Damaged a meter neutral feed cable to CU

[holmslaw]

..

 

[bobdabuilda]

Looks like my parade is well and truly p***ed on, they are coming back tomorrow to put another piece of capping over the area where you can still see and touch the earth wire at the angle of the 'L' shaped run.

So in summary I have to say that it doesn't comply with current 17 regs because of routing, no earthing on capping and no rcd? Which way should it be routed accoridng to 17th edition and is there anything else to add?

How could this happen again?

 

[bernardgreen]

Before involving the solicitor have a word with the local council's building control officer.

I may be wrong but I think that the "repair" has affected cables that come under Part P of the building regulations. Therefor the work should have been reported to the building control officer by the people doing the "repair" and been certified as safe by the "electrician" that did the work. If they have done an un-safe repair then the building control officer might be happy to be so advised.

 

[holmslaw]

..

 

[sparkwright]

Let's have a closer look at the top, horizontal bit. Can you send a photo? I'm not trying to worry you, honest.

 

[bobdabuilda]

Are these ok? Getting really worried again.....

Untitled

• bobdabuilda
• 14 Mar 2011
• 1

Untitled

• bobdabuilda
• 14 Mar 2011
• 1

Untitled

• bobdabuilda
• 14 Mar 2011
• 1

 

[Monkeh]

That does look like it's plastic. Whether it's metal or plastic, it offers no protection to those cables, and it's all too easy to sink a drill that far down if you're expecting a concrete block behind the board.

 

[bobdabuilda]

No it's definitely metal I have checked it.

 

[sparkwright]

I have seen persistant plumbers who have drilled through metal capping to get a pipe fixing.

 

[Monkeh]

Now, put a piece of that over a block wall, dot and dab some plasterboard over it, and put an SDS drill through the plasterboard, expecting to hit concrete block. See how long some .5mm steel sheet holds up..

 

[bobdabuilda]

and I thought that I'd had such a good day.... even the wife was pleased for once.... now it's the silent treatment again....

So when they come to cap that bare area on the angle of the 'L' in the morning, should I not allow them to do any more capping or say what's been said here? I really don't want legal battles as I just want my toilet back in action again!

 

[sparkwright]

I think you should certainly allow them to finish their work, yet question what could happen if someone determined enough drilled through this unearthed metal capping. Though I cannot say if the capping must be earthed, I would certainly think it would be an improvement, and very easy to do at this stage. Each piece would need to be earthed.

But the question is, is this still going to be safe enough? It's certainly an improvement on before, and the damaged cable has been replaced. You know where the cables are, you have pictures, but no one else knows, and nobody has any way of tracing where they run.

I still claim the safest place for the cables is in the brick cavity as they would be hard to drill through. Last I heard, on this site, was that meter tails are the only cables allowed in a brick cavity. However, your people say otherwise.

I think Holmslaw's comments are very valid.

 

[sparkwright]

I take it where the three horizontal bits of capping at the bottom are cover diagonal cables?

I can see the little bit of earth cable towards the bottom which they evidently couldn't fit in that big capping.

Are they putting capping over the cables at the top of the wall as well?

 

[bobdabuilda]

No not at the top as they said that it was within so many mm of the ceiling which is allowed under 17th ed regs. The height from where the capping starts to the ceiling is 85mm at present.

I'm not sure what's going on with those 3 horizontal cappings as I didn't see that bit going on. One thing I've just noticed is that there is now a force 10 gale blowing through the wall presumably from the back of the meter box which originally had filler foam in it.

 

[sparkwright]

They will be referring to the 150 mm 'safe zone' allowed from the ceiling to run horizontal cables. I would have thought it would be good practice to cap this bit as well, while they are at it.

Safe zones are all very well, but you ask a tradesman who is not an electrician where he thinks a safe place to drill is, more often than not he won't have a clue.