Advice please depth of buried cable

[CourtneyDesigns]

Hi all
Can anyone tell me is there a legal requirement to bury exterior armoured cable at a particular depth or is it just a recommendation. I am not an electrician but am in dispute with a company.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Stuart

 

[PC Electrics]

Apollo
My view is they are trying it on

I'd agree.
A repair such as I described would provide a watertight seal.

At worst they could have cut the cable cleanly and placed a joint on it. These joints have a plastic case, you crimp the cables together, place the plastic case around the joint and fill with a resin compound that hardens (sort of similar to car body filler). The joint would probably outlast the cable. No need for digging up of block paving.

Edit:
In fact you could probably just place the casing around the uncut cable and fill with resin. No joints and it'd be bomb proof!

 

[Engineer54]

CourtneyDesign,

Your workmen, during the course of erecting the fence you were contracted for, were tramping all over this so-called buried cable. Your men have probably done more damage to these cable sheaths than the cable you actually hit. It is more than plain to see, whoever excavated this shallow trench, just back filled over the cable with the the excavated soil, sharp stones and all!!! All cable trenches have a sequence of procedure for back filling, absolutly ''NONE'' of them have been carried out in accordance with that procedure.

The crap they have quoted you for, still leaves these lighting cable runs in a non-compliant state, that's if they ever did this so-called repair....

 

[CourtneyDesigns]

Heres the situation.
There is an oustanding invoice for £1350 which we have been chasing since 31 Jan.
They came back to us in 8th march saying repairs to cable are £400+vat.
Weve said look we are not happy with this but we will split it 50/50 but until we agree would they please send the balance approx£900. edit we have not received this either.
Not been able to get a response from emails or letters since.

 

[Apollo]

Just had to check, and i'm with everyone on here. This company is really trying it on with you. Infact their taking the yellow liquid stuff in bucket loads.

After just a few months how do they know it "maybe" has damp in the cable? Surely the person who bodged, sorry I mean fixed the cable should be liable for the costs. As you say you were up front and alerted them to the damaged cable, it was fixed at the time so therefore the liability lies with someone else. Find out their reasoning for thinking the point of the damp in the cable, I'd go and check the area you'll be able to tell if the pavements been lifted or not... I'd throw the regs at them as eveyone has said.

I'd be tempted to fetch my fence back!!!!

 

[Guest 004]

county court it is then

 

[CourtneyDesigns]

Thanks everyone for your comments , i think i have been resonable with these guys unfortunately it hasnt been reciprocated.i think i will now proceed with 'small claims court ' nowing how the courts work they will probaly say split the cost 50/50 which is what i have offered and it will cost £200 for the priviledge.

Edit ; i will also have to drive 100miles to St Albans

 

[cagedanimal2010]

agree with apollo, surly its the person who fixed it who is liable, not you! you informed them you had hit the cable, if we want to be pedantic you should pay for the repair £50max, and thats were it ends they are extracting the urine!!!
hope you get things sorted!!!!

Danny

 

[Electricalserv]

I have a funny feeling with whats been said here that he is unlikely to recieve a payment at all....

Just my intuition on this one

 

[SW1970]

Thanks everyone for your comments , i think i have been resonable with these guys unfortunately it hasnt been reciprocated.i think i will now proceed with 'small claims court ' nowing how the courts work they will probaly say split the cost 50/50 which is what i have offered and it will cost £200 for the priviledge.

Edit ; i will also have to drive 100miles to St Albans

CourtneyDesigns, any chance of some follow up about the outcome?

 

[mogga]

Just to explain a little further
We were installing a fence for our client on a barn conversion. We hit a swa cable ( for lighting bollard) that was buried approx 4 inches.They new where the fence was to be situated. They are now trying deduct £400 off the oustanding balance.
Thanks

Sorry to say something you wont want to hear YOU are responsable as YOU should have assertained exactly where the cable was wouldnt matter what depth it was at if your putting a fence in surley you would check area with a CAT( cable avoidance tool) then hand dig where cable was indicated

 

[Engineer54]

Sorry to say something you wont want to hear YOU are responsable as YOU should have assertained exactly where the cable was wouldnt matter what depth it was at if your putting a fence in surley you would check area with a CAT( cable avoidance tool) then hand dig where cable was indicated

I have to disagree with you there Mogga, it is the responsibility of the developer/main contractor to supply all that information to the sub contractor. and the very fact that these cables were not installed at anywhere near the correct depths. We give all our groundworks and othe sub-contractors full information on any areas where they will be disturbing FG Levels. At the very least, it's a 50/50 crap shoot, which the OP has already tentatively offered!!!

 

[telectrix]

now i know where iv'e been going wrong. for 30 years iv'e wondered why the heck our moggie couldn't find a cable anywhere. " here kitty, kitty.

 

[mogga]

Try phoning and asking DNO for a cable location they all come stamped @ these cables are shown but due to site conditions they may not be as indicated@ or something like that
I for one wouldnt go sticking a shovel into the ground if I susspected a cable was there Old street lighting cables were forever geting cut by and charged to the cable TV companys as they had CATS and drawings issued they even had our phone numbers to put a street on 24/7
One of the subbies refused and was taken to court the judge said @why would you cut and dig with a machine knowing there may be a cable in the vicinity isnt there a tool to check for cables @

That aside the OP hasnt posted for months and post is ages old lol