Water damage

[pooley91]

Hi,

I'm having my roof replaced at the moment and after torrential rain a few days ago in which it came to light there was a rip in the roof lining, I had a leak in the bedroom.

Water was dripping down the light fitting in the middle of the room.

Things appear to have dried out, but the light won't go off - it turns ON ok, but if I flick the switch to OFF, the light just dims a little but remains on.

Any ideas ?

Mike

 

[breezer]

yes, its called a flood light.

seriously it sounds like its still wet

 

[pooley91]

I guess I walked into that one !!!

Seriously though, which bit would actually be wet (I've changed the actual light fitting) ? Any ideas how long it will take to dry out ?

Mike

 

[breezer]

well i would have though it would be at the fitting, but since you have changed it, it cant be that, must be the swithc cable or water run back into new fitting.

as for drying times depends on how wet and how hot room is

 

[pooley91]

Cheers,

There are no visible signs of water coming into the new fitting so I'll try replacing the switch.

There was 2nd leak near the wall where the switch is but wasn't as bad - I guess it only takes a little bit of water to get in to screw things up !

Thanks for the help.

 

[RF Lighting]

Just out of interest how many wires areat the light and switch?

I'm wondering if maybe there is a joint box in the loft which water has got into?

 

[Spark123]

I take it you wired the new fitting exactly the same way as the old one?

 

[RF Lighting]

I take it you wired the new fitting exactly the same way as the old one?

Good thinking

When your bedroom light is on at half brightness, are any of the other lights in the house also on at half brightness?

 

[pooley91]

The light fitting and switch both have 2 wires (blue and brown) and yes I wired the new fitting the same way as the old one.

All other lights in the house remain on full brightness and switch off/on correctly - it is just this one in the bedroom that has developed this fault.

Thanks

 

[ricicle]

If there doesn't appear to be damp at the switch then I think RF has something with the JB idea giving the no. of wires at light and switch

Ricicle

 

[breezer]

one thing i did not ask is:

if the light only turns off to 50% but on to 100% can you actulaly turn it 100% off if so how? and is it operated by a dimmer switch?

 

[HDRW]

The light fitting and switch both have 2 wires (blue and brown) and yes I wired the new fitting the same way as the old one.

All other lights in the house remain on full brightness and switch off/on correctly - it is just this one in the bedroom that has developed this fault.

Thanks

Assuming you have wired it correctly, it could be water in the switch (water having run down the drop cable). If the light wasn't on until you switched it on, but then it stayed on when you switched it off it could be there was water on the contacts, then when you switched off a droplet bridged the contacts, conducting enough to let the light glow gently.

Flicking the switch repeatedly may displace the water and let it turn off, and if that happen's it confirms it, so replace the switch with a new one (and dry out the source of the water properly, including the drop cable!) and that should be that. You could try drying the swtich out, but that's pretty tricky, takes time, and you probably don't want to leave it without a switch for a few days... and a new switch is less than two quid!

Cheers,

Howard

 

[Taylortwocities]

You said "The light fitting and switch both have 2 wires (blue and brown)"

This means that there must be a junction box somewhere that the lighting connections are made to. If it were a loop in arrangement then you would have two or more cables at the light fitting. As you only have one cable (?) you need to follow that in your damp loft until you find where it meets the cable coming from the switch. In that junction you should also have a cable with the mains feed and it is probably where you still have water.

BE CAREFUL. If its wet and power is on then you have a good chance of copping a packet if you touch the junction box (or whatever it is).

Let us know how u get on...

TTC

 

[viewer]

Went to a flood damaged (overflowing bath) house a little while ago. Old Wylex CU with blown lighting circuit fuse. Initially went for just drying out as pendants full of water. When apparently dry and reconnected, worked 20 mins then blew fuse. Found that the kitchen extractor was on the circuit and had burn marks to P and N. I guess that when wet it had shorted, and damage had occured then. No idea why circuit tested OK and worked for 20 minutes, perhaps shaken by kitchen activities (?). Cut off damaged sections and all well since. To the point - you may not have water in there anymore, but there may be damage to wire insulation near JBs etc.
HTH

 

[Taylortwocities]

Went to a flat one day that had water damage from overflowing bath in flat above.
Pendant light fitting got most of the deluge. Very strange - the light bulb was half full with water - inside the bulb!! To this day I cannot work out how it got in there. Wish I'd taken a pic.

TTC