Advice after drilling through electrical cable above plug socket

J

Jengajenga

-
Hi all,

I have stupidly drilled through the same electrical cable TWICE 1 inch apart. This is above a twin plug socket which obviously now doesn’t work. The holes are about 1m above the socket.

As a temporary measure I was going to connect the wires individually with Wago connectors but the 2 whole problem has thrown me!

Will it be okay to replace the broken part of the cable and use wagos at each end?

Or is it better to replace cable from the break to the plug socket (so just one set of connectors being used?) Is it a case of attaching a new cable to the end of the old one and greasing / pulling through the socket?

Hope all that makes sense. Advice much appreciated!
 
If its a regular socket circuit, you may have 2 cables coming down to the socket.

Cut a box into the wall further up, rewire from box down to socket and make a joint. Cover with a blank plate so it can be accessed if needed.
Make it a suitable height so you can hide it behind a picture.

Just watch where your stick the nail in!
 
littlespark said:
If its a regular socket circuit, you may have 2 cables coming down to the socket.

Cut a box into the wall further up, rewire from box down to socket and make a joint. Cover with a blank plate so it can be accessed if needed.
Make it a suitable height so you can hide it behind a picture.

Just watch where your stick the nail in!
Click to expand...

I’ll be watching every nail and screw entry from now on! How do I actually rewire?
 
whereabouts in lancashire are you.one of us may be close.best to get a pro to fix it safely. what price you put on your life and that of your family?
 
littlespark said:
If its a regular socket circuit, you may have 2 cables coming down to the socket.

Cut a box into the wall further up, rewire from box down to socket and make a joint. Cover with a blank plate so it can be accessed if needed.
Make it a suitable height so you can hide it behind a picture.

Just watch where your stick the nail in!
Click to expand...
If the OP uses one of them really thin blank plates then it might sit flush to the wall /plaster and be easily decorated or covered easier. the thin ones paint up well with a bit of undercoat first
 
Hi - I agree it's better to replace the damaged cable than attempt to join it ... twice. How best to do the replacement will vary site by site, so I'd get some help. Post up a pic :)
 
I like @telectrix suggestion in post #3.
Can you get to the cable in the ceiling?
Also, as @Wilko has said, post some pics up.
 
Job like this can take all day for someone who isn't used to doing it.

We (forum members) do this every day and have got various closely guarded secrets as to how we can magically run cables behind walls.
Some times we tie cables to ferrets.

You may get it done in a full day, we could do it in a couple of hours.

Pete

P.S. I was joking about magic, but airlines used to use ferrets for wiring planes.
 
You may well take the Micky about using ferrets but many years ago when the CEGB [ the forefather of National Grid ] were laying very high voltage cables under the Seven Estuary they had to install a draw wire into the steel pipes under the bed of the estuary and they got the initial light string through the pipe by tying it to a ferret and placing a rabbit at the other end of the pipe.
 
Spoon said:
Depends on the type of hamsters, mate...
Click to expand...

One (standard) hamster is approximately 0.000237Ap (where Ap is of course the usual unit and abbreviation for 'apprentice').

So, by simple arithmetic, we can deduce that we need 4,213 hamsters to replace the pulling power of one apprentice.

Although it is inconvenient to provide facilities to feed and water so many hamsters unless one has a very regular requirement for them it is always worth bearing in mind that they can be sent down very much smaller holes than any apprentice could hope to negotiate.

If you are in a hurry it is possible to temporarily increase the work output of your hamster team by waving a cat around at the rear of the group. This does work quite well and it is possible to achieve short-term increases of up to 300% at the expense of some hamster casualties as a result of heart attacks.
 
Jengajenga said:
Hi all,

I have stupidly drilled through the same electrical cable TWICE 1 inch apart. This is above a twin plug socket which obviously now doesn’t work. The holes are about 1m above the socket.

As a temporary measure I was going to connect the wires individually with Wago connectors but the 2 whole problem has thrown me!

Will it be okay to replace the broken part of the cable and use wagos at each end?

Or is it better to replace cable from the break to the plug socket (so just one set of connectors being used?) Is it a case of attaching a new cable to the end of the old one and greasing / pulling through the socket?

Hope all that makes sense. Advice much appreciated!
Click to expand...

Read up on safe zones before continuing. You shouldn't drill anywhere vertically or horizontally near any electrical outlet.

And finally before making circuits live, hire a qualified electrian to do testing. Mind you, it may be difficult as most electrians won't touch such work. Electrians are liable to leave circuits safe, if you bodged up the work it may take take several hours/days to rectify.

Even though I done electrical course, I didn't feel I was competant enough to do such work. Now I restarted working with a qualified electrian to learn trade properly. Not worth risking life over few thousand. Wish you all the best anyway.
 
LabourForApprenticeship said:
Even though I done electrical course, I didn't feel I was competant enough to do such work. Now I restarted working with a qualified electrian to learn trade properly. Not worth risking life over few thousand. Wish you all the best anyway.
Click to expand...

Few thousand... if you're getting into this game for the money, you're going to be sadly disappointed. Couple of hours £80 is what I'd quote (without seeing it) :)
 
Jengajenga said:
Hi all,

I have stupidly drilled through the same electrical cable TWICE 1 inch apart. This is above a twin plug socket which obviously now doesn’t work. The holes are about 1m above the socket.

As a temporary measure I was going to connect the wires individually with Wago connectors but the 2 whole problem has thrown me!

Will it be okay to replace the broken part of the cable and use wagos at each end?

Or is it better to replace cable from the break to the plug socket (so just one set of connectors being used?) Is it a case of attaching a new cable to the end of the old one and greasing / pulling through the socket?

Hope all that makes sense. Advice much appreciated!
Click to expand...

If I've understood this correctly you're saying the socket only has one cable in it, yet your holes were an inch apart and yet you drilled through the same cable twice? So you drilled one hole then drilled the next hole one inch above or below the first, or was the cable running horizontally?
 

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Jengajenga

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Advice after drilling through electrical cable above plug socket
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