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Hdeep

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Hi and apologies in advance for probably a stupid question, I admit to being clueless.

We have just filled in a pond in the garden of our new house and there is a socket on the side of our raised decking with an old broken pump/filter thingy that used to be in the pond (previous owner) attached to it.

We don't want to use this socket, and would like it to be safe/non-live (if that's a thing?!) because our young children will be playing in that area. But we didn't want to remove it in case we want to use it in future (and expense/disruption of removing it I guess too) We had decided to kind of 'box it in' by building a box/ bench seat around it onto the side of the decking.

So before the box goes on, my husband has removed the fuse from the socket. The old pump is still attached to the socket by wires which he says we can now just cut with wire cutters then we are all good to go with the bench. I am sure there's more to it and we will need a professional to do something to the socket/wires to make it safe, but I need someone who knows about this stuff to tell me loosely what needs to be done so I don't just sound like an over-cautious paranoid mother. Or am I wrong? As you can tell we both know nothing about electrics. Can someone help?

Thanks in advance if you can.
 
Ps I only need to know in broad terms whether what my husband suggests is safe and if not, an explanation as to why we need a professional. I'm not asking someone to walk me through a DIY electrical job, just incase I wasn't clear
 
If you want the outlet fully isolating, you should employ a competent electrician with a brief something along the lines of 'trace and isolate at source'.

The cables coming out of the outlet should not simply be cut off and left as under certain fault conditions it is possible for them to become live at mains voltage (or a sufficiently high voltage to cause injury or death).

If someone asked me to do this, this is how I would go about it. Trace it back to it's source and isolate it there (personally I would leave the earth connected) and then I would remove the connections at the outside portion, making sure it was adequately sealed with a drain hole or two to allow any condensation which will inevitably form out.
 
Thank you very much, that is really helpful. Would this sort of job take long? And since the wires go into our decking, would it mean removing it to trace it back? I think the switch that turns the electricity to it on or off (is that the source?) is in our kitchen. Thanks again for your time.
 
Thank you very much, that is really helpful. Would this sort of job take long? And since the wires go into our decking, would it mean removing it to trace it back? I think the switch that turns the electricity to it on or off (is that the source?) is in our kitchen. Thanks again for your time.
I shouldn't think so, the electrician will just need to find out where the socket is connected at, as discinnect l/N and E at that point and make safe, if as you say it is fed from somewhere in the kitchen it shouldn't be to difficult to find, an hour at the most. IMO
 
I shouldn't think so, the electrician will just need to find out where the socket is connected at, as discinnect l/N and E at that point and make safe, if as you say it is fed from somewhere in the kitchen it shouldn't be to difficult to find, an hour at the most. IMO
Perfect, thanks a lot I appreciate your time.
 
Another thing to note for anyone reading with a similar problem, if you have removed the fuse you have probably only disconnected the live wire. As mentioned above, the Neutral wire could still become live in the event of a fault, and if you cut the cable, moisture could get in to it and cause the RCD to trip.
 

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