I don't normally watch any of the current run of TV shows, but I just happened to catch a few minutes of "House of Horrors" last night while fiddling around with a TV set. This is a show where the crew sets out to trap dishonest tradesmen by having them do work at a house while recording everything with carefully secreted cameras and microphones.

Last night's included a landscaping company which was to install a water feature and rockery in the garden. Leaving aside the fact that the landscaping aspect certainly wasn't worth the £2000-plus being charged, we were shown the wiring which had been installed for the pump and lights.

The transformer for the lights had been put inside a plastic bag, the ends taped up around the cables, and then the whole lot buried in the rockery. The 240V feed from the house was spliced to the transformer (and presumably the pump) by using what was obviously just a choc-block taped over and then buried directly in the ground!

It was a little hard to tell from the limited amount we were shown, but it also appeared to me as though they'd just taken a length of twin-&-earth and buried it directly in the ground from the house. It might have been something like Hi-Tuf, but I doubt it.

We didn't see how the cable had been terminated in the house, although we were treated to a shot of the aforementioned lekky-trishun drilling through the wall for the cable -- Immediately to the left of an existing flush-mounted double 13A socket.

Hi Paul,
I don't personally watch a lot of TV these days, mainly due to the fact that I don't have the time and when I do want to watch it, there isn't a lot worth watching on anyway, unless you are into the myriad reality and "naughty children" shows.
Anyhow,
We had a similar type of programme on here called "Target" that ran for a while and that caught out a lot of people in all sorts of areas.
I can't help but think that sort of thing borders on entrapment, as in being filmed without thier permission.
I have a DIY manual here somewhere that was written in Australia that shows that particular method of installation.
Am I to assume that new circuits of this type are not required to be connected at the switch-board?.

UK Part P- doesn't that nail them?

If you want to see [i]real[/] Houses of Horrors look no further than 'DIY-SOS' on Discovery, and meet the folks who thoroughly destroy their own homes before a team of 'experts' put it all right. The amateurs do far worse than any incompetant 'cowboys' could ever imagine in their wildest dreams. Excruciatingly funny too.

Alan

Don't get me wrong either guys,
If you do good work you have nothing to fear.
An e-mail was sent to my old EC Company that myself and my Apprentice where filmed, but as there was nothing wrong with our conduct it would not be televised.
That worries me a tad, is this just a televised hang-man show, showing only the worst of a Trade?.
No wonder we can't get Apprentices!.

{Oh sorry I forgot to be PC, that should read Hang-Person.}

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 05-25-2006).]

I saw that too about time these cowboy traders were caught.

No, BS7671 allows something like that to be connected as a fused spur from the ring circuit, subject to proper installation, RCD protection, etc.

We didn't see how the circuit was actually run from the house. He may have fitted a fused connection unit, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was just T&E cable into a 13A plug.

I should have also mentioned that he didn't appear to have removed the socket to even check which way the cables in the wall entered the box. He could easily have drilled straight into them -- BS7671 specifies zones directly inline vertically and horizontally from an outlet as being "safe" zones in which cables can be run without additional protection.



[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 05-27-2006).]

Interesting thing Paul,
On one of the "Target" shows here, one of the scenarios, was for an electrician to install a socket outlet on the opposite side of a stud wall, to an existing one. (Called a back-to-back installation here)
Electrician and his apprentice comes in and checks the existing socket outlet, it's OK, next thing you see is the apprentice at the switchboard and he turns the main switch off.
All the cameras go off.
Reality TV, big on ratings, short on brains.
Camera comes back on as the pair are leaving.

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 06-01-2006).]

This TV show has just started a new series.

And what was the subject of their first show. "Solar Pannel Salesmen" not the installation but the sales pitches used.
It was just shocking to see the lenths that some salesmen went to to get a sale. Mostly to the elderly who have the least benifit to gain.

Put me in mind of a thread I seen in here where someone worked out the actual cost compaired to the saving of these devices.

The Target show "targeted" two friends of mine here who run their own carpet laying company. A couple of hard working, honest, dutch brothers whose father was a carpet layer and have both completed 4 year apprenticeships with reputeable companies.
Master craftsmen in their trade in my opinion ( and my old mans a carpet layer). Between them their is 50 yrs experience in carpet-laying.

Target asked them to do a job and filmed it, and then asked the owner of their direct competitor to provide an analysis of the job. Of course this was biased and inaccurate. I watched this episode and it bothered me how Target can sensationalise and distort things. I haven't watched it since.

