Broken underground cable in garden?

[Roger465]

The house I’ve moved into has a paved area in the garden out the back, beside which is this:

I guess there was some kind of pedestal light there originally. The cable can still be switched live from a light switch inside the house, but goes dead if I attempt to straighten the cable into the vertical position.

I want to fix it, but have no knowledge of how these things are, under the ground. To the uneducated eye (mine), it looks like the cable just comes upwards out of the ground, and has had a pile of concrete poured around it… in which case I’m guessing that the copper wire has broken where it enters the ground, and make partial contact when it’s moved around.

Is my only option to smash all the concrete away with a sledge hammer, uncover the cable, make a proper junction below ground with a fresh piece of cable, then pour some more concrete? I’m assuming the cable enters a conduit at some point?

Any advice appreciated

 

[conny]

How do you know it goes dead when you try to straighten it? Are you using a test meter or does a trip in the CU trip out?
Before you attempt to try anything you need to endure it is totally isolated from the supply, and hopefully but very doubtful, that it does not isolate other circuits indoors which you cannot afford to isolate.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I want to fix it, but have no knowledge of how these things are, under the ground.

And it's possible that the person who installed it had no knowledge of how things should be, under the ground, which is why it is now buggered.

To the uneducated eye (mine), it looks like the cable just comes upwards out of the ground, and has had a pile of concrete poured around it…

That's entirely possible.

in which case I’m guessing that the copper wire has broken where it enters the ground, and make partial contact when it’s moved around.

Well, it's broken somewhere..

Is my only option to smash all the concrete away with a sledge hammer, uncover the cable, make a proper junction below ground with a fresh piece of cable, then pour some more concrete?

No - your other option (and probably an easier one), is to disconnect the cable at source, forget about it, and run a new one, of the right sort, properly installed, with no underground joints.

I’m assuming the cable enters a conduit at some point?

Probably not.

 

[333rocky333]

Or carefully excavate around the concrete until you find the cable, relocating the fitting, say 2 feet away is always preferable to a join.

 

[Taylortwocities]

I’m with rocky
That concrete base won’t be too deep. Easier to dig down at the edge and tunnel underneath, being careful not to further damage the cable!
You could then repair with a proper SWA joint kit. Like this
https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/SWJK1.html

 

[chivers67]

Would certainly appear that whoever left it like that was a complete idiot, you'd at the very least disconnect it so it can't be livened up! What is it terminated into at the house end?

 

[Roger465]

Cheers guys, some very useful info and suggestions there. OK – in answer to some questions, all I really know is this:

1. Pretty sure it’s part of the original house, which would have been quite an expensive build in its day, so I’m hoping it was done “properly” back then.

2. The people who lived here for the last 10-15 years before me were ANIMALS – everything is bodged or broken, which is why I got the house cheaper than normal… so I've spend the last 4 months repairing and renovating. I’m down to the less important jobs now, like this.

3. So it was the animals who just wrapped tape round the end of the cable sticking out of the ground – just as I’d expect. Actually, that was pretty good for them – bare ends sticking up in the air would have been more in character

4. At the house end, it terminates in a 3-gang light switch = the other two are for different external lights (which work )

5. Can’t really run a completely new cable – I’d have to lift a patio etc. I’d sooner just disconnect it and forget about it if that was the only alternative.

6. So I think yes, dig around the concrete till I find it, join it with one of those thingies from TLC under the ground, and bring it up a foot or two away

Thanks again

PS if it WAS done as part of the original build, what do you reckon – cable 3 foot deep?

 

[winston1]

Animals is not the right word. Bodgers would be more apt.

 

[chivers67]

4. At the house end, it terminates in a 3-gang light switch = the other two are for different external lights (which work )

Have you a photo of it terminated? Is it SWA/Armoured?

 

[Roger465]

Have you a photo of it terminated? Is it SWA/Armoured?

No, am just looking at this intermittently, when I get a chance.

If it was SWA, would that go all the way to the indoor wall switch (fancy brass curly-edged type), or would there likely be a junction somewhere with normal T&E...?

 

[flameport]

quite an expensive build in its day, so I’m hoping it was done “properly” back then.

Cost has nothing to do with how well the work was done.

I have seen several examples of totally shoddy wiring, plumbing and other construction in houses with selling prices in the millions.

 

[Taylortwocities]

.

If it was SWA, would that go all the way to the indoor wall switch (fancy brass curly-edged type), or would there likely be a junction somewhere with normal T&E...?

Impossible to tell. You may find an external cable junction box where it enters the building. May be T&E from there.
Or the SWA could run all the way to the switch itself. A photo of the innerds pc ghd switch box May help.

Or the SWA May be terminated in a box almost anywhere.