Okay, so bare with me here. Domestic is not my bag at all, and I'm not quite sure what the best course of action would be for this.
So my father has asked me to take a look at the outside light for the back garden, he would like it changed to a new one as the old one is tired and worn and is quite the eye sore. Simple job.
So upon having a look at this it comes off a switched FCU which is in the kitchen and is fed from the downstairs ring final circuit. The cable that feeds it is a 3core + earth pvc/pvc (the cable that was left by a helpful electrician many many years ago). This was put in back when the house was built and he reckons that he ran it through the timber kit of the house as it was being built and then finally it was bricked around, and so could very well not be able to remove this cable.
The light stopped working as the cable developed a fault many years back and my father fixed this by using one of the unused cores, unfortunately in the process of doing this he decided it best to cut the core with the fault right back to the pvc sheath where it enters the back box so there is no way to earth this core to avoid having a floating core.
The PVC/PVC on the exterior of the building is also very tired looking from 18+ years of UV exposure so I think it best this whole cable is just removed and replaced.
Now that the back story is out the way, I'm wondering what the best course of action for this would be. In my mind removing the cable completely and replacing it would be the best solution however what do you do in a circumstance where a cable cannot be removed? How would you make that safe as it doesn't seem right in my mind to just leave disused cables tucked inside the walls of houses. To make matters worse the kitchen has just recently been redone (in the past few months) so there is no way of smashing the walls apart to get this cable out.
So in the unfortunate circumstance the cable doesn't pull free with a few gentle tugs and some persuasion. What would be the best course of action to deal with this?
Apologies for the long post, but I know details are important when asking for help.
So my father has asked me to take a look at the outside light for the back garden, he would like it changed to a new one as the old one is tired and worn and is quite the eye sore. Simple job.
So upon having a look at this it comes off a switched FCU which is in the kitchen and is fed from the downstairs ring final circuit. The cable that feeds it is a 3core + earth pvc/pvc (the cable that was left by a helpful electrician many many years ago). This was put in back when the house was built and he reckons that he ran it through the timber kit of the house as it was being built and then finally it was bricked around, and so could very well not be able to remove this cable.
The light stopped working as the cable developed a fault many years back and my father fixed this by using one of the unused cores, unfortunately in the process of doing this he decided it best to cut the core with the fault right back to the pvc sheath where it enters the back box so there is no way to earth this core to avoid having a floating core.
The PVC/PVC on the exterior of the building is also very tired looking from 18+ years of UV exposure so I think it best this whole cable is just removed and replaced.
Now that the back story is out the way, I'm wondering what the best course of action for this would be. In my mind removing the cable completely and replacing it would be the best solution however what do you do in a circumstance where a cable cannot be removed? How would you make that safe as it doesn't seem right in my mind to just leave disused cables tucked inside the walls of houses. To make matters worse the kitchen has just recently been redone (in the past few months) so there is no way of smashing the walls apart to get this cable out.
So in the unfortunate circumstance the cable doesn't pull free with a few gentle tugs and some persuasion. What would be the best course of action to deal with this?
Apologies for the long post, but I know details are important when asking for help.
