Best ( worst ) DIY bodges.

[Benthejockey]

Had a joiner build a bespoke cupboard to hide the washing machine and stop the pup from eating the electric meter. Lovely cupboard built with a lovely oak top and a couple of doors on the front. Cooking tea that night and I was convinced I'd got a shock off the cooker but I was tired and put it down to static. Next lunch time I come back and Mrs BTJ asked if I'd had a shock off the sink??? No dear. Called father in law because hed moved us a socket earlier in the week. He checked his work and couldn't find anything, but was reading 110v off the cooker and the sink. 'You should be ok, it probably wont kill you but I've got the electricians coming in the morning because I've no idea what its'. A bit of explorative surgery by the electricians and it turned out that the joiner had somehow managed to stick a bloody great big screw into the ring main ams electrify the house, without blowing himself up or tripping the breaker. Luckily it didn't burn the house down or kill any of us.

[JohnfromUK]

2 minutes ago, Benthejockey said:

without blowing himself up or tripping the breaker. Luckily it didn't burn the house down or kill any of us.

I would also be concerned about the effective operation of your breaker system.  Modern (i.e. last 15 years or more) systems use RCCD, which should cut the supply if there is any 'leakage'.

In simple terms - whatever comes up the 'flow' (Live brown wire) must go back down the 'return' (Neutral blue wire).  If what comes up doesn't equal what goes back (and within very close limits), the RCCD trip should operate.  That way any leakage to earth, or other items will be detected and the supply safely shut off.

[Benthejockey]

They had a good fiddle with the RCCD box for that very reason. I cant remember exactly what they did!

[Vince Green]

Round here being 'multicultural' London we have a phenomenon known as The Indian Builders. They don't speak English, I don't think they can read or have any idea that Building Regs even exist let alone what they say.

They have no comprehension of H&S or the laws relating to who is and who isn't allowed to work on gas or electricity but my word are they cheap! and people use them.

[udderlyoffroad]

20 hours ago, JohnfromUK said:

I would also be concerned about the effective operation of your breaker system

Likely working just fine

20 hours ago, Benthejockey said:

He checked his work and couldn't find anything, but was reading 110v off the cooker and the sink

This tells me it was quite a high-resistance connection, which although he felt a shock, didn't allow the required 30mA to flow through him to earth which would cause the RCD to trip. 

[Jonty]

A friend of mine works in a local pub which has just recently changed hands.  The previous tenants left it iwith the private accommodation in a really rough state. New owners went tomrefurb it room by room, when they emptied one bedroom, on shifting the bed they found that the room had been recarpeted around the bed so there was a bed shaped patch of different carpet where it had stood.

[daveboy]

[moondoggy]

17 hours ago, Jonty said:

A friend of mine works in a local pub which has just recently changed hands.  The previous tenants left it iwith the private accommodation in a really rough state. New owners went tomrefurb it room by room, when they emptied one bedroom, on shifting the bed they found that the room had been recarpeted around the bed so there was a bed shaped patch of different carpet where it had stood.

Isn’t that normal in Yorkshire?

[figgy]

27 minutes ago, moondoggy said:

Isn’t that normal in Yorkshire?

Yes along with painting walls around wardrobes. Got to save a few Bob here and there.

[Jonty]

19 hours ago, moondoggy said:

Isn’t that normal in Yorkshire?

He he he...... From a bloke in Lincolnshire 😀😀😀

I wish I'd taken a photo, moondoggy, - it was very 'normal for yorkshire' 👍

[bornfree]

Just fitted a new consumer unit at my father's bungalow. And whilst testing I found extremely high earth impedance. It is TT earthing so their should have been an earth electrode. Apparently the builder who built the conservatory 20 years ago found it in his way so just cut the earth cable off and pulled it up into the loft. No bonding on any pipes so absolutely no earthing.

[Benthejockey]

I'd forgotten this gem. My grandad was a caretaker for a now defunct naughty boys boarding school. Every so often hed produce a load of stationary or the occasional piece of furniture. I remember having a desk made of yellow pine that was the biggest heaviest atrocity of a piece of furniture I've ever seen. Obviously so these kids couldn't smash them up or do much bar graffiti it. Anyway they'd had some painting done, from the colour I can only assume it was a dark room or torture chamber! He decided their kitchen needed a spruce up so with the left over tin he painted it one morning on his tea break. In about half an hour. With no dust sheets on anything. Or moving anything. He painted in bright pea green around pictures, radiators and even around his chair. Grandmother went mad! But it stayed for many years. They were heavy smokers so the ceiling was dark yellow and there was a heavy fug of fag smoke. So the light was perpetually on!

[moondoggy]

23 hours ago, Jonty said:

He he he...... From a bloke in Lincolnshire 😀😀😀

I wish I'd taken a photo, moondoggy, - it was very 'normal for yorkshire' 👍

I'm from Yorkshire myself

[Jaymo]

Now I’m no plumber, but even I know there has to be a greater ‘fall’ than ‘zero’ and the main one is you don’t use a ‘T’ for the toilet waste and have a 32mm sink waste entering the ‘t’ directly using a rubber grommet- it’s got a sodding ‘drill out joint’ on the thing so why didn’t they use it and blank off the 110? ( guess to stop the effluent being pushed up into the sink waste?)

