Disaster! Put a spade through the cable to the shed- help!

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Leeds
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United Kingdom
Hello.
Three days ago, my boyfriend wired up the shed he's just finished building, burying the cable in the garden.

Today I was moving plants around the garden and put a spade through the cable, including the live wire. Is there any way of fixing it, apart from digging up the entire cable (part of which is now under concrete)?

If there is, please let me know so I can get out of the doghouse!

Many thanks.
 
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If he "wired" up the shed, then he should be competent enough to install a sufficiently rated junction box where you have cut through the cable ?
 
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You need to get your boyfriend to replace it all with armoured cable.

Once he's done that then he can take you out for dinner by way of apology for putting your life in danger...
 
Ha! Well those replies definitely got me out of the doghouse. Armoured cable it is.
 
Sounds like boyfriend's trying to get rid of you, the cable should be buried and protected at a distance where you can't spade it!
 
Any chance of a picture of the damage to the spade ?
Was the circuit RCD protected ?

I've seen on a job years ago 1mm twin & earth run under lawn turf to supply a garden shed, no RCD and wired to a 15 amp BS3036 was all ok until the gardener went digging. Made a mess of his spade and the Wylex fuse carrier.
 
Hello.
Three days ago, my boyfriend wired up the shed he's just finished building, burying the cable in the garden.
I assume from your comment that he didn't use the right sort of cable.

And unless you were being extremely energetic with your digging, neither did he bury it deep enough (it should have been about 700mm down).

Nor did he use warning tape, or you'd have seen that and stopped.

Given that catalogue of errors I think it's also safe to assume that he didn't apply for Building Regulations approval before he started the work, nor has he done any of the requisite testing of the circuit, and there can be no confidence that it was even properly designed.

This was no laughing matter - the cable got damaged because of his incompetence, nothing else, and the sort of mistakes he's made could have killed you, or the next people who live there.


I'm sure he has many redeeming qualities, but clearly electrical work is not something he should be doing - he doesn't know anywhere near enough. Please do your best to make him see this, and not to do things like that again.
 

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