DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad ‘Tiler’

This weeks winner highlights an issue that we see over and over and over again. Bad tiling. Like many other poor finishing work a bad tile job can look good for a period of time then come back to haunt anywhere from a few days to a few months after the job is finished.

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We were removing the existing tiles so we could fit a new bathroom and then tile the entire room. As can be seen in the pictures aboove the tile adhesive did not stick to the tiles.  It was just the grout holding everything in place. Once moisture from the shower started to get in hehind the cracked grout the tiles started lifting in spots. That in turn caused grout to further crack which in turn allowed more moisture in behind the tiles which in turn caused more damage.

The cause for this type of issue varies. We’ve seen situations where too much adhesive is applied to the wall. This can be especially bad if the weather is warm. The first tiles to be applied will usually stick but as the later tiles are applied the adhesive may have already gone off enough to not bond properly. The solution to this is to apply no more adhesive than can be used in a short space of time. This issue is also more prevalent with premixed adhesives versus powder based adhesives. Pre-mixed adhesive dry out a lot faster.

Another big issue is that many times the back of the tiles are not covered in adhesive commonly refered to as buttered. The issue of buttering is important as many tiles are slightly concave on the back. Without buttering the tile the wall adhesive may not catch the entire tile leaving a poor bond or as the pictures above show, no bond at all. Buttering is also important when using large format tiles and most especially with floor tiling.

Tiling is an art but there is a science to it too. If done correctly it can last thousands of years as seen in many Roman ruins. If done incorrectly it can last as little as a few days. We’ve seen tiles come up within a week of being applied because they were done incorrectly.

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3. Danger of the Week Award – Dangerous Flue Installation

DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad ‘Electricians’

Regulations broken: BS7671:2008 416.2.2, 134.2.1, 610.6, 631.1, 314.4, 132.13, 514.9

We were on this site to re-install an electric shower about a month ago. See original article here. We installed the shower but were unable to sort out the electrics due to a issues we located with the previous consumer unit. While testing circuits we found some errors in the house wiring. To be specific the circuit feeding the sockets had been bodged by a bad kitchen fitting job.

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As we mentioned in the previous article this home had apparently been re-wired five years earlier. It hadn’t! Someone calling themselves an electrician added a couple of mini circuit breakers (MCBs) of a different brand type and did some creative wiring. We repaired the bodged cooker circuit and then discovered that the circuit labeled bedroom socket and the supposed ring main were spliced into each other. As we continued testing the ring main we discovered that there was in fact no ring main. We did however find that buried in the kitchen behind the tiles was a cable which connected the upstairs circuit to the downstairs but also created an unwanted spur with four sockets on the end.

In the end we found the unwanted kitchen to upstairs connection and removed the offending cable. We then created two spurs feeding each floor with properly rated circuit breakers. The bedroom socket that was supposedly on it’s own breaker was also added to the new spur. We then installed the new consumer unit using RCBOs for each circuit. The entire system was tested as prescribed and then made live. Once our live readings were recorded we cleaned up and left the property safe.

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2. The Electrician Who Wasn’t
3. Salford Landlord Licence Scheme Works

DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad ‘Gas Fitters’

Now here’s one we see on a very regular basis and I do mean regular. The gas fitting on the wall has been installed incorrectly and in such a way as to cause mechanical damage to the gas hose when the cooker is withdrawn.

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The above pictures show an incorrectly installed gas hose.  The gas hose plugs into the wall socket at a 90 degree angle to the wall. The hose is not free to move and is therefore apt to damage. The regulations state that the flexible connections must be fitted in a position which avoids mechanical damage such as abrasion from kitchen furniture. That could be from cupboard doors, drawers, the cooker itself or the stability bracket.

Approximately 80% of the gas cookers we’ve visited over the years have an incorrectly installed wall socket. The reason for this we feel is down to the use of the newer micro-point hoses. The micro-point gas hose comes with a right angled fitting on the end of it where as the older and more common straight bayonet hose didn’t. Installers use both hoses as direct replacements for each other. They are not and here’s why.

