Weird wiring in ex-council flat in London

[Madonanist]

My partner's daughter has just completed purchase of an ex council flat in London.

It appears that the flat has been wired with 1 single 13A socket in each bedroom. And then a spur circuit using what looks like a tubular 2 core metal cable that runs around the skirting board. This cable is clamped to a metal plate at the back of the plastic box attached to the wall. And the earth connection to the socket front is attached to that plate. The 2 cores are both coloured black and look like 5A width rather than 13A. I didn't have my meter to check if the earth is actually connected to the earth back at the consumer unit. Has anyone ever come across this kind of cable?

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

MICC ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral-insulated_copper-clad_cable

 

[Fleeting]

Can you show a pic but as above sounds like MICC.

 

[Murdoch]

Maybe pay to have a decent EICR done to establish whats going on and the ongoing suitability of the installation?

 

[mickey c]

It's M.I.C.C Pyro to most. they are clamp boxes. It should have a fly lead coming off it to the accessory.
Cable should be fine, but as said before an E.I.C. report would be advisable.

 

[Philip01]

Would you buy a car without an MOT but you’ll buy a flat without an electrical report, so called EICR which your surveyor should have advised you to have done, quite unbelievable

 

[Madonanist]

Would you buy a car without an MOT but you’ll buy a flat without an electrical report, so called EICR which your surveyor should have advised you to have done, quite unbelievable

I totally agree. But these young folk won't be told.

 

[kerching]

By the sound of it, hard to,see from here, it's Pyro!
If so it's bombproof possibly, fireproof definitely! Used on oil rigs amongst other high risk areas . Trouble nowadays is there are not many people who can work,with it, even less understand it, even fewer have ever seen it

 

[Mike P]

Pyro. Big in the sixty‘s, as somebody said earlier there is a real art to making it off but once made off just about bomb proof and wont cause any problems unless disturbed or someone puts a nail through it!

 

[mort2376]

I have nightmare flashbacks to my apprentice days when I get asked about pyro.

Fp200 has made it so easy. These youngsters today don't know they are born.

Going back to my armchair now with a blanket over my knee and my feet in one of those large slippers. Lol

 

[UNG]

Pyro. Big in the sixty‘s,

And the 70's and 80's put in many thousand's of metres of Pyro around that time

as somebody said earlier there is a real art to making it off but once made off just about bomb proof and wont cause any problems unless disturbed or someone puts a nail through it!

The real art is in dressing and clipping it

I have nightmare flashbacks to my apprentice days when I get asked about pyro.

It has always been one of my favourite cables to work with and even now would jump at the chance to do a Pyro job

Fp200 has made it so easy.

And FP200 is such an inferior cable and a cheap pretender when compared to Pyro

These youngsters today don't know they are born.

And they never read the manufacturers instructions when it comes to the correct installation of FP200

 

[mort2376]

The real art is in dressing and clipping it

Yep. Those pyro rollers that supposedly straightened it out. And opening clips up to put 2 cables down together without tramlining it.

Then spending 15m with a hammer and a wooden block making it straight.

Must admit it looks good polished up bare in churches.

 

[UNG]

Yep. Those pyro rollers that supposedly straightened it out. And opening clips up to put 2 cables down together without tramlining it.

Then spending 15m with a hammer and a wooden block making it straight.

Must admit it looks good polished up bare in churches.

I have never needed to use a pyro roller, just a soft faced hammer and a lot of patience

The last church I used Pyro in was a rewire in a special order stone coloured PVC sheathed Pyro to blend in with the walls

 

[mort2376]

Biggest I ever made off was a 4 core 35mm for a theatre.

That was a swine to make off.

 

[UNG]

Biggest I ever made off was a 4 core 35mm for a theatre.

That was a swine to make off.

The bigger they are the easier they are to make off IMO you just need the right tools on the bigger sizes 4H10 upwards my stripping tool of choice was a 4ft length of 25mm conduit with a bend at one end and a slot at the other, made stripping process a lot easier especially when you needed long tails to terminate into a section board

 

[mort2376]

Never thought of that. I always used my snips. Way I was taught.

 

[UNG]

Never thought of that. I always used my snips. Way I was taught.

I was taught using snips and a 10mm T bar stripping tool but one weekend on overtime I got lumbered with terminating about 20 MICC cables from 4H10 upto 4H25 most of the lads on site thought they had given me the worst job while they rerouted the cables to a new section board but having developed a new stripping tool from 25mm conduit a few tried to muscle in on terminating the cables but I sent them packing