Home DIY

you know that photo i showed you last week, well that's what's awaiting...

Nom nom nom...

It has to be said though I'm pretty sure neither of us shit in the bath. Not with any regularity anyway.

Did he stick any plaster over it?

If not I'd suggest we skim over it with plaster, then sand that to a flat surface.

I bought a big bucket of ready made plaster skim.
Big cracks are plastered over already and I treated all the small ones with filler this afternoon.

Oh, they also refitted the handrail, but left those two gashes behind the old brackets, so I need to chisel down the crap around and fill them up.

Cool. Watch plastering videos on YouTube to learn how.
The key is to start at the bottom and plaster up.
You'll not get it perfect but once it is dry you can sand it flat. This is known as cheating.

Slow draining bath.. do I plunge it or fill it with sulphuric acid or spit at it or look around outside for some kind of trap to clean or what?

I've got a slow draining kitchen sink. Emptied the u-bend, no blockage. Sent a 15 foot drain snake down, still no change. Just leaking joints under the sink (perished rubber seals and disturbed solvent seals) to show for it.
Haven't plunged. Will send in the sulphuric acid tomorrow...

Nature of the cock-up:

The wiring circuits in my flat were laid out when the reinforcing cages where put together for the concrete frame- they used steel pipe of around 1/2" diameter, through which the wiring is run.

The lighting circuits are Live and Neutral, red and black single core.

In the ensuite there is a ceiling rose, and then (previously) a steel pipe ran down to a switch.

I've cut the pipe off, so just have the L&N wiring coming from the stub of pipe in the ceiling.

I had run that into a switch outside the ensuite by the door.

My intention was to use that L&N to power the extractor- but it looks like I need to connect into the L&N before the lights, if that makes sense, rather than after them, as I am now.

It does make sense. My thoughts would be to wire it as per your drawing but the convention seems to be to pick up the live and neutral from the ceiling rose before the light switch and run it to the fan via a double pole isolator. The switched live then comes via the light switch but is unaffected by the isolator. Mine, in a 10 year old house, are all wired this way as are all the other recent 'professional' installations I've happened upon.

I guess the reason for this is that the fan can be isolated without affecting the bathroom light. The danger is that you have the potential for a live feed if you isolate the fan to replace it but have the bathroom light on.

Yep, so what I need to do is to open the ceiling void, make the L&N run to the double pole isolater, then run the switched live and N back to the lights, whilst wiring the extractor as above.

This'll require me to:

• Remove lights from ceiling
  
• Unscrew plasterboard panel
  
• Rewire
  
• Chase new wire into wall
  
• Put it all back together again
  
  

So, just time consuming an annoying, but not a massive issue.

^^Actually I got it slightly wrong. You either need a 3 pole isolator to isolate both the permanent and the switched lives plus the neutral or a 2 pole one and isolate the light too. Here's a wiring diagram showing both optins.
http://www.vent-axia.com/files/pdf-downloads/441848.pdf
The 3 pole isolator sounds favourite as you can safely work on the fan with the lights on.
http://www.screwfix.com/p/mk-10a-3-pole-fan-isolator-switch-white/12319?cm_sp=Search-_-SearchRec-_-Area1&_requestid=1242125

^^Actually I got it slightly wrong. You either need a 3 pole isolator to isolate both the permanent and the switched lives plus the neutral or a 2 pole one and isolate the light too. Here's a wiring diagram showing both optins.
http://www.vent-axia.com/files/pdf-downloads/441848.pdf
The 3 pole isolator sounds favourite as you can safely work on the fan with the lights on.
http://www.screwfix.com/p/mk-10a-3-pole-fan-isolator-switch-white/12319?cm_sp=Search-_-SearchRec-_-Area1&_requestid=1242125

With the two pole and the existing wiring diagram I believe that the wiring would go as follows:

Consumer unit>circuit run to ceiling rose>run to two pole isolator>run to lights+switch+extractor.

Therefore, if I turn off the two pole isolator (which will have a bulb of its own to indicate on/off) that would isolate the whole thing after the isolator?

Sort of but you would need a junction box or similar with the feed wiring removed from the ceiling rose as the ceiling rose would now pick up all it's supply from the isolator. I would also not bother with an indicator light on the isolator unless you really want a red neon glowing 24/7.
The 3 pole wiring diagram actually looks the simplest in the long run as you keep your existing lighting wiring and piggy back onto it in the ceiling rose to feed the fan and isolator.

I would suggest that if there has been wholesale alteration to a fixed domestic installation that relied on metallic containment as the earth fault return path, then the metallic containment is possibly not continuous back to the source of supply, and that the possibility for sustained fault potentials at greater than 50VAC is realistic.

I would suggest that a periodic inspection be carried out before any more non-competent alterations carried out.

This should reveal whether the protective earth is continuous, the circuits are properly installed, and the protective devices of the correct type and rating.

The metal pipes are not earthed, I've inspected them from consumer unit to where they all terminate, and unless they are connected to an earth inside the concrete they are cast into there is no earth bonding.

I could earth them to the outer of the mains feed, or the mains water pipe.

It is perfectly possible that they are no longer continuous within the concrete, I would have to run round the house (where possible) and check from CS termination to socket, which would involve some guesswork.

Sorry, should have mentioned- that's all done, by the plumber when he fitted the new boiler.

Ok, the following diagram shows the termination point of three metal tubes in the ceiling, which was hidden by and connected to the old pendant light fitting.

Where it says "ensuite lights" is where the old pendant was attached.

I discovered that if I undid the wires marked "kitchen" then the kitchen lights failed to operate.

My assumption is that what I have going into "ensuite lights" is a switched live (from the ensuite switch) and a neutral.

I need an unswitched live and neutral to run into my extractor circuit, what is the best way of achieving this?

Just in case anyone is having issues with my incredible diagram:

Worked it out.

Or maybe not!

I've wired it like this:

However, as long as the isolator is closed, allowing current to flow to the fan, even with the light/fan switch open, the fan operates.

WTF?

Switched / permanent lives reversed?

Or did you buy a fan with a humidistat?

Dammit are you going to lay parquet flooring?

Switched / permanent lives reversed?

That was my first thought, but they are totally separate, the switched live is definitely switched, the permanent definitely permanent.

Or did you buy a fan with a humidistat?

Nope, def a timer

Dammit are you going to lay parquet flooring?

Possibly

Back to the wiring in the ceiling I guess you've got loop in wiring where the live and neutral come from the fuseboard into the first light fitting, out to the next and so on through all the lights. This accounts for 2 pairs of red and black wires. The third pair will go to your light switch and the black wire is actually the switched live and should be identified by maybe some red tape round it.
Perhaps there's some 'issues' here?

From my diagram up the page, here is what I think is what:

You can see the main "L" and "N" identified, and the extractor is on a new circuit taken from those two wires, where there are existing junctions.

The switched live for the lighting circuit is identified, and to get power to the T on the extractor I am running a wire from the switched live side of the light switch to the 3 pole isolator, and onto the T.

If I turn the light switch off, interrupting the switched live (checked by seeing the lights go off) the fan keeps going beyond the 120 seconds of the timer.

Operating the 3 pole isolator turns the fan off.

If you turn the lights off and then the fan off using the isolator, leave it 30 seconds and then turn the isolator on, does the fan start running without the lights on or does it need the lights to be turned on to restart it?
Just thinking maybe the overrun timer is wound up. It probably could run on for up to 30 minutes?