Dodgy trade pictures for your amusement! - 1 Million Views!

[timhoward]

This is an interesting discussion.
There's a whole estate near me with 60 amp PME cutout in cabinet outside, 'tails' are 10mm T+E through cavity to CU high up on other side of wall in garage. Main earth is not adequate for PME requirements and my first job at any of these houses is always running an extra independent earth.
But replacing the tails has proved to be very hard due to the amount of rubbish in the wall. It's almost as if all the trades used that cavity as skip!
Apart from the cost, and if I could get them through, is two lengths of Kopex, one per tail a possible solution?
I've never seen it done which makes me suspect there's a flaw....!

 

[Raptor0014]

Tails would be in trunking if I couldn't get them into safe zones. I don't compromise regulations for aesthetics. If the customer complains, tell them to take it up with the architect who did the sloppy design in the first place.

I agree it’s sloppy design. But most houses are like this, even new builds.

 

[Raptor0014]

I would have expected the meter supplier to request that you provide the upgraded tails to the meter cabinet before they uprated the cutout. That's what I've always done - new tails to the meter cabinet, connected with Henleys to the old tails in the cabinet (along with a note not to walk off with my Henleys.)

It was Octopus that did it. Can’t comment as to why as I was expecting to need to do it myself.

 

[Raptor0014]

This is an interesting discussion.
There's a whole estate near me with 60 amp PME cutout in cabinet outside, 'tails' are 10mm T+E through cavity to CU high up on other side of wall in garage. Main earth is not adequate for PME requirements and my first job at any of these houses is always running an extra independent earth.
But replacing the tails has proved to be very hard due to the amount of rubbish in the wall. It's almost as if all the trades used that cavity as skip!
Apart from the cost, and if I could get them through, is two lengths of Kopex, one per tail a possible solution?
I've never seen it done which makes me suspect there's a flaw....!

I’d never have gotten Kopex up the wall today. I had to pull one tail in at a time and use liberal amounts of cable lube.

 

[Raptor0014]

I don't disagree, but these are common types of homes. I assume developers simply pay for use of plans drawn up by someone who knows little about acceptable cable routes. To be fair, the house styles I have in mind are well designed to make the most of a limited amount of space.

Still, there's nothing to stop developers installing a duct with draw string - they probably haven't thought to do so or simply don't care.

The latter. All down to cost/time

 

[brianmoooore]

If any koped used has metal in it, it will have to be kept electrically insulated from the metal in the other piece of kopex, to avoid heating by induced current.

 

[Mike Johnson]

What is the point of cavity wall construction if we fill it with cables, or even insulation that is open structure?

 

[brianmoooore]

Purpose of a cavity iis t prevent water penetration from outside to inside. Whether or not complete fill cavity insulation compromises this is the subject of debate. I have a neighbour who is a fairly highly qualified building surveyor, and he makes his views well known to anyone who asks. He's not a fan.

 

[Mike Johnson]

I know the point of cavity wall construction it was a moot comment, as I said filling the cavity with an open cell insulation defeats the point entirely, as does anything that bridges the gap between the two skins, intentionally or not.

 

[Simon47]

That's timely ... this went up yesterday
Insulation was supposed to save us money... but it ruined our homes

At our last house, there was a damp issue. The cause came up when the buyer has someone in to look at it - an air brick had been fitted upside down when it was built - back in the 60s I think. But that wouldn't have been a problem until CWI was installed - and after that it was slowly soaking the wall from within.

 

[yesitsashock]

Their RCD stopped working so they used a car battery connector and a jump lead to bypass it

 

[littlespark]

Their RCD stopped working so they used a car battery connector and a jump lead to bypass it View attachment 93968

Repeated on another thread, so you might want to ask a mod to delete one of them.

I’ll repeat what I said on it.


Would that be on a farm by any chance?

 

[telectrix]

Repeated on another thread, so you might want to ask a mod to delete one of them.

I’ll repeat what I said on it.


Would that be on a farm by any chance?

nah. there.s no cowshyte on them jump start cables.

 

[James]

Wiring that's a 'threat to life' exposed at flat in Halesowen — Birmingham Live

Dudley council said there are "no immediate safety risks" to be found

apple.news

 

[pc1966]

Wiring that's a 'threat to life' exposed at flat in Halesowen — Birmingham Live

Dudley council said there are "no immediate safety risks" to be found

apple.news

Notice the tails joined and taped up?

Good bit of blame shifting there as nobody owns up to responsibility for the mess...

 

[brianmoooore]

Wiring that's a 'threat to life' exposed at flat in Halesowen — Birmingham Live

Dudley council said there are "no immediate safety risks" to be found

apple.news

Right mess by anybody's standards, but I can't see anything that I'd describe as "a threat to life".
Replacing the covers on the trunking, and a few cable ties and clips and it'd look a lot better.
The tails with the join is the worst bit, although I thought it was floating Henleys with a bit of tape around them.

 

[pc1966]

Tripping / entangling in the cables on the floor is quite an immediate threat to anyone going in to read the meters or do any work!

The photo is not good enough to check things though, might be floating Henley blocks, but looked like tape to me. Also not much sign of grommets on trunking, and to the right just below vertical conduit there are some wires that might be taped or bare, or maybe just a trick with the brown live crossing the blue and G/Y.

Also a suspicious lack of G/Y earths around the wall of meters, etc, but maybe part of trunking?

 

[Mike Johnson]

Trying to open that news story, the web site wanted me to accept its cookies, which I now days refuse, do I miss out, I don't think so, since refusing to accept cookies on any web site my spam and nonsense e-mails have reduced considerably.

 

[brianmoooore]

Tripping / entangling in the cables on the floor is quite an immediate threat to anyone going in to read the meters or do any work!

You think that's the floor? I'd assumed it was a raised cupboard.

 

[James]

I presumed it was the floor