DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad Builders

Firstly, my apologies for not posting last weeks award  until today. It seems that I didn’t press the Publish button last week.

This particular property has been winning awards for poor workmanship for over a year. We keep getting called back in for one problem, get it sorted, and then several months later get called in for something else. This week was another  issue with the central heating system and another wet patch showing up on the ceiling. There may also be a hive of bees in the flat roof too!

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So I think it’s finally time to name the new build terraced property in question. The property is located on River Street in Manchester City Centre. We have documented via hundreds of photos the poor workmanship, shoddy design and damages caused by the aforementioned issues.

When we arrived we were also asked to look at a section of downstairs flooring which is lifting up and causing the door to scrape along the floor. There is a dark discolouration around the same lifting boards denoting yet another leak from somewhere. That somewhere has yet to be located but we have started the hunt

We also had to look at another wet patch in the lounge on the next floor up. It was a patch from the original issue we sorted last year but has appeared again after decorating. This patch might be coming from the bathroom above and we are slipping cameras into the walls to try and locate the problem.

The entire property is built from stressed concrete and then has steel stud work is hung throughout the property. The mechanicals are all put in and then the walls are sealed up. There is no map of where anything runs and from what we’ve seen there is no consistency in the quality work that was done. Different manufacturers fittings are used in different areas of the property. Before we departed this week we opened up a downstairs crawl space hatch to find that the builders were kind enough to leave there building rubbish in when they were finished. Nice!!

Previous articles about this property:  or

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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 ‘Electricians’

Regulations broken: BS7671:2008 Reg. 132.12, 526.3, 421.7, 526.5, 530.4.2, 522.6.1, 521.10.1, 514.3.1, 559.6.1.5

When asked to replace a couple of lights in a front and rear lounge we expected an relatively easy job. The old fixtures were standard 6″ pendant lamp holder comprising a ceiling rose, pendant lamp holder and heat-resistant 0.75mm² twin-core circular cord. At least that’s what we thought!

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We unscrewed the ceiling rose of the first fitting and found that it was wired correctly but not screwed into the joist above. We resolved the issue as the new light fixture was all metal and heavy. Once completed and tested we moved on to the next fitting.

When we tried to unscrew the ceiling rose to expose the junction box we found it wouldn’t move. Not an unusual problem and usually resolved by tapping on the cover with a screwdriver handle. We couldn’t get the cover to budge so tapped it hard enough to break it. Once removed we found that the cover had been glued to the ceiling and the screw connectors had been pushed up between the plaster laths and into the joist space above the ceiling. There was no cover provided to protect the cables. The light fitting had been hanging from the screw connectors only!

Once we fastened the new hanger to the ceiling joist which was designed to take the weight of the very heavy glass chandelier we pulled the cables and connectors through and sorted out the wiring. Once wired correctly we installed the cover and had a properly and safely installed fixture.

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Bad – Kitchen Fitters

So our job was to locate the hidden cable that what was feeding the fan, the fluorescent light, the cooker spur and the hob from the 32 amp kitchen circuit. We started by isolating the kitchen circuit and removing the  light switch and spur covers so that we could visually trace the cables back from where they were coming from. What we found as we kept digging at the wall is the mess pictured below.

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Fortunately we found a ring main which came straight down from the ceiling directly behind the hob. Unfortunately we then found the hidden junction box behind which was hiding behind the tiles and a layer of plaster. From there the cables ran over to the 13 amp switched fused spur via a metal back box with no grommets to protect the cable. From the spur ran three low heat flexi cables ran back out through the metal back box again with no grommets. Two of the cables ran back towards the hidden junction box and beyond to feed the double light switch which in turn controlled the fan and light. The other flexi cable, again with no grommet, ran down through the plaster to feed the electric cooker. It turns out that the hob wasn’t run off the mains but rather a hidden battery pack behind a shelf.

We stripped out all of the electrics, re-routed the ring main cables away from the middle of the fake chimney breast and then inserted three junction boxes into the ring main. We then set up three separate switched fused spurs to divide the power with the correctly sized fuses for each leg. You can see the new spurs in the cupboard to the right. The spurs were divided into:

1. A 3amp spur for the gas hob. Gas hobs almost always require only a 3amp fuse. A fuse larger than 3 amp will cause a lot of damage to the hob if there is ever a short circuit. For the sake of a few pence you can buying yourself a new hob.
2. A 5amp spur for the light and extractor fan. Again, the light and fan use very little power so a 5 amp is what should be in place. We moved the light switches to another location which cannot be seen in the photo.
3. A 13 amp spur or the cooker. The oven was correctly hooked up to a switched 13 amp spur however it was also feeding everything else under the sun at a fuse rating that was only correct for the oven.

