive amount of work and will dsiturb a lot of compelted work including a very expensive floor so I have no problem having a permenant repair, it will not be on show after all.
I read on here last night about crimping it and heatshrinking it, whihc I presume is possible on just theone cable, but would their solution of a terminal block or connector box, with just the damaged (now cut) cable routing though it be OK.
Sorry to rattle on, but it has been very expensive so far, we have run into lots of trouble, and to have it go wrong litterally right at the end just does my head in.
Any reassurance and advice is greatly appreciated. I do trust these guys, but also know how busy they are, how difficult it was to get them back to finish and not they have been paid, I want to make sure that any solution is firstly legal and suitable.
ONly other thing I should mention as it may complicate thigs is there is a water fitler for the fridge freezer icemaker fitted in the same cupboard. Would this mean any cable repar needs to be outside the cupboard, ore buried in plaster, or will a surface mount be ok. Do they need to do any additonal waterproofing?
They are good guys I am sure, it was a careless mistake at the end of a long day, so i can forgive them that, but I need it fixing satisfactorily.
Cheers