Something seems to have gone very wrong in my house!

[fab83]

Hi

Well i am in the middle of a project of taking artex off my walls in my landing/stairs/downstairs hall.

anyway, today i am working on the bottom half of the wall that is inbetween my bedroom door and the second bedroom door. I am using a steamer to get the artex off. when i touch the wall to peel a bit of paint off i can feel an electric current!!!! Well i could only assume it was that!
I couldn't touch the wall for a good 30seconds because of this and then it goes, thinking i'm going mad and i've just been sitting in the same place too long i carry on and it happens again. This time everything is turned off.

the wall i am working on has a light switch to the upstairs light (which has never worked since i bought the house) and i can only assume that it is something that has gone very wrong in the wiring.

I am going to get someone in to look at it at the weekend, but where do i start?? Do i start with the light switch? or any plug sockets that are about because i thought (complete novice when it comes to electric) that the electricity wires that run to the light switch would come down throught the celing from the loft, the wall directly around the light switch was not wet at all, or even damp.

 

[JohnD]

the wall i am working on has a light switch to the upstairs light (which has never worked since i bought the house) and i can only assume that it is something that has gone very wrong in the wiring.

Switching off a light switch does not cut the power to the rose, or the switch.

Are you experienced in turning off the power and removing the switch to look for a loose wire? If not, get in a local electrician, preferably one who has been recommended by a friend or neighbour.

It is possible that a nail has been put through a wall and penetrated a wire. the steam may be increasing the conductivity of the wall.

How old is the house, and the electrical installation? Does it show signs of being installed or extended by an unskilled person?

It is also possible that the fault is with your electric steamer. I presume you were using an aluminium ladder, but what else were you and the ladder touching when you got a shock off the wall?

Incidentally, many of the injuries caused by electric shock are not burns and heart failures, but broken limbs when people are startled or convulsed and fall e.g. off ladders or down stairs... so maybe put this job on hold for a bit.

 

[fab83]

Hi John,

I was sitting with my bum very securely on the floor, havent dared do the heights bits yet and am only working on the lower halves of the walls for the time being.

The steamer has been PAT tested recently as it is one that my father used at his place of work and it had to be tested before he could use it, so i would assume if there was a fault with it it would have been picked up then.

The house is circa 1960's and the electrics apart from the upstairs lighting circuit the electrics appear to be ok. They dont show any signs of being modified by anyone other than a professional with the exception of maybe changing the actuall light switches.

I touched the wall with my hand and had a scraper with a plastic handle in the other, the steamer was on the floor beside me (on carpet) at a safe distance so the steam wouldnt burn me.

 

[JohnD]

Then it must be quiite a significant leak.

I will guess that it may well be a damaged cable to the light switch. It might be run in metal conduit that has become live, or it might be a nail.

For light switches, although the wire to then contains two cores, one of then is permaenently live, and the other is switched live (there is no neutral).

Houses of that age often have no earth wire in the lighting circuits (in which case metal switches or lamps are unsafe and must not be used) and this would make a fault more dangerous, as there is no P/E path to cause the fuse to blow. If you turn off the power at your fusebox and remove the light switch, have a look and see if there is any sign of metal conduit, and any sign of an earth wire (which might be bare copper, or sheathed in dark green, or even in green-and-yellow) and if it is attached to anything.

 

[fab83]

Sounds like a job for my dad, I've seen him take off and change light switches before so he should be able to check whether the wires are in place. And if they are he probably knows a qualified electrician to come and help if it is something more serious like the conduit you mentioned.

Thank you

I'll post an update when i know more