Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

STing

vivatifosi wrote: »

You know earlier today we were talking about deSmithing the house? Five years on and we've got another one. I could smell burning this evening. Turns out the storage heater in the lounge has switched itself on (its cold enough to trigger the thermostat). This is with the switch off at the wall. They've put a switch on the wall, rewired the heater and I can switch the damn thing on and off and it doesn't make a blind bit of difference, the wiring for the heater must bypass it and they've channelled it in the wall and plastered over the top. FFing bodgers! All this time we've been using a switch that is purely for decoration. Thankfully we can isolate using our master fuse box but thank goodness we're home to notice. Builder peeps - any idea what we need to do, other than swearing a lot?

Voltage detector to check if there's AC to the switch, and where the cables for the heater run. When you know where the cables run (and nothings running off the switch) it'll give a better idea how to resolve with least fuss. Which circuit isolated it/ switched it off.

The previous occupants had wires doing right angles plastered into the walls, and there was me expecting straight lines. Good job I didn't drill through 'em.

silvercar

vivatifosi wrote: »

You know earlier today we were talking about deSmithing the house? Five years on and we've got another one. I could smell burning this evening. Turns out the storage heater in the lounge has switched itself on (its cold enough to trigger the thermostat). This is with the switch off at the wall. They've put a switch on the wall, rewired the heater and I can switch the damn thing on and off and it doesn't make a blind bit of difference, the wiring for the heater must bypass it and they've channelled it in the wall and plastered over the top. FFing bodgers! All this time we've been using a switch that is purely for decoration. Thankfully we can isolate using our master fuse box but thank goodness we're home to notice. Builder peeps - any idea what we need to do, other than swearing a lot?

The switches on plug points can fail. We had one go, where it was still ON when switched OFF, turned out the switch had failed. £2 replacement from wickes.

silvercar

Our scary electric moment. Discovered the garden lights contained a cut wire that had been repaired by wrapping insulation tape around each wire and over the whole cable - except Mr smith had only bothered doing the live and the neutral. So no earth wire in a cable wrapped in insulation tape buried in the ground. No RCD at the other end just another random plug.

Also found that a plug that was in the boiler cupboard, was not actually connected to the boiler but to an outside 500w light that had been hidden behind ivy for 8 months before we discovered it by smelling burning leaves.

vivatifosi

silvercar wrote: »

The switches on plug points can fail. We had one go, where it was still ON when switched OFF, turned out the switch had failed. £2 replacement from wickes.

Thanks silvercar. It is one of those fuse plate switches rather than a plug point though. Plus the light goes off when the switch is off and comes on when it is on. Same concept?

vivatifosi

That's interesting, thanks counts have disappeared along with my other info bar join date and post count. Anyone else have this?

silvercar

vivatifosi wrote: »

That's interesting, thanks counts have disappeared along with my other info bar join date and post count. Anyone else have this?

There is a note at the top to say thanks button is temporarily unavailable from 11pm.

silvercar

vivatifosi wrote: »

Thanks silvercar. It is one of those fuse plate switches rather than a plug point though. Plus the light goes off when the switch is off and comes on when it is on. Same concept?

Well mine was an ordinary plug point, but I guess if one type of switch can fail they all can.

Doozergirl

michaels wrote: »

I had to watch this one a couple of times just to confirm how unsuitable it was:
http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DKdS6HFQ_LUc

I bet you did!

If I looked that good in pink plastic, I'd wear it all the time :rotfl:

Doozergirl

lostinrates wrote: »

I also feel like putting something truly atrocious at the front of the house, just to excite the planning dept who are quite clearly moneywasting and rather dim. (unless they are reading this, in which case I'd like to clarify that dimness is alwise a quality I've admired in people and money wasting is really deliciously flamboyant)

Apologies to everyone for that fact I've missed quite a bit and the missing thanks button means I'm not going back over the last pages to do it.

That quoted just made me laugh out loud and really needed a thank you.

Welcome home LIR

PasturesNew

My last house had been owned by Mr Bodgitt. I didn't stand a chance in trying to de-Bodgitt.... what I did do though, I did correctly and with the best workmen available. I was more interested in getting the structure of the house safe/correct than worrying about living somewhere nice.... it'd have been somewhere nice if only I'd ever managed to get to that bit.

You do see some peculiar goings on when you buy an older house.

One day the neighbours said to me "You're having a lot of work done". I said "it's a piggin' mess". They said "Oh - thought it was a palace, he was ALWAYS working on it/doing something" (he'd been there 20 years). I said "I know, I'm having to unravel his deathtraps".