Consumer Unit Replacement

[Gazzer23]

I had a Electrician replace my old metal fusebox with a modern consumer unit I got from Screwfix and I am really not happy with what he did but once he started I had no option but to let him finish as I need an electric supply as I work at home via the internet.

Now my flat uses steel conduit as the earth and uses singles for the mains and lighting.

20171026_084446

• Gazzer23
• 25 Feb 2018

The original fusebox before the upgrade

After yanking the old fusebox off the wall with a crowbar and pulling half the plaster off the wall and cutting all the insulation of the singles in the process. Hence the shrink wrap insulation on all the wires to repair it.
Forget about the nearly setting light to my flat with his dodgy extension lead which had a cut live wire in it and started sparking with flames coming out on my carpet. luckily his assistant picked it up and held it off the floor while he hurried to disconnect it.
What an absolute nightmare that was.

My main concern now is that my flat wiring is now not safe as the earth termination has been removed.

20171027_083032

• Gazzer23
• 25 Feb 2018

top of new consumer unit, seems they don't know about IP4X

The conduit where he cut it with an angle grinder has very sharp edges and when I suggested deburring it he gave me a funny look. although after my insistence he did attempt to deburr them.

20171107_110356

• Gazzer23
• 25 Feb 2018

underneath of new CU

20171102_142139

• Gazzer23
• 25 Feb 2018
• 1

I am getting an inspection done and then have to rectify it but for now I have put earthing straps on the conduit.
I am going to have my flat rewired replacing the singles with twin and earth.

Surprising after all his work he refused to issue a certificate saying about the earthing and a mains ring being broken. If he had mentioned this problem to start with I would have told him to leave it while I look into what to do.
I am scared to get another Electrician into fix it now but I know I must.

 

[bernardgreen]

I had a Electrician

That was NOT an electrician

I am scared to get another Electrician into fix it now but I know I must

You have no option but to get a qualified and reputable electrician and as the conduit has been cut you are looking at a re-wire.

While it may appear to work in that there is elecricity at the sockets and the lights work without earth connections the risk of injury ir other accident is too high to be acceptable.

 

[Gazzer23]

I agree with you and I have contacted one to come and check it out.
For now I have earthed the conduit but now have a big bill for the rewiring but it was something that was going to need to be done anyway.
Because of this I have checked the wiring in the flat and found some other nastys in the kitchen from the previous flat owner.
I am just wondering if it is possible to rewire using the existing conduit and pull through new twin and earth cable as the distances are quite short?

 

[bernardgreen]

I am just wondering if it is possible to rewire using the existing conduit and pull through new twin and earth cable as the distances are quite short?

It is possible but carries the risk of the cable being damaged by sharp edges in the conduit. This damage cannot be seen.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

That was NOT an electrician

Surprising after all his work he refused to issue a certificate saying about the earthing and a mains ring being broken. If he had mentioned this problem to start with I would have told him to leave it while I look into what to do.

I hope you haven't paid him.

 

[Gazzer23]

Very true I have thought about that and think you would need to feed a lot of cable past the end point to check if the insulation was being damaged by pulling the cable through.
For the ring main its not to bad to lay new conduit down under the floorboards but my main concern is the lighting which would need lots of chasing done to the walls and ceiling.

I did look at a neighbours flat that was rewired a while back and they put plastic conduit on the walls above the skirting board to all the sockets bit for the lighting I couldn't see any changes but then I didn't remove a ceiling rose to see if the wiring had been changed or not. I assume they must have to comply with the latest regulations.
I assume it must be possible as the original cable would have been through the conduit when first laid but obviously that would have been much easier as all openings would have been open and known.

 

[Gazzer23]

unfortunately I did pay him, just to get rid of him and stop him coming back the next day to put in a bathroom fan.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

unfortunately I did pay him, just to get rid of him and stop him coming back the next day to put in a bathroom fan.

That's a real shame.

Better to have just refused him entry the next day.


Take lots of photos, and when you've had the inspection done send him a demand for the money to be returned. If he does not, then start legal proceedings. And report him to your council - what he did was a criminal offence, and it is their statutory duty to bring a prosecution.

 

[Adam_151]

As others have said, you are quite right, thats absolute **** work. As to the extension lead, I wonder if it had been directly tailed into meter / henley blocks....

Its not a problem to change a board where the conduits are the earth as long as the continuity is sound, but it does take longer to do and five day wonders (as I presume the chap you had in was) generally won't have the skills to do so. When confronted with a board with a load of conduits and pyros coming in (although not usually in a domestic setting) I generally like to get a length of galv trunking of a suitable length, and using the old board as a template, mark and drill the same holes in the trunking. The new board gen gets mounted to the underside of the trunking with a suitable number/size of bushes. Earth the trunking with a flylead, ensure that all conduit terminations are tight.

