Junction box under floorboards wet

[Mark Cooper]

Hi there, our home flooded in the Solum with a foot of water at the weekend because of heavy rain and a blocked mains drain. This has now been resolved and the water gone thanks for Scottish water but we now have one of our fuse switches on the RCD refusing to turn on and it’s our downstairs socket one that controls our boiler/hot water. I spoke to the electrician who installed the electrics just last year as we had an extension done to part of the house and he says there’s a junctions box under the floorboards that must have got wet and that’s what it won’t turn on.

the problem is he can’t get to use for a week and we have a 2 year old daughter at home and snow coming down, I need to get the boiler back up and running and the rest of the downstairs sockets because we don’t have cooking or refrigeration either.

my question is, will the junction boxes dry out by themselves now the water is gone and if so how long will that take or will they need to replacing to fix the problem? If the latter I will call an electrician who can get to us today but if it’s just a case of them drying out, how can I speed that process up. 
 

cheers

Mark 

 

[Murdoch]

Its impossible to say how long they will take to dry out, but heat and ventilation are the key - are they accessible?

 Shame the spark put junction boxes under the floor.

Maybe run an extension cable from upstairs for the fridge / freezer

 

[Sharpend]

Once it’s all dries out it might be worth considering suitable waterproof joints if susceptible to floods. ? 

 

[Geoff1946]

I think you need to gain access to it. Drying out naturally in a wet underfloor space could take a very long time.

 

[ProDave]

I hope it's a maintenance free junction box as it's inaccessible. That won't stop it getting upset by being wet.

My bigger concern was how high did the water get and what damage has it done?  If it got up to the level of the joists then you may have major problems going into the future.  If it didn't get up to the level of the joists, then perhaps just raising the junction box higher will prevent a repeat.

Just keep trying to turn in on and see if it dries out enough on it's own to get it to reset.  Or try another electrician, anyone you can find.

 

[Evans Electric]

If your guy knows there is a J box  ask him where it is ,  lift the board & dry it out .   After taking suitable safety precautions.