Unfortunately this is a situation that happens all to often.
It could be caused by a Builder, Handyman, a Householder or anyone else who undertakes electrical work without knowing what they’re doing resulting in dangerous or unsafe electrical work.
But lets take building work (inc electrics) as a lead example.
As I mentioned in my other article, builders prefer to take on an entire job rather than sub out to specialist trades.
While the building aspect (bricks, mortar and steel) of the work may be of a good standard, I’ve personally come across many instances where the electrical installation is a downward scale from just OK to completely dangerous.
Sometimes, issues of unsafe electrical work become evident fairly quickly, but could be months or years later. These include:
Smells of electrical burning
Dead (or intermittent function of) sockets, appliances and lights
Intermittent flashing of lights
Occasional (or permanent) circuit tripping
If you have concerns, it’s advisable you to contact a reputable and qualified electrician for an assessement of the situation.
TOP TIP: For those of you buying a property (whether old or modified), I strongly advise that you get an EICR done before you commit to buy. The EICR (undertaken by a qualified electrician) will identify any faults or non-compliances that require repair. You don’t want to move in, get nicely decorated, with new flooring or carpets, then find you have circuit faults that require repiars or replacements causing significant disruption and damage to walls/ floors or ceilings. Learn more about the EICR here »
You can then make an informed buying decision, and should be able to get money off the asking price to cover the cost of identifed repairs.
Here are some situations that I’ve encountered and repaired many times:
Scenario – Cables buried in concrete crossing beneath rear patio doors
General electrical cables are not designed to be buried in concrete – aggregates and chemicals in the concrete break down the cable insulation so that after a number of years, circuits start to trip.
Solution – ring final circuits could be converted to radials and it’s protective device downrated (easy fix once the location has been identified using testing methods). Radial circuits would need to be re-installed via an alternative route (more difficult and expensive for the client)
Scenario – Constantly Tripping Circuits
If your circuits start to trip for no apparent reason following building work (could be weeks, months or years later), then it could be that cables were damaged during installation. For example, I’ve encountered many situations where nails or screws have partially penetrated a cable (or a cable has been crushed between timbers) but not quite broken the insulation. But the insulation at the point of damage breaks down over time causing the circuit to trip.
Solution – ideally, find the fault and repair, but more oftent than not this is impossible due to such faults being in inaccessible locations. The only solution may be to run in a new circuit by some means.
Scenario – Burning Smell
When you smell electrical burning, it’s usually a sickly, fishy smell. This is casued by excessive heat reacting with the (non-combustible) materials of the junction, isolator or socket.
This situation occurs when screw contacts within have not been tightened properly. The vibration of the electricity flow losens un-tight screws which in time causes arcing and excessive heat build up, and may well stop the flow of electricity to your appliance.
Solution – replace the junction, isolator or socket but this may also involve replacing the ends of the supply wires if they’ve been toasted beyond safe use.
Then there are a range of ‘technical’ issues (that could only be identified by an experienced electrician) such as:
> Under-sized cables overheating/melting if the load consumes more current than the cable was designed for
> Cables joined using inappropriate connectors that melted in the wall
> Oversized breakers used that will never trip in the event of a fault
> Earth cores not connected through leaving no earth protection on parts of or the whole circuit
> Inappropriate downlighters not installed properly which cause severe melting and risk of fire
> Poorly wired fittings with loose screws and connectors, and some with crossed polarity presenting danger to all users
> New consumer units poorly installed and not wired correctly
> Unnecessary additional circuits installed instead of properly extending existing circuits which can add a lot of unnecessary cost for you
> No verification of a properly functioning main earth
> No electrical certificate and not notified to the local authority (Part P)
> Installation that generally fails to meet regulations and good practice standards
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