We bought our house 15 years ago and I had great fun when I replaced all our sockets and light switches with fancy stainless steel ones cos the sparky who installed the boxes cut exactly the right amount of cable to the nanometre so that they fitted the faceplates they used on the job. The ones I was using needed another 5mm or so to reach the terminals and in about five cases I had to remove the back box and dig some cable out of the plasterboard before I could fit the new plates.
Our garden lights have just started dying after 17 years because the junction boxes have been infiltrated so I was chuffed when my resistance test showed the cables themselves were still OK. However, same thing - exactly the right amount of cable, no more, no less. The cable is armoured and goes vertically down two feet before it heads towards the consumer unit so I can't get any slack without excavating the garden. Zero room to trim back the corroded ends so it's cost me a small fortune in IP68 connectors to fix them and doubled the time of the work.
Just a rant I suppose but also a plea to electricians to spare a thought for the poor sod who's going to have to replace your work one day and would like just a little bit of cable to work with.
Our garden lights have just started dying after 17 years because the junction boxes have been infiltrated so I was chuffed when my resistance test showed the cables themselves were still OK. However, same thing - exactly the right amount of cable, no more, no less. The cable is armoured and goes vertically down two feet before it heads towards the consumer unit so I can't get any slack without excavating the garden. Zero room to trim back the corroded ends so it's cost me a small fortune in IP68 connectors to fix them and doubled the time of the work.
Just a rant I suppose but also a plea to electricians to spare a thought for the poor sod who's going to have to replace your work one day and would like just a little bit of cable to work with.
