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- 11 Jan 2004
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Concluded some fault-finding today.
The kitchen lighting flickered then went out with a bang. The other day, I went to the switch & could not find anything there. So I went round all fittings to see if I could find anything. Nope. All I could see on the kitchen downlighters were switched feeds.
So I returned today after the customer made access through the plasterboard (laminate upstairs, don't you know!)
I found several chock blocks not enclosed. All OK there, although it stank of an amateur installation, with a mix of grey 1.0 and white 2.5.
Then the customer extended the hole. This exposed a whole nest of connectors that were obviously the site of a disused fitting. These were sandwiched between a bearer & the plasterboard.
Then I found a JB with three cables attached, one just cut off. Dead, but why don't people take this stuff out? Ditto an old immersion switch fed via VIR.
Then I looked at the switch cable at the switch position. It was set in a stud wall. I removed the dry-lining box & got my maglite in the cavity. The cable went down and across. I could just see it was trapped between the plasteboard & the studding...
I then followed the switch cable from the other end back towards the switch. I found yet more joints in cables, this time twisted & taped (no blocks). The whole job was utter pants. Even two downlighters had been cut out of plasterboard actually overlapping the joist so it cut a semi-circle out of the timber...
This job supposedly overseen and signed off by the local BCO.
Anyhow, eventually, I found the cause of the O/C switch cable:
The kitchen lighting flickered then went out with a bang. The other day, I went to the switch & could not find anything there. So I went round all fittings to see if I could find anything. Nope. All I could see on the kitchen downlighters were switched feeds.
So I returned today after the customer made access through the plasterboard (laminate upstairs, don't you know!)
I found several chock blocks not enclosed. All OK there, although it stank of an amateur installation, with a mix of grey 1.0 and white 2.5.
Then the customer extended the hole. This exposed a whole nest of connectors that were obviously the site of a disused fitting. These were sandwiched between a bearer & the plasterboard.
Then I found a JB with three cables attached, one just cut off. Dead, but why don't people take this stuff out? Ditto an old immersion switch fed via VIR.
Then I looked at the switch cable at the switch position. It was set in a stud wall. I removed the dry-lining box & got my maglite in the cavity. The cable went down and across. I could just see it was trapped between the plasteboard & the studding...
I then followed the switch cable from the other end back towards the switch. I found yet more joints in cables, this time twisted & taped (no blocks). The whole job was utter pants. Even two downlighters had been cut out of plasterboard actually overlapping the joist so it cut a semi-circle out of the timber...
This job supposedly overseen and signed off by the local BCO.
Anyhow, eventually, I found the cause of the O/C switch cable:
