When is a Ring NOT a ring?

[1shortcircuit]

When some flipping ruddy IDIOT leaves one leg half way up the length of trunking because it wouldn't reach the socket!

I sh*t you not! I've been on this last job two days and I was only sent to add a spur for a washing machine.

Checked the gas and water bonding and all was well.

Circuit protected by 32amp RCBO so all well there too.

Tested end to end for continuity.... Doh!


First observation was that the house had been wired Front and Back rings as opposed to up down which threw me off track on day one. Today though I approached with a fresh head and quickly realised what was going on.

Only one thing wasn't adding up whilst I was testing between all the sockets and that was "WHY" when rewiring a house would someone just run a spur to one double socket in one of the bedrooms? There was no sign of where the spur had come from either? I guessed there must be a junction box somewhere?

I went in search and lucky for me all of the upstairs had no carpets. First board I lifted and hey presto... WTF! I spotted that there were actually two cables heading in the direction of the spurred socket... Um! This was never intended to be a spur... I could not believe that the second leg had been poked up behind the skirting board and JUST made it in to the trunking. There was NO SLACK on the cables so my only conclusion is that this circuit has NEVER been anything other than two radials on a 32amp RCBO with live conductors hidden behind the trunking :yikes


I am so pleased with myself for doing the initial checks before commencing the work that I had been sent in to do.

Just for the record, this was a council property and had recently (last two years) undergone a full rewire which I presume would have had to have been carried out by an NICEIC approved contractor?

This has just emphasised how important it is to test a circuit before commencing work. I know some of you more experienced would have learnt this a long long time ago and I've read posts explaining the same on here but when you actually do AND find a fault it makes it so much more satisfying.

Thanks for reading all:thumbsup

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Nice one short...Always feel better when you know its right eh?.......

 

[Mark_Burgess]

Glad you found it, I'd be spiteful enough to try and get the last person who worked on it screwed over.

These idiots must be stopped.

 

[Mr Mike]

Well done that man !!!

 

[mickys86]

Thumbs up!!! 

 

[Blowcat]

Good work!
I was testing a lot of council rewire jobs a couple of years back and the company I worked for had their annual NICEIC inspection. We chose a nice easy house for access and made sure everything was complete. The NICEIC inspector had the test results I had measured immediately after the rewire and asked me to test the ground floor general ring main. I have never been so embarrased to find no ring continuity on any of the conductors. My boss was a little red faced and had a few questions for me especially as I hads tested a 2-300 propertys and this the first he checked with me.

Turned out in the 6 days between the test and the niceic coming down, her grandson had installed a couple more sockets for her and left the ring open circuit. Surprisingly the NICEIC chap was fine about it and gave us a good report.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Sneaky grandson messing with grannys cables...lol.......

 

[PC Electrics]

I agree with Mark, you should give the tenant a report and a seperate invoice for the repair only. They can then complain to their Landlord and attempt to recover the cost of the repair.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

A few years back, I was initial testing some accomodation units at the Imperial College London.
On one unit a RFC was wired as a ring, with no conductors wired to the CU, just one socket-outlet connected to the next to the next etc.

 

[keniff]

^^^ lol

 

[GLENNSPARK]

A few years back, I was initial testing some accomodation units at the Imperial College London.
On one unit a RFC was wired as a ring, with no conductors wired to the CU, just one socket-outlet connected to the next to the next etc.

So you mean like a radial to the first point tnen split 2 ways to form the "ring"?

 

[keniff]

I took it as a complete ring not including the cu

 

[Deleted member 26818]

No just a load of socket-outlets connected together in a ring, no connection to the CU at all.

 

[1shortcircuit]

I agree with Mark, you should give the tenant a report and a seperate invoice for the repair only. They can then complain to their Landlord and attempt to recover the cost of the repair.

It's a Council owned property and was rewired by the Council too, now that it has been corrected I'm pretty sure they probably won't give a monkey's?

Also, from what I've seen discussed regarding the NICEIC that would probably be a worthless shout also?

My job is done and the property is safe, I can sleep well in my bed this evening knowing this :thumbsup

 

[GLENNSPARK]

No just a load of socket-outlets connected together in a ring, no connection to the CU at all.

Perhaps it was just a labourer who pulled it in and wasn`t allowed to go into the cu then it just got overlooked as you say it was "initial verification",,,,,,,