DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad – Electricians

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We found and repaired the working end of this weeks winner a few weeks ago while working at a property where an ‘electrician’ had added a double socket so the homeowner could power a newly fit house alarm. We noticed the poorly installed socket while working on the boiler in the next room. We replaced the metal back box with a surface mounted pattress, cleaned up the wiring and added a sheath to the earth as well as ran the cable back behind the skirt and under the floor. Job done; so we thought.

So a few weeks later, this week, we had to go under the house in an un-related matter. We required  a spur to run a newly installed dual powered heated towel warmer. We went under the floor looking for the ring main and found this mess dangling from the fibreglass insulation. When we followed the cable back to where it went it was the unsafe double socket we replaced a few weeks ago. The live cables were open to the surrounding environment with the lid laying a short distance away. Note the yellow fabric tape covering the earth leads? It seems that yellow tape can be used for unsafe electrical work as well as unsafe gas. See this previous Cowboy Of The Week.

The first picture is of the metal box we found a few weeks ago. The remaining pictures are of the connector box with the lid laying on the floor and wires hanging out. We cut out the mess and did the job properly. There were to many connections to fit property in one box so we used a few. The boxes are inexpensive and the finished job is always safe and looks professional. I am ALWAYS amazed to see a dozen wires squeezed into one connector box when it would be a lot easier to us just use two, or three, or four. It’s that easy. Oh, one more thing, screw the lid back on. It keeps from killing someone if they happen to crawl under the house for another reason. Like we did.

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