Mysterious banging

[EmmaWa]

Apologies if this isn't the right place to post this. All electricians that have visited have been stumped, so just hoping someone knows what's going on and can save our next guy some trouble. 

- Occasional very loud banging, "electric buzz" and flashes above a recess light fitting (including when light is off). Other lights around the house flicker at the same time. Occasional "puk" sounds with flickering from lights in another room.

- Following a very big bang, fuse blows off for upstairs sockets and boiler. One guy replaced the fuse but didn't find the initial problem. Fuse blown off again. 

- One guy suggests it could be an old gas bulb on its way out, in the room next to the first light fitting. This room is ground floor with roof and a large climbing plant above it. Potential rain damage following storm? Gas bulb removed but bangs and sparks continue. 

It is definitely not an animal causing the banging - it is definitely an electric bang noise. 

Please help! Has anyone heard of something like this?

 

[Andy™]

yep. usually caused by a damaged cable or connection/. possibly water related. anyone who knows how to fault find should be able to find the problem. the fact that you can see a flash and hear a noise in a certain area suggests the fault is within that area, therefore should be reasonably easy to locate

 

[EmmaWa]

yep. usually caused by a damaged cable or connection/. possibly water related. anyone who knows how to fault find should be able to find the problem. the fact that you can see a flash and hear a noise in a certain area suggests the fault is within that area, therefore should be reasonably easy to locate

Thank you! Yes, this is what we had expected but nothing was immediately identifiable. Second electrician returns today so we'll search harder... 

 

[ProDave]

As above. Insulation fault on a cable. As it happens at any time it will be the feed to a number of lights, rather than the switched output to one light.

Finding the exact location of the fault may not be easy, depending how easy it is to lift floorboards etc.  But the fault should easily show on an insulation resistance test.

The easiest solution having found the faulty length of cable is to replace as much of it as you can rather than trying to pin the fault down to an exact spot.

Has ANY work, ANYTHING at all been done at the house recently?

It needs fixing. Sadly you have so far had 2 incompetent "electricians" look at it.  Lets hope you find a decent one for the third visit and they did not charge too much for their incompetence.  Tell the third spark that you think it's an insulation breakdown on a length of cable.  If he looks blank at you, he is not the man for the job.

 

[EmmaWa]

As above. Insulation fault on a cable. As it happens at any time it will be the feed to a number of lights, rather than the switched output to one light.

Finding the exact location of the fault may not be easy, depending how easy it is to lift floorboards etc.  But the fault should easily show on an insulation resistance test.

The easiest solution having found the faulty length of cable is to replace as much of it as you can rather than trying to pin the fault down to an exact spot.

Has ANY work, ANYTHING at all been done at the house recently?

It needs fixing. Sadly you have so far had 2 incompetent "electricians" look at it.  Lets hope you find a decent one for the third visit and they did not charge too much for their incompetence.  Tell the third spark that you think it's an insulation breakdown on a length of cable.  If he looks blank at you, he is not the man for the job.

Thank you, Dave. A return from electrician 2 - he found the utility room is totally sodden and sockets all wet. There were dramatic storms recently so previously "harmless" damp could have been made much worse. Left to dry out with appliances moved out the way. He thinks there's a junction box there which he will return to replace with a waterproof outdoor one.

I'll suggest insulation to him then.

We have done absolutely no work recently - moving out soon and just want to survive in this house until then. 

(Just regurgitating the things he said - I have no idea what any of this means.)

 

[Murdoch]

A return from electrician 2 - he found the utility room is totally sodden and sockets all wet. There were dramatic storms recently so previously "harmless" damp could have been made much worse. Left to dry out with appliances moved out the way. He thinks there's a junction box there which he will return to replace with a waterproof outdoor one.

You now really need to find out where the water is coming from - look outside at blocked gutters, down pipes leaking ......... water has to come from somewhere and its source needs locating - look at the brickwork for signs of damp - and inside. If there is a bathroom above get this looked at too

"harmless damp" needs sorting out too

A minor water leak can turn quite quickly into an expensive mess to sort out and fix.

FWIW my father in law had a damp problem - and discovered that his neighbour was piling grass cuttings against his wall and above the damp proof course .............

 

[Geoff1946]

Is your utility room a converted wash house outbuilding or similar with single brick walls?  I had one like that at my old house and keeping it dry was virtually impossible. I put all the electrics high up  and the appliances stood on sterling board on bricks. 

If the room is within the house proper then the damp problem needs resolving, but I suppose moving is one way to do that.

 

[ProDave]

Is your utility room a converted wash house outbuilding or similar with single brick walls?  I had one like that at my old house and keeping it dry was virtually impossible. I put all the electrics high up  and the appliances stood on sterling board on bricks. 

If the room is within the house proper then the damp problem needs resolving, but I suppose moving is one way to do that.

Bit if you are selling it and the buyer has a survey then every alarm bell will be ringing and the buyer will pull out or ask for a reduction in price.

Better to get it fixed now.

If the wall is plasterboard (not plaster straight on the brick) remove enough of it to see what is going on, it's cheap to replace.

 

[EmmaWa]

Thank you all very much for the advice. It has been quite a scary experience!

The utility room is part of the house on the ground floor, but with nothing above it. The roof is in an indeterminable state because of a huge plant (but much loved) all over it. We will give it a healthy trim and check for gaps going in to the walls. 

The fuse has blown off again following bigger, more frequent bangs than we've heard so far. Only an hour after it was replaced. An important question: when the fuse is blown, there are no bangs. I'm presuming this is a safer situation in terms of fire hazard than when we do have bangs? We can live happily without upstairs sockets (although the cold showers are difficult). 

I have to return home and leave my mum alone in this house. While we wait for the electrician to return, are there any other safety measures that she can take?  

Just to add, whoever buys this house will surely demolish half of it and start afresh. We must be the only house on the street that hasn't been developed or extended since first built! 

 

[ProDave]

Yes leave it off until fixed, that will be safe.

 

[Andy™]

once the fuse has done its job of disconnecting the circuit, then it will be safe. constantly putting new fuses in isnt going to fix the problem

 

[EmmaWa]

Thank you all for the advice, it's very much appreciated. Let's hope this will solve it. 

 

[binky]

Thank you all for the advice, it's very much appreciated. Let's hope this will solve it. 

as a temporary fix, you could always wire the bolier to a plug and use an extension lead.

My guess is said much loved plant has damaged roof and to add injury to insult, is also retaining water - needs a good hacking back to reveal issues.