Please explain ....simply

I had a periodic inspection carried out on my house 4 weeks ago. The report shows that there are 4 items requiring urgent/remedial attention:
1)Supplementary protection not satisfied to socket outlets reasonably expected to power equipment outdoors.
2)Main earth bonding found to be inadequate.
3) Supplementary bonding conductors not installed within the bathroom areas.
4)No ring final continuity on lives downstairs ring main.

Don't understand any of this.

Am trying to get an electrician to do this work (including the firm who did the report) but don't seem to be getting anywhere. I appreciate that this needs to be done but just how urgent is it? I was told by an electrician on Tuesday that I would have to have the floor boards up to locate the fault at number 4. He seemed most annoyed that this was laminate flooring (not my choice as I only moved in 5 weeks ago). Apart from reading the report he seemed convinced that the fault lay "underground".
Please help.

How old is your house and the wiring?

1)Supplementary protection not satisfied to socket outlets reasonably expected to power equipment outdoors.

Click to expand...

This, basically, means there is no RCD protecting you against electrocution by, for example, running over your lawnmower cable in the garden. Such an RCD has been a requirement since 1992 I think. Using an RCD socket or a plug in RCD adaptor for garden eqipment is advisable in this case.

2)Main earth bonding found to be inadequate.

Click to expand...

You need to have your water, gas and any other incoming/outgoing metal pipes connected to your main earthing system to protect against getting a shock by holding the tap and a faulty toaster, for example, at the same time. You may have bonds that are not big enough or none at all. It needs sorting but not an emergency call out, if you see what I mean.

3) Supplementary bonding conductors not installed within the bathroom areas.

Click to expand...

Pretty much the same as 2 but confined to your bathroom area. Solution as per 2.

4)No ring final continuity on lives downstairs ring main.

Click to expand...

This is the biggest (probably) job and the one requiring the most urgent attention. Ring circuits, which your sockets are attached to, are just that, a ring of wire that has 2 ends that meet at the CU (fuse box). They work by sharing the load around the circular system in both directions. If there is no continuity, ie the circle is broken, the power to the sockets on each side of the break has only 1 path it can follow. This can lead to overloaded cables and, in the worst case, fire. What fixing it entails depends on what is found to be causing the fault, and that, alone, can take a while to determine! If cabling needs replacing then, I'm afraid, that can need floorboards lifting and walls knocking about a bit. If it's at a socket, it won't. Once fixed, it will entail some testing to confirm all is well.

Hi penlopej-

Don't worry about not understanding any of this, you're not an electrician, after all! I'll try my best to explain some, if not all, of it (others will no doubt follow):

1) The 'supplementary protection' referred to here is a Residual Current Device, or RCD, which is designed to protect you from electric shock should something go wrong and you become exposed to a live wire for instance. This danger is particularly high when using a socket outlet to supply, say, a lawn mower or other piece of equipment used outdoors. This is because your resistance to 'earth' can be greatly decreased under these circumstances, causing a higher, and potentially fatal, current to flow through you in the event of a fault (with me?).
The solution is to use an electronic device called an RCD somewhere in the circuit. This device cuts the supply extremely quickly in the event of a fault, preventing you from receiving a fatal shock (clever, eh?).
You can have this RCD fitted to the main consumer unit (fuse board) or you could change your socket outlet(s) near the garden (usually ground floor or basement) to ones that incorporate an RCD. Or you could get a separate RCD 'wall wart' unit to plug into the socket when you're doing the mowing. However, this latter suggestion might not be ideal as it can be removed.

2)Main Earth Bonding is a fairly recent requirement of the 'regs' and is just a thick yellow/green PVC covered cable connecting your main earth where the supply comes in (near the fuse board) to your gas and water pipes where they enter your house. This keeps all your metal pipework at the same electrical potential and is a safety measure to prevent you getting a shock under, albeit fairly unlikely, fault circumstances.
This should be done asap to ensure safety and compliance with the regs, but I wouldn't call it 'urgent' as such, given that loads of houses don't have it: just get it done soon.

3) Supplementary Bonding in the bathroom is another fairly recent safety idea and, again, while not urgent as such, should be done asap. Why not: safer is better for all concerned. This involves an electrician connecting various items (lights, radiators, shower, water pipes) together with a smaller green/yellow cable plus some safety warning tags and making some tests.

4) No ring continuity means that somewhere in your downstairs 'ring' circuit supplying your sockets there is a 'break'. That means that it is no longer functioning as a ring and is no longer adequately protected from overload. Again, it's probably not going to cause a problem any day soon as it's no doubt been that way for yonks, but should be remedied asap. In the first instance, this would only require opening up your sockets and other 'accessories' to look for a disconnected or broken wire. No need at all at this stage to lift up floorboards! There may indeed be a junction box hidden under a floorboard, or rats may have gnawed through the cable there, but the first thing to check is the places where the wires are screwed into sockets, etc. Quite a straightforward job. Of course, if the problem is not found there, then the search will have to be extended.

Hope this helps. Others may have different opinions as to the urgency of this work, but that's my idea. Good luck (you just need to find a nice helpful sparky - too bad I'm not in your area!).

You beat me too it, didthathurt! Too slow typing (and too wordy?)! Anyway, glad we agree on the gist of it all .

It's a relief, isn't it!

I guess you got the inspection done because your survey recommended it? If so then you don't HAVE to get it fixed, but OUGHT to. The age of the property, or more specifically the wiring, is key. If it is very old then the risks are higher. If it is fairly new, then you are safer as long as you don't load the faulty ring too high.

Regarding the faulty ring, if you have a friend who is at least a competent DIYer, then after isolating it, he/she could simply open up all the sockets. I am assuming that the inspector just opened one socket and tested the continuity. It is possible (only possible mind you) that a wire has simply come loose on another socket.

However, Penelope, the potential for harm of break in a ring can be quite high - particularly if you have a lot of things powered off it - so, even if it is a good DIYer friend, get it looked at soonest and, if your friend cannot check the ring continuity, it really might be best to bite the bullet and get a lec in.

didthathurt said:

It's a relief, isn't it!

Click to expand...

Ah, great minds, etc..

One thing stands out to me: how can he be convinced the ring break is under the floor, it may equally be at an accessory....

securespark said:

One thing stands out to me: how can he be convinced the ring break is under the floor, it may equally be at an accessory....

Click to expand...

More often than not the break turns out to be at an accessory, and not forgetting, a ring that hasn't be tinkered with should have no joints under the floor.

A break in the ring might be a doddle to find and fix and then again might not.

main bonding has been around for quite some time

The Jeep said:

In the first instance, this would only require opening up your sockets and other 'accessories' to look for a disconnected or broken wire. No need at all at this stage to lift up floorboards! There may indeed be a junction box hidden under a floorboard, or rats may have gnawed through the cable there, but the first thing to check is the places where the wires are screwed into sockets, etc.

Click to expand...

Welcome aboard gentlemen .

didthathurt said:

if your friend cannot check the ring continuity, it really might be best to bite the bullet and get a lec in.

Click to expand...

You can't get proper r1+r2 readings with one, but an ordinary multimeter will do go/no-go continuity...

penlopej said:

Don't understand any of this.

Click to expand...

How are you getting on with all this, penlopej? Hope things are a bit clearer.

Thanks for all your advice and help. Talk about ignorance being bliss.... if I hadn't had the PIR done I wouldn't have known there were problems.
I will be getting the work done and just hope that this can be done without major disruption. I suppose for anyone thinking of laminate flooring it might be an idea to think about the problem of accessing the area below if needed.
Once again thanks for all your advice.

Penny