Someone was a lucky so and so

littlespark · May 20, 2019

Working on a kitchen where I have to reroute the cooker cable (now extend the cooker cable)
Customer has been in the house at least 10 years, kitchen was done a good while before that.

First picture shows how NOT to run a cable down a wall.

[ElectriciansForums.net] Someone was a lucky so and so

I'm surprised it has capping on it, to be honest.

Second picture is how NOT to fix a cooker hood to the wall.

My customer removed the old hood himself.... I hope he used an insulated screwdriver.

3rd and final pic.... The damage to the cable. Outer sheath carefully stripped back. Live untouched. Neutral barely marked and cpc… 4 out of 7 cores sheared through.

This is why we have zones for running cables in. Diagonally is just a disaster waiting to happen.

lozarus · May 20, 2019

There seems to have been a trend of doing this. My house is an early 80's build with it's original wiring still present in the kitchen (complete with horrible original kitchen). One night (as an act to try and get me started on the kitchen) I ripped all the horrid 80's tiles off, and much of the plaster underneath which revealed the diagonal cooker cable. I also suspect the under counter socket for the washing machine tales a similar route. All capped 'properly', just going along the wrong axies...

Toneyz · May 20, 2019

In the 80's when I started my apprenticeship the electrician, I worked with taught me to do the link diagonally between the spur or cooker switch to the outlet I think that we got pulled up on an NICEIC inspection as my boss said we had to do vertical and horizontal from now on.this was under the 15th so not sure if this reg came out in an amendment to the 15th at the time. Maybe someone on here may know.

littlespark · May 20, 2019

I didn't think. Maybe it was "the norm" to do it like that in the past.
Scary though that this was the cooker circuit. Scarier to think that this would have tested ok. There was cpc continuity, and no short between line and cpc.
I did explain to customer that they had been lucky. If no cpc, it wouldn't have been evident; cooker would still have worked until there was a fault in the cooker and the whole thing would be live.
There is no RCD's in the house at all.... not until i'm finished.
I think this experience may spur the customer on to ask me to change the board to full RCBO.... at the moment im only changing the MCB's on the circuits I've worked on

Gavin John Hyde · May 20, 2019

I have seen recent kitchen installs like that... not even capped in some cases!!
Plumbing is worse, with this push fit stuff they use one long length and bend it across any old way as long as it reaches.

lozarus · May 20, 2019

anthonybragg said:
In the 80's when I started my apprenticeship the electrician, I worked with taught me to do the link diagonally between the spur or cooker switch to the outlet I think that we got pulled up on an NICEIC inspection as my boss said we had to do vertical and horizontal from now on.this was under the 15th so not sure if this reg came out in an amendment to the 15th at the time. Maybe someone on here may know.

Interesting. That's exactly where mine was - link from the switch to the outlet. The main supply was straight. However.... my 'cooker switch' was actually just a double socket which matched all the other accessories in the house. I can only assume electric oven was an option, and the original buyers had gone for gas. The double socket was fed by 6mm from the 'cooker' fuse, and the 6mm link down to the cooker outlet was just coiled up behind it.

Taylortwocities · May 20, 2019

That's exactly the way that Mary Wherry (the MP's daughter) got electrocuted.

SparkyAndGeorge · May 20, 2019

We always see old diagonal cable runs on rewires. dont think they had zones back in the day, must be a fairly recent thing?

littlespark · May 21, 2019

Taylortwocities said:
That's exactly the way that Mary Wherry (the MP's daughter) got electrocuted.

I thought she was a baker?

Intoelectrics · May 21, 2019

I've seen screws through cables like that umpteen times. A proper pain in the butt when you do a board swap and add a RCD for the first time and the bloody thing trips. Good reason to do a thorough test before you fit a new board!
Did one a few months back, found low IR on N-E on a lighting circuit. Turned out to be a screw put in to hang a lovely picture on a newly decorated wall. The customer had just spent thousands on doing the house up then decided to have the CCU upgraded

. The owner had fitted some wall lights himself many years back and ran the cable diagonal but had forgotten about it and hung a picture right where the cable ran. Of course it hadn't been a problem till I came to swap the board. He was extremely disgruntled when I told him I would have to chase out the plaster and re-wire the wall lights correctly, especially as "the lights work fine"

Dustydazzler · May 21, 2019

Diagonal cable is the devils handy work

Taylortwocities · May 21, 2019

littlespark said:
I thought she was a baker?

MP's daughter electrocuted in botched fitted kitchen - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1473919/MPs-daughter-electrocuted-in-botched-fitted-kitchen.html

ChrisElectrical88 · May 21, 2019

I some time early last year came across a shower cable installed in 2010 that ran diagonally, screw streight through the CPC and Neutral causing a short. No RCD protection and CPC never connected from the 45A Switch load side where the fault was.

Dustydazzler · May 21, 2019

ChrisElectrical88 said:
I some time early last year came across a shower cable installed in 2010 that ran diagonally, screw streight through the CPC and Neutral causing a short. No RCD protection and CPC never connected from the 45A Switch load side where the fault was.

You mean a bog standard plumbers installation then

I still don't get why we bother with Partpee , when I see more shoddy work nowadays than I did 20 years ago

SparkyAndGeorge · May 21, 2019

Dustydazzler said:
You mean a bog standard plumbers installation then

I still don't get why we bother with Partpee , when I see more shoddy work nowadays than I did 20 years ago

The question must be asked, why do we see more shoddy work nowadays?