UKC

I've just been lifting some paving stones prior to levelling and relaying. Consequently I've found out that there is a domestic electrical cable running from the back of the garage(where the consumer unit is) under one line of paving stones, thence under a small area of lawn, under two more stones and into the conservatory. It appears to be sheathed in flexible pvc conduit to within about five inches of where it enters the brickwork of the conservatory wall. It was immediately visible as soon as i lifted one of the stones and I'm seriously concerned as to it legality.

Can anyone advise please?

Thanks.

In reply to mypyrex:

I would be more worried about the safety than the legality. It should be better buried/protected than that but if it has RCD protection it's unlikely to kill anyone. If you don't like it get it fixed but it probably won't be especially cheap to do it properly.

jk

In reply to jkarran:

I think where it runs under the stones it does so through the hard core. I wondered whether to get a length of pvc pipe - split lengthwise - and cover as much of it as I can.

In reply to mypyrex:

Or just chuck the new stones on top and forget about it..

As an aside, the way many houses are built nowadays appalls me. OK I'm not a builder but about twenty years ago I renovated an old cottage. This involved rewiring, replumbing, plastering, stone work, new stair installation, installing a bathroom, reroofing etc., etc.

I took pride in researching what had to be done and how it should be done with special attention to building regs etc.

We moved into a ten year old house about three years ago and it horrifies me at times.

In reply to mypyrex:

Sounds familiar. I was digging out a strip of lawn next to the road in preparation for planting a hedge. About half way along there were some small inspection holes in the pavement. In the soil, a root protruded. I was about to slam my spade through it when I thought better and upon closer inspection discovered it to be the Virgin cable running to our house, buried about 2" under our lawn.

In reply to mypyrex:

Have you considered Armoured Cabling?

http://www.screwfix.com/c/electrical-lighting/armoured-cable/cat830462

I used it for my pond outside

In reply to ByEek:

Virgin always bury their cables very shallow. Fortunately they're carrying very small currents.

I laid a buried power cable to a lamp at the end of our driveway using armoured cable. Main issue is that it's expensive and horrible to work with - trimming the armouring is a hard job!

In reply to The Lemming:
No thanks!

To do anything serious would involve lifting more stones than I intended to(they're bloody heavy) digging up the lawn, disconnecting the cable and reconnecting and myriad other tasks - all because I wanted to level half a dozen paving stones

In reply to ByEek:

But Virgin Cable at 2" might present a maintenance/damage issue. Not a safety issue.

In reply to mypyrex:

https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Book/7.13.3.htm

Read this

In reply to mypyrex:

It's not 100% clear to me if this supplies power to the house or to the garage.

Either way I'd shall out the money to have an armoured cable laid. Not something I would do myself as neatly cutting them needs specialist tools and looks like it needs practice.

As noted elsewhere it's pretty hard to hurt yourself with modern breakers, but if the people who did the wiring have shallow burried non armoured cable, who knows what else they did wrong. Assuming the house feeds the garage I would at a minimum have verified that the breaker in the house trips reliably under the relevant conditions.

In reply to wintertree:
From my OP:

"domestic electrical cable running from the back of the garage(where the consumer unit is) under one line of paving stones, thence under a small area of lawn, under two more stones and into the conservatory."

Thus forming the power supply TO the conservatory(from the CU in the garage)

In reply to mypyrex:

Okay that's much less ambiguous.

So your supply goes as follows - where the pole may be an underground wire on a modern estate.

pole>house>garage>conservatory?

Or

pole>garage>(house and conservatory)?

Is the conservatory attached to the house? Can't you just power it from the house?

So as a bare minimum I'd have tests done that all fault conditions in the conservatory throw the breaker in the garage to make sure the non-armoured cable is protected. Or just replace it.

In reply to mypyrex:

Is your main consumer unit (including DNO fuse and the meter) in the garage or is it a secondary one? If so I presume the garage is attached to the house? As is the conservatory?

