Overkill bonding

[Evans Electric]

I mentioned this a few times in bonding threads , thought I'd sketch it out .  We used to have photograph  of this ... on a city council job .  

Along with the metal window frames ...this was the best ever ......unless you know better !!!

 

[Andy™]

imagine having to do that these days. 'sorry, cant change that broken socket until i run an earth to the door stop'

 

[Evans Electric]

I just remembered a more silly example  which I've posted before ............  earth jumpers on that flimsy Baco foil covering you see  in boiler room pipe insulation .   Had to just push a self tapper into it with a lug & some 2.5  mm .

 

[kerching]

Bonding across the feeder tank on an autoflush for a gents urinal, down to flush pipe and then onto the stainless steel pee trough

whats the worst that could happen?

 

[Evans Electric]

whats the worst that could happen?

Dunno  ....a broken PME neutral  and a pisser up the pisser . 

 

[kerching]

I have a customer who owns a large 3 story office block in Warrington 

every ceiling grid in every room is bonded to the Galve  trunking with about 2m of 6mm rolled into a pigtail

 

[Geoff1946]

That doesn't sound unreasonable to me, as the ceiling presumably supports light fittings. Only thing is the joints of the grid are hardly of electrical bonding standard.

 

[Andy™]

That doesn't sound unreasonable to me, as the ceiling presumably supports light fittings. Only thing is the joints of the grid are hardly of electrical bonding standard.

the lights will have their own CPC (unless they are class 2), bit like saying you must earth the metal bench because there is a toaster on it

 

[Sidney]

I work in telecoms and everything is taken to the extreme. At one point we had to bond all tray joints with 10mm just in case the 6mm fixings came loose...

 

[Tony S]

Where is Mr. Cockburn when you need him?

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

I remember having to bond the Crittall windows,  openers to frame & frame back to local trunking in 1960's BT buildings 

And also having to chase the floor on stairwell landings to run a 6mm earth to the handrail.

 

[Evans Electric]

And also having to chase the floor on stairwell landings to run a 6mm earth to the handrail.

That just about takes the biscuit  .............unless YOU know a worse case  of bonding nonsense.  

I've posted this one before ................   the spec for Birmingham City Council  always asked for  metal sheathing (capping)   to be earthed  with a  self tapper & a 1.5 G/Yell  down into the KO box   .  That was the only example  I ever saw . 

 

[kerching]

Glasgow council required a bit of 4/6mm and two yellow ring crimps across every joint in galv capping. Clerk of works would walk around after the job , ohmmeter in hand shoving probes through the finished plaster checking for continuity

 

[Evans Electric]

Glasgow council required a bit of 4/6mm and two yellow ring crimps across every joint in galv capping. Clerk of works would walk around after the job , ohmmeter in hand shoving probes through the finished plaster checking for continuity

Oh  Dear God  !!!      Talk about  someone with nothing better to do .   It gets worse !!!

Just thought of another OTT  wallah  on a Health Service job ....    ( Remember that it was all B/E conduit then)   ...  insisted that  all the switch drops were painted with red oxide paint  .    This meant cutting & bending the tube ,  making sure it fitted , then unscrewing them ,  put them aside, paint them on all sides and  wait  for it to dry .  

If these guys were in contracting they'd either have to  forget all that carp  or get kicked into touch .

Ohhh !  Yet another memory comes flooding back ...........   electrical consultant  when we did loads of Police station upgrades .......   the documentation , as fixed drawings etc   at the end  to be presented in  a  "Black velum  ring binder  with the job title  embossed in sunken gold lettering "      :C    That one used to drive my mate  up the wall ....the effort & cost  involved in getting that carp done    :shakehead    

 

[Tony S]

Just thought of another OTT  wallah  on a Health Service job ....    ( Remember that it was all B/E conduit then)   ...  insisted that  all the switch drops were painted with red oxide paint  .    This meant cutting & bending the tube ,  making sure it fitted , then unscrewing them ,  put them aside, paint them on all sides and  wait  for it to dry .  

If these guys were in contracting they'd either have to  forget all that carp  or get kicked into touch .

It was actually B/J Black Japanned. I rebuilt a distribution switchroom, to start with the stores supplied B/J conduit to match the original. About ¾ the way through the job they sent galvanised conduit with B/J fittings, the job looked a mess and I was livid. In the end I sprayed all the galv with black enamel.

 

[Evans Electric]

Never heard it called Black Japanned  before    Tony .....Black japanned wood screws  yes ....conduit  Black Enamel  surely .....I put enough of it in  to be honest.  

Which has triggered yet another  memory ..........  the bundles of 3/4"   (Imperial)   conduit  we used were 12 ft  6 inches long    ....metric much shorter  now . 

 

[Evans Electric]

That doesn't sound unreasonable to me, as the ceiling presumably supports light fittings. Only thing is the joints of the grid are hardly of electrical bonding standard.

It was flavour of the month for a while  Geoff   but was  soon  abandoned  .   I've seen miles of 6mm  earth jumping across every tee bar  for  miles ...... in my opinion  another load of  nonsense ....no one does it now .  

I looked at it like I did with  bonding sink tops  ... if a plumber / builder  fitted a new sink top  no one gave a thought about bonding it  ...it would never get done ,,but if there was an electrician on the job  it would become the most important thing in the world to hear some folk.  

We did a housing job once ...for reasons unknown the sink tops were never fitted ...we finished  the whole site and moved on .......to find that a huge slice of our money was being held back  , months later  because we hadn't bonded the sinks .   

The project manager said it was a dangerous situation  at a meeting ..... I said  why have you moved all the families in then  ,  so release our money  ,  organize  access and we 'll get them done  ,  bearing in mind they were never in place until weeks after we left site  and I trust they are all to the BS  that stipulates an earthing strap is fitted . 

That embarrassed them  ...they 'd fitted cheapo , non specified tops .   

I can't say I ever bonded  suspended ceiling bars  TBH. 

 

[kerching]

There was a spate of sinks with the earth bonding lug glued on!

long story short

very small plant room

we used to give each other marks out of ten for neatness, style, interpretation etc

Only 4 pipes in it......flow, return, feed and gas

we wrote on the wall....."1/10. Unacceptable. Redo.   Signed The Architect."

came back after the weekend and it had been re done!!

whoops!