Wondering How Long This Fault-In-Waiting, has been on the pending file?

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Moving a double socket along a wall a short distance so it wont be hidden behind proposed fitted wardrobes...
(pencil line down wall edge of new wardrobe).


Back box prep all done.. so a give a gentle tug on each of the legs of the ring to see if either has enough slack to reach the new position without a J/box..

As I pull on one cable.. hear a bang, see a spark from below the floor boards!
(32A MCB trips.. not RCD)

Roll a bit more carpet.. lift another board.. And what do we find...




Cable passing though a joist.. with a bit a black charring around the hole...




Look back at lifted board.. Note nail position.......
(and black charring on underside of board..)



So whoever put that nail in managed to pierce both cables...
I wonder..... did the Fuse/MCB, pop.. and they just replaced/reset it?

OR.. was it just a fluke that nothing happened till I gave it that 'Extra Tug', AKA the straw that broke the camels back?

Close up on the removed section of cable...






Oh and yes..
for those our our "eagle-eyed" forumbulator members..

That IS a section of Lead Gas Pipe running under the board I lifted..
(The customer thinks this may still be a live gas supply.. as his downstairs gas fire was also via lead pipe until some relatively recent gas alterations work..
BUT.. requires someone still specially trained to work with lead-pipe to sort it out!)

So...

how long has this fault-in-waiting.. actually been Waiting?????
Answers on a postcard to..

"And that's why the regs state 50mm depth for cables passing though joists"
PO BOX 522.6.201

 

[kerching]

And a square 'cut nail' as well! You did well to pull that out. It would have been a pisser when you tested , found a fault BUT you know your bits correct!

 

[phil d]

Moving a double socket along a wall a short distance so it wont be hidden behind proposed fitted wardrobes...
(pencil line down wall edge of new wardrobe).
View attachment 13225

Back box prep all done.. so a give a gentle tug on each of the legs of the ring to see if either has enough slack to reach the new position without a J/box..

As I pull on one cable.. hear a bang, see a spark from below the floor boards!
(32A MCB trips.. not RCD)

Roll a bit more carpet.. lift another board.. And what do we find...

View attachment 13226


Cable passing though a joist.. with a bit a black charring around the hole...

View attachment 13227


Look back at lifted board.. Note nail position.......
(and black charring on underside of board..)

View attachment 13228

So whoever put that nail in managed to pierce both cables...
I wonder..... did the Fuse/MCB, pop.. and they just replaced/reset it?

OR.. was it just a fluke that nothing happened till I gave it that 'Extra Tug', AKA the straw that broke the camels back?

Close up on the removed section of cable...

View attachment 13229

View attachment 13230


Oh and yes..
for those our our "eagle-eyed" forumbulator members..

That IS a section of Lead Gas Pipe running under the board I lifted..
(The customer thinks this may still be a live gas supply.. as his downstairs gas fire was also via lead pipe until some relatively recent gas alterations work..
BUT.. requires someone still specially trained to work with lead-pipe to sort it out!)

So...

how long has this fault-in-waiting.. actually been Waiting?????
Answers on a postcard to..

"And that's why the regs state 50mm depth for cables passing though joists"
PO BOX 522.6.201

Seeing that gas pipe reminded me of a job many years ago, I'd installed a central heating for an old couple and along the middle of the landing was a pipe just like that, anyway I did all the tests and everything was sound, both with the electrics and the gas. A few weeks later the old blokes son in law rings up theres a strong smell of gas, I arrive to find the son in law has turned it off at the main, but you can still smell it outside the house!
I ask the old guy if he's done anything, he denies touching a thing, I then ask the old lady who informs me that the previous evening he'd taken the landing carpet up and been hammering. Apparently he wasnt happy with how I'd nailed down a board. I lifted the carpet and the board which had the gas pipe beneath it (on which i'd wrote 'gas pipe below') had a neat line of holes in the centre!
In his infinite wisdom he'd decided that boards should be nailed in the centre, not on the edges, the result was a gas pipe that resembled a lawn sprinkler, a dozen nail holes right through it!

 

[Geoff1946]

So easily done! I installed my own central heating some years ago. All piped up, pressurised and joints successfully checked watertight.
Totally proud of myself I nailed down the landing boards and went downstairs, only to find my system emptying itself onto the parquet hallway floor! The damage was just on the edge of a T as well, making it hard to fix.