More domestics, this time bathroom fitters...

[SUNRAY]

Another 'just job', customer complaining of tripping. No more details until I got there.

'It's that one that keeps going' an immaculately manicured nail points to a 20 MCB.

It and the 3 positions beside it are marked as sockets/heater in various rooms.
However the 3 adjacent positions are filled with a 50A MCB and 2P RCD. On the floor are 3 20A MCB's and the debris from 16mm² T&E and a chunk of busbar.

Turns out the brand new bathroom and electric shower was installed last week, customer had already called them and their electrician denies any responsibility.

I removed the cover and found 5 T&E's in the MCB.

She got the paperwork out and estimate showed 'Add shower consumer unit and ancillerys to existing splitter block, £179.00'.

There is a Henley block for a hot tub supply and I offered to change that CU for a bigger size or add the additional CU as in the estimate but they have not made final payment yet. At customers request restored to original so they had heating.

She took lots of pics before I started work and reckons she'll get it sorted by bathroom installers.

 

[Taylortwocities]

She ....... reckons she'll get it sorted by bathroom installers.

 

[SUNRAY]

But at least they have not paid the last instalment...
Breath not held.

 

[ericmark]

Nothing changes, however to be fair you rarely got whole story, mother had a set of builders to install a wet room, the builders were useless, however they sent an electrician to do some work connected with the wet room, and he offered to swap whole consumer unit instead of a small additional one for £100 this was around 2004 Part P had just come in.

He had really bit off a bit more than he could chew, no test gear, house wiring from 1954, and earth leakage he could not cure so one side fitted a isolator only with the promise to return, which he never did, and noted after that builder fiddling with electrics himself, we had to sack the builders and take over the job, and the LABC were not happy as seems builder had not submitted plans or registered the work in any way.

We went to take builders to court, but seems LABC had beat us to it, and they no longer existed. And seems the electrician never got paid, no wonder he never returned.

And this does happen, I know I worked for a guy and I would be sent to fault find, the guy subbed to a builder and it was all too common to find the builder had fiddled, we would find extra sockets to what we had fitted, OK we would correct the work, but I could see how a returning electrician would say nothing to do with me, as it wasn't anything to do with him, the builder had do it after he left site.

Be it builder or home owner you never know, in fact we see many times on this forum where people say "I will be getting an electrician to do this" and we know they will not, she may have an immaculately manicured nail, but you have no idea what he is like? You can just see the scene when he gets home.

"I have had to call an electrician out to put right your mess ******".

I am wary slagging off another tradesman, as often there is some unknown facts which explain what had gone on, even with the wet room job, the company clearly was in trouble before we came along, so if you had not been paid would your be willing to go the extra mile?

I have also seen what an immaculately manicured nail can do, working for one guy and while on the job we would get while your here can you do xxx, answer was always yes, end of job bill went in £X for main job plus £XXX for the extras requested, that did not go down well with guy paying the bill.

Also was called to father-in-laws house, guy ripping up the drive, ready to lay brick sets, question what are you doing, answer Mr Jones (father-in-law) has agreed to having this work done to property. He was 91 and easy lead to have work done, the face was a picture when the reply was, but the house does not belong to him, and his son has lasting power of attorney anyway, so I repeat why are you ripping up our drive. The owners did after some discussion decide they would allow the work to go ahead, but I know the problems working for general public, not always as cut and dried as it seems.

 

[SUNRAY]

Nothing changes, however to be fair you rarely got whole story, mother had a set of builders to install a wet room, the builders were useless, however they sent an electrician to do some work connected with the wet room, and he offered to swap whole consumer unit instead of a small additional one for £100 this was around 2004 Part P had just come in.

He had really bit off a bit more than he could chew, no test gear, house wiring from 1954, and earth leakage he could not cure so one side fitted a isolator only with the promise to return, which he never did, and noted after that builder fiddling with electrics himself, we had to sack the builders and take over the job, and the LABC were not happy as seems builder had not submitted plans or registered the work in any way.

We went to take builders to court, but seems LABC had beat us to it, and they no longer existed. And seems the electrician never got paid, no wonder he never returned.

