This award actually belongs to two different so called ‘electricians.’ During a previous extension years earlier someone made modifications to the existing wiring. in the kitchen. The first award goes to the ‘electrician’ who made connections to the ring main with improperly rated block connectors, no earth sleeving and no junction box. The connector seen in the first group of photos below was then plastered over. In fact the first ‘electrician’ was also responsible for running several cables at a 45 degree angle (see first group of photos) across the entire kitchen. Two of those cables had then been accidentally drilled through when someone hung the kitchen cupboards.

The second so called ‘electrician’ came along more recently to add a few double sockets to the kitchen. He broke out lots of brickwork, added some patresses here and there and left the house with LIVE and dead wiring mixed and exposed to the home owners before pulling a Houdini and disappearing!

By the time we received the call the second ‘electrician’ had already been AWOL for months. The photos above were taken on my initial visit to view the job. I checked out the live versus dead cables he had left behind and scheduled a day to trace, test and repair what he had started. When I asked why they hired the bloke who later vanished I was told it was because he was inexpensive. Despite what the general public think about hiring professional trades people because the cost is too high I repaired all of this mess in less than a day. It was a day which involved pulling up floors, drill access holes to pull the cable through as well as removing some plaster to clean up cabling which had been incorrectly done several times in years past. There were several sections of live cables in the walls from a previous boiler circuit which was no longer in use We also found damage to the main earth cable which ran at a 45 degree angle across the kitchen wall from the water inlet pipe to the consumer unit. It too had been drilled accidentally when the old kitchen cabinets were hung!

You get what you pay for and the final results speak for themselves. Look at the before and after and decide what you’d rather come home to. More importantly and usually in fine print is that if your home ever has a fire or other event caused by faulty wiring your insurance is void. You won’t receive a penny. I don’t know about you but if I lost my home and my insurance didn’t pay out I’d have to move into my van . The bank will still want there mortgage payment too.

PAY for a QUALIFIED and THOUGHTFUL tradesman who works safely and to CODE.

A few more photos of this job for your bemusement:

BEFORE we arrived:

AFTER repairs were carried out:

The moral of this story is to hire a professional and get the job done correctly and in short order to a recognised standard (building regulations). You can of course hire ‘someone’ who may or may not have the level of expertise to get the job done, usually works to their own standard (usually their own version of what they think is right) and who may or may not show up as promised or even worse, they show up and demolish the house then disappear because they’re in over his head.

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