Has my electrician done a dangerous wiring job?

[Silly Sausage]

Maybe he couldn't be bothered to move the box he was stood on at the door to do the rest?

 

[Mark42]

the route up by the door and the horizontal run above the door are both outside of prescribed zones so, no matter how many RCDs protect the circuit, unless the runs are in earthed metallic conduit, they are non compliant and therefore unacceptable. end of.

Of course you are quite correct.

But how far out from the suggested 150mm do you reckon it is? OP can you measure it please? What is the distance from the chases near the door from the corner of the walls and the ceiling? It’s important.

I’m not justifying the work, but just trying to introduce a little reasonableness into the general condemnation. I see it as doing 33mph in the 30mph zone. Here’s the analogy: that extra 3mph is just as likely to kill, with a (very unlikely) combination of circumstances, as this horrible job is.

And why is it 150mm anyway? (Remember it’s GUIDANCE, not law; many people forget that). Presumably it’s because few people are likely bang stuff into the wall in those zones. Or the general public are educated that that’s where wires are likely to be. Yeah?

There’s a big difference between a job which is unprofessional, messy, or just plain ugly, and one which is clearly dangerous.

So is 150mm safe, but 151mm dangerous? or 160mm? Or 200mm? Where do you draw the line? If you were a prosecution expert witness in court what would you argue, and why?

There’s more to British law than ‘That’s what the guidance says, end of story.’

Would you concede it could be MUCH worse? He didn’t run the cable diagonally to save a quid’s worth of cable. It is T&E, not singles taped together, or flex. I doubt many people on here with a few years experience haven’t seen that kind of thing again and again.

But I’m assuming there IS a 30mA RCD. Without that, I’d condemn it outright like the rest of the posters.

 

[Octopus]

Of course you are quite correct.

But how far out from the suggested 150mm do you reckon it is? OP can you measure it please? What is the distance from the chases near the door from the corner of the walls and the ceiling? It’s important.

I’m not justifying the work, but just trying to introduce a little reasonableness into the general condemnation. I see it as doing 33mph in the 30mph zone. Here’s the analogy: that extra 3mph is just as likely to kill, with a (very unlikely) combination of circumstances, as this horrible job is.

And why is it 150mm anyway? (Remember it’s GUIDANCE, not law; many people forget that). Presumably it’s because few people are likely bang stuff into the wall in those zones. Or the general public are educated that that’s where wires are likely to be. Yeah?

There’s a big difference between a job which is unprofessional, messy, or just plain ugly, and one which is clearly dangerous.

So is 150mm safe, but 151mm dangerous? or 160mm? Or 200mm? Where do you draw the line? If you were a prosecution expert witness in court what would you argue, and why?

There’s more to British law that ‘That’s what the guidance says, end of story.’

Would you concede it could be MUCH worse? He didn’t run the cable diagonally to save a quid’s worth of cable. It is T&E, not singles taped together, or flex. I doubt many people on here with a few years experience haven’t seen that kind of thing again and again.

But I’m assuming there IS a 30mA RCD. Without that, I’d condemn it outright like the rest of the posters.

Whats not good here, IMHO, is the run above the door as it doesn't look as it there will be any form of "box" on this "level".

 

[DNS1]

So is 150mm safe, but 151mm dangerous? or 160mm? Or 200mm? Where do you draw the line?

Personally I'd say the line is drawn at 150mm from the corner and from the ceiling...

As far as I understood, these were "regs" as opposed to "guidance"

 

[DNS1]

Besides, anyone who knows about the zones, would have moved that horizontal run about 3 inches up and been safe and compliant...

What was the point in not running it in the zone in this case? It's not like he saved more than about 3 inches of T+E

 

[Phil]

without the op getting his tape measure out i would say he is about 155mm outside the safe zone on the drop down.

 

[Octopus]

Besides, anyone who knows about the zones, would have moved that horizontal run about 3 inches up and been safe and compliant...

What was the point in not running it in the zone in this case? It's not like he saved more than about 3 inches of T+E

When I look at the photo showing the run above the door the cables appear to go into the wall. There is no accessory at this point and therefore the horizontal run above the door is not in a safe zone. IMHO

 

[DNS1]

When I look at the photo showing the run above the door the cables appear to go into the wall. There is no accessory at this point and therefore the horizontal run above the door is not in a safe zone. IMHO

It's not, but it would have been if it was a bit higher up

 

[Octopus]

It's not, but it would have been if it was a bit higher up

Well, we're all guessing as to the reasoning for why this happened and the thought processes (if any) the installer had before using the route as photographed.

Given where the cables go into the wall, the homeowner is probably lucky not to have had the cables from the other switch drilled into/through.

Wonder what the home owner is going to do next?

 

[Mark42]

When I look at the photo showing the run above the door the cables appear to go into the wall. There is no accessory at this point and therefore the horizontal run above the door is not in a safe zone. IMHO

Good point - if for some weird reason there is an accessory on the OTHER side of the wall that part of the run becomes compliant, and then we're only left with the vertical bit by the door.

You're probably all correct of course, but it's satisfying to look a bit deeper than just shout 'cowboy' to make oneself feel better. Playing devil's advocate can sometimes be instructive.

Plus there's a lot of money in legal argument, and your overalls stay clean I've done it a few times in another industry.

... I would say he is about 155mm outside the safe zone on the drop down.

Bloody hell, that's accurate! What did you do, print the picture and scale it off the door or something?

 

[Phil]

Bloody hell, that's accurate! What did you do, print the picture and scale it off the door or something?

no but we could run a book on the nearest

 

[Deleted member 26818]

I'd go for 255mm from the ceiling to the top of the chase.

 

[Homervanderjazz]

Well I have contacted a building standards officer and sent him the pictures, he will get back to me tomo hopefully and we will find out what he has to say, hopefully he can [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]recommend a decent electrician to fix the cock up as I dont want to go back to these guys again.[/FONT] I will keep you all posted. Thanks for all the input.

 

[Des 56]

Its a pity he diidn't fish the cable behind the coving,you would have had less disturbance and just 2 vertical drops to the switches

 

[needasparks]

sorry guys, everyone is throwing measurements at this, I don't know whether its to help the sparks that did it or to cheer the OP up.
Really !!! have a look at the photo's and ask yourself would i have made a pigs ear like this seems to be, I would like to think, No.
no matter what way you dress it up it needs correcting, the less people get away with this kind of mess the sooner people will stop trying to pass themselves off a proper tradesmen.