volt stick or similar

[JohnW2]

Well, it could go bang, it could not work, it could appear to be fine, but break in a year, 5 years etc. ...

Indeed or, perhaps more worrying, it could, for example, break a ring final - with no obvious effects, but the possibly of cable overloading/overheating. However, unless one has a full set of electrical tests undertaken every time one has drilled into a wall, I'm not sure that one can do anything to detect things like that.

Kind Regards, John

 

[stillp]

I have an old cable/pipe/stud detector that I had with cigarette coupons about 40 years ago. I've always found it fairly reliable for locating something you know is there somewhere, but I wouldn't trust it (or anything else) to prove that there wasn't a cable where I wanted to drill. The trick is to find where the cable is, rather than trying to find where it isn't.

 

[PBC_1966]

It shows where cables SHOULD be placed

And that's assuming that they were run after tne whole concept of the zones was introduced anyway. Plenty of older homes will have cables outside those areas even if they were wired in full compliance with the rules in force at the time.

 

[flameport]

Indeed or, perhaps more worrying, it could, for example, break a ring final - with no obvious effects, but the possibly of cable overloading/overheating

Another reason why ring finals should have been deleted from BS7671 years ago.

 

[JohnW2]

I have an old cable/pipe/stud detector that I had with cigarette coupons about 40 years ago. I've always found it fairly reliable for locating something you know is there somewhere, but I wouldn't trust it (or anything else) to prove that there wasn't a cable where I wanted to drill. The trick is to find where the cable is, rather than trying to find where it isn't.

Agreed, but the biggest problem exists in relation to cables that you had no reason to think existed at all. I have detected a few of those in my time (and only once 'the hard way' ).

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

Indeed or, perhaps more worrying, it could, for example, break a ring final - with no obvious effects, but the possibly of cable overloading/overheating

Another reason why ring finals should have been deleted from BS7671 years ago.

That can certainly be argued. However, if the drill managed to go through just the CPC, that would be a reason for arguing that radials should be 'deleted from BS7671'

Kind Regards, John

 

[stillp]

Indeed or, perhaps more worrying, it could, for example, break a ring final - with no obvious effects, but the possibly of cable overloading/overheating

Another reason why ring finals should have been deleted from BS7671 years ago.

That can certainly be argued. However, if the drill managed to go through just the CPC, that would be a reason for arguing that radials should be 'deleted from BS7671'

Kind Regards, John

Or even if it just scraped either of the live conductors enough to reduce the CCC.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Indeed or, perhaps more worrying, it could, for example, break a ring final - with no obvious effects, but the possibly of cable overloading/overheating

Another reason why ring finals should have been deleted from BS7671 years ago.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Ok so assuming you shut the power off and drilled into a wire not knowing and then put the power back on. How would you know if you drilled Into the wiring or not? ... Not that this has happened but this is a concern of mine.

That's one of the problems - you would not necessarily know, since it depends upon exactly what the drill had done. It might result in something tripping (or a fuse blowing) when you restored the power and/or something might have stopped working. However, there are also many possibilities of potentially dangerous cable damage that was not immediately or obviously apparent.

Kind Regards, John

Indeed. This is one I found during a kitchen refurb. The screw&plug had gone right through the oval conduit and the cable of a lighting circuit that was still working correctly. The screw, and the kitchen cabinet that it was supporting had been there for 20 years!

The cable route was installed in the correct place - vertically from the switch.