Ducting cemented in

[calltronics]

Hi,

My local golf club has two buildings a pro shop and the main club house.

The heating system was upgraded and an underground electrical conduit and a pipe(heating) conduit was constructed between the two buildings.

Some months ago a leak developed in the conduit and subsequently repaired

The repair involved the re-covering of a concrete screed surface coat on the floor where the ducts come up.

Now we have the problem......

The concrete has covered the end of the electrical duct and all that remains in the twin and earth coming up through the concrete and into the wall capping with a 2-3 cm gap.

We discovered this when we wanted to put another cable in between the buildings.

So: -

Q1. Is this cable management (concrete sealing) legal?

Q2. If not what part of the regulations do we quote to the installer to hopefully get him to resolve the problem.

At the end of the day we want the duct open and serviceable so we can install a new cable.

All help Appreciated

Steve

 

[Sharpend]

Why don't you hit it with a hammer and chisel and tell then to

make good properly after?

 

[Evans Electric]

Tell the concreting man to come back and uncover the duct he has sealed up as you wish to use it ......as should have been fairly obvious in the first place to be honest .

Or as Sharpie says , just chisel it out and save a lot of time .

The guy was probably a plasterer in a previous life ......they are specially trained in covering up electrical boxes.

 

[binky]

nothing illegal about this, just plain stupid. Now if it was copper pipes, you would have something to argue about, namely that concrete corrodes copper pipes unless it has been sleeved to protect it.

Easiest answer is to ask fella to sort out his cock-up - you should always give people a chance to sort out their errors.

 

[Badger]

If it was me I'd chisel the duct open and repair concrete showing a good standard of work for my company image  :B

 

[Blue Duck]

was it this guy per chance?

:lol:

drill a hole near the cable to see how deep it is then break out the hammer!

 

[Rob_the_rich]

As above, depends how deep the concrete is and how much of it is in the electrical duct.

Worst case scenario, it is filled in and the builder is AWOL, you might be able to use the heating pipes' duct to run your cable, but it would probably need to be bigger sized cable than needed for the power used, due to the ambient temperature in the duct, and might need to be installed inside some tubing to ensure it is not in direct contact with the heating pipes. What is the max temperature of the water in the pipes?

Edit; it is worth trying to tap it with a hammer before calling the builder. Some people might have put in a piece of wood or expanded polystyrene to block the hole just below the finished surface, so it might just be really thin. Then forgot to break it out the next day.

 

[Blue Duck]

The bosch multi purpose bits are good at drilling holes in stuff without having to use the hammer action but don't expect them to be much good afterwards.

As for runing the cable within the heating ducts, can you be sure they aren't within 50mm ??? Ive got a drum of cooker flex in the van if you need it.

:lol:

 

[Rob_the_rich]

The bosch multi purpose bits are good at drilling holes in stuff without having to use the hammer action but don't expect them to be much good afterwards.

As for runing the cable within the heating ducts, can you be sure they aren't within 50mm ??? Ive got a drum of cooker flex in the van if you need it.

:lol:

Yeah I was thinking of high temp cable, but the heating pipes might only be 40deg C for underfloor heating.

Edit; and there might well be 50mm of insulation around the pipes, dunno