Electrics dilemma

Innys

Hi

I have an electrical problem with my house and I wonder if anyone knows the answer. It may be an obvious one, but I can't think of it.

One of the electrical power sockets in my house has stopped working. I've had an electrican out and he says that the cable is broken, probably having been chewed through by a mouse. He claims the only way to get the socket working again is to rip the wall open and replace the cable!!!

That seems a little extreme to me - does anyone know of a less drastic way of dealing with a broken cable such as this?

Thanks very much

I

muckybutt

Seems a strange answer !

Provided he has traced the fault down to a particular piece of cable all he has to do is either replace the cable between the two points or if he can actually see the break he can do a repair with a juction box so as long as the junction box can be made readilly accessable.

Innys

muckybutt wrote: »

Seems a strange answer !

Provided he has traced the fault down to a particular piece of cable all he has to do is either replace the cable between the two points or if he can actually see the break he can do a repair with a juction box so as long as the junction box can be made readilly accessable.

This is just the point. The break in the cable can't be seen - it's somewhere in the wall.

Plus, how can the cable be replaced if the break is somewhere in the wall without ripping open the wall?

I understood that when electrics were rewired between, say, sockets A & B, the new cable was tied to the old cable at socket B. The old cable was then slowly pulled at socket A, thereby dragging the new cable along the route of the old one until it appeared at socket A......job done.

But, in this case, the cable between A & B is broken so the above process cannot be followed.

Of course, if the cable ran under the floorboards, I wouldn't have this problem, but, sadly, that's not the case.

muckybutt

I take it that the wall then is a studed wall ? in that the cable has been chewed then it would have to be ??

Any how with a bit of skill and effort it should be easy enough for a sparky to pull the cable through without the need to chop the wall out. Even if the wall is a solid wall, provided the cables have been capped up properly he should be able to tie onto the existing cable and pull the new cable through, only bit that might nee chopping out is just near to the socket where the capping might be short, ive done it loads of time myself so know it can be done.

bobthedambuilder

I'm no electrician, but surely if the socket is on a ring main, one break in the cable should not cause one plug to stop working (it may short out the whole ring main, i.e. no sockets working, but if it doesn't the socket in question should be supplied from the other direction of the ring).

So IMO this is probably a spur socket. You should be able to tell by looking at the socket wiring - are there 2 cables (in and out), or just one cable (in)?

If you can find out where the spur is taken from, you have a chance of pulling a new spur cable in. There is a chance if it's rodent damage, not the whole cable has been chewed through, just one of the wires. After switching off all power, I would attach a draw string to the cable at the non-working socket (using a draw string will put less stress on the damaged cable than trying to draw through a new cable directly). Then carefully pull the old cable out from the spur take-off point. You'll know very quickly if the cable is completely broken because there will be no movement at the non-working socket. If the draw string starts feeding in, you're away. Eventually (hopefully;)) the draw string will appear at the spur take-off, and you can then attach a new cable and pull the draw string back to the socket, connect and switch the power back on.

When I say "you" I probably mean a qualified electrician ...

keystone

Don't you just love all these exhortations to draw the new cable through. Oh that life was that simple and the world was perfect.. If you are lucky its got capping on it but there will be places where it won't pull through. If you are unlucky theres no capping at all and its just plastered in. No chance of pulling it through.

If you've got underfloor access don't bother digging. Run a new piece of cable in bypassing the broken bit in entirety. Dead ends are an anathema but to avoid damaging decorations etc its the simplest option.

Cheers

deano72_2

like bb the builder said,it must be on a spur as i cant see a rodent chewing thro 2 cables if it was a ring,also is it in plaster?ifso how could a rodent chew through plaster.im not saying the cable isnt broken (as that would be impossible to diagnose from my arm chair)but i doubt if its been chewed rite the way through.also like keystone said,yes in the ideal world just tie on the new cable to existing cable & pull through,but sometimes we dont live in the ideal world.it might pay for u to buy a plug in tester for about a tenner then that will indicate whether you have lost live,neutral,earth,if you have lost all three then theres defo a break in the cable,if youv only lost one it might be faulty conection from where its fed from

keystone

deano72 wrote: »

like bb the builder said,it must be on a spur

Unless its a radial.

Cheers

Leif

keystone wrote: »

Unless its a radial.

Cheers

Do you get that in the UK? I'm told that is the French way, so must be deeply suspicious ...

saversfriend

If you are certain that it needs a new wire, it would only need to go between two sockets and any electrician should be able to identify where the sockets are. No need to remove old cable. If access is hard without bashing the house to bits, you could consider surface mounting the new cable and hiding it with trunking. I know it's not as nice to look at, but you can always get it put behind the walls at a later date when rennovating / redecorating.

keystone

Leif wrote: »

Do you get that in the UK? I'm told that is the French way, so must be deeply suspicious ...

No radial is fine in UK although the majority will be ring finals. I only mentioned it because just because it might be a single cable doesn't automatically mean its a spur as has been suggested.

Ring final configuration was invented over here and is popular as it requires smaller csa cable than a radial as, in effect, a ring is two radials running in opposite directions.

Are you suspicious of all things French then? Don't touch a Saniflo with a bargepole in that case. Invented by a Frenchman and then promptly exported over here as some sort of evil act of vengeance against some, probably imagined, sleight by an Englishmen.

Cheers