Electrician couldn't understand this wiring

[SUNRAY]

I'm saddened to hear of your problems with the new house, unfortnately it seems to be fairly common these days.

RF's picture is what you have which in fortunate as the work you require is just fitting the extra bits [changing 2 gang switch to 3 gang, cable & light fitting] in the red box below. Technically a very simple job, it's the matter of the best way to manage the damage to the fabric of the room.

Your picture of the second switch does have an odd number of wires as it's a 2 way system [2 switches controlling one light] and the grey isn't in with the blue wires, it's in the '2 way' terminal.

EDIT: Looking at the second pic again You could be correct about grey being neutral, is this a bathroom light with fan or something similar?

 

[rrodd]

Thank you all for your responses and nice comments.
Now that I can see (count) I have 4 brown, 4 blue wires, and probably 4 cables, as pointed out by Jackrae and Sparkwright and others earlier on, I can see and understand that my wiring is the same as the diagram earlier, and Sunray's diagram above is how it will look with the extra light. Yes, it looks simple. Thank you all. (I must do the maths in future, but they way the wires were twisted it looked like 2 cables... oh well. Lesson learned.)

I know there will be some damage to the plaster but it's unavoidable and I know a good plasterer who has said that no matter how many holes are put in the wall or ceiling, no matter how big they are or where they are, he'll make it good as new. Having seen his work I believe him so no worries.

Knowing what the wiring system is has already helped because I spoke to an electrican today and described to him over the phone the wiring set up and he told me straight away that he would just put in another twin cable, basically exactly what you kind men said. He's coming later in the week to measure up and give a quote. I'm reluctant to have it done at the moment because of covid restrictions so I may wait a few weeks but at least I'll definately know how much it will cost and perhaps have an idea how much plaster will be damaged.

There is one thing. The electrician who came was muttering to himself and said something very like "brown live, brown live, ok, blue is dead". This was when he was looking in the switch. I presume, "blue is dead" is ok? I just thought it was a strange thing to say, but maybe it's not.

 

[flameport]

The electrician who came was muttering to himself

Forget about that person and what they said.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Whssign

• Taylortwocities
• 16 Jul 2016

What he said

The person who visited your housewas not an electrician