HELP: Exposed Un-Isolated Buried Armoured Cable Discoved in Garden

[exactmax]

Hi,

I've just come across this forum so I hope someone can help me quickly on this. We recently moved into our new build home in April 2015 and have been here for 2 months roughly.

I was mowing the rear lawn this evening and kept getting the mower stuck on something in the lawn. Not thinking much of it I kept mowing the lawn... After a while I bent down to pull what I thought was a stone out of the ground only to shocked to see that it was the end of an un-isolated armoured electrical cable.

I don't know if it was live or not but I'm bloody lucky I didn't blow myself across the garden! Before I approach the developers tomorrow, can anyone offer some sound advice on how best to approach this obvious serious health and safety breach.

I have attached two pictures below - many thanks in advance.

 

[Marvo]

You say it was 'un-isolated', do you mean you have reason to believe it's live?

It's possibly a redundant cable, the cut appears very deliberate and was obviously done when the supply was isolated. I personally would mind it being in the ground as long as I knew where the other end was and also where exactly it entered my property because I'd make sure it was cut there as well. If you want it removing then you'd first need to find where it was going and whose cable it was. You probably could insist it was removed because it doesn't appear to have any safety hazard tape above it and there no capping I can see either.

 

[Leesparkykent]

Maybe an old building site temp cable from when it was being developed.

 

[exactmax]

Thanks for your quick reply. I don't know if it is isolated and I don't know where the other end goes. All I know is that it shouldn't be there poking out of my lawn.

should it be buried deep and be capped off even if it's not in use anymore?

 

[Marvo]

Usually with a redundant cable we'd strip it back a little and connect all the wires together and just cap the end with self amalgamating tape. This prevents it being made live in the future. I'm not sure if there's a specific requirement or protocol in the UK for this though.

 

[exactmax]

That's what I thought I would expect to see if I ever saw a cable poking out of the ground. Is asking the developer to remove it immediately the best practise or should I just ask them to bury it? I will have my garden landscaped at some point soon (currently it's just lawn) so I don't really want to discover any more large cables!!!

any ideas what could be running off that type / size cable?

 

[Marvo]

Difficult to say, it's pretty shallow so as Leesparkykent said it might have been a temporary cable. Sometimes levels do change quite substantially, I remember one job we got called back to after 5 or 6 years with a cable that had surfaced and was getting damaged when we originally buried it 600mm deep and luckily still had the photos to prove it.

 

[uksparks]

It looks like it's fairly meaty, if you fan find the other end and dig it up id go and weigh it in.

 

[telectrix]

probably just a bit of scrap left by lazy builders, but i'd get it checked out just to be safe. maybe when the landscapers come in they'll be able to excavate and follow it

 

[exactmax]

I've got the electrician and site manager coming this morning to check it out so I'll post back what they have to say about it!

 

[Darkwood]

Got to agree with teletrix here, would have probably cost more to dig out than what is recouped in the weigh in hence its been left, but always best to ensure its safe and sounds like you got it in hand.