Target is famous here for exposing the "Electrician And The Underwear Drawer Incident". This was majorly embarrasing for the 99.9999 per cent of other electricians who will now find that homeowners won't trust an electrician unsupervised in their house anymore.

Theres got to be a better way of exposing bogus tradesmen than the reality TV method.

LOL Mike, I recall that Target programme.

Typical TV shows, quoting all the usuall he should have done this and didn't do that etc.

But no footage in that case

We found some absolute "shockers" in our own home in Ireland all of which were done by trades people who shouldn't have been anywhere near wiring!

Wonderful DIY jobs:

1) The bathroom mirror lights (apparently installed by a 1970s bathroom store) didn't even use choc-blocks but rather were directly connected to the fixed wiring by means of the "twisted cables under a bit of electrical tape burried in plaster" method.

2) The central heating timer which had a live casing as the contractor didn't bother connecting the earth and had pared a live cable back so far that it was in contact with the casing as well as the terminal.

3) The cooker hood (Extractor hood for US-english speakers) and a double socket outlet in surface-mounted crookedly on the wall in the living room were wired directly to the back of the oven!!!!!! Seems they didn't have a socket in that corner and wanted the TV there.

4) Someone, while doing building work, had severed the main earth connection to the distribution panel leaving the entire house ungrounded. It was a TT system too.

We'd actually never noticed this one! The Power company called out to install a new meter (night rate etc) and did an earth loop test, just to be 100% sure. It failed, they spotted the problem and put the whole house on a 30mA RCD installed directly after the meter and suggested we get a registered electrician out a.s.a.p.

The EC discovered that not only this but they'd actually cut the cables connecting the earth rods while laying a patio!

We ended up reviewing the entire installation, replacing and expanding the panel. Upgrading the service to 100A (from 63A) which wasn't a big deal as the service itself was 100A capable, it was just a matter of replacing the customer tails and the new panel.

The installation was also changed to T-N with the approval of the PoCo.

The original, non DIY, wiring in the house is actually pretty high spec. It's all well planned, easy to access i.e. cables either run through the attic space or in the service basement and are even in trays!

No room has fewer than 4 outlets, even the main bedrooms had 8 (4 x doubles).

All MK fittings

20A radials for sockets
10A radials for lights.

Proper RCD protection was installed from day one.

Just shows though, how a perfectly safe installation can be made very dangerous by idiots.

Of course there are many honest and nice contractors. But after having worked in the electrical trade myself and having had lots of work done at home I certainly won't trust ANY tradesmen unsupervised! First you never know what they're actually doing, second and more important, tradespeople have a strong tendency do do what they THINK the customer want's - which is sadly often the exact opposite of what the customer really wants.
I just remember an architect friend of my parents who was supposed to do the general plans on a basement remodel but ended up nearly being fired because he messed with the interior design, like specifying pink tile, pink walls and pink and green flourescent lighting...

when I worked for an EC, (many years ago) we had a Class B journeyman who was sent to wire an office in a goat barn.
(FYI: class b is romex/ residential wiring only) which should have been simple, but this guy was a lil off.........lol
well he was like 1/4 way thru the job, and got pulled off by the owner, seems that one of the goats was fond of him, and kept following him around, making goat noises, so he taped the goats mouth shut w/ electrical tape, he got sent home, and we had to finish the job. Personally I would have fired him.....

..., he just got baaaahhhed!

Kiwi,
That's it in a nutshell, mate.
I mean, surely, the competitor company is going to make the other company look bad.
That is very under-handed practice IMO.
Yeah,
I saw that episode on TV and I could not believe that that "incident" was actually televised.
Imagine how the guy that owned the company that employed the guy felt (assuming he wasn't a sole-trader) when he saw that on National TV, or indeed his family and friends.
I've always felt very uncomfortable with working inside other peoples houses, hence the reason for giving away Domestic Electrical work entirely.

We do not need idiots like this being put on TV, because essentially we ALL get tarred with the same brush by the viewing public.
And what parent would let thier child sign up as an apprentice in a trade like this, if the behaviour of that one guy on TV demonstrates the behaviour of the rest of us?.

Target has a LOT to answer for, no trade is perfect though, there are bad eggs in all of them.
I find it strange how they haven't had any builders on Target yet, or did I miss that one?.