We also removed the old appliances and the poorly mounted hob, work surface and shelf that the cooker was sitting on. We rebuilt a brick plinth for the cooker and replaced the worksurface with a butcher block unit. We completed everything in just over a day and the system is now safe and looks good.

ALWAYS make  sure  that your kitchen fitter is trained and is a member of a regulatory body. If they’re working on gas then they MUST be members of Gas Safe Register and if they are touching ANY electrics in your kitchen they MUST be members of NIC EIC or NAPIT or EAL. If they are not members of these groups then get rid.

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Bad – Kitchen Fitters

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The hob was the first safety issue.  The PLASTIC double light switch to the left and the PLATSIC switched fused spur unit to the right are too close to the burners. Although regulations state that there should be at least a 50mm gap from the side of the hob to any flammable surface the recommendation is 300mm.

The other main issue was the electric oven. Though only a fan assisted oven we noticed that there was no purpose built ventilation. When we removed the oven to see how everything was hooked up we discovered that the wiring for the hob, which was also incorrectly hooked up to the same 13amp switched fuse that controlled the oven, had been heated up to the point of melting and is now unsafe. The cable from the oven to the switched spur was of the correct high heat type but was showing signs of stress due to continual overheating.

Also noted was lack of gas isolation valve to the hob, the kitchen lighting (all of it) was connected somewhere to the 32 amp kitchen ring main with no step down fusing to the correct 5 or 6 amp rating.

We’ve scheduled a day to remove the old tile work and find out where everything is connected so that we can correct the electrical safety issues, repair the wiring and then we’ll install the hob and oven correctly.

ALWAYS make  sure  that your kitchen fitter is trained and is a member of a regulatory body. If they’re working on gas then they MUST be members of Gas Safe Register and if they are touching ANY electrics in your kitchen they MUST be members of NIC EIC or NAPIT or EAL. If they are not members of these groups then get rid.

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Bad – Kitchen Fitters

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We can’t prove who screwed up the electrics and caused some very serious safety breaches. We can’t prove who wreaked havoc with the plumbing and the ‘up hill’ waste pipe work . We do however have the receipts for the company who installed the kitchen and supplied the fitter. The kitchen looks more like a patch work quilt than smartly fitted cabinet work. The two pictures above are an just one example of the poorly cabinets.

The upper cabinets in the left and right hand picture should be perfectly centred above the ceramic kitchen basin. If you look at the details of where the overhead cabinets meet the full height cabinets you can see that the end panels have been cut to differing heights at each side. The left hand end panel runs from the bottom of the tall cabinet to the bottom of the overhead cabinet. The right side panel however runs from the bottom of the tall cabinet right to the top. While on the subject of the end panels the right end panel does not come down far enough to join up with the bottom of the cupboard and leaves a small gap just above the trim work. As the end panels were cut wrong the upper cabinets could not possibly be centred so the fitter then planed down a sliver of an end panel and attached it to the door unit on the upper right cabinet. To further punctuate the mistake the fitter trimmed the sliver of wood unevenly and then screwed it to the door. You can see the gaps between the door and the added trim piece! They look a lot worse in real life!

So how should the cabinets have been fit to eliminate the mistakes? The initial problem was probably made with the design team who measure up and then show the home owner a few pretty coloured prints of how good the kitchen will look. Most of the time this works out but sometimes the fitter may have to squeeze an extra inch from the room to make everything fit. It’s hard to tell from the pictures but the only choice in this kitchen was to plane the side panels down to half of there original thickness which would have allowed the upper cabinets to be properly centred. With the cabinets centred all of the other issues would have vanished.

It looks as though M. C. Escher installed this kitchen and not a professional kitchen fitter backed by a big company with a design team, lots of expertise and hundreds of models to choose from.  Always vet your kitchen fitter before allowing them into your home. Bigger isn’t necessarily better. Kitchen fitting is as much art as it is technical and the difference between good and bad comes only with experience. There are lots of one to four day courses on the web but I would defy anyone to learn how to fit a set of straight, plumb and level kitchen cabinets in an old Victorian house that’s been skimmed ten times and has un-level, un-square and non-plumbed doors, windows, floors, walls and ceilings. To add to that puzzle there are always changes required to the electrics (Part-P) that require some real  thinking to sort out safely, safety issues relating to boiler location (DO NOT BOX IN YOU BOILER!!!!!!!),central heating pipe work, flues, gas and general plumbing. After years and years and years of fitting and modifying kitchens  I can assure you that kitchens are the most challenging of jobs to do creatively but also the most satisfying when done correctly.

