new kitchen sockets and electrician hit a problem - UPDATE

[overthebridge]

We have recently decided to have a new kitchen and need some new sockets. Work started on friday and their electrician has advised we have a fault on the ring circuit. Now from what I can gather, he says the readings are too high. The live ring is ok, the earth ring is ok, but the neutral ring is showing a fault. His paperwork says R1 phase 0.63, Rn Neutral 56.8, R2 CPC 1.22.
Apparently he needs to book chargeable time locating the problem before he can proceed? This is work i'll need to pay for, outside of our agreed price with the kitchen company.
The circuit in question is for the whole downstairs and he wants to start taking sockets off. Is this a big problem and does it need fxing before he can add new sockets?

 

[RF Lighting]

It is very important to have the fault fixed. Your electrician can not connect onto this circuit without rectifying the fault.

Obviously it varies from job to job, but I would normally expect to find a fault like this within a couple of hours.

 

[overthebridge]

HI RF

Didn't expect a reply this late in the evening! Thanks.

He reckoned on it hopefully being a loose cable and should be found in a 'few' hours at £25 per hour.

Do i need to be worried about something going wrong before he comes back on Tuesday?

 

[RF Lighting]

A reading like that is normally caused by a loose connection.

A few hours sounds about right. It could be that the first socket he opens has the fault in it. If so happy days, if not it will take longer. There are some connections that can be made at the CU that often helps narrow down where the fault is, but it doesn't always work.

As long as you're not continually running heavy loads on the circuit then it will be ok. Don't have the tumble dryer and washer running 24/7, but you're ok to watch telly, boil the kettle, make toast etc.

 

[vv2806]

You may want to move the furniture around, so there is a free access to all the sockets when he starts.

 

[martinxxxxxx]

You may want to move the furniture around, so there is a free access to all the sockets when he starts.

You obviously don't need to be paying someone £25 per hour to shift you furniture around. But the electrician may also need to lift the odd floorboard. So to me it is also important to box up all the nick-nacks you may have. Moving the large furniture around is not nearly so time consuming as having to remove loads of ornaments and books off off furniture on in order to move them.

So it is a give the electrician a clear run if you want to save money. My bet is the kitchen fitters have left a wire loose in a jb somewhere.

Just a thought - ask him to quote you for splitting the kitchen onto its' own ring. This will give you a lot of advantages, plus it might not add much on the price if he is going to have to pull it apart anyway.

 

[Taylortwocities]

The bad thing about knitchens (and one of the reasons Part P was introduced) is that in the past electrics tended to be done by whatever trade happened to be working in the kitchen

Kitchen fitters, in general are ony interested in getting the kitchen in and did not take a lot of care over other associated works.

I have been to many sites for kitchen repairs and replacements where joints for cables have just beed buried in walls, conductors just twisted together and covcered in tape etc etc.

It's likely that the fault is a loose connection (per the above comments) but it could be somewhere 'hidden'.
It's easier if the ring is just dedicated to the kitchen, it may be serving the rest of the downstairs area too? It shouldn't take too long to identify the approximate location of the problem - fixing it may take a while longer...



EDIT: on a positive note. It would seem that the electrician knows what he is about. At least he has done the right thing and done some tests before he started work. Regretably this is a rare occurance!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

You may want to move the furniture around, so there is a free access to all the sockets when he starts.

Might as well turn off the power* and start looking for loose connections at sockets as well - who knows, you might find one and when the electrician returns on Tue he can test that it's OK and if it is just carry on with the kitchen.

You've got nothing to lose.

*All of it, unless you are absolutely sure that all of the sockets are on the same circuit.

 

[overthebridge]

Hi
]ust quick update, Electrician narrowed down fault to a fused spur sharing same back box with a single socket. Duo backbox?
On the fused spur, a neutral cable from one of the neutrals on the ring was in outgoing terminal instead of with other ring neutral in the ingoing terminal. It made more sense when he explained it!!

And on the single socket the neutrals fell out when he took cover off.

This was in the utility room, and took him less than 1/2hr to locate. No extra charge for me and he will include with price of kitchen as he found it so quick.

Result !!

Thanks all for your posts

 

[securespark]

Yeah, so when the fused spur was switched off, the neutral side of the RF circuit would be open circuit.

It was a switched fused spur?

Hang on, IIRC, the reading was high but not OC. Was it an unswitched spur?

Might just have been down to very loose connections creating a high resistance joint.

 

[Spark123]

I'd go with the single socket giving the high reading as the wires dropped out when pulled forward, at least the OP is happy now and appears to have a good sparky that knows what he is doing.

 

[martinxxxxxx]

Also refreshing to here positive tales of sparkys doing good - as most get up in the morning to do just that. He wants to earn his money not rip you off. He has to mention extra charges because some faults are a pig to locate and some are just simply buried in the fabric of the building (under block flooring etc.)