Old Lady ripped off bodge it electrical

[nickblake]

Yet again another old lady ripped off by a poor job , no certs issued , i got the call today that she had a live wire in the kitchen ,so get there yes a wire was exposed but the fuse had been taken out this was supplying an old window fan and she had had the window replace so to move the old one it was cut off , so fair enough , then looking at her other problems she described a box keeps tripping out ,small one way consumer unit feeding new sockets in her kitchen main switch RCD 32 amp breaker supplying the kitchen ring , fine nothing wrong with that i hear you say ,well heres the crunch the consumer unit was tapped off a radial socket in the garage which is then supplied from a BS1361 30 amp fuse nice one so new kitchen new tiles all behind the cooker down to the floor , and directly above the cooker is the old cooker switch which was early 80's and in very poor condition ,i ask my self in disbelief why was this not moved when the kitchen was done and to add to it there have been 2 twin sockets tapped off that as well as the cooker , the consumer unit is an old 3036 coverted to 1361 fuses and 3871 MCB's with one of the MCB's in poor condition this is located in an alcove about 8 ft from the floor above a central heating boiler how the hell is the 92 year old ment to reach that if the MCB trips , no bonding to the oil service which is directly below the consumer unit nor any bonding to water which is in the same place ,the sockets have been replaced with the cheapest sockets in the history of electric ,and make it even worse they have been tiled round and grouted in so with out wrecking the tiles are almost imposible to remove , they guy that did it needs bringing to justice ,with just a little thought , it was one of the easiest kitchen referbs in the history of man kind lower and reloctae the consumer unit , move the cooker switch add an extra socket simple the whole job should have taken less than 2 days , this has annoyed me so much that its going further ,the old lady 's not going to do anything but i most certainally am ,Where has the passion in our buisness gone where is the though , how an old lady will access her consumer unit how

a very angry nick !!!!!

 

[Engineer54]

the only problem with altering the legislation is that it will mean more cost being stuck onto the genuine sparks, thus increasing prices, thus giving more work to the cowboys, unless the sale of electrical equipment is restricted. can't see the fat cats who make millions out of sales going for that.

Thank god for the ''fat cats'' then!! Stop blaming the general public for all the woes of the electrical industry. The only people to blame is yourselves for not doing anything, apart from moaning about the deskilling of our industry. The facts of the matter is, and has been proved time and time again, that there are just as many cowboy's in these so-called scheme providers as there are outside of them.

Retailers have been selling electrical equipment long before i came into the industry, i dare say most electricians use these retailers far more than most are willing to admit too. If these retailers can sell this stuff cheaper than the big electrical wholesalers, then something is very wrong with these wholesalers prices, ....strangely Greed rapidly comes to mind!! lol!!!

 

[DurhamSparky]

B and Q / Screw fix / Tool station = life line on weekends and after 5pm for them niggly bits you always need!!!

do try and stay away from them as best i can but some times duty calls!!

i blame home DIY shows for the decline in most trades apart from roofer and gas fitter!

 

[Guest112]

lol has anyone had the call from the "confident" diyer whos mixed up his wiring at ceiling roses when he tried to replace them with new ones from these diy stores saying that he thought that just the two colours did the same thing lol i have easy money then

 

[telectrix]

loads of 'em mate. love it. £50 for sorting 3 cables out.

 

[trev]

lol has anyone had the call from the "confident" diyer whos mixed up his wiring at ceiling roses when he tried to replace them with new ones from these diy stores saying that he thought that just the two colours did the same thing lol i have easy money then

Only about a thousand times mate

 

[telectrix]

on that theme, i recently was called to a similar situation where the guy had fitted a new light. bang goes the fuse, so he calls me out. i checked/metered cables, connected up --bang. turns out that the new fitting he had bought had a dead short L/E internally. DOH.

 

[Guest112]

so maybe not a bad thing that the shops sell electrical equipment to the joe public considering the work it actually creates for us when they get out of their depth with it, i just hope they dont blow themselves up.

my eighty year old grandad rang me the other day after he changed a fitting in his kitchen he mixed the earth up with the line conductor even taped the earth up red for some reason, really scared me that he was working with electricity told him strictly to only call me anytime he needs anything doing electrically he said he was gutted that he messed up because he was out of his depth ( he used to be a carpenter and then a patten maker and then a university lecturer........very proud man and intelligent)

 

[hercule]

Going off on a bit of a tangent here, but...

Had a gas fire looked at when having my boiler serviced less about 10 days ago. Turns out the (flueless) fire needed a fairly big vent in the room otherwise didn't comply with regs (not installed in accordance with manufacturers instructions). It had been fitted about 2 years ago by previous owner just before we bought the house. We've got building regs cert stating compliance. I didn't fancy putting a vent in the pretty small front room and I hate the look of the fire. The engineer capped the gas off there and then, stuck a do not use sticker on it and filled in a gas safe form. I have changed it for smaller electric fire already.

Got a letter today from the HSE saying that it had been reported and they wanted to investigate urgently to make sure that the installer wasn't fitting any more appliances illegally.

Is a similar response from a dangerous electrical installation likely?

 

[Guest112]

tbh i hope so mate its good to see that another trade is better governed by safety and bodges better but im not sure someone will tell you now man

 

[GLENNSPARK]

talk about government not giving a ----...... from opinion polls, my own observations, press reports ( however inaccurate they may be) it would appeasr that around 75% of the UK population is in favour of a referendum over membership of the EU. so why did over 400 MPs ( supposedly representatives of said population who voted them into power) vote against the wishes of 75% of the electorate???????

Because the party Whips will cajole and threaten...to ensure MPs tow the line...they will even stand at the que (arms folded) to see who goes in the "no" line...and report em......its crap innit....

 

[SteveG]

loads of 'em mate. love it. £50 for sorting 3 cables out.

And they swear on their mothers life they replaced them back exactly as they were.

On a lighter note: when I was an apprentice back in the 70's they introduced twin red +e 1.5mm for wiring switch wires from the light. We were wiring new flats on bonus (paid 11 hours for a first fix) We could knock em out in 8 hours easily (6 if we really grafted and no breaks) It was a good earner but always a rush.
I didn't take note of which coil was twin red and wired the entire lighting circuit in it. I didn't find out until the second fix (doh)
Didn't make a bonus on the second fix lol

 

[Pete999]

Beggars belief, at least she has the right man in now Nick!

They need to be put out of business! Trading standards, LABC. If they claimed to be part of a scheme, then details to the scheme provider.

We could almost do with a standard letter that can be sent to the various bodies.

Good and noble idea, probably fall on deaf ears when you hear about some of the crap, that's done by so called Sparkies that belong to the CP Schemes.