View the thread, titled "ring main fault" which is posted in Australia on Electricians Forums.

hi my customer wants me to change her fuseboard for a 17th edition at her home.i went today to pretest the circuits and found that there was no neutral continuity on the kitchen ring and no earth continuity on the upstairs ring.My client has just had the whole house decorated and the decorators have siliconed every single socket to the very expensive wallpaper and there is wood flooring in each room.so my question is how would this get signed off with these existing faults or do i tell her that i cant do it .Any opinions?
 
First, it's a ring final circuit, not a ring main. Now that's out of the way, perhaps you could split the rfc's into radials .
 
Have you tested all sockets for a L N E?The earth might be broken at say socket 3 and 7 therefore leaving sockets 4 5 6 without an earth etc..Check this first before splitting into 2 radials
 
Depending on where the break is on the upstairs ring there may be the option to split the ring and alter to 2 x radial circuits.

But that then leaves the kitchen, bit more of a tricky one... not ideal splitting that one really as you've usually got quite a bit of loading in there. Maybe able trace and rewire the broken section, if its behind units, if your lucky.

Good luck
 
Why not just use your knife around fittings?Reseal after?Wouldn't be difficult or time consuming.Better doing the job correctly than trying to bodge in a workaround
 
how would this get signed off with these existing faults?

Well, I'd say you can't sign it off with the faults, and it's a tough job rectifying faults behind sockets without taking them off... but some might be cleverer than me...

You can reduce the number of sockets you have to open up by tracing the fault around the ring.
 
hi my customer wants me to change her fuseboard for a 17th edition at her home.i went today to pretest the circuits and found that there was no neutral continuity on the kitchen ring and no earth continuity on the upstairs ring.My client has just had the whole house decorated and the decorators have siliconed every single socket to the very expensive wallpaper and there is wood flooring in each room.so my question is how would this get signed off with these existing faults or do i tell her that i cant do it .Any opinions?

Tell the silly Moo, that you can't trace, test or correct anything without being able to take the wall plates off of her nice newly decorated walls. If she is silly enough to decorate first and then intend to have work done to the electrical system ...more fool her!! If she doesn't want to spoil her decoration, then walk away, you'll be glad you did!!!!

And NO you can't do a CU renewal, and leave a ring circuit in that condition, ...not unless your a cowboy sparks...

EDIT.... You don't split ring circuits into radials unless it's your LAST resort, and there is no other option open to you. All this splitting rings at the first sign of trouble smacks of, at best laziness, and at worst incompetency!!!
 
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Well said E54.

I can’t understand the stupidity of using silicon on any fitting. What should be a relatively simple fault is raising issues. I’ll bet a pound to a pinch of s£*t it’s the decorators that have disturbed a connection on a socket.
 
good call tony. sounds well likely. OP should get a silicon gun and show the decorators where it should be squirted, painfully.
 

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