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Photo 1:  example of a correctly installed straight bayonet x 1/2″ BSP taper male gas hose plugged into angled bayonet socket

Photo 2:  the straight bayonet hose has been removed to facilitate the installation of a new cooker

Photo 3:  installer removes the bayonet socket and replaces it with aplug-in micropoint™ socket

Photo 4: installer plugs in new micro-point gas hose and the connection is now incorrect.

Photo 5:  The original wall-mounted elbow should have been removed and refit so that the socket will now be installed to the side. The hose is now hanging freely in such a way so that if the hose is pulled it can freely rotate around the socket as shown in the last photo.

So check your newly installed cooker now. If it looks like photo four then it’s been installed incorrectly.

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DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad ‘Electricians’

Regulations broken: BS7671:2008: 522.8.4, 522.6.1, 522.8.14

Once upon a time we were invited to repair the central heating in three rooms. In the first room the central heating was too cold. In the second room it was too hot. In the third room we were distracted by this!

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When we pulled up the hatch that had been cut skew-whiff  into the floorboards we immediately saw an unsafe electrical issue. The junction box that was feeding a nearby double socket had a length of phone cable sticking out it. My first reaction was to laugh out loud. We then thought that the phone cable was probably added by some idiot who wanted to use it to tie the box up off of the dirt floor. We were wrong.

After climbing under the floor we discovered that the phone cable went through the party wall brick work and into the property next door! A quick look with the torch showed that nothing was hooked to it so we pulled it back to our side. A little blob of masking tape was covering the end. When I opened the junction box I confirmed that it was indeed hooked up to live and neutral of the house ring main.

The moral of this story is always keep your eyes open for potential trouble when working in the crawl space under a home even if it’s not directly related to your current work.  Had an apprentice or home owner gone underneath it is likely they wouldn’t have noticed the potential for a quick death hanging from above.

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DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad ‘Electricians’

Regulations broken: BS7671:2008: 132.12, 526.3, 134.2.1, 610.6, 631.1, 522.8.4, 526.9

This week highlights another newly purchased property which had some electrical work completed by the previous home owner. A built in wardrobe was installed many years earlier. Unfortunately it would have covered the only plug socket on that side of the room. The solution?

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The solution for this joiner was to re-route the ring main to another location. The new double socket was chased into the wall and a piece of trunking ran from behind the wardrobe out to the new double socket. When we removed the wardrobe at the new home owners request we found the mess of electrical wiring we couldn’t see.

The trunking only ran far enough to look good. The PVC cable that could not be seen was left laying on top of the carpet. the same carpet which was not removed before the wardrobe was installed! The ring was reconnected at the old socket location and the connectors were just left hanging out of the wall.

Some may view that as a non-issue however consider that even if a human couldn’t get there fingers in there a pet certainly could. It’s unsafe and against the regulations. As I’ve observed again and again; joiners are not electricians!

We’ve removed the whole lot and put a new double socket where the single used to exist. All has been tested and all is safe.

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DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad ‘Electricians’

Regulations broken: BS7671:2008: Abstracting Electricity, contrary to section 13 of the 1968 Theft Act.

A regular client has just purchased a new but very dilapidated property which has been empty for some time. Even before key exchange we were invited on-site to look at a few issues left over from a previous break-in. The thieves stole the copper, lead, a boiler and everything else that wasn’t nailed down. The missing gas meter had been capped by the utility provider. The electrical meter was a concern as well.

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In between owners, developers and the new purchaser somebody decided that they needed power and didn’t want to pay for it. They jumped the line (live) terminals on the electrical meter bypassing the meter itself. This is not safe and certainly not legal. Although you technically can’t steal electricity you sure can be charged with a number of offences.

We’ve removed the 10mm earth lead jumper from the meter and obtained a new pay as you go card for the work we need to do.

