Gripe of the day - What is yours?

[SV650rules]

Having worked in industry making complex machinery house wiring drives me mad, it is so unstructured and some electricians run cables diagonally across walls instead of vertically and horizontally, but this is to be expected and with voltage and metal sensing gizmos so cheap and easily available really no excuse for not detecting cables and pipes, if you can be ar53d.....

[Heorot]

What a day. Yesterday, I booked the hospital to get some lumps on my arm looked at. The appointment was for 13:00. Got there on time and they took blood and sent me to a waiting area until the doctor was free.

15:45, the doctor saw me with the blood results. Low on magnesium and haemoglobin. Need a magnesium infusion and then blood.
16:45, Another blood test taken – new cannula. magnesium drip started.
17:45, Magnesium finished. Blood ordered
18:30 Blood arrived and drip started.
20:00. Blood finished.

Yay!! I can finally go home after 7 hours.

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by DarrenSV650S

Where exactly was the cable?

When the fireplace was upgraded by the original owners (>23 years ago) they must have decided to add an electrical outlet. What they should have done is drop it down from the ceiling in the wall, what they did was take it horizontally across/under the fireplace and not mark it. So, the installer was correct inasmuch as the cable shouldn't have been there.

However, if I was drilling a hole in the wall I would check first even if there were no electrical outlets nearby. I will freely admit that if the cable was buried in concrete that would be more difficult.

The installer left without switching my boiler back on, the gas appears to be on so I'm guessing he forgot which tend to reinforce my opinion of his professionalism.

This fire and installation (without the new electrical work) cost £2100 which I paid upfront (won't make that mistake again) - I researched and found the fire and a company to install it for a much cheaper price but I thought I would support the local economy. No good deed goes unpunished.

[daktulos]

Originally Posted by Seeker

When the fireplace was upgraded by the original owners (>23 years ago) they must have decided to add an electrical outlet. What they should have done is drop it down from the ceiling in the wall, what they did was take it horizontally across/under the fireplace and not mark it. So, the installer was correct inasmuch as the cable shouldn't have been there.

When I installed a new circuit for an electric shower (I think about 23 years ago, oddly enough) I dropped the cable from the attic to the ground floor through the external cavity wall. At the time, at least, there was no requirement for the cable to be pinned down inside a cavity. It was also legal for me to do the work myself.

What's regulation now may not have been in the past, I don't know for sure if it's the case here, but given the amount of creative wiring I've seen, I can't believe anyone wouldn't check!

[Sir Trev]

Originally Posted by SV650rules

Having worked in industry making complex machinery house wiring drives me mad, it is so unstructured and some electricians run cables diagonally across walls instead of vertically and horizontally, but this is to be expected and with voltage and metal sensing gizmos so cheap and easily available really no excuse for not detecting cables and pipes, if you can be ar53d.....

We had an extension put on the house 12 years ago and some of the wall lights in the living room had to be moved to suit the new room layout. Came home from work one day to find a channel chased in the wall diagonally from where the existing light feed came down from the ceiling over to the new light position... Good job I did see it as I then knew to check with a detector before hanging pictures on that wall. This is the same bunch of muppets that put a screw through a central heating pipe when refitting floorboards that the alarm fitter spotted when he did his first fit cabling, luckily before the central heating system was refilled! Cannot trust anyone these days.

[timwilky]

I was having the dining room chimney breast removed and the contractor asked about the gas c0ck is it live.

I went into the sub floor, no feed to that so happy said no.

Turns out the installer had gone up the side of chimney in the lounge, run the pipe under the bedroom floors and down the dining room chimney. Crazy they do all that when they could have done it all in the sub floor in the first place.

My son had his lounge decorated and decided to hang a picture, measures the wall divides it by 2 to ensure said picture is central, nail/hammer/ gas pipe. no gas appliances up stairs, but some muppet decides to route gas pipe under the bedroom floors!

[Seeker]

My feud with BurningSensation, the gas fire installers that cut through an electrical cable, continues. I wrote a scathing google review, they replied about how dangerous my house wiring was and that they could have got an electrician for £60 - it cost me £250 to get an emergency sparky. Funny, they never mentioned that when I asked them if they knew of one.
At the end of the day, though - no joy. I've emailed HETAS, Safe Gas and Trading Standards without any luck. Safe Gas said there is no requirement for their members to carry insurance (wow).
I did send BS a copy of Health and Safety guideline about digging and electrical cables. If you don't have any wiring plans you assume there is a cable present and use a detector to locate it, is basically what it says. Common sense to most people you would have thought.

Still, I've written another 4 reviews so far describing what happened and it's proving cathartic. I'm not on facebook but my friend in the US is and I'll see if he can post a review on their facebook page on my behalf.

[admin]

Nice sunny morning all doors and windows open. Retired neighbour decides to trim the hedge adjoining our properties 2ft from where my wife and I are sitting. We give up and go back in the house.
I know these jobs need doing and I have quite a few myself, but being part retired I do them in the week as could my neighbour.


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[garynortheast]

Originally Posted by admin

Nice sunny morning all doors and windows open. Retired neighbour decides to trim the hedge adjoining our properties 2ft from where my wife and I are sitting. We give up and go back in the house.
I know these jobs need doing and I have quite a few myself, but being part retired I do them in the week as could my neighbour.


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Unfortunately the neighbour's attitude really does sum up, in it's way, the cult of selfishness and individualism regardless of it's consequences for everyone else, and which has been promoted and completely shaped our world over the last 40 odd years.

[maviczap]

He wouldn't be allowed in Germany on a Sunday, there's a state law to encourage peace and quiet. I know it's Saturday, but I like the principal.

Anyway he's retired, why couldn't he do it during the week!!