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Bad Electricians…

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To replace a consumer unit the electrician takes responsibility for the wiring in the whole house. It’s a big responsibility that the home owner should be aware of. If problems are found as is often the case the problems MUST be put right. If circuits have faults they cannot be safely hooked back up. Without going in to great detail all light switches, light fittings, sockets and placement should be checked, all earth bonding MUST be brought up to current specifications, all colour coding (brown and blue sleeving) should be corrected and all circuits must be correctly fused/RCDed to today’s regulations. Safety and warning decals must be fitted and of course all test results are to be recorded and a copy left with the home owner. Things will generally happen in the following order: electricity off at the mains, check all original labels and then inspect, test and record the results for all circuits, repairs if required somewhere in between these steps, install and then connect up new consumer unit, check all work visually, turn power back on, test and record the results for each circuit. In contrast (and we’ve heard this story more times than Carter has liver pills) the electrician who installed this consumer unit, may or may not have checked his work, didn’t record any results and THEN told the client he would be back in a few days to test everything and just like Keyser Söze he disappeared.

It is difficult to test your own work; I know. As one NIC EIC inspector told me, “you have to step back from the work you just finished and look at it with a different eye.” It is difficult. The inspection and testing are so important to making sure that something wasn’t missed or in the case of a consumer unit swap that something unseen and lurking from years earlier wasn’t missed. Had this job been inspected the missing earth connector at the consumer unit would have been seen and the kitchen circuits would have been safer. Had the job been tested the missing earth to the kitchen would have shown up when trying to get one of several readings. This bloke missed finding the problem on three separate occasions! There is just no excuse.

Sloppy work, sloppy work and more sloppy work. Protect yourself. Always ask for credentials (NIC EIC, ECA) and make sure the electrician is Part-P Registered. Don’t take the word of your builder or your mate. Check your electrician out on the web. It’ll take you less than five minutes. If he’s not listed find one that is and use them instead. It’s your house, it’s your life, it’s your children’s lives; protect them.

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Bad DIYers…

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So if the water causes a short circuit at the same time you happen to touch it (the ceiling in this bathroom is low enough to be touched by the older children in the home) then the lack of earthing means that the electricity will try and get to EARTH through your body travelling right through your heart. If you’re lucky and your heart is healthy and the circuit breaker and/or RCD trips like it should then you might get a little shock. Once the ozone smell disappears most folks then call an electrician to ‘come and see what’s wrong with my house.”

There is rarely anything wrong with ‘the’ house. It’s the layers of inadequate bonding of pipe work, inadequate earthing of metal work (back boxes, fittings, lights, fans, etc) and in a lot of cases the improper running of cables in the first place. As a home owner you are allowed to undertake certain electrical work in your house but not in what is deemed to be special areas. A kitchen and bathroom is a place where electricity and water or moisture meet on a daily basis.

Surly people can see the need for making sure that even if there is a short circuit due to some unseen issue that the home owner (or their children or your nan) don’t end up like a fried chicken dinner!

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Bad Electricians…

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Issue one is that the PVC sheath that should shroud, and is a first level protection for the conductor inside, has not been pulled through to the inside of the fixture. Subsequently the conductors are being squeezed directly between the ceiling and the metal fixture. The conductors themselves (red & black) are at risk of being sliced into by the sharp metal edges. The damage to the old insulation can be seen by way of the copper conductor showing through!

The second issue is that even if the PVC sheath had been pushed through into the fixture it was still being sandwiched between the sharp metal edge (they are VERY sharp) and the ceiling. The pressure of screwing the fixture to the ceiling along with the movement of the fixture while mounting it is usually enough to cut the cable.

One more issue is that none of the light circuits were earthed. So if this fixture had become live there was not necessarily going to be a quick disconnection coming. Certainly not the way I would choose to test my heart muscle! So as always, the impending accidental death that we stopped was set up many years in the past by somebody who didn’t know any better or just didn’t care.

There should always be a grommet pushed into the knockout (the hole) to allow a cable to be safely pulled through and further allow for the safe movement of the cable during second fix when the cables are stripped, tested and finally connected to their intended destination.

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