Dodgy electrician?

[hendrix88]

Long story short.

Boarding out a new wall, so cutting back some of the excess cable on the sockets as they've only had 1st fixings.

Called electrician to make sure it's OK. Given the all clear, there not wired up.

Start cutting, and I get to the kitchen ring. Bang/Flash. One numb arm.

Now here's the interesting part, the fuse in the consumer unit tripped. On the upstairs lights.

Sparky is telling me thats normal, I'm saying how can a kitchen ring trip the upstairs light, and nothing else. It's wired wrong. He's telling me I don't understand, the RCD's are so sensitive... Bull ****.

Or am I missing something?

 

[bhm1712]

Fuses dont exist in consumer units anymore, and so it is highley likely that an MCB or an RCD tripped out. Without verification from you, i cant be sure as to which one....if you can confirm it is the upstairs lighting circuit MCB that tripped when you cut through a socket cable downstairs, then yes i would tend to agree that something is wired wrong, as the 2 circuits should be totally isolated from each other. However: are you sure the upstairs lighting circuit tripped, or is the consumer unit labelled incorrectly and it was actually the kitchen ring that did trip? did you verify the upstairs lights had tripped?

Why are you cutting back if you dont know what is live and what isnt? you should be checking for dead if you want to be working on electrics. If you dont, then your not competent enough to be doing the work. Relying on somebody else over the phone is not adequate or safe.[/i]

 

[hendrix88]

Thanks for the reply. I was cutting the cables back so that I can board/skim the walls (there's about 4 feet of excess per cable, and several cables). I phoned the sparky to make sure these were not lived, he told me they hadn't been wired in.

100% the upstairs tripped. And it's on an RCD. So, sparky is telling fibs?

Thought as much. The other three RCD's still remained on (downstairs lighting, up/down sockets).

 

[hendrix88]

MCB even.

 

[bhm1712]

If it is an MCB tripping then yes there is a fault with the wiring as cutting through a cable on the kitchen ring should not be tripping the upstairs lighting MCB. RCD is a different story.

 

[sparkwright]

There's nothing I hate more than someone meddling with a first fix, and chopping cables.

 

[sparkwright]

Was the cable definitely a socket cable?

Was the end of the cable bare; or was there some tape/connector block on the end?

 

[bhm1712]

i agree.

If its only first fix then it could be a lighting cable thats not been pulled in properly yet. What size cable??

 

[hendrix88]

Bare. I've just double checked, it was the kitchen light strap. My mistake - this literally just happened and my heads still spinning.

I wouldn't have cut the cables, if it wasn't for the fact this sparky has had a stripped house to work on for the last 8 months, and still hasn't finished. Has delayed every job going. That's family for you, ay?

 

[sparkwright]

If it went bang/flash and the MCB tripped then it was clearly live, and shouldn't have been left without the end sealed off in some way.

Cutting through a dead cable which is connected to an RCD would only trip the RCD, without the dramatic bang and flash.

 

[hendrix88]

All sorted now guys, cheers for the responses. Appreciated.

Turns out, it was the kitchen strap. Wired to the upstairs lights. All fixed and sorted now.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Kitchen STRAP??

WTF is that?

 

[sparkwright]

Kitchen STRAP??

WTF is that?

Thanks. I didn't like to ask.

 

[bhm1712]

me dont know either

 

[sparkybird]

I think I want one though....