The other alternative would have been to leave the old board in, have a metal plate made up for the front, din rail terminals inside and a new board mounted nearby with suitable containment to join the two.

In extreme cases (and this wouldn't happen in domestic), such as listed building, board on show and need to minimise the need to decorate where a new board would cover less wall, abestos materials present, board as part of a a custome panel incorporating main swicthgear, etc etc, you can even get a panel builder to build a unit incorpating a pan assembly from one of the major dist board manufacturers into a custom unit that can be installed into the old enclosure with a new front panel fitted.

It should not be a problem to have a board changed in such an instance, alright it might cost a bit more than if the wiring was simply twin and earth, but unless there are other problems with the installation its prefectly reasonable to upgrade the board on such an installation. It appears you got a ****ing muppet though

As others have alluded to, as he has ground the conduits down, its going to be a right pig to put right, much more so than doing the job right in the first place, it might be possible to chop some plaster off in that understairs cupboard, lift boards on the landing and unscrew the conduit drops from the first joints, so that they can be taken out, cut to a uniform length and re-threaded (which may require an imperial 3/4" die, rather than 20mm depending on age)

 

[mwatsonxx]

The other alternative would have been to leave the old board in, have a metal plate made up for the front, din rail terminals inside and a new board mounted nearby with suitable containment to join the two.

That's similar to what i would have done, removing the back box of the old board was a totally stupid thing to do.

But we are where we are!

I would extend the remaining conduits using https://www.edwardes.co.uk/en/categories/adaptors-knock-on-steel. Your spark could then fit a box/boxes large enough to contain connectors and then use flex conduits into the newly relocated cu. Although the knock ons will make an earth connection, I would also fit earth clamps to the existing conduits and earth wire back to the cu.

As to re-wiring I don't believe that is the original cabling, which would indicate that it has been previously rewired. Absolutely no guarantees but I would first try to rewire using single core cables.

 

[John D v2.0]

Oh dear, I'm sorry that someone has left you with such a mess. To leave you with such a blatantly dangerous installation is beyond belief!
Once you have it sorted by an actual electrician, make sure you report that guy to building control at the council. It's against building regs not to mention negligent to leave that like that. How many other installations have they left like the?

 

[securespark]

35 years ago, I started jobbing with a spark. In that time, I thought I had seen it all, but this "job" takes the biscuit. Wow!

 

[Gazzer23]

I did say to the guy about at least earthing it so that it is safe and he said if he did the RCB's would be tripping all the time.
I said he should have told me that at the start and I wouldn't have proceeded but he said he only tested it after the installation.
When I asked about why they don't test the existing circuit at the start before commencing he said they don't do that which seems totally wrong to me as you would want to know the state of the existing install before doing major work like this on it.

Maybe its possible he would have tidied it up if he came back but I was so horrified by the way they worked I just didn't want them to come back.
The thing is the initial electrician I was recommended was too busy to do the work so he referred a colleague and I chatted to this guy for a while about what I wanted done and asked about copy of his insurance certificate which the council wanted. He kept saying he sent it to me but never did then finally I got him to do it and the start date of the insurance was for the day before
He came around to look at what needed to be done spent at most 5 minutes in my flat, didn't remove the cover of the fusebox to look inside.

Then I knew I should have just cancelled him but he insisted on coming to do the work straight away so I stupidly let him.
But then he couldn't come and sent a different guy.
This guy turned up over an hour late with hardly any tools and no wires or conduit as he had been told I was supplying everything. I told him I was supplying sockets, bathroom fan and CU but the cables and conduit were down to him as I don't know the regulations and what they need.
So many clues that should have told me to cancel, I really am an idiot for proceeding as I ignored my gut feeling as I just wanted it done.

 

[John D v2.0]

I did say to the guy about at least earthing it so that it is safe and he said if he did the RCB's would be tripping all the time.

Oh great so the installation has a fault that the rcd is designed to protect you from, but instead of fixing the fault he's removed the protection. I bet he's the kind of guy who replaces a fuse with a screw if it keep blowing.

 

[mwatsonxx]

When I asked about why they don't test the existing circuit at the start before commencing he said they don't do that which seems totally wrong to me as you would want to know the state of the existing install before doing major work like this on it.

You're more of a spark than the crook you employed.

All experienced straightforward electricians always test before changing a cu, this so they can repair faults that would prevent the new cu operating. The ones that don't test before are crooks and should be thrown out of the industry.

You now need an experienced spark to sort things out, similar to the manner described by adam151 and myself. In fact it might be an idea to print out those comments and get the opinion of the new spark, if his eyes cloud over and his mouth drops hes the wrong man, same applies if he carries his tools in a plastic carrier bag. If he says "I'll need my conduit tools" he's the right man.