******* cowboys!!!!!

[Lorem-Ipsum]

Turned my bedroom light on this morning and it went pop. Tried a few other lights and none downstairs would go on.

Checked the fusebox to find the wire had melted. Went down the shop to get more and fixed it with the regulation 5amp fusewire.

Blew straight away.

Checked the wiring in my room to find most of it was wrong. The earth was not plugged in, the switch loop was held together with electrical tape and the neutral was loose and rubbing on the loop!

Got a new rose and fixed it all, took under 5 minutes and now after fixing the fuse it works fine.

Checked the other fuses to find out that the upstairs lighting one was fitted with 30amp fusewire! (My room is downstairs)

I have now rewired all the fuses to their proper regulation standards and they all seem to be working fine.

I will be keeping an eye out for bad wiring elsewhere now.

I hate cowboy electricians!

Anyone else had bad experiences?

[Snakedoc]

Important lesson here. One does not change a fuse without knowing why it blew.

[Mr. Grapes]

:eek:
that's pretty poor.
I take it (as it's fuse wire and not circuit breakers) that the wiring is pretty old in your house...
at least electrical contractors have to be certified similar to CORGI for gas now, which makes them highly liable for shoddy work...

[Will]

My house was built in 189x and even I've got circuit breakers :p

[Lorem-Ipsum]

Important lesson here. One does not change a fuse without knowing why it blew.

Yeah, I need to be less lazy. ...........*removes paperclips from fusebox* (joke)


:eek:
that's pretty poor.
I take it (as it's fuse wire and not circuit breakers) that the wiring is pretty old in your house...
at least electrical contractors have to be certified similar to CORGI for gas now, which makes them highly liable for shoddy work...

The wiring is not terribly old, maybe late 70s to mid 80s but I suppose for electrics that is quite old.

Over the summer (and when I get round to it) I will replace the fuses with breakers.

Checked with my Dad and he doesn't remember who the electrician was.

[DoubleTop]

house was completely renovated before we moved in, wiring is under 3years old :)

last house = nightmare, I had surge protectors on EVERYTHING and UPS devices on every PC. At one stage the leccy board fed our feed in through the window from the streetlamp :eek: We were last on the line, house before us on the line was renovated into four flats and that extra pull meant I could watch them come home and then my TV lights etc would all go off.

With the renovation, overkill was the name of the game, I have 6 spare spaces in the box, and most rooms have at least 8 wall sockets :D I love it, four/siz way extensions have never instilled me with confidence.

DT.

[Mr. Grapes]

our house was '30s built and had the wiring done some time before we moved in and has all circuit breakers etc. think it was done in early 90's or so

[Col]

I don't really know anything about house electrics or plumbing or gas, but after watching a lot of programmes on telly like Houses from Hell and Rogue Traders, I now watch closely what anyone does when they're working in the house. Mum calls them in to fix what appears to be a simple problem and then leaves them to get on with it because she feels she's intruding. I, on the other hand, will watch closely and appear to show an interest, asking why and what at every opportunity. "Why would you do that?" "What's that for?" There's nothing wrong with asking. Also, watch them when they go out to their van. The amount of times I've seen people on Rogue Traders sit in their van just to take the job over the hour mark so they can charge for a full hour...

[Lorem-Ipsum]

Gas is one of the things I don't know about. I have a pretty good idea of plumbing and know my electrics in the house.

Maybe I should get some qualifications in it.

[pbar]

I had an electrician once who cut a wire to short to reach it's termination. So he taped it to another piece, a nice big bundle of tape, and shoved it out of sight under some plasterboard. I now do as much electrics myself as I can, which is a fair amount for a DIYer.

[Skywalker]

Best get it signed off by a pro now :)

[Lorem-Ipsum]

Best get it signed off by a pro now :)

One of my mates is a qualified sparky so I'll get him to have a quick look just to make sure.

[nft99]

had the house rewired in Jan total cost about £4k :( and now seem to be going through light bulbs at an alarming rate.

Overloaded the circuit and failed leading to the main fuse box getting very warm indeed :eek: first had the fuse box replaced with a shiny new circuit breaker and then they came back and did the wiring.

[Smifis]

You do know it is illegal for someone who isn't at least NVQ qualified to change more than a fuse or a light bulb.

IMO, it sound like your house could do with being re-wired. You've probably got lead cable too which are safe until they're about 20 years old cause the insulation then wear out and you get a live lead cable.

[Lorem-Ipsum]

You do know it is illegal for someone who isn't at least NVQ qualified to change more than a fuse or a light bulb.

IMO, it sound like your house could do with being re-wired. You've probably got lead cable too which are safe until they're about 20 years old cause the insulation then wear out and you get a live lead cable.

We were planing on getting the wiring re-done at some point but the flooring we have can't be taken up. Might get the fuse box switched out at some point.

[Smifis]

What flooring do you have?

[Lorem-Ipsum]

What flooring do you have?

laminate. All through the downstairs and a tiled floor in the kitchen.