Damn thing had been leaking for years by the look of it- managed to get a bit of ‘fall’ and more importantly I extended to the left with 110mm soil pipe and then joined the sink waste into that ( very well sealed too).

Now the pressure from the toilet should no  longer cause any probs ( well it’s not leaking under test) 

This house is full of ‘short cuts’ that even this rank amateur can see.

Not a great pic but you can make out the old rubber grommet and white waste on the left.

[figgy]

Jaymo 

You get rubber reducing inserts or plastic reinforced rubber or same plastic as the swept branch tee. All work if fitted right. But require fall, bubble on the line is usually close enough.

Preferably the sink waste would go into a boss adapter fitting into the round branch boss on the top of the tee after cutting a hole in it and another bit of 110mm fitted to where your sink waste is now with a bend and bit of pipe up inside the boxing with a air admittance valve.

Nothing stopping you doing this and saving on potential future blockages.

Looking at your set up it could also pull the water out of the sink waste when flushing the WC without air admittance valve. 

Edited April 9, 2019 by figgy

[Jaymo]

2 hours ago, figgy said:

Jaymo 

You get rubber reducing inserts or plastic reinforced rubber or same plastic as the swept branch tee. All work if fitted right. But require fall, bubble on the line is usually close enough.

Preferably the sink waste would go into a boss adapter fitting into the round branch boss on the top of the tee after cutting a hole in it and another bit of 110mm fitted to where your sink waste is now with a bend and bit of pipe up inside the boxing with a air admittance valve.

Nothing stopping you doing this and saving on potential future blockages.

Looking at your set up it could also pull the water out of the sink waste when flushing the WC without air admittance valve. 

Figgy 

Brilliant reply.

unfortunately the sink waste is too low already to go into the boss in the top of the ‘T’ as that was my original idea.

Good thinking about the Durgo- hadn’t thought of that and the way the current sink is boxed in, I very much doubt there is one already.

Would it be poss to use the current boss and use some 40mm of say 500mm high with an air valve on top- know it would be vertically right on top of the current waste ‘T’ but access is minimal and I doubt there would be any back flow up that level?

TIA  

[figgy]

Yes you can do that no problem. 

Your wash hand basin waste would still go into the boss by cutting it and running it higher and dropping into the boss. Even if it means making the boxing higher 

Edited April 9, 2019 by figgy

[Cheesefiend]

The previous owner of my house was a cheapskate and major league bodger. The plumbing under the sink comprises of about 30 joined up small push to fit connectors snaking their way about 4ft to the drainage. 

Huge hole in the lath and plaster ceiling of the airing cupboard (someone has fallen through the attic at some point I guess) was covered up with a sheet of hardboard and a splodge of bonding.

One of the worst/most dangerous was his bathroom lighting circuit - he’d obviously swapped out for some halogen and unwired the previous lights, but for some reason ran new power spliced off the landing light. Everything in the picture below is live, including the splayed loose wires with the black sleeve which are permanent live. This is all right in front of the access hatch too, so about 3” away from where your hands would naturally go to hoik yourself up into the attic. 

[kernel gadaffi]

The house I bought in 1997, turned into a nightmare, we'd been in a month and I went for a shower, it was electric, but it didn't fire up, luckily, the old owner lived 100 yards away, so nipped round to see him, he told me there is a reset button on the side of the fire in the front room, that made the back boiler and shower kick in. I walked away, shaking my head. Back home, I pressed the little button (above a barely visible redlight) and the back boiler kicked in, so I nipped up stairs to try the shower and it had, indeed done the trick. As soon as I could the following day, I called my solicitor and informed him of the problem, he then got onto the estate agent, then the company who had done the survey, this turned out to be a long and drawn out affair which resulted in us getting a good compensation package and the majority of the work reguired to make the house "fit to be used as a residence" at no cost to us.

 

A week later, before any of the remedial repair work had commenced, the same happened, so I called a mate, who was a plumber, he was working in the next street and came round an hour later, I told him of the issues and he got a start, within seconds, he got an electric shock, he checked and the fire/back boiler had been installed incorrectly, he called his mate, the electrician who had been working on the same house with him earlier, he turned up, got out his stepladder to look in the fusebox and he instantly said, "I'm not touching that". Before I could ask why, he was on the phone to the electricity board, requesting someone came to my property immediately. The electrician told me the fusebox was illegal, had been for years and was very unsafe.  The electricity board duly arrived and there was much tutting, shaking of heads and gasps of disbelief, many photographs were taken and I was presented with a 30 amp fuse, why I asked why, the electrician announced, "that is the wrong sized fuse, it should be 5 amp, it's a wonder you haven't burned to death"!  we were sat down and informed of the other issues and what was required, given that it was now 5.30, not a lot could be done and the fusebox was made as safe as possible, but we were restricted what we could use until the work to make it safe had been done and checked. The plumber and electrician promised to be back at 8.30 the following morning.

True to their word, they turned up and began investigating more, at 9am, I contacted my solicitor, told him what had happened and that I had the two lads working at the house and what they'd told me, he asked me to provide a written statement of events and if the plumber and electrician would give written reports to corroborate their findings and work required. 

My name was like dogsh*t in the village where I live, but I didn't care, I was let down buy the seller, estate agent and surveyor, they in turn, paid the price for their negligence, which lasted for several months while the house was inspected from top to bottom. I still have copies of the photographs somewhere.

I still have restless nights because of it.