It's the Plasterers Fault This Time!

[Paul.M]

Over the past 2 weeks I've had a plumber drilling into a 4mm rmf, Tuesday a home owner putting a picture nail into a 2.5mm rmf and this evening a plasterer putting a 4 inch fixing screw into a sw feed/sw live!

Whoops . He tried to cover it up but was found out when the elderly couple noticed that the kitchen light would not turn off. Pity I didn't take a photo of his nice new ceiling after I finished with it trying to find the fault and replacing the switch wire. Home owner is giving him a call in the morning to tell him to come back and patch up what I've done (saves me doing it) and also show him my bill which is more than what he charged to do the job in the first place! Oh well, I wonder what other tradesmen will give me more work next week? Seem to be getting this type of call out quite often recently.

 

[topquark]

So its your handy work TQ! Doing cash in hand work for OAP's now? You better go back and patch up the holes that I've made .

A man's gotta earn a crust these days

 

[Paul.M]

A man's gotta earn a crust these days

Fare enough but next time don't put a ruddy big screw though my cables. Bloody cowboy plasterers .

 

[telectrix]

should have used a nail. the cable would just have been pushed out of trhe way then. this is what happens when you let plasterers loose with anything more technical than a trowel.

 

[topquark]

Ah, but screws don't pop out so easily (that's why they're called nail pops not screw pops)

 

[Paul.M]

should have used a nail. the cable would just have been pushed out of trhe way then. this is what happens when you let plasterers loose with anything more technical than a trowel.

Even then we have to put capping over the cable so they don't damage the cable, er I mean themselves .

 

[telectrix]

Ah, but screws don't pop out so easily (that's why they're called nail pops not screw pops)

screwball !!!

 

[GLENNSPARK]

There supposed to use clouts anyway on ceilings....screws just pull through..........

 

[i=p/u]

hows she anging paul.electric.m. was it insulation resistance found you fault on this wee job. as continuity probably was still there

Over the past 2 weeks I've had a plumber drilling into a 4mm rmf, Tuesday a home owner putting a picture nail into a 2.5mm rmf and this evening a plasterer putting a 4 inch fixing screw into a sw feed/sw live!

Whoops . He tried to cover it up but was found out when the elderly couple noticed that the kitchen light would not turn off. Pity I didn't take a photo of his nice new ceiling after I finished with it trying to find the fault and replacing the switch wire. Home owner is giving him a call in the morning to tell him to come back and patch up what I've done (saves me doing it) and also show him my bill which is more than what he charged to do the job in the first place! Oh well, I wonder what other tradesmen will give me more work next week? Seem to be getting this type of call out quite often recently.

 

[Paul.M]

I'm methodical when it comes to fault finding, on something like this the home owner told me enough to locate the fault.

First thing I noticed when I walked in was the newly skimed ceiling. Then when the customer told me that the kitchen light stays on all the time this suggests a current on the switch live wire so that's where I'll look first. Power off and test. Switch off the wall and test cont in-between com & L1 to make sure its not a duff switch. Ceiling rose off and strapper wire disconnected. Cont test end to end (only two meters from sw to rose). Had cont L-L, N-N but nothing on cpc? Got cont on L-N both ends! With these readings + the new ceiling = nail or screw from my experience so out came the hammer and chisel, low and behold found what you see in the picture. New t+e installed, tested, switch and rose back on, test, everything tests out ok, power on, light now works, customer happy and pays the bill.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

We dont do fault finding til year 3 at college so posts like this are useful......

 

[i=p/u]

when you say these readings for continuity, does this mean you know it only few meters between light and switch, so you know resistance per meter = so so. ??? year 3 too glen, bet i know more than you

 

[telectrix]

when you say these readings for continuity, does this mean you know it only few meters between light and switch, so you know resistance per meter = so so. ??? year 3 too glen, bet i know more than you

no need to get too technical on this one. a simple multimeter will tell you if you,ve got a dead short on the cable.

 

[Paul.M]

when you say these readings for continuity, does this mean you know it only few meters between light and switch, so you know resistance per meter = so so. ???

In this case it was a length of t+e switch cable about 3 meter run. Disconnected both ends, L-L and N-N has continuity but higher than expected readings. Cpc-cpc no cont, must be broken. At the switch test L-N (should not have cont) but I did? Must be a short circuit. Same results at the rose end.

With the customer saying that the light stays on makes me think its a short circuit in-between permanent live to the switch and the switch live from the switch. The screw making the bridge and therefore the light always on regardless of the switch because its been bypassed. The mcb did trip when the plasterer put his screw in the cable but the mcb reset because there were no current going from line to cpc due to the cpc being cut and burnt through from the short circuit that the screw did in the first place. Hope that helps you on your fault finding lads.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Will be year 2 for me this september and looking forward to it all......AC theory.....yummy..

 

[i=p/u]

when you out there in real world , its easy to loose heart when fault finding cause you dont know, but what can you do if some spark down the road wants to pay you 4 quid an hour, your buisness is mine punk