No Earth

[Andy B]

Just been to look at a job. The house has got no earth at the mains. I opened a socket and checked the earth which was present. I carried out a Zs test at a socket and got no earth reading. I checked the lighting circuit that had no earth. The board was a very old style (asbestos in the fuse holders) and no RCD`s. Should the supplier provide an earth or should I just put an earth rod in when I do the other work and not bother to contact them?

 

[Amp David]

All depends on the supply to the building and if an earth is supplied but faulty

 

[trev]

The supplier is not obliged to supply an earthing facility but where they do they are under a legal obligation to maintain it. I'd double check to see if there was one which as broken in some way. If not get some rods couple them and drive them deep

 

[Andy B]

The is no signs of an earth. No clamp to the incoming sheath. Nothing at the head. No rod anywhere. I think I`ll recommend an earth rod.

 

[trev]

I'd talk to your client now in your position mate.It may have been like that for years but an earth needs to go in lickety split

 

[Andy B]

Its an old lady living there. I was talking to her daughter who understood the severity of no earth but the old lady just kept saying "it was always safe before" haha. I`ve never done a Zs before and had no earth at all!

 

[trev]

Its an old lady living there. I was talking to her daughter who understood the severity of no earth but the old lady just kept saying "it was always safe before" haha. I`ve never done a Zs before and had no earth at all!

I've had one where it's been earthed by the bonding

 

[Octopus]

There are many older houses around where the earth is reliant on the incoming water and/or gas!

 

[Andy B]

There is no bonding at the water or gas. The board has all the earths connected to a nut and bolt to the metal board but there is no earth from the board at all.

 

[Guest123]

Wouldn't hurt to recommend a CU upgrade & installation of MPB conductors either by the sounds of it.

 

[Deleted member 19807]

I got called to a job the other day as the metel sockets were live, PME earthing, someone had cut the earth wire hard up against the service head.

I isolated the faulty circuit and told the customer to call the DNO,

The dno said its not urgent and they will visit in the next 30 days, or just call me back to fit the earth.

i think when some building work was done 3 years ago they cocked up the wiring and it kept tripping so they just removed the eath so it would stop tripping.

The dno did give me some of thier seals to reseal the service head.

 

[Engineer54]

Before you start going about installing a sub-standard TT system, get on the phone to the DNO and ask if the incoming supply has been PME'd!! If it has, recommend your client to get this done ASAP!! In the meantime that bonding needs to be sorted too.


You could knock next door with your client and ask for a quick look at there service head, see what they have in the way of a DNO earthing system if any!! Might even get yourself another client in the bargain....lol!!!

 

[T&Earth]

I would not start any work until you have a satisfactory earth and bonding. Did a job recently added a radial circuit via 20A RCD, gave customer estimate in writing stating that the installation would need to meet current standards, but did not specifically say main bonding said additional work may be needed. At the initial site meeting customer was waiting to go to work and hurried me out! Plus the fact small cottage could not see any thing as customer had everything pilled up in boxes which had not been unpacked. Although a new consumer unit was added in 2008 16[SUP]th[/SUP] / 17[SUP]th[/SUP] edition no RCD was present!!! Once I had started work spoke to customer and informed him that there was no main bonding in place and that I would have to do this as part of the job. Customer said he did not have the money and to cut a long story short I installed main bonding at my own cost to gas and picked up the central heating flow & return pipes up. Told customer that I would have to charge him to bond water pipes said I’d do it as cheap as possible, but no joy customer did not have the money. Got paid for what I did and he was very happy with the work carried out. Now not sure what to do, to this free of Charge. Will not make this mistake again, would always test at initial site meeting and do earthing and bonding FIRST.

T&E

 

[telectrix]

look on the bright side. that customer is very happy and will probably recommend you.

 

[mechelec]

look on the bright side. that customer is very happy and will probably recommend you.

Of course he will recommend you you do additional work for free, the phone will be red hot when word gets round.