phil d
Well-known member
Ok further on at the house from hell, remember me saying that the subfloor void was full of water, which turned out to be sewage, and we pumped it out. Well, looking at the incomer, a paper lead, it looked in a real sorry state, where it had been in the wet, the outer coating of what appeared to be tarred hemp had fallen off and the steel serving protecting the lead looked none too clever, so I put in a call to the DNO. This bloke came out, about the same age as me, had a look at it and he didn't like it either, so he rang for a jointing team as he wanted it replacing, as we waited for them to arrive we were chatting and he was telling me some stories about things that had happened recently.
Apparently the reason he was so keen to have this cable replaced was this, another engineer had been out to a property in a similar situation, he'd examined the cable and declared it safe, the homeowner had been in the process of renovating the house and had, a few weeks later, one of those imprinted concrete drives laid. Shortly after this, the incomer had failed, not only had the DNO to replace it, but, they'd also had to fork out about £10K for the drive to be redone after they'd ripped it up to replace the cable. The engineer in question was dismissed for gross negligence, and had lost his pension as a result.
So it was now all down to arse covering, as he said to me, I was concerned about the cable, so quite rightly, I'd rang him, effectively passing over the responsibility for the problem, he didn't like the thing any more than I did, so he was passing it to the jointing team, as he said, it's not like the lads themselves are paying for the work, so lets have a new cable put in. About an hour later, 2 young lads arrive, they don't look in the mood for doing any work, they give the cable a cursory glance, stab at it several times with a hacking knife! and declare it good for continued use. The other engineer points out that this house is being done up and will be having a new drive laid, wouldn't it be better to replace the cable now? The jointer shakes his head, him and his mate get back in their van and drive away, I wonder how it will all end, if this cable fails, after the customer has had his new drive laid? Personally I'd have covered my arse and just put a new cable in.
Apparently the reason he was so keen to have this cable replaced was this, another engineer had been out to a property in a similar situation, he'd examined the cable and declared it safe, the homeowner had been in the process of renovating the house and had, a few weeks later, one of those imprinted concrete drives laid. Shortly after this, the incomer had failed, not only had the DNO to replace it, but, they'd also had to fork out about £10K for the drive to be redone after they'd ripped it up to replace the cable. The engineer in question was dismissed for gross negligence, and had lost his pension as a result.
So it was now all down to arse covering, as he said to me, I was concerned about the cable, so quite rightly, I'd rang him, effectively passing over the responsibility for the problem, he didn't like the thing any more than I did, so he was passing it to the jointing team, as he said, it's not like the lads themselves are paying for the work, so lets have a new cable put in. About an hour later, 2 young lads arrive, they don't look in the mood for doing any work, they give the cable a cursory glance, stab at it several times with a hacking knife! and declare it good for continued use. The other engineer points out that this house is being done up and will be having a new drive laid, wouldn't it be better to replace the cable now? The jointer shakes his head, him and his mate get back in their van and drive away, I wonder how it will all end, if this cable fails, after the customer has had his new drive laid? Personally I'd have covered my arse and just put a new cable in.
