wattsup

An old guy across the street from me (he's 85) came across to my house, I've known him 20 years btw, since we moved to the street.

Anyhow he explains all his electricity is off, so I goes across to his house.

Takes a quick look in cellar, lead sheathed incoming mains, with hole in it, lead sheathing falling appart, main cutout blown ...mm I thinks why has the cutout blown on the other side of the hole?...the street should have blown up..the cable blown appart or whatever.

I must admit I didn't think for long I was going out blah blah

So I told him there was a fault on his incoming main cable and the local authority will fix it, and it will be free. He is a bit deaf and asked if I could call the utility company, no problem and did so. They said we will try to get there tommorow afternoon, err nope this is an old gent you need to get here asap, reluctantly they agreed and turned up about 2-hours later.

Unbeknown to me until the day after, cos I was out, the board had said to him, not our problem you have a feed into the house, we cannot replace the cutout fuse because the fault is on your side, it will blow again if we replace it.

So he came across the day after and told me the story, so I investigated further, behind the scenes so to speak, there was conduit with a l&n feeding an unknown porcelein fuse board, located the other side of the cellar, these tails were shot, (rubber insulated) and had shorted to earth...god knows how the conduit did the job it was rusted to bits.

Anyhow I replaced them and repaired the cutout fuse, a porcelein cutout, with a 45amp hrc.

So now the point, err I've got to test...you need a rewire. Why 'he says' its been ok for 40 years..., phew ok i says.

The dodgy lead sheathed is still there, yet the 'board' can escape without testing?
Even a visual would not pass, the soldered earth (2.5 approx) was wandering in space on a loose bit of lead sheathed.

Yep I will be the fall guy, but what do you do...just issue a failure notice, if gas they would cut off with a warning label?

I hate neighbours, next time I move I'm gonna say I'm a window dresser

As a footnote, I did not leave until I bonded water incomer and gas, btw that was difficult because all earths in pocelein fuse board were twisted together. Tried to get a good joint on lead incomer using earth clamp, but worried about over tightening. Tested earthing at sockets with martindale, ok. Could not test lighting, no earths. Handed him a test sheet, needs rewire urgent..what else?

danzor

its like doing jobs for friends and family. You get handed all the ****

wattsup

yep danzor

But in real terms, a pro knows where to draw the line. I don't minding arguing the toss with a client, take it or leave it scenario...but somehow i think this country has lost the plot

btw I made 3 pints beer, losses about 15 quid plus labour...not moaning a nice guy, he still thinks petrol is 50p a gallon!

wonkey donkey

I hope you haven't put a clamp on a lead cable, theses should be a soldered joint only. A martindale plug tester is not a reliable earth fault loop measurement