[Smifis]

You can get that up although it would e wise to get some more to replace it as it might be a tad stretched and misshaped. :lol:

In actual fact, if you find someone who is very experience, e.g. been an electrician for 30 years then [s]he'll probably be able to get it up without damaging it but generally, re-wiring leads to redecoration

[Huge Pear]

:eek:
that's pretty poor.
I take it (as it's fuse wire and not circuit breakers) that the wiring is pretty old in your house...
at least electrical contractors have to be certified similar to CORGI for gas now, which makes them highly liable for shoddy work...

sorry me being pedantic here. CORGI was taken over in april 2009. Its now Gas safe.

i truly need to get a life

[Lorem-Ipsum]

By laminate I mean that real laminated wood stuff. Its glued down with some sort of chemical.

The guys had enough trouble laying it down lol.

Also we decorated quite recently ......... don't really want to destroy it all.

[Smifis]

Yeah they use a special glue, PITA.

you peal the corner and get a stanly knife and carfully run the knife between the laminate and the floor itself cutting through the glue

[nft99]

We were lucky regarding flooring they managed to get under the floor in the cupboard under the stairs and access it all from there :thumbsup: the decorating still needs redoing in a couple of rooms though :(

They changed our fuse box for a circuit breaker and the wires were crumbling in parts :eek: not sure how old it was previous owner had redone part of the downstair when the extension was built the rest of it was antique :chuckle:

[GentleGiant]

Wiring should be checked every couple of years after it is 20 or more years old.

Someone mentioned LEAD, I suspect he is thinking of water pipes, leccy cables have always been copper; although some very, VERY old stuff had a lead sheath over the 3 core, rubber inner insulation.

Some people saved money by having sockets and consumer boards replaced, but kept the old wiring, so dont assume, just because you have modern circuit breakers, that the wiring is the same age.

Electricians houses usually have the doggiest wiring you are ever likely to see; my sister found live wires buried in the plasterwork after SHE moved into a house owned by a sparky.

BTW I am a PROPER sparky; I have kit on Nuclear submarines!! :thumb:

[Smifis]

Wiring should be checked every couple of years after it is 20 or more years old.

Someone mentioned LEAD, I suspect he is thinking of water pipes, leccy cables have always been copper; although some very, VERY old stuff had a lead sheath over the 3 core, rubber inner insulation.

Some people saved money by having sockets and consumer boards replaced, but kept the old wiring, so dont assume, just because you have modern circuit breakers, that the wiring is the same age.

Electricians houses usually have the doggiest wiring you are ever likely to see; my sister found live wires buried in the plasterwork after SHE moved into a house owned by a sparky.

BTW I am a PROPER sparky; I have kit on Nuclear submarines!! :thumb:
I'm on about the lead shething on some old wires, i know what a pipe and whats a cable comming from 4 generations of sparkys.

[DoubleTop]

ooo, you're the dangerous type Smifis, the I know it all because ......

wasn't She Thing a b-movie ;)

DT.

[Smifis]

lolwut?

looks at time...3 past...can i think...nope

[waba]

my house is a joke. pulled up the floorboard a few months back to find a live power cable open ended, just lying in the middle there. no reason whatsoever. plus everytime the washing machine was used, the lights in the whole house would flicker....

[cerberus]

used to be a maintenance engineer -and some of the bodges I've seen will frighten you- especially HMO's (House in Multiple Occupation}

bare -yes bare copper cable in loft - so old -sleeve has disintegrated:eek:

when central heating fitted- tapped off gas pipe-before stoplever :eek:- strange can write stopc**k

too many to tell could fill a book

[GentleGiant]

The only time I have seen lead sheathed cables, the house was running on a teak fuse box from the "Voltaire Electric Company" circa 1911; and THAT was 30 odd years ago!!

Most of the stuff from the 50's and 60's turned to dust years ago, so no-one should find anything more than 40 years old unless the last occupant had been retired and living there for more than 40 years!!!

[Hax]

Keep Part P regs in mind when performing electrical work now.

You will need a certificate signed off by an electrician qualified to part P. This is for work in the kitchen and bathrooms. You will also need it for ring modifications etc...

While I can work with 3 phase electrics, I am not part P qualified so I technically cannot do some work in my house.

[Smifis]

The only time I have seen lead sheathed cables, the house was running on a teak fuse box from the "Voltaire Electric Company" circa 1911; and THAT was 30 odd years ago!!

Most of the stuff from the 50's and 60's turned to dust years ago, so no-one should find anything more than 40 years old unless the last occupant had been retired and living there for more than 40 years!!!
The guy before use was a DIY man and theres a lead cable going to the LIGHTING CIRCUT from the fuse box. i think it was a bit of bacle he found :/


when central heating fitted- tapped off gas pipe-before stoplever :eek:- strange can write stopc**kThat'll be an earth, leave that one :D

[GentleGiant]

stopc o c k.

See!! Easy!!!!

I never quite figured out what "Part P" was meant to be about; what was wrong with being qualified to the 16th Edition Regs?? (Although I prefer 15th for most jobs!!)