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  • Does anyone southside have a circular saw they could lend me for a few days over the new year? A few beers (or similar) in it, obviously...

  • I've got one which you are welcome to borrow in SE23.

  • Cheers Neil, I'll give you a shout about picking up after the weekend, if you're around?

  • Yes, should be coming back Monday I expect.

  • Do you cover N19?

  • We had the wall cavity insulation thing done under a government scheme a couple of years ago. Ever since my neighbour and I have had increasing problems with condensation and mould and also a huge wet patch on the outside wall. (The gutter had been dripping for 18 years, not affecting the wall, suddenly this year we have mould growing up the outside; I'm assuming the water has affected the brickwork and rotted the insulation).

    I'm about to contact the installation company... It came with a 25 year guarantee. Does anyone have any advice or experience of this before we proceed?

  • I have a couple of double sockets which have failed in the kitchen. I've bought replacements. Am I ok to change them myself? Any advice?

  • @Shoosh you can get a damp meter thing to stab into the walls(internal) and see if the walls inside are starting to get damp problems. If the water has got past the cavity into the 2nd wall then it's a bigger problem but could be a case of using a dehumidifier for a week or two and fixing the leak/drip outside(replaster bits if it gets worse).

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXKLj4BuNp8

    I would think the mould is mostly to do with the outside wall being nearer to the temperature inside as the cavity would have made the outside wall a few degrees cooler. That few degrees could give the mould a longer warm period to grow in/on the wall. If someone has a laser thermometer point it at your outside wall and then your neighbours(one who hasn't had the cavity stuff done) and you should see a few degrees up/down.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUr73BD2VBg

    Both cheap tools could give you more of an idea how/where damage/water is inside the wall(if any).

  • I have a couple of double sockets which have failed in the kitchen. I've bought replacements. Am I ok to change them myself? Any advice?

    How have they failed?

  • Thanks @Clockwise that is really useful stuff. We're pretty sure the insulation has got wet and is going rotten and we hope we can pressure them into pumping all the stuff out, rather than repair it as it is like the building can't breathe any more. My neighbour has it far, far worse than me (one wall and all the insides of her fitted wardrobes are rotting) but mine is getting progressively worse.

  • @Shoosh this might be bad news but it's usually a one way trip with that stuff. It's pretty much like polystyrene once it's expanded. This video shows it expanding rather well.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBO_4kPP4kI

  • @Clockwise. Good job I plan to move soon then! I have been reading via google, articles about installation companies being forced to pump the stuff out and compensation being paid. The Daily Telegraph seems to be on the case that it shouldn't be installed as widely as it currently is.

  • But, but. but... You're a Sparky? Surely you know the Regulations? ;)

    Yes you can just replace them yourself. However as Dammit points out if it isn't just loose terminations in the socket then you probably need to dig further.

    Have all of the sockets on that ring or spur failed or just some?

  • I am planning on removing the awful laminate flooring in my flat. Any opinions on going for engineered wood over solid wood flooring? Seems a bit cheaper

  • Just paint it matte black and open a gin joint.

  • Not sure how they failed. One stopped working, then another... Just happened gradually. Now another one only works if you wiggle the plug.

    I've heard others in this (relatively new) block have also failed. Cheap sockets?

    Sparky jokes are not new.

    ;)

  • That would make me uncomfortable- I'd want to know why they failed.

    Cut the power to the ring main (test a working socket, if you are as paranoid as me to make sure), then have a look inside a failed socket.

  • I'd go for cheap sockets, checking the circuit is quite straight forward. Do you have a multimeter?

  • Don't have one, no.

  • I was going to just turn the whole flat off and use a head torch when switching them. What would I be looking for once I'd got one off the wall?

  • Loose wiring in the terminals would be favourite, then broken live or neutral.

  • ^Exactly. There's only a limited number of things that can have gone wrong that you can put right, if that makes sense.

    i.e. you find that whoever fitted the sockets didn't tighten things enough, so as over time you have repeatedly pushed a plug in/removed it the wire has wiggled out. That's pretty straight foroward.

    Other thing could be that the wires have broken - depending on where, you could fix that, but much beyond this and it's electrician time. You should have a homebuyers warranty thing?

  • I've had a wee look. The earth wire seems to have lost it's insulation near to where the grey sheath starts. Is that an issue. Otherwise I can see no fault. There are two wires on each terminal: does that mean all my kitchen plugs are wired up in a chain?

  • The grey cables looping in and out from the wall are 'twin and earth', where the earth core is not insulated, and of a smaller cross sectional area than the live and neutral, or circuit conductors - this is normal.

    When installed, an electrician sleeves the bare earth, but there's always a gap - this is normal.

    The circuit in the picture is most likely (though not guaranteed to be) a ring circuit. That is, at the distribution board end there will also be two lives (brown) and two blues (neutral) going into the terminals of the circuit protective device (MCB/RCD) - one from each end of the ring.

    As regards tightness of connection, are you sure there's no wiggle at all on the brown and blue wires?

    If they are in damn tight then you have to look at sockets either side of the one that's not working. On ring circuits tracing the fault can be problematical as it is being supplied from two sides.

    One way of making this easier to find the lack of continuity is to go back to the distribution board and take out one of the grey cables (so ensuring you have the blue and brown from one cable, and not the brown from one and the blue from another..), connect these ends into a piece of connector block - now you have a radial circuit.

    Remove all plugs from the ring circuit and re-energise the MCB. Plug a load into each socket, starting at the board end - at some point as you successively plug and unplug the load, you'll find a socket that doesn't work. All sockets after this point should also not work - do check this is the case. If it's just one of the two sockets on the unit then you have a bad socket - bingo!

    De-energise and check the terminals, if they are all very tight then substitute a known good socket into the problem location. Repeat the procedure above to see where the (next/another) problem is.

    As you're going along, inspect all grey cables and brown and blue wires for cuts/nicks/abrasion that may have exposed bare copper, also look for charring of cables, black flash marks on metal back boxes and at terminals of sockets.

    At the end of this, (a) all your wiring will be tight, (b) if a problem socket, then positively identified and replaced, (c) a broken cable in the wall has been located. If this then I'd suggest you get an electrician in to re-wire that part.

    Lastly, don't forget to de-energise and replace the end of the ring back into it's MCB.

  • ^Winner of most helpful post of 2015 (so far!)

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Home DIY

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