Hi all, with the help of various sections of this excellent forum, i am gutting my kitchen and thought i would post some pictures of the frightening wiring i have uncovered so far...

10mm cable goes in, 6mm cable comes out...


Behind the plaster, looks like butt connectors...


Oh dear, its just brass blocks and a little insulating tape...


Nice bit of looping on the lightswitch...


Shower spur from cooker supply...


These bits worried me a lot. The cable is the cooker supply on a 32A breaker, 10mm at the consumer unit, extended with the brass blocks from the original position round to where it is now. I guess the owner wanted a shower so they punched out the back of the box and spliced the shower cable in to the cooker supply!

To make matters worse, the shower currently fitted is a power shower which runs from the tank so it only uses 150W for the pump. So now we have a device that can only take 150W running directly from a 32A supply!

The 6mm cable goes right into the shower unit, they just cut away a few strands of the copper to get it into the tiny connectors! Naturally, i have now pulled the shower supply up into the loft and connected it into the ring main via a SFCU with 3A fuse, that seems a bit more correct

To rectify the cooker problem, i have pulled the 10mm cable up to the top of the wall units and will fit a 45A joint box with pattress so it is accessible, then run to the new cooker switch and onto the new cooker connector point. I cant run a whole new cable but this seems ok to me.

Thoughts anyone??

Dave

Anyone know whats wrong with the picture links??

Dave

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DIY - The womens way of stopping us doing what we want to be doing in our spare time!

That sounds fine to me Dave, Not sure wahts wrong with the picture links, i never have been any good with them Lol. Whatever you have done will definiteley be a significant improvement on the previous Diyer/kitchen fitters :o :o attempts at electrics.

Nick

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If it isnt broke dont bloody touch it until it bloody well is and if it is broke then make drawing of the connections before you remove the broken one and replace with a new one LoL

Hi Sparkydude
I reckon it was kitchen fitters, the worktops were all cut/fitted with routers & jigs and bolted together, not many diy'ers do that.

It worried me a bit especially the cooker/shower circuit. It cost all of £6 for a connector and box, not exactly rocket science. Moving the spur to the FCU took all of 30 minutes and its good knowing there is a 3A fuse between my soapy bod and the national grid :grin:

Dave

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DIY - The womens way of stopping us doing what we want to be doing in our spare time!

i have edited your post to make the pictures work. you just forgot to add the whole line and was missing ".jpg" at the end of each picture img.

now to have a look :grin:

gees it never ceases to amaze me how badly some people do things and think because the fuse doesn't blow, it is fine.

i bet you are glad you found that lot exactly like Nick said, you can only have improved it :grin:

this should really be in the "Rogues Gallery"

it is funny how areas differ in things too. around where myself and Sparkydude live, if we see white cable we instantly know it has been a DIY job. yet the further south you go, if they see grey they see DIY. go figure????

I have always generally thought Grey = Trade/Pro and White=DIY as well (and I have always been south).
Reckon it gets a bit blurred with likes of SFX selling to all and sundry (my lastest 'DIY' cable is grey )

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I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where's the self-help section?"
She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.

Hi guys,

I have posted this in rogues gallery as it does seem more fitting. Thanks for the help on picture links too.

I am ***VERY*** glad i found that little rats nest of crap. It worries me that it existed in the first place.

Most cable round here is grey now. I have seen other crap too...

There's a spur off the ring in the garage, it's wired in 1.5mm which goes to a single outlet then onto another single outlet

More work to do.

Dave

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DIY - The womens way of stopping us doing what we want to be doing in our spare time!

You and I have seen many examples of something similar to this.

Can't be that dangerous though otherwise people would be dropping dead like flies.

Frying pans are much more dangerous.

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I should be dead; I've cheated the Grim Reaper yet again by surviving my third heart attack in June.

All new normal twin and earth cable is now grey, if it is white it is the LSF (Low SMoke Fume) variety and is a pain to strip as it is so bloody stiff.

Nick

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If it isnt broke dont bloody touch it until it bloody well is and if it is broke then make drawing of the connections before you remove the broken one and replace with a new one LoL

With all the gutting and renewing, inc plaster, tiling etc, is there really no way to replace the entire cable?

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I'm sorry - I can't come in to work today, the voices are telling me to stay at home and clean the guns.

.

presumably it all worked before and never caught fire or killed anyone

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Decking

That don't make it safe or correct, it just excuses a piss-poor bodge job done by someone who should not be touching electrics. Probably charging full-whack for doing it.

Dave

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DIY - The womens way of stopping us doing what we want to be doing in our spare time!

The work involved in replacing would entail either taking up floors or running internally. I know a joint box is not totally correct but at least my one is insulated :grin: accessible for testing :grin: rated above the cable/breaker capacity :grin: and will allow the hob to be moved in the future :grin:

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DIY - The womens way of stopping us doing what we want to be doing in our spare time!