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Live cable on bathroom floor

  • 06-11-2007 1:13pm
    #1
    DamoKen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,269 ✭✭✭


    Hi, just want the opinion of any electricians on this. We're renting an old house at the moment and had a problem over the weekend with the macerator in the bathroom upstairs. It got jammed and leaked over the top. We switched it off at the mains and had a plumber in yesterday who managed to un-jam it.

    However yesterday evening the power to all the plug sockets went. I checked the fuse box and discovered the main trip switch was down and could not be moved back up. This suggested a short somewhere so I went upstairs and discovered the power cable coming out from the macerator is not continous, instead it is attached to another power cable coming up through the lino behind an old chest of drawers in the bathroom with insulating tape. The end with the connections was lying in a wet patch on the floor where my girlfriend had cleaned with bleach and water resulting in the short.

    By switching off the macerator at a switch we found we were able to get all the sockets back on. However this leaves us with 2 problems, firstly no toilet again until the cable dries out, and secondly, a live wire lying on the bathroom floor!

    Would this be considered a standard solution when a cable isn't long enough? It seems to me that this has to be dangerous, especially in a bathroom where the floor is wet everytime you wash the floor or come out of the shower.

    Any electricians out there who would consider this a safe setup?

    Cheers


Comments

  • #2
    Hoagy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 710 ✭✭✭Hoagy


    No, it definitely isn't safe.
    Presumably there is a flexible cable coming from the macerator pump.
    This should be terminated in a flex outlet plate mounted on the wall which also connects to the fixed wiring.
    You should contact the landlord immediately.


  • #3
    DamoKen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,269 ✭✭✭DamoKen


    hi Hoagy, cheers for the reply. That's what I thought, was really p*ssed off when I discovered how this is connected. We've been in the house just over 6 months and have walked around in bare feet on wet bathroom floors. My girlfriend has also cleaned in around where it is, pushing a mop etc around the back.
    This is not the first hazard we've found in the house (floorboards at bottom of stairs not nailed in as I discovered by going through one end), it's definitely the most dangerous though.


  • #4
    10-10-20
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,062 ✭✭✭10-10-20


    Put it to you this way - an exposed cable is a serious no-no in any location whether out of reach or even enclosed in a pattress box. But to have one in a bathroom is even more so...


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