Drilled light wire

[FresnoBob]

Hi all, a combination of my own incompetence and the original house wiring being installed at an angle a few inches outside of a safe zone has resulted in me catching a lighting wire with the drill. After drilling the wire , the fuse tripped, when we turned the fuse back on, the lights worked fine.

I’ve turned the fuse back off to check the damage. I’ve chiselled out the plaster, broken into the conduit, and slit the sleeving, to find that the drill went into the live and the earth. Neither wire is completely broken but the sleeving around the live is broken and both wires are a little mashed.

What would be the best way to rectify this. I could just cowboy it by wrapping a bit of electrical tape around the live wire, but obviously would rather do something a little safer.

Would cutting the wire, installing a new section of wire to the switch, joining with Wagos in a low profile inspection box with blanking cover be the best way, or would crimping, a new section of conduit and plastering over be acceptable?

All advice gratefully received.
https://ibb.co/0mShGvj

 

[Mottie]

I wouldn’t tape that. Replace that section of cable. If you can replace it back to the ceiling rose, all the better.

 

[opps]

I did something similar once. I was chasing out for TV cables and a power point half the way up the bedroom wall for a 1 gang socket. The angle grinder went straight through a single light cable in thin metal conduit.

Fortunately it was in the zone behind where the telly would eventually live. I carefully dug out space for a back box, fed the broken calbe in to the box, connected it using a terminal block and then fitted a single gang blanking plate over it.

I got "that" look from the other half. I explained that I had no way of knowing that the cable was in the wall. There was nothing to indicate its existence in either our bedroom or the hallway wall below.

 

[333rocky333]

Thru crimps are about 30mm long sometimes if lucky you can use that to replace a small damaged section

 

[sparkwright]

The fact it's in conduit will at least assist you in drawing a new cable through the wall with minimal damage.

Joining the cable above the ceiling is better than a joint in the wall, IMO.

As said, best if you can replace the whole cable, but a maintenance free junction box above the ceiling is perfectly acceptable.

 

[EFLImpudence]

The ancient mythical process of soldering.