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DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad ‘Electricians’

Regulations broken: BS7671:2008: 421.7, 526.5, 530.4.2, 559.6.1.5, 559.6.2.1, 559.6.2.2, 514.3.1

We thought it was time to write about light fixtures like the one pictured below as we see these again and again and again! The issue with this fixture is that of safety. These incorrect installs are done out of ignorance and nothing else but that will be of little comfort when someone gets killed!!! Either do it correctly or hire an electrician…a real electrician!

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In this case as with most other home made electrics like this we imagine the scenario to play out like this. Homeowner wants a new fixture. Homeowner goes to a local DIY shop which employs unskilled workers to give sound electrical advice on their own product. Homeowner gets poor advice on the fixtures that he DIY shop sells (of course it will work!). Homeowner pays at the till and takes the fixture home. Homeowner turns off the electrics without testing that the power is really off and then unscrews the original light fitting. Homeowner then looks at the connector strip in the ceiling rose and is presented with six wires pushed into a three section connector block that is most times molded into the ceiling rose back plate. The homeowner now has to figure out how to mount the new fixture which in most cases has only two terminals (a line and neutral) and possibly an earth lug.

So the decision in many cases goes like this. Disconnect the old light fixture, break away the plastic base of the ceiling rose and leave all of the wires in place, add a line and neutral wire and screw or push into new light fixture, don’t connect the earth wire and push everything tightly up into the new fixtures covering. Another favourite is to disconnect the existing ceiling rose connector, push the ends of the cable into a nylon style connector block which was already there incorrectly, push the connector block up into the hole where the wires come out and then fasten the new fixture to the ceiling. There are a few variations of these two methods but the end result is usually the same. The live cable in the connector block is open to the environment with nothing covering the bare copper wire or connector screw from accidental contact with persons, pets or the metal fixture itself which also includes the screws that go through the ceiling and into the floor above.

Fortunately the outcome in most cases is nothing. The light gets used and the light works. The worst case scenario however is that when the light fixture gets pushed up to the ceiling the connector get squeezed tightly in between the ceiling and the metal cover of the light fixture causing the live wire to make contact with the metal cover. The importance of the earth wire cannot be overstressed at this point! If the earth was hooked up the fuse of breaker would trip as soon as the power was switched on thus indicating a problem. If the earth isn’t connected then the fixture can go live and sit there for many years in wait until someone touches it and gets a shock or worse.

Knowing what you’re doing before you touch light fixtures has more to do with the act of wiring that anything the decorator self. Purchasing of cheap light fixture with push in connectors or very tiny screw type connector blocks will make for a tough job even for an experienced electrician. Purchase a fixture that has room for a proper connector block and always connect the earth  no matter how much of a pain it is. REALLY!!! The life you save may be your own, or your child’s or that of someone else!

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DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad ‘Electricians’

Regulations broken: BS7671:2008: 134.2.1, 610.6, 631.1, 416.2.1

This weeks award goes to the landscaper who thought he was a builder and electrician too. Unfortunately for the client he was neither a builder nor an electrician and only a mediocre landscaper. The client chose him because his quote was  approximately £10K cheaper than two other companies they looked at. The reason he was cheaper was that he had no idea what he was doing!!

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The call we received was that some outdoor lights mounted in the wooden beams of a pagoda were starting to fall out and also that rainwater was dripping down through the lights causing rust stains on the white travertine below. It didn’t take more than a few minutes to deduce that all of the outdoor lighting was installed incorrectly. As seen in the pictures above the landscaper drilled a hole into each wood beam, pulled the lamp cord through and used a nail in cable clip to hold the light up. Following the cable along we then find crimped non-weatherproof connectors on two of the lights and a non-weatherproof clamp-on connector in which sharp contacts pierce the insulation to make contact with the conducting wires inside on two more. This  form of connection is prone to degradation and electrical arcing over time and certainly not in the least weatherproof. The low voltage cable in turn connects to a transformer which is also designed only for interior use or can be enclosed in a fully weatherproofed box designed for outdoor connectors.

When asked if we could add a third spike spotlight in the garden we also uncovered that the two pre-installed lights had been hooked up via crimped connectors wrapped with a bit of green tape and buried underground. The moisture had already started to degrade the tape and the connectors underneath were starting to rust. The only good news with all of the electrics is that they were low voltage so no body was injured.

