An unsheathed wire

[Burnsie1983]

Hello

Part of my kitchen refurbishment, the plasterer knocked one of the plug sockets.

I only noticed this when a socket in the living room was dead. I traced back through a loop and found this socket as the potential culprit (the ones after that did not work but the one next to it did).

The next day (in the daylight) I thought I would just look at the back of the socket and put a loose wire back.

However, there are many wires!

I asked the builder of my kitchen (who's not around for a few weeks because the supplier didn't supply all the stuff and there's nothing for him to do!!), and he advised me to get a socket with larger terminals.

I therefore bought the attached.

I went to have a look at the wires today and have noted that I have 2 earths, 4 neutrals, and 4 lives (2 red, 2 brown).

However..... There's also a unsheathed wire. Looks like it is coming from next to the brown live?

Anyone have any suggestions, or should I just contact an electrician straight away?

 

[flameport]

The socket you have obtained is of no use there, it can only accept 3 of each wire.

A likely solution is to obtain some of these: https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/WA405.html 5 way connectors, trim and strip the existing wires so they can be connected with those connectors flat against the back of the box, and add 3 short additional lengths of wire from those to the new socket. Additional earth sleeving will be required, and there is a grommet missing from the hole in the lower left of the box. The fixing lugs will probably need be rethreaded once the plaster has been scratched out of them.

 

[CountryFan]

Unsheathed is generally cpc/earth. You also need a grommet for that bottom cable.

 

[Burnsie1983]

Which bottom wire?

Any advice on a particular grommet size etc?

 

[CountryFan]

Which bottle wire?

Heh? If you mean bottom cable then as per @flameport - the bottom left as you look at it. Also as per @flameport you need more then 3 terminals for each as you have more than 3 cores of each wire. Grommet size is likely 20 or 25mm. Maybe measure across the diameter?

 

[blup]

Two red live one bro live but only two sleeved earths, so likely an earth.

 

[Burnsie1983]

Heh? If you mean bottom cable then as per @flameport - the bottom left as you look at it. Also as per @flameport you need more then 3 terminals for each as you have more than 3 cores of each wire. Grommet size is likely 20 or 25mm. Maybe measure across the diameter?

I couldn't find a face plate with more terminals than that?!

 

[denso13]

Two red live one bro live but only two sleeved earths, so likely an earth.

Two browns there surely, to go with the two blue neutrals?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I couldn't find a face plate with more terminals than that?!

More common is a single terminal, for all of the wires to go in, rather than three individual terminals.

I would be questioning the need for there ever to be four wires, at one socket, and be trying to trace them. Two wires suggests a socket is on the ring. Three would suggest a socket on the ring, with a spur. Four might suggest a socket on the ring, but with two spurs, which is not to regulations.

 

[JohnW2]

Two wires suggests a socket is on the ring.

...or on a radial circuit.

Three would suggest a socket on the ring, with a spur.

... or a socket on a radial circuit with a branch/spur

Four might suggest a socket on the ring, but with two spurs,

... or a socket on a radial circuit with two branches/spurs

which is not to regulations.

Not to which regulation? - I don't think you will find one which prohibits two spurs/branches originating at the same place.

 

[pete01]

I think MK state you can get 4 x 2.5mm wires in each terminal.

Nope I lied I was sure it was 4.

 

[CountryFan]

I couldn't find a face plate with more terminals than that?!

Aye, but did you read the very first reply?

 

[Echo the husky]

I'd want to test the wiring first, the 2 'new' colour cables could be an extension of a ring rather than spurs for example, connecting all the wires into the socket would then be incorrect.

You could fit 5 2.5mm cables in the older Crabtree sockets, not that I'd ever do that, before they 'improved' the design. You can barely fit 2 now...

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Not to which regulation? - I don't think you will find one which prohibits two spurs/branches originating at the same place.

You are correct, though not something I would do.

 

[JohnW2]

You are correct, though not something I would do.

Maybe not, but that's surely no excuse for writing "not to regulations", when that is not true, is it?