twin socket box found behind shower tray!

[benpollard]

Hi Guys need a little help here!

My uncle has had a leak from his shower which has in time got worse - in fact it has started to drip through the ceiling.
He decided to remove all the tiles above the shower tray approx 1 mtr high to expose the problem - in doing so he noticed that these tiles had been bonded directly onto plaster-board (Barratts)
He removed all the damaged plaster board and was horrified to see the back of a 25 mm twin metal socket box stuck partly through the wall only a few inches away from the shower tray.
The twin socket in question is a bedroom socket but where they have positioned it in the bedroom means that the back of the socket box is very close to all the plaster board that is soaking wet and inches away from a shower tray!

Would this socket position comply with the regs - house is about 7 years old

Thanks!

 

[MDJ]

Lets see a picture, first thoughts are shocking, but a picture speaks a thousand words.

 

[kingeri]

And which was there first, the socket or the shower?

 

[telectrix]

from your description, there's nothing wrong with the position of the box. water leaks can happen anywhere. a leaking joint under the floor or in an attic can leak water down onto a socket anywhere.

 

[markc123]

Aye, it's not in the shower/bathroom so doesn't have to comply with any of the zones. It just sounds terrible.

 

[somersetsparks]

Im with tel, doesn't sound like anything out of ordinary really, the problem lies with the leaking shower tray

 

[telectrix]

yep. who expects a shower to leak into a studded wall? poor installation of the shower and /or tiling IMO. then again, studded walls are the invention of satan. a bit of raw unseasoned wood, clad with cardboard does not in my mind constitutre a wall.

 

[somersetsparks]

Pretty poor practise i have always thought to tile onto plasterboard, especially around shower trays as after a few years the bottom tiles tend to fall off leaving just a mouldy mush behind! however I suppose barrats homes will be digging up green fields elsewhere long before that happens!

 

[Octopus]

Sounds like a rubbish new build.

 

[monkeyelectric]

Is it one of these metal stud walls or even worse two sheets of plasterboard dot and dabbed together as the wall? If the shower wasn't leaking the plasterboard wouldn't be wet so there wouldn't be a problem but beings as there is a leak and water everywhere near a live socket it might be worth isolating it so it can't track voltage through the water, shower should have been tanked anyway, tiling straight onto plasterboard is asking for trouble! Damn barratt homes!

 

[thomas-1981]

Nothing wrong with the wall or socket position but with the tiling.

 

[telectrix]

it's not a wall. it's a room divider.

 

[thomas-1981]

it's not a wall. it's a room divider.

LOL this is true.