Underfloor Heat Mat Disaster

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dave2

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Last week prepared electrics for electric underfloor heating mat in a bathroom with draw cord ready for tiler to pull power and thermostat cable through.

Tiler completed the work last week so today I went to connect up and get things going.

Had my suspicions but sure enough all cables in back box ready for test and connect.

E-E resistance test ok and Rins >499.

Set the programmer and due to begin heating at 1700hrs.

Job done and day finished!

Got a call at 1710 from customer saying all electrics are off and won't reset.

Oh and there's also a burning smell!

Straight back out to see what's going on.

Isolated the heating mat and electric back on.

The problem:

Tiler had a couple of meters of mat spare so he rolled it up and stuffed it under the bath .

Customer went barmy when I told him the whole lot had to be lifted and a new mat the correct size purchased.

 
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My plumber mate has had that happen to him (in his house) - he had a tiler install UFH and tiling which had been left for maybe a year before he asked me to connect it up.... What do I find in the airing cupboard but a coil of the heating wire that he hadn't put under the tiles :eek:

After a phone call with the manufacturer I convinced him that there was nothing that could be done :(

 
Take it you didnt buy the mat then!  

Did it all melt togather?

 
Take it you didnt buy the mat then!  

Did it all melt togather?
Fortunately not.

When I got to the premises the electric had been off for at least 35mins and the roll was still hot!

The element must have melted internally as this is what is tripping the rcd.

Incidently the floor was cold

 
sounds like it was doomed from the start, what tiler has the equipment to check the mat out the box anyway!

 
:slap

went to help a 'friend' out a while back that was having problems with an underfloor heating install he had done,

got the meter out to test the resistance and asked him if he had the bumf for the cable so I would know what sort of resistance I was looking to get,

no, nope, nothing, all been binned,

"but its this cable here, there was too much of it"   WTF      headbang

when I install UFH I always get the customer to witness me testing the cable after install before anyone else goes near it, and get a signed form to acknowledge the fact.

 
IMHO the installation of electric UFH is notifiable under part P so the tiler shouldn't have been installing it (unless he's in a scam that is) ;)
The property is commercial but doubt if any tiler has ever registered under part p.

I stand to becorrected though.

 
We had a disaster at a multi million pound job just finishing. We had fitted Devi heat mats on the external  upper terrace and steps to stop ice and the builders had not laid enough of a slope on the  tiles for the drain off so it was taken up. They were made aware several times about the mats but still kango'd through the lot of them. We just got the replacements today, over  £1000 worth. 

 

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