Breaker tripping

[highspark]

Lads odd fault.

Breaker trips 20 mins-1 hour after being switched back on. 32 amp ring, old wylex board with push fit circuit breaker. Wiring is a mess. Ring is for sockets. It has exterior lights, alarm, boiler , attic lights, pond pump and fountain - all from jb's in attic - thoughts definate overload. Problem is I've unplugged everything and it's still tripping. There's a load bang in the attic everytime it trips. Any thoughts?

 

[highspark]

Hi lads eventually found it on Thursday. Had to rip up laminate flooring got under to find spur after spur from jb's ( far from a ring ). Was a nightmare to test. Literally had to dissect each jb and test individually. Eventually located cable going under joists.

The fault was this..... Bungalow was built on brick raising it from floor/ground incase of flooding. Anyhow the wooden joistswhere built on brick for support and some sections had been wedged up by slate to get level. Over the years some of these slates had cracked/broken away so joists where dropping and trapping cable. Anyhow when someone walked in that area it was pressing on the cable and shorting out. Cable was destroyed, fire damaged etc.

Just shows the strange and hard faults to find!

 

[Rampage]

At least you found it!

 

[Hawk81]

Glad you found it

 

[Engineer54]

As above, ...and ''Thanks'' for coming back and letting us know the outcome!! Often to many threads just die with no conclusion or feed back from then initial OP!!

 

[Short Circuit]

Yep, agree with E54, Well done HighSpark, hope your customer is happy now too , or until they receive the bill, you must've spent ages looking for that fault! And its good to get the result back on here! Only one thing missing.. Photos!

 

[highspark]

Honestly lads absolute nightmare fault. Will never forget it! The loud popping noise was actually vibrations from the fault. It was so loud it sounded like it was in the attic.

I actually felt stupid not finding it but even the best spark would have struggled here. You live and learn hey!!! When you go to this kind of fault you expect recent work/activity to have been taking place. In this case there was non.

Will get pics next time. Thanks for the help lads. Possibly stopped an electrical fire here just shows how important mcb's and RCD's etc are.

 

[MarkieSparkie]

Well done Highspark and thanks for the feedback on the actual fault, much appreciated.

 

[malcolmsanford]

Hi lads eventually found it on Thursday. Had to rip up laminate flooring got under to find spur after spur from jb's ( far from a ring ). Was a nightmare to test. Literally had to dissect each jb and test individually. Eventually located cable going under joists.

The fault was this..... Bungalow was built on brick raising it from floor/ground incase of flooding. Anyhow the wooden joistswhere built on brick for support and some sections had been wedged up by slate to get level. Over the years some of these slates had cracked/broken away so joists where dropping and trapping cable. Anyhow when someone walked in that area it was pressing on the cable and shorting out. Cable was destroyed, fire damaged etc.

Just shows the strange and hard faults to find!

Are they going to do anything concerning the dropping?