Massive cable under first floor floor board

[consumer done over]

Hi,

Just been to my house to look at our rewire job which started this morning.

The elec showed me whats under the floorboard upstairs, a massive massive black cable. He said it could be the mains to next door.

He had a look at our fuse box and there is only our cutout and also on the external walls there is no outside connection to next door.

What do I do with this?

I'm just tempted to leave the cable as it is but on the other hand i don't want someone else's supply running under my first floor!

The spark said that if they had made it dead years ago they would have left it insitu so it does not mean it is necessarily live but he won't mess with it.

Are the DNO obliged to get rid if I ask?

 

[Steve]

I'd ask the electrician to verify whether its dead. He should have been able to tell you this striaght away anyway

And the DNO are not obliged to move cables if they are not in anyones way.

On our street, the houses are wired 5 in a row, such that the first house picks up the supply from the street, and its routed to 5 houses from that first house. Therefore there's a cable on the back of our house that supplies next door and next door-but-one. Nothing we can do about it. A couple of houses have had extensions, and had the DNO move the cables, but this is the only scenario where they'll do anything.

 

[consumer done over]

I take your point but this is under a floorboard.
A distracted dIYer could put a nail through it......

I would class it as in my way

 

[Steve]

Can YOU trace it? For all we know it could be your shower cable or something. What is it connected to? Since your rewiring, your going to find out soon enough.

 

[jondiy]

Do you have access to a clampmeter?

 

[consumer done over]

Do you have access to a clampmeter?

how much do they cost?

 

[Lectrician]

What use is a clamp meter? A standard clamp meter will not be able to determine any current flow if it is a concentric cable for two reasons - The neutral screening the live, and the fact that you will be clamping the live and neutral current, with the resultant being zero (unless there is any earth leackage or circulating network currents).

How is any spark going to verify if it is dead or not? It will most likely be of concentric construction if a DNO cable, and therefore difficult to prove if it is live or dead.

What exactly do you call massive? What is the diameter? Anything written on the sheath? Is it round?

I would get lifting some floor boards if I where you.

 

[DESL]

Can you post a picture of it?

 

[consumer done over]

Can you post a picture of it?

will try


would you get rid if it was in your house?

 

[Lectrician]

It is rare for the DNO to run cables internally for more than a few meters SURFACE clipped, let alone in a floor.

A pic would be great.

 

[dannyboi2003]

Could it be an armoured cable running from your existing consumer unit (may be joined to T&E somewhere close the CU if you cant see it) in the house, up under the floorboards then off outside to the garage or some sort of outbuilding?

Do you have any buildings external to the house that have power?

As its already been said its unlikely to be a DNO cable but its certainly possible, but if its a power cable then any decent spark should have been able to identify what it is and where it goes within reason.

All the best
Dan

 

[JohnD]

A DNO would not like to have a supply cable hidden under a floor like that. it can be very inconvenient when they get a nail into them.

 

[RF Lighting]

a massive massive black cable

Bet it isn't 'massive'

Is it as big as this 2" thick dirty beast?

 

[Lectrician]

Nice big 150 or 185 waveform cable there

Odd CT metering arrangment there. Looks a bit 'DIY', but obviously it is not!

Is the wavecon the supply or the 'tails' to a board of somesort?

 

[RF Lighting]

The waveform supples the DNO cutout, which also contains the CTs for the meter.

The tails come out of the bottom of the cutout in 6x6 steel trunking.

Which part looks DIY-ish?