Are you sure the wire supplies the conservatory rather than an outdoor light or socket which may have been removed.

jk

In reply to wintertree:

The only tools you need for armoured cable is a hack saw, knife and side cutters but there is a knack to making off the glands.

In reply to jkarran:
Yes
Yes
Yes


Without doubt it goes into the conservatory sub floor level

In reply to mypyrex:

Is it live? You can test by putting a spade through it.

If you can get to it just before the conservatory you could and join it to a new section run to your garage is a more secure route. This could be external conduit or a safely buried cable.

Interestingly I have been aware since we moved in about three years ago of this wire coming through a hole in the garage wall and disappearing underground but could never figure out where it went to. Adjacent to it is another cable which I discovered serves the garden shed. That too disappears underground and IS armoured!

Seems to me that whoever built and wired the conservatory did so on the cheap.

My other obvious concern is the cost of any work involved in replacing it with amoured cable. Would it be sufficient just to armour the section between the garage wall and where it enters the conservatory?

In reply to mypyrex:
I presume the conservatory is a later addition to the house. Is there any obvious reason why the conservatory wiring (couple of dual sockets and a light?) wouldn't or couldn't just be linked into the house downstairs socket ring?

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the layout of your house but it sounds like it's either not quite what you think it is or it's a rather strange bodge!

Edit: just seen your latest post. Get a sparky to have a look, there's probably an easy solution tapping into existing circuits that doesn't involve trenching your garden, armoured cable or too much drilling/cutting.

jk

In reply to Dax H:


What are side cutters?

In reply to Philip:



That's a good idea, it could be routed above ground safely and terminated where it goes underground.

In reply to Timmd:

Another name for wire cutters

In reply to krikoman:

Thanks for that.

...and all because the bloody paving stones were wonky

In reply to mypyrex:


Never mind!

At least you're in good enough health to be tacking things like this again. That's a bigger positive than the cable negative, if you see what I mean.

In reply to Timmd:
http://media1.riogrande.com/Products/Images/Large/111009.jpg

They have the cutting part off to one side. They can be used to cut wire, but also to strip the insulation off the wire.

In reply to jkarran:

That make sense to me.

In reply to Timmd:



The other option, seeing as the wiring has been like that probably nearly ten years, is to put the stones back and say nowt. ;o/

In reply to mypyrex:

Couldn't you just make the hole you put Clegg in a little bit bigger?

In reply to FactorXXX:


Sorry, don't get that!

In reply to mypyrex:

Sorry, don't get that!

Vince Cable & Nick Clegg...

In reply to FactorXXX:

Ha ha

In reply to mypyrex:

I thought from the thread title you were using a euphemism for doing a poo.

In reply to mypyrex:


Correct.

.....And now you know it's there, you'll note it when you do any other work near it.

I've a 2.5mm T&E cable encased in a Hose pipe running across my lawn at a spades depth. I know where the run is. I avoid it if I'm doing digging.

In reply to arch:



The next owners won't, and "hey by the way there's a live mains cable burried not to regs in the garden" isn't somethig you want to say if/when you sell...

In reply to wintertree:


The answer to that could be laying tape above it like they do for buried gas pipes so that is=f you are digging away you should get the tape come up first which should make you stop and have a think.

This could obviously reveal the date the job was done and cause liability issues if there was an incident in the future.

In reply to wintertree:

That's what I'd possibly be thinking about, any consequences for the next people in X decades who live in the place. Once you find something like that it can play on your mind.

In reply to wintertree:

The next owners won't, and "hey by the way there's a live mains cable burried not to regs in the garden" isn't somethig you want to say if/when you sell...



The OP didn't know the cable was there when he started lifting the slabs, and he's survived the ordeal.

The cable is in Conduit, it's under slabs, it's backed up by an RCD, ok, it's not at the required depth (How many underground services are ??) But I'd say the cable is safe enough.

Had a quick look this morning and I'm now thinking that the cable may be under the slabs for its entire run underground in which case I intend to leave it as it is.