JB's under floorboards

[highspark]

What a ridiculous way of rewiring lights this was.

Got L-N fault on lighting in a nursery. No lights on the entire bottom floor. With it being a nursery it's literally impossible to do anything whilst it's open because of the children. Anyway I went tonight to try and trace the fault. Every single room & hallway on the first floor is boarded out with those large t&g boards which you have to take up in sequence to get to a certain area or laminated.

The main problem I have is the wirings that old it's been done with loops in Jb's under the floor. :censored:. I just can't access any of them to split the circuit without wrecking the place.... In which case the floor won't be back down in time for the nursery to open again the next day.

absolute nightmare.

 

[sparkdog]

I would use some kind of cable tracer to see where its going.

 

[highspark]

It's a rats nest from the runs I've seen so far plus the circuits not energised so cable tracer would be no good. The be all and end all is the Jb's need to be accessed but the nursery can't close. Might have to be a backside up weekend job.

 

[Andy78]

Invest in a solid board cutter and a couple of boxes of hole plugs to make this out of hours job a bit easier with those tongue and groove chipboard slabs.

 

[Hellmooth]

Nothing worse, hate t and g boards they are the work of the devil!

 

[mattg4321]

Assuming it's a 'dead short' get your tester out and test continuity between line and neutral at each accessible point. By finding the point with the lowest resistance between l-n you will have massively narrowed it down without taking any floors up.

 

[VoltzElectrical]

Split the tongues using a thin bladed sharp thing then you can get one board up without butchering it. Just a thought.

 

[Chivers]

I'd use a multi tool to cut off the tongue and groove in a not too obvious place and gain access that way. Start on a Friday afternoon to get your access to boxes sorted then use the weekend to do the fault finding if necessary.

 

[PEG]

It's a rats nest from the runs I've seen so far plus the circuits not energised so cable tracer would be no good. The be all and end all is the Jb's need to be accessed but the nursery can't close. Might have to be a backside up weekend job.

Quite the contrary,if those circuits are not energised,they can be "lit up" with a signal,and traced easily,with the benefit of not being confused with any other energised circuits, running nearby.

 

[7029 dave]

If its JB system surely the T&G boards have been cut already.?

 

[Leesparkykent]

If its JB system surely the T&G boards have been cut already.?

Not if some numpty installed it like this before the plaster boarding was done. I've had the above situation before.

 

[7029 dave]

Not if some numpty installed it like this before the plaster boarding was done. I've had the above situation before.

Yeah the quick fix, saw some guy 1st fixing he destroyed the ceiling to get cables in, it was all down. lol