Electrical Problem

punchestown

Folks,

Was hoping for some advice please. The fuse box for the upstairs plugs blew last night. Basically there was a flash(bang) in a part of the kitchen ceiling and when I checked the fuse box, the trip switch for the upstairs plug was down. The electricity in rest of house working ok but I left the switch for the plugs untouched. Where the flash (bang) occured in the ceiling of the kitchen, there is a black mark about 4 inches in diameter and some plaster has been removed. Obviously an electrician will be required to sort this out, but I was hoping somebody could point me in the direction of cost and how much possible damage lies where this bang occured?

Thanks in advance and apologies for my lack of electrical skills

Stoner

well you'll need to address this correctly, it is a serious fault to cause that level of physical damage, so it is hard to give an indication of the cost, there are any number of reasons why this happened, it could have been a nail shorting out the cables, dodgy appliance etc. but the cables are damaged now so you need to replace them regardless.
If the cables can be pulled down and just a section of the loop replaced (i.e not a joint) under kitchen counters etc you might be ok, but if the cables cant be pulled out and reinstalled then there could be plastering and tiling costs.

hopefully it will work out well for you

oneweb

All depends on how old the house is. If it's ~50 years, it could be that the wiring insulation (the outer layer) has decayed, left the wires exposed and they touched each other. If it's not that old, there may have been a mouse or something similar which got through the insulation, or something connected to that circuit (was there anything switched on at that time?) involved.

Either way, to be done properly, that cable will need to be replaced, whether it goes from one socket to another or from one socket to the fuse board. But there is a problem, whether it's age of the wiring, presence of rodents or faulty wiring so it should really be investigated.

I'm no expert in the field but you'll obviously need the ceiling re-plastered and maybe painted to look normal again. It certainly pays to look around but don't necessarily go for the cheapest option because it may not be done right!

Hope that helps.

punchestown

thanks lads, the house is about 40 years old. I was going to call out a lad later to have a look but was worried that as Im clueless, he might take advantage. There was new heating installed last week (complete overhaul of old system) which maybe could have been a factor? mice unlikely as havent had a problem with them in years but electrics havent been touched in years. Hopefully its not a major job!

cheers

DublinDilbert

punchestown wrote: »

thanks lads, the house is about 40 years old. I was going to call out a lad later to have a look but was worried that as Im clueless, he might take advantage. There was new heating installed last week (complete overhaul of old system) which maybe could have been a factor? mice unlikely as havent had a problem with them in years but electrics havent been touched in years. Hopefully its not a major job!

cheers

If there's trip switches the house must of been rewired in the last 15 years or so....

What circuit tripped out upstairs? the sockets or lighting?

Can you post a pic here of the mark on the ceiling?

What work was done on the heating system?

Looks like you will need an electrician to get to the bottom of it... more than likely he'll have to knock a hole in your ceiling unless there is access from above...

punchestown

DublinDilbert wrote: »

If there's trip switches the house must of been rewired in the last 15 years or so....

What circuit tripped out upstairs? the sockets or lighting?

Can you post a pic here of the mark on the ceiling?

What work was done on the heating system?

Looks like you will need an electrician to get to the bottom of it... more than likely he'll have to knock a hole in your ceiling unless there is access from above...

May have been before my time here. I am in house about 6 years, the box in the hall containing all the fuses has not been changed since then.

The switch box has everything up except the switch for one of sets of plugs. When the bang happened last night, on checking the fuse box the switch for plugs was down and I wasnt going to try push it back. Checked everything upstairs, lights working fine but none of the plugs in the upstairs rooms are.

Im afraid I dont have a digital camera to post pic (sorry) but the mark and damage to the ceiling are minimal. Looking at the damage closely I can see what looks like some fuse inside the plaster but again I didnt want to be touching off anything.

The heating system was a complete overhaul. All the rads and old pipes removed and new rads and pipes put in.

Cheers

2 stroke

It may be worth checking if you are covered by insurance for damage caused tracing this fault. If the tripswitch hadn't tripped they would almost certainly have had to pay out. Look for an independant assessor.

punchestown

Thanks for the posts guys. Had a sparks out this evening and he id'd the problem as being water from one of the old pipes dripping down onto the live wire causing the bang. He fixed up the piping and covered the wiring and plugs are back working.

Thanks again for advice on here. It was great having some inkling of what was going on

punchestown

Folks,

Just to update and hopefully receive some advice from the knowledgable within these halls.

Same problem occured yesterday, different area but close enough. The problem is a water pipe (connecting to the bathroom sink area) which when the tap in the bathroom is left running for a short time, cascades water on to this electrical wire under the floorboards and down the downstairs kitchen wall. The pipe had a nice hole put in it by the clown doing the heating system. He neglected to inform us at the time! They are sending somebody round Monday to cover up their incompetence and the electrician is patching up what he can in the meantime. Could someone advise as to next route to take please? Obviously speak to the manager of the heating firm but could/should I press this further? Worried about damage from the water coming out of that pipe long term plus i have had to pay the sparks for all these call outs.

thanks in advance

Stoner

well keep all your records, document everything, inform the manager that you are worried about a fire risk. check all your somke detectors and start using the written word. If it continues it may require some legal advice, (but that's over and above the scope of this forum, sorry)