As for his building skills: the owner had to bring in a friend to help create a proper land drain as the landscapers drainage was inadequate. The homeowners could see that for themselves. The rectangular shape of the structure is slightly wider at one end than the other, the beams are not square or plumb and were cut off site and therefore don’t fit the non-square structure, the travertine tile floor is already shifting with some of the tiles already shifting when walked upon, the walls are showing signs of leakage from behind the walls. There may be more but we were only on site for fifteen minutes.

The cheapest priced contractor is not necessarily the best deal.  In this case, including the drain ground works that the home owner and their friend (a general contractor) had to sort out themselves along with the repairs we will have to undertake and the fact that the structure is already showing the signs of movement, timber warpage, staining and a poor build in general there will be no savings.

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DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad ‘Building Works and Electrics’

Regulations broken: BS7671:2008 522.8.4, 522.6.1, 522.2.1, 528.3.1, 522.6.8, 522.8.14

This weeks winner was uncovered while on site to undertake an unrelated and simple plumbing job. Upon arrival at the property I noticed two flues (one boiler for hot water and another boiler for central heating)  emerging from the brickwork. This quick look while walking up the drive uncovered several safety  sissues that need to be resolved.

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Upon first look you can see that the flue which is too close to the car port roof structure and has in fact already melted the roof panels. This was caused by who ever put up the car port. The water heater is in fact installed correctly. In this case the builder broke the regulations by putting the roof too close to the flue.

The outside wiring too is an issue. The un-clipped and unprotected PVC power source for the garage pops out of the side of the house and is drooped over the unearthed metal parts of the security light frame and the car port to run just under the hot flue. From the look of the old broken cable ties the cable used to be tightly attached to the unearthed metal car port and ran OVER TOP of the hot flue. So no matter how it was run it was always incorrect and unsafe.

The correct solution for this mess is to remove the car port thus sorting out the flue issue that was created by putting up the car port or move the hot water heater to another location. The electrics can really only be sorted by removing what is there and installing a properly protected run of cable preferably using an underground SWA.

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DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad ‘Tenants’

Regulations broken:

Sometimes you just can’t make up a better story than what happens in real life. Case in point. We were finishing off a small bit of joinery from the previous weeks work list. Since our last visit the tenant had decided to vacate the property with no notice and gave the keys back to the landlord the day before we attended. While on site working I notice, and smell, the toilet which has been left in a state by the tenant. A gift perhaps! When I try and flush however I discover that the water has been turned off. Guess what happens next!

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If you guessed that the toilet filled and I flushed it you would be very wrong. What actually happened was that I almost flooded the kitchen!

When I turned on the main stop tap to allow the toilet to fill I was met by three separate sprays of water to the face, chest and groin. It looked like a seltzer water gag from an old silent movie. I immediately attempted to turn the stop tap off. Unfortunately it made no difference. The old tap was knackered and would not turn off!! After running, and I do mean running, to the truck to get my tool box I had only one choice. I cut the pipe and pushed on the stop end so I could determine why water was spraying in my face. With the water stopped and the floors mopped up I found out what had happened.

The tenant must have installed an outside tap kit at some point and decided they were taking it with them when they left. These DIY kits work by installing a saddle around the pipe and then by cutting a small hole directly into the pipe. So they turned the water off, took the tap kit off and didn’t tell anyone. They also removed a cloths washer. The other leaks were caused by the hot and cold washer tap feeds which were slightly seized and not fully closed. I had by this point regretted trying to fill and flush the loo.

The solution was to install a new stop tap and replace the copper tube with the hole in it as well as replace the frozen taps. We couldn’t repair the original stop tap as it was installed into a lead pipe and was partially embedded in the concrete floor and would require a lot more than a quick repair. So in the end all was put right and the good news was that at least it was us that found this booby trap instead of the landlord or a new tenant who would not have been able to turn the water off; causing much more damage.

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