Guess the fault... friday quiz

[RF Lighting]

Doesn't that get annoying?

Say you were sent to a job just to do a PIR, and found it was in need of a rewire, would you have to stay at that job until it was rewired then?

 

[Adam_151]

Housing association?

I assume you guys have a contract to inspect and bring them upto standard then? Do you get paid on a dayworks basis, or do you have a set price per house working on the basis that you'll loose on a few, but gain on a lot more?

 

[sparkybird]

Hi Adam

Always good to exercise the brain, eh? I'm suprised though, as I would never remove a socket front (even just from the wall) while it was live as you just don't know what's waiting there behind it. Mind you if you had done this, maybe it might have taken longer for you to trace the fault??

SB

 

[Adam_151]

Always good to exercise the brain, eh?

Yup

I'm suprised though, as I would never remove a socket front (even just from the wall) while it was live as you just don't know what's waiting there behind it. Mind you if you had done this, maybe it might have taken longer for you to trace the fault??

Rightly or wrongly I never give it second thought, but then again I do look behind as I'm pulling it forward.

Surely there must be times when you have to remove a live fused spur (or at least one that you have to assume is live because you have not proved dead yet) if you are not sure what circuit it is on, and need to get a voltage tester on it (or if posh... fuse finding device) on it?

(Don't let me teach you bad habbits though!)

 

[RF Lighting]

You've never swapped a socket front live then?

 

[BS3036]

As a mere DIYer, I do get alarmed by the excessive H&S considerations.

If you consider that there isn't a DIY person, or possibly even a professional painter who wouldn't take the screws out of the accessories and pull them away from the wall (and hopefully put a plastic bag over them), in order to paint the walls, then the idea that a trained electrician can't do the same and understand the dangers amazes me.

Not to say that safe working isn't a good idea, but trained people must already understand their limitations.

 

[Adam_151]

You've never swapped a socket front live then?

*watches SB (and crafty) recoil in horror*

I've done similar

 

[sparkypete1]

we get paid per house whatever we find wrong. the houses are grouped as a relet 1-2 or 3.(relets being void property) a relet 1 is a week turn over, ie a pir, gas check, minor joinery and lock change, relet 2, new kitchen work tops, pir remove all diy gas check rectify any defects. relet 3 major reworks new kitchen, rewire, gas run, doors and locks new windows, but at any time a lesser relet can be progresses to a higher one, as for pay its the same for all jobs. any fault within the relet electrically (if the test is mine) i rectify, same for the gas, joinery, plumbing, each trade correcting the faults of their trade.

 

[sparkybird]

Call me a HSE bore, but I can't remember the last time I removed a live socket front (maybe when I was a DIY'er not a spark??). I'm just too nervous I guess! For fused spurs I use my volt stick - not 100% but more likely to be on the side of caution than not!

Of course once pulled forward I might need to switch back on to test, but by then I'd have checked if any conductors were hanging out!

Maybe it's a bird thing?
SB

And I always tell my plasterers and decorators to SWITCH OFF before pulling forward sockets and working around them. Of course I'm sure they don't.

 

[Adam_151]

Just so SB can go 'told ya so'... I'll recount the following incident....

Was removing some sockets in dado trunking as part of a strip out, I'd been round and unscrewed all the fronts, and the other guy was at the DB turning off likely breakers while I went round with the 3 neon test plug... trying to get some idea of which circuit was which (dont you just love unlabeled boards!), anyway I went to plug it into a socket that was pulled forward and as I did it, there was a flash and a bang, the breaker tripped and I swore ... my only guess as to what had happened is that there was a spur taken off it in unsized cable, and purhaps the insulation on the live was damaged and it touched the earth screw as the socket moved (both the screw and the live conductor on the spur cable were blackened after)

There you go, feel free to be all high and mighty, SB