Should Electrician be responsible?

cybervic

Electrician placed a wire outside safe zone, (20cm below ceiling instead of 15cm), plasterer covered it, plumber came to install boiler afterwards and damaged the cable when drilling a hole for flue pipe.

Should I get the electrician to repair the damage?

womble12345

yes, far better an electrician than another trade

SHAFT

cybervic wrote: »

Electrician placed a wire outside safe zone, (20cm below ceiling instead of 15cm), plasterer covered it, plumber came to install boiler afterwards and damaged the cable when drilling a hole for flue pipe.

Should I get the electrician to repair the damage?

You mean at his expense don't you?

If you can prove it's been clipped in the incorrect position and was at 200mm then you may have a case. Failing that there must have been some slack in the cable and the plasterer moved it.

premkit

Is the cable horizontal or vertical to an outlet/ spur or anything indicating a cable route?

cybervic

premkit wrote: »

Is the cable horizontal or vertical to an outlet/ spur or anything indicating a cable route?

There was a socket vertical to the cable but that was removed and the wall was stripped to bare brick. The cable now comes from concrete ceiling, moving down vertically for 20-23cm and make a left horizontal turn into a boxed up void corner.

SHAFT wrote: »

You mean at his expense don't you?

If you can prove it's been clipped in the incorrect position and was at 200mm then you may have a case. Failing that there must have been some slack in the cable and the plasterer moved it.

Yes, at electrician's expense, should've made that clear.

The plasterer is a friend so I'm inclined to trust him not moving the cable but you've just reminded me I didn't take any photo of this area when the first fix was done so I don't have any proof who did it.

phill99

When tradesmen go through cables, it is normally up to them to get them repaired at their own expense.


This is part of his preparation. A cable detector can be purchased for under £30 and he should be using one.

ComicGeek

The cabling safe zone is to reduce risk, not eliminate completely. The plumber can never guarantee that there isn't any cables outside of this zone, and should have checked before drilling. IMO it's the plumber's fault, and he should pay for the electrician to rectify.

southcoastrgi

As someone who has done this I'd say it's the installer that should be liable to pay

Risteard

Assuming the installation method required cables to be installed in prescribed zones (i.e. not cables run in earthed metallic conduit; SWA etc.) then I think the Electrician cannot be absolved of blame for a blatant non-compliance with BS7671.

cybervic

Wow, some interesting views I totally didn't think of.

So just to clarify, we are having a renovation including rewire. Walls were stripped to bare brick, electrician can move cable anywhere he wants during first fix. Plumber came only few days later to install the boiler. Shouldn't plumber at this point expect all cables to be in safe zone as we just had a rewire?

The damaged cable wasn't in any conduit, just cable on its own inside clipped on brick wall and buried in plaster.