And we wonder why British tradesmen have to work hard to build a good name.

[cr0ft]

When you get idiots like the muppet that installed this central heating system.



Why bother cutting out separate joists when you can just plonk heating pipework directly on top of electrical cables. Got called to the house as the electrics where tripping. After fixing a leaking cistern and pointing out that more of the water from the shower was going down behind the bath than into the waste, I found this today.

The cables had melted, one of them right down to the line conductor which was in contact with the copper pipework on the heating system. This was constantly tripping the electrics (thank god they had RCDs). The electricity along the pipework filled with water had also caused lots of pinhole corrosion along a 2m length of said pipework. This had caused water to leak (rather interestingly) down the live conductor that was exposed and actually through the twin and earth cable and out the light fitting in the hall.

Fantastic workmanship all round really. Still got me a good day's wages today fixing their heating and electrics but quite serious in that if that RCD hadn't been working the female tenant or her two kids could have fried on a radiator!

 

[TBServices]

Bloomin' Nora!

Well spotted that man. Could have saved a life down the line mate, well done.

 

[cr0ft]

It did take 4 visits to find it. Never seen water actually coming out from inside a twin and earth cable before. Certainly confuses you when you lift the flooring above the light fitting and there's no sign of water there at all!

 

[dancinplumba]

nicely sorted, a good reason to earth all copper pies

 

[dancinplumba]

pipes !! lol

 

[cr0ft]

Also quite amazing that the system was a pressurised system and it didn't really leak much until I lifted the pipework slightly to assess the cable and got sprayed in the face with nice hot water lol.

 

[cr0ft]

nicely sorted, a good reason to earth all copper pies

And not to use plastic pipework to be honest either. Amazing how many houses I go into where you see the stopcock is bonded but some of the heating system is plastic which unless there's earthing crossing over the plastic wouldn't switch off the electricity in this situation.

 

[TBServices]

nicely sorted, a good reason to earth all copper pies

I do love a good copper pie. Flaky pastry preferably.

 

[cr0ft]

LOL yes very tasty.

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

you cant believe some moron would do that,no conscience at all

 

[AWheating]

what came first the pipe or the wire?

you could say the sparks was just as stupid for putting cables in a notch.

 

[cr0ft]

I think the cables were fitted in a normal notch before the regs required them to be 50mm below the floor level tbh. I think that given the pipes were rammed in on top of the cables the heating guy was the botch merchant. The joists had been notched out to nearly 6cm deep to get a couple of 22mm pipes through one over the other (yes really) in places.

Cant see how you could have got the cables through once the pipes were in, they ran around 3 metres along underneath the pipes, really tight between the pipes and the bottom of the notches.

 

[Guest123]

Well done and well spotted and I congratulate you for taking time out and actually caring.

The amount of times I've came across really dangerous electrics next to water and gas is frightening and what makes it worse is that young unsuspecting families with young kids are usually the unfortunate recipients.

I only use a qualified electrician to do any electrical work and the customer gets peace of mind by getting a minor works and safety certificate at the end of the job.