Main bonding for Minor Works Cert?

[CookieMonster]

i have competent persons inspection coming up this week. for my minor works i am replacing a damaged socket outlet with exposed live parts - straightforward enough. This house had 6 mm main bonding to gas which i,ve upgraded to 10mm. however it appears not to have any main bonding to water supply. i cant get at the incoming water supply pipes as it is a behind a basin cabinet which is not moveable as water meter is installed inside the cabinet(!). am i expected to trash the cabinet to get access to the pipping. also water inlet is on ground floor and between water supply inlet and DB is the tiled kitchen floor. is it accetable as it says in OSG to declare the complete lack of water bonding as non-compliant/ deviation from BS7671 and advise owner of property (me) or will the inspector fail me for proceeding with a minor works on a property with no bonding without having first remedied this? thanks in advance for any help with this.

 

[Manator]

Hello and welcome to the forum CookieMonster, ideally the bonding should be upgraded, what I do is use a 4" hole cutter in the back of any cabinets to expose the water stop tap, remember any bonding should be available for inspection and maintenance, often this is overlooked by kitchen fitters. Putting a non conformity on any EIC is not good practice, and would result in a non compliance for assessment to the competant persons scheme.

The exception to this rule is if the water supply is in plastic, and the pipework within the property is all in plastic, then there is no requirement to bond as no potential is present.

 

[tom1]

i would say.

if its just a replacement of a damaged socket then you would not need to upgrade the bonding.

if you do then hole saw in the unit would be fairly neat. or bond as near as you can if no accsess.

 

[batty]

If you can't get access then bond were you can what about the rising main in airing cupboard. I have done this on a few jobs to get over problem. Welcome to the forum by the way.

 

[CookieMonster]

Thanks for all your helpful replies guys and cheers for the welcome to the forum. my problem wasn't so much how to get access to the water supply through the back of the cabinet ; it was more a question of what peeps do to get bonding back to DB when kitchen floor (ground with no access from below) has been tiled and finished to a high standard of decore - e.g. in this instance there is much reluctance to chase out newly decorated walls! Any further ideas much appreciated. BTW water entry is beyond large kitchen full of wall cabinets in utility room / bog. Chasing bonding into walls would be a right a**e.

 

[NozSpark]

As tom1 says.... replacing a socket like this would not require a Minor works certificate...

however...

Is it a solid or suspended floor? could you fish for cable?

Where is CU in relationship to incomming Water?

Could you take the bond cable externally (in conduit if you like)?

 

[m4tty]

Are you sure that changing a socket like for like will be ok for your minor works assessment. What scheme are you joining if you don't mind me asking. Are there no other jobs you could use for assessment? Welcome to the forum btw cheers

 

[Revved Up Sparky]

Unless I am mistaken I am sure the regs use the phrase where practicable when advising electricians to connect main bonds to within 600mm of entry point, therefore if it is inpractical to get to the water pipe at the entry point then bond at at the next practicable point as close as possible to entry and make a note of it on the cert.

 

[steptoe]

if am an not mistaken, and I am quite a lot, I would not consider a wall cabinet to be an inconvenience where I am protecting life.

much in the same way as you are trying to protect the afterlife revved up.

 

[JONOXNAM]

I recently replaced a shower and found no MP bonding, whoever had installed the shower had cut the cpc too short and shoved the 2.5 cpc in the water bond hole. So I moved the shower to the correct hole and sorted the water MPB, the not so funny thing was that the lady had just had a new kitchen fitted and they had put in supplimentary bonding but missed this, they must have seen the MPB hole filled with a 2.5 and thought well thats sorted....

 

[Elecwork]

Look at reg 544.1.2 pg164

Main protective bonding must be carried out if not installed as it keeps all live parts at the same potenial if a fault was to occur reducing the risk to humans

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Look at reg 544.1.2 pg164Main protective bonding must be carried out if not installed as it keeps all live parts at the same potential if a fault was to occur reducing the risk to humans

OMG!!!

I do hope you are not connecting Main Protective Bonding between "LIVE" parts?????

I think you will find that protective bonding conductors join things like..

extraneous conductive parts.....

and exposed conductive parts...

e.g. Bits of metal that could introduce an earth potential

NOT any LIVE parts!!!!