Today ended with a bang!

[ETradesmen]

As mentioned, I've not seen this is 16 years of my time. I have my own business and rarely make mistakes.

Obviously I should of checked if it was live and have learned a valuable lesson

just thought I'd share my mishap on here

 

[Deleted member 9648]

As I mentioned, safe isolation just because you think its dead doesnt mean it is. Surely any competant electrician knows this?

Dillb.....If you can honestly say you have never ever balls-ed up with a live cable that you assumed was dead I would be very,very surprised. I have...loads of times. It's quite correct to talk about safe isolation and all that but in the real world I'll wager there's not an electrician who's been around a while who hasn't got it wrong at least once.

 

[R G]

I would love to see the state of the fuse finder if op can post a pic...

I got it wrong once myself on a job where someone had used coax from a joint box that went down a wall and into a single box that was taped up , just shows you can't take anything for granted..

 

[Lucien Nunes]

I've had mains on coax too, as well as a bit of 4-core CW1293 phone cable run in through the front door frame from near the phone dropwire joint box. And a figure-8 bell wire that definitely went to an ordinary Friedland bell push (it was on the mains side of the tranny).

I knew the OP was going to be about a shared service issue as soon as I started reading the post, and I don't do domestics so I don't meet them either. The clincher was

an old 6mm lead cable

Not a very common thing to find as a final circuit in an ordinary terraced house. They didn't have a lot of 7.2kW showers in the days of lead-sheathed rubber, but of course PILC was bog standard for service cables since the year dot. And taped up too. Lots of things to set the alarm bells ringing!

 

[Dave OCD]

I came across an understairs cupboard light a few years ago wired in bell wire, and the feed was from a light switch just external to the cupboard - no neutral in there though, it was live and earth - straight into the metal wall box terminal.
All of this wiring was hidden behind boarding in the cupboard and I only found it when doing a CU change - switching this light on caused instant RCD tripping as you can imagine. :cowboy:

 

[ruston]

I came across an understairs cupboard light a few years ago wired in bell wire, and the feed was from a light switch just external to the cupboard - no neutral in there though, it was live and earth - straight into the metal wall box terminal.
All of this wiring was hidden behind boarding in the cupboard and I only found it when doing a CU change - switching this light on caused instant RCD tripping as you can imagine. :cowboy:

In some of the mining houses it was common to see loads of additions done in 'shot wire'

 

[Leesparkykent]

I've once found a cylinder stat wired in Telephone cable.....bet it was a plumber lol.

 

[VoltzElectrical]

As I mentioned, safe isolation just because you think its dead doesnt mean it is. Surely any competant electrician knows this?

competent.

 

[Dave OCD]

I've once found a cylinder stat wired in Telephone cable.....bet it was a plumber lol.

Or a BT engineer ? :biggrin5:

 

[ImpededLoop]

Fair play to the OP for sharing his experience. Stories like this serve as a good reminder to most of us not to become complacent.