And this does happen, I know I worked for a guy and I would be sent to fault find, the guy subbed to a builder and it was all too common to find the builder had fiddled, we would find extra sockets to what we had fitted, OK we would correct the work, but I could see how a returning electrician would say nothing to do with me, as it wasn't anything to do with him, the builder had do it after he left site.

Be it builder or home owner you never know, in fact we see many times on this forum where people say "I will be getting an electrician to do this" and we know they will not, she may have an immaculately manicured nail, but you have no idea what he is like? You can just see the scene when he gets home.

"I have had to call an electrician out to put right your mess ******".

I am wary slagging off another tradesman, as often there is some unknown facts which explain what had gone on, even with the wet room job, the company clearly was in trouble before we came along, so if you had not been paid would your be willing to go the extra mile?

I have also seen what an immaculately manicured nail can do, working for one guy and while on the job we would get while your here can you do xxx, answer was always yes, end of job bill went in £X for main job plus £XXX for the extras requested, that did not go down well with guy paying the bill.

Also was called to father-in-laws house, guy ripping up the drive, ready to lay brick sets, question what are you doing, answer Mr Jones (father-in-law) has agreed to having this work done to property. He was 91 and easy lead to have work done, the face was a picture when the reply was, but the house does not belong to him, and his son has lasting power of attorney anyway, so I repeat why are you ripping up our drive. The owners did after some discussion decide they would allow the work to go ahead, but I know the problems working for general public, not always as cut and dried as it seems.

I empathise with most of this, I recall a case on here a while ago where OP left builders to do significant work while they went on holiday and came home to find lighting and shower circuits had been linked and bathroom lightand fan had to be left on or it tripped breakers. Then couldn't contact builders as they'd been arrested. I felt quite sorry for him.

I've sorted out many a 'sparks' mess but the majority of my work has been commercial and I find most of the mess or mistakes is done by house bashers who think they can do the same quality of work that they get away with in peoples homes, however commercial work is more likely to be inspected by customer and it is far more complex. I've frequently built a control panel then been called to site to fix the panel only to find the field wiring is wrong (star-delta springs instantly to mind).

I'm not slagging house bashers per se, in fact this job was beautifully done, the 16mm² T&E was by far the neatest in the cupboard and CU, properly clipped, stuffing gland with oval insert, correct brand of MCB etc. I could not fault the quality of the work apart from the debris left on the floor. If he had replaced the B20 with a B40 it would have probably never tripped, it would have been wrong but none would have been any the wiser.

These days I'm virtually retired so keep getting the 'just jobs' offered and most by far are DIY errors, especially ceiling roses and replaced switches where they can't figure out what goes where. (pretty much as we see on here) but at least I don't get the multiple views and negativity on site.

As a landlord I often find things have been done to my properties at change of tenants and I can rarely work out why- like why were the storage heaters DP switches replaced with 13A plugs and sockets? one of which had failed with overheating.

One of the guys I worked with decided he was going to specialise in CU replacements on a FIIFOO basis and quickly decided it was not the money spinner he expected due to borrowed neutrals & leakage etc.
Another would deliberately ask customer to list what and where they wanted for a rewire and quote for that, invariably they missed things like immersion heater outside sockets etc and the extras at the end could really rack up the bill.

Anyway I waffle...

 

[AndyPRK]

"but at least I don't get the multiple views and negativity on site. "

 

[SUNRAY]

This is the one I was thinking of earlier:
https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/help-needed-with-bathroom-light.188661/

 

[SUNRAY]

I went out during the week on a 'tripping problem' and an immaculatly painted fingernail pointed "It's that one."

A touch of de ja vous as I looked at the CU.
I fully expected nothing to have changed from pre lock-down, however right alongside the original CU is a bright shiny 8way matching CU supplying shower and hot tub. "We called them out again, showed them the report and invoice from your visit, their estimate and solicitors letter we got on line for £25. The electrician went straight out for a fuse box and did that and all this paperwork too. my husband gave them a cheque for the final payment less your invoice."
I glanced at the papers, small works to install CU & bathroom circuits [shower & add RCBO to lights] and EICR on the power circuits. All credit to the guy the workmanship was by far the best in the cupboard and assuming the paperwork was accurate I couldn't fault him.

EDIT: Other than not doing a complete EICR.

Breath no longer needs to be held