Damaged wiring

[CrazyFool]

Thanks guys for the comments.

So I'm missing a neutral at the hallway light, that means it has nothing to do with the switch right?
There is no way I can dig out the neutral cable from the ceiling rose/junction box as it is buried deep in the ceiling.

The porch light is nearby and ceiling rose is accessible. Can I split this and bring a new ceiling rose to the hallway light?
I want to cut my losses with the original hallway lighting and start afresh.

The only downside with starting afresh is that I wont be able to chisel the wall to wire a switch. This means I have to settle with a sensor light, a smart light or some sort of wireless light switch.

What are your thoughts please?

 

[sparkwright]

Can you send photographs?

 

[sparkwright]

We are going round and round in circles with this thread and getting absolutely nowhere.

How have you determined there is no neutral at the light?

And how does that relate to thumping the wall near the switch, where it APPEARS there is no neutral, presumably only permanent live and switch live?

Some photographs, drawings, properly detailed explanations, anything - would help here.

 

[securespark]

If you want, you can fit a Quinetic switch, but you still need to disconnect the damaged cable and install the receiver. Whether you could do this from below, I don't know.

I'm with sparkwright.

Have we really been trying to sort this out for over 7 months?

 

[JohnW2]

If you want, you can fit a Quinetic switch, but you still need to disconnect the damaged cable and install the receiver. ....

... and, presumably, also discover where the power is coming from?

Kind regards, John

 

[securespark]

Guessing that could be in the ceiling void above the light fitting, unless I have missed something.

 

[JohnW2]

Guessing that could be in the ceiling void above the light fitting, unless I have missed something.

It could be. It could be 'anywhere'

What is seemingly inescapable is that if there really is only one (2C+E) cable at both switch and light, then, somewhere out of sight (presumably in a hidden JB somewhere), they must meet up with each other and also with a cable providing power.

Kind Regards, John

 

[sparkwright]

It would be worth the op seeing if there is a joint just above the light fitting, perhaps in connector blocks, just in case there happens to be a bad joint there - as I'm not sure if it was ever confirmed if the cable actually was damaged in the wall.

 

[securespark]

Not confirmed no.

But you might begin to believe the damage was local to the switch going off the "hitting the wall" test.

Unless the wall and ceiling were very flimsy, I wouldn't expect movement of the wall near the switch to transmit to the ceiling void, although I will stand corrected if that proves the case.

But I agree SW, it would be worth checking that.

 

[sparkwright]

I'm not sure how near to the switch the light is, or how flimsy the wall is etc.

Always worth a look before getting the hammer and chisel out I suppose.

Also it would be an idea to look above the light if a quintec (might be spelt wrong) switch ends up going in.

 

[CrazyFool]

Thanks guys for the comments.
This project stalled for several months because I've just not had the time and I didn't deem it essential enough to pay an electrician to come in to my house during the pandemic.

See video for more details:

The wall is anything but flimsy... its solid brick.

Is there any way to test the quality of the neutral wire from the light fitting end?

Kind regards

CF

 

[SUNRAY]

Thanks guys for the comments.
This project stalled for several months because I've just not had the time and I didn't deem it essential enough to pay an electrician to come in to my house during the pandemic.

See video for more details:

The wall is anything but flimsy... its solid brick.

Is there any way to test the quality of the neutral wire from the light fitting end?

Kind regards

CF

The simple test would be to runs a temporary wire from the porch neutral to your light and bang away to see if it makes a difference. I suggest having both lights on while doing that to ensure the porch is good.

However if it indicates the passage neutral is bad you will still have to lift more floor boards to get to the junction box because you NEED to establish the fault is not more widespread than just the one light.

 

[sparkwright]

Ta for the video, very helpful.

If there is a broken wire somewhere, it can't really just be left as it it while you add new wires - the old wiring needs disconnecting.

What tester are you using? You need a two probe voltage tester, a voltstick pen will not give you enough accuracy.

Have you checked all accessible connections are tight?

Sometimes an individual wire (at a light or switch for example) can appear ok, but the copper inside is broken, so the wire appears slightly 'floppy', but not enough to instantly think it's broken.

Just trying to think of obvious things before you do anything drastic.

 

[SUNRAY]

Ta for the video, very helpful.

If there is a broken wire somewhere, it can't really just be left as it it while you add new wires - the old wiring needs disconnecting.

What tester are you using?

Have you checked all accessible connections are tight?

Sometimes an individual wire (at a light or switch for example) can appear ok, but the copper inside is broken, so the wire appears slightly 'floppy', but not enough to instantly think it's broken.

Just trying to think of obvious things before you do anything drastic.

Or clamped onto the insulation?

 

[sparkwright]

If you've got time, a video of inside the light and switch and anything you can show us above may well help - if only to give ideas on how to salvage what you have already.

Voltages obtained at various points would be helpful, for example between L and E, L and N, swL and E to establish which wires are ok and which aren't. If you are not sure how to do this with a two probe voltage tester, we would be happy to help I'm sure.