Call tonight from a local chip shop owner - 6.30 p.m. He`s got environmental health in the shop, wanting to shut the premises unless immediate action is made.
Guy is in his 60`s - nice bloke, very pleasant, amenable sort of guy.
Here`s the background:
He bought the shop, house, and "extension to shop" 15 yrs ago. Used the extension section as the potato prep room, until the floor caved in!!!!! Turned out that, as far as the council were aware, it was a roofless tin shed. The guy he bought it from "converted" it (i.e. plasterboarded, and second skinned it), without tieing it to the main building, and encroaching onto the street by 6" - no planning, no building reg, no nothing. Current owner is sueing previous owner over this.
Anyway......They couldn`t use the "extension", so the potato peeler is outside the back door, on an extension lead. TN-S; not an RCD in sight. Out of the blue, these 2 guys from the council turned up, and had the owner almost in tears, because they wanted to shut off power to the shop there & then. So he called.........
Now, the install HAS got issues (1.4A leakage down the earthing conductor, no RCDs, DB is a hodgepodge of different breakers, and the lid doesn`t fit (though it IS in a locked box), and no main bonds to gas/water.) They were more worried about the potato peeler, cos it doesn`t have a rating plate, the strain relief bush is knaffered, and its on an extension lead.
The environmental guy had a suggestion of drilling a hole in the wall, and bringing the cable inside to a socket...................until I said that there would be no available way to switch the machine off (PUWER) - my idea (in the short term) is for the guy to build a "lean-to"; and we put a weatherproof socket & switch on the wall.
They were happy to let him stay open then, and actually thawed a bit after I`d spoken to `em a bit - but FFS! All I had to do as an "emergency" was re-gland the cable entry; and replace the plug with an RCD plug - the bonding and leakage need to be sorted in the next day or two..........all because some plonker did a p155-poor job of an extension, almost caused the guy to lose his business........AND meant I was there until 9.30 tonight :red card
Guy is in his 60`s - nice bloke, very pleasant, amenable sort of guy.
Here`s the background:
He bought the shop, house, and "extension to shop" 15 yrs ago. Used the extension section as the potato prep room, until the floor caved in!!!!! Turned out that, as far as the council were aware, it was a roofless tin shed. The guy he bought it from "converted" it (i.e. plasterboarded, and second skinned it), without tieing it to the main building, and encroaching onto the street by 6" - no planning, no building reg, no nothing. Current owner is sueing previous owner over this.
Anyway......They couldn`t use the "extension", so the potato peeler is outside the back door, on an extension lead. TN-S; not an RCD in sight. Out of the blue, these 2 guys from the council turned up, and had the owner almost in tears, because they wanted to shut off power to the shop there & then. So he called.........
Now, the install HAS got issues (1.4A leakage down the earthing conductor, no RCDs, DB is a hodgepodge of different breakers, and the lid doesn`t fit (though it IS in a locked box), and no main bonds to gas/water.) They were more worried about the potato peeler, cos it doesn`t have a rating plate, the strain relief bush is knaffered, and its on an extension lead.
The environmental guy had a suggestion of drilling a hole in the wall, and bringing the cable inside to a socket...................until I said that there would be no available way to switch the machine off (PUWER) - my idea (in the short term) is for the guy to build a "lean-to"; and we put a weatherproof socket & switch on the wall.
They were happy to let him stay open then, and actually thawed a bit after I`d spoken to `em a bit - but FFS! All I had to do as an "emergency" was re-gland the cable entry; and replace the plug with an RCD plug - the bonding and leakage need to be sorted in the next day or two..........all because some plonker did a p155-poor job of an extension, almost caused the guy to lose his business........AND meant I was there until 9.30 tonight :red card
