Asked to change a cu, but rings aren't rings | on ElectriciansForums

Discuss Asked to change a cu, but rings aren't rings in the Australia area at ElectriciansForums.net

M

martinxxxxxx

I have a customer who I quoted 350 plus parts to change over his cu.

Upon testing, discovered that both upper and lower floor rings are not rings or radials. They are trees, one socket wired to another randomely.

What regulation is this breaking. I know the wiring is undersized becuase this equates to a bunch of radials wired in 2.5te on a 30a fuse rewirable.

Anyhow he is already jumping up and down with the initial quote saying that his mate who is a decent electrician, fitted his at his own house in under four hours and did a little test at the end. He has had no problems. There fore he cannot understand why I need to do two lots of testing.

So when I told him that the ring circuits will have to be sorted out he told me I was an effing joke, so I rang his boss(missus) and told her that Iwanted a meeting onsite to clear the matter up. 0730 tm I am meeting them at thier daughters house ( the site).

Need to get my ammo lined up

Any help appreciated

Martin
 
OK well for ammo ... the 32A mcb is in contravention of Regulation 433-1-1, of BS7671 2008. Nuisance tripping or not, it's dangerous not to.

Also, you could argue the 'branches' of the 'tree' are, in fact unfused spurs, Appendix 15 of BS7671 2008 states that unfused spurs should supply only one socket. So, the whole circuit needs to be redesigned and re-installed.

Bang bang.:cool:
 
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Well thanks to all, got it sorted. Have neg a price to form the ring upstairs and down. The bloke was not there just his missus and she is happy.
The new ring down stairs took six hours to do. It has two unfused spurs.

Upstairs will be even more of a challenge because there are a coupl of rooms occupied and some boarding on the floors.

So pleased with the ammo but in the end not required.

I have been doing design in the industrial side for so long I don;t have the regs implanted on my brain.

I also know that a good way to get them so is to try and answer questions on a forum like this, so it is a really useful resource to both answer seekers and answeres. But I must remember to not get pompus when I answer question on here. I know it is really easy to fall into that trap.

Thanks

Martin

But you should have done this before....Your a professional, surley this was blooming obvious, how can you renegotiate a deal based on your lack of observation?

I included enough hours in my original price to cover sorting out the rings.

This quote was with the customer for 5 days before they told me I had the job (by the missus). But when I had completed the first day (4 hours). I gave up because they had 14 tradesmen in a 3 bed terrece. the existing fuse board is under the little window by the front door. The window fitters just stood all over the area where iwas working. The heating engineer removed some floorboards and then the team of plasterers and a chippy turned up. basically everywhere I went there were people. I took a socket front of to trace it to the next sockket. By the time I returned a load of furniture had been put in front of it. The final straw was when the plasteres mate slopped water very near my multifunction meter.

The bloke turned up at 4pm and called me back to site. "Where is the efffing new board" he said. I explained I needed to test the exsisting. He said he had worked out that my quote included 14 hours for changing the board and rectifying ring main problems. "Why can't you just put it in, my mate put my one in in under four hours." he said. Did you get a certificate, I replied. "No i don't need one" he said. I replied " I think you will find that you do need one. " I am not paying you 25 and hour to wander round with the ring main.

I told him there was no ring main and pointed to a socket above the worktop. That is on the ring he said, so off came the top and behold only one set of wires. OK carry on he said and I will give you the benefit of the doubt. Next day Almost the same happened. So that is when I called the missus.

The renegotiation today was to review the hours worked, estimate the hours left knock a bit off for goodwill and hey presto we reach my original quoted price dan naar *()_


:):D

Lesson bloke turns up a 4 pm get as much done by 3.30 and go to a little job on the list. I plan not to meet him again.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well thanks to all, got it sorted. Have neg a price to form the ring upstairs and down. The bloke was not there just his missus and she is happy.
The new ring down stairs took six hours to do. It has two unfused spurs.

Upstairs will be even more of a challenge because there are a coupl of rooms occupied and some boarding on the floors.

So pleased with the ammo but in the end not required.

I have been doing design in the industrial side for so long I don;t have the regs implanted on my brain.

I also know that a good way to get them so is to try and answer questions on a forum like this, so it is a really useful resource to both answer seekers and answeres. But I must remember to not get pompus when I answer question on here. I know it is really easy to fall into that trap.

Thanks

Martin



I included enough hours in my original price to cover sorting out the rings.

This quote was with the customer for 5 days before they told me I had the job (by the missus). But when I had completed the first day (4 hours). I gave up because they had 14 tradesmen in a 3 bed terrece. the existing fuse board is under the little window by the front door. The window fitters just stood all over the area where iwas working. The heating engineer removed some floorboards and then the team of plasterers and a chippy turned up. basically everywhere I went there were people. I took a socket front of to trace it to the next sockket. By the time I returned a load of furniture had been put in front of it. The final straw was when the plasteres mate slopped water very near my multifunction meter.

The bloke turned up at 4pm and called me back to site. "Where is the efffing new board" he said. I explained I needed to test the exsisting. He said he had worked out that my quote included 14 hours for changing the board and rectifying ring main problems. "Why can't you just put it in, my mate put my one in in under four hours." he said. Did you get a certificate, I replied. "No i don't need one" he said. I replied " I think you will find that you do need one. " I am not paying you 25 and hour to wander round fu****g with the ring main.

I told him there was no ring main and pointed to a socket above the worktop. That is on the ring he said, so off came the top and behold only one set of wires. OK carry on he said and I will give you the benefit of the doubt. Next day Almost the same happened. So that is when I called the missus.

The renegotiation today was to review the hours worked, estimate the hours left knock a bit off for goodwill and hey presto we reach my original quoted price dan naar *()_


:):D

Lesson bloke turns up a 4 pm get as much done by 3.30 and go to a little job on the list. I plan not to meet him again.
You must be very chilled out mate, if someone turned up effing and blinding at me on a job i'd have rammed the effing consumer unit up his effing backside
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I felt like doing just that. But I find it calming to act contry to my feelings. Plus I guessed correctly that his missus was able to give him a whole weekend of pain. She had to meet me onsite at 0730 to be in time for her day job, not many brownie points there I'd wager?

Plus they are a client of a builder who is passing meet 2k of work a month at them mo.

But I take you point

Martin
 

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