Light switches in bathrooms

[DaveHerns]

I need some advice to show someone who doesn't respect my opinion-

A friend has bought a house built in 1975.A qualified electrician replaced the old fuse box with a new consumer unit and certified the installation
Then his wife got her friend to refurb the kitchen and bathroom .This person has no qualifications in gas or electricity work and hardly speaks English.
The job involved installing lights, an extractor and a shaver socket in the bathroom. He's put a wall mounted swith in the bathroom within easy reach of the basin .I say this is against the regs and it should be a pullcord switch .I believe this would be OK in a kitchen but not a bathroom?
Would an electric shock from this switch on an RCD protected circuit be fatal ?I can't find a definitive answer on the internet .
I hate to think what sort of job he's done installing the gas/electric oven/hob unit but I sense I'm interfering where I'm not wanted.

 

[EFLImpudence]

He's put a wall mounted swith in the bathroom within easy reach of the basin .I say this is against the regs and it should be a pullcord switch .I believe this would be OK in a kitchen but not a bathroom?

Sinks don't count. Common sense must be used.

As long as it is 'outside the zones', i.e. more than 600mm. horizontally from the edge of the bath a switch is allowed.
However it must be suitable for the environment.
This will not have been stated by the manufacturer as such and so you will have to continue arguing on this point, not its position.

Would an electric shock from this switch on an RCD protected circuit be fatal ?I can't find a definitive answer on the internet .

There isn't one.
RCDs limit the duration of a shock, not the magnitude.

 

[DaveHerns]

Thanks for that .Do the regs state 600mm from the edge of a bath or does a sink also count as a water containing unit?

 

[EFLImpudence]

No, sinks are not mentioned.
It is only things you can stand in/on and/or be submerged, baths, showers, pools etc.

Just to note that the work in the kitchen and within the bathroom zones would have been notifiable to the Local Authority either directly if not a registered electrician or by a registered electrician through his registering scheme.

 

[DaveHerns]

Again thanks
This "builder" certainly won't have notified this work.
I tried telling them but no-one listened .One day I'll be saying "I told you so"

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I hate to think what sort of job he's done installing the gas/electric oven/hob

If he got paid for doing it then the sort of job he's done is an illegal one.

One day I'll be saying "I told you so"

Unless, of course, they are dead.

 

[DaveHerns]

His wife is Polish and is only letting Poles do work in the house.
Totally unsatisfactory but what can I do except not use their bathroom?

 

[securespark]

You could compare the installation to your average bathroom in a hotel room on the continent.

You often find a light switch for the room near the sink and even a socket too.

In this case, you have no socket. People just have to apply common sense, which one hopes they would do elsewhere in the house (like a switch near a kitchen or utility or cloakroom sink) and not operate the switch with wet hands.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Totally unsatisfactory but what can I do except not use their bathroom?

Leave the house as soon as they turn on any gas appliances would be my advice.