I was gonna say.. they want someone like you who pointed out the problems to rewire, not go find some clown to waste more money. Nice to make some one happy re doing a hardware something or other for their home or car, make them safer, and happier, get paid for your honest efforts... It's a nice feeling.
@@BatXDude geez I dunno... Probably not. That might fall into a well you got this uncertified no permits pulled work done and you accepted it so it's kind of done.. but she could try.
BatXDude if she really wanted to she could go to small claims court and probably get it that way with videos and pictures of the shoty work they did as evidence OR she can spread the word that he’s no good al she has to do is tell ten people and guess what the chain started
While we also have that black ribbed tubing in the walls, you will never know what pain in the ass is to replace cable in one of those. It is better for the wallet, but it is really frustrating, especially when a wire gets stuck somewhere and you have to fiddle with it.
I know this is an old video, but....I'm not a spark but I do enjoy watching pros at work. I bought a 3 storey 7 bedroom house a few years ago. It was a big Victorian house that had been converted to three flats and then converted back again to a single home. We were told it had been completely rewired but no certificates were available. That should have rung alarm bells, but to be honest you deal with so much rubbish buying a house you end up just wanting to get it done so things slip past. I called out a local spark, father and son team, brilliant. They came to fit a 32 amp car charger for me.What they found still gives me the shivers, just like watching Chris's video. In the cupboard where the (totally inadequate cu for that size of house) cu was situated, the ceiling had been lowered. In the void above were dozens of old school round junction boxes that took the old red and black twin and earth forward to the cu in new colours. This was done by the developers 'electrician'. It cost us a fortune to rectify. The developer, of course, went bust and opened up the next day under a different name. I know that nobody wants a ton of legal issues, but, it would be so good to be able to name and shame without fear of comeback. What these jokers do is not only dangerous but potentially lethal. Keep up the great work please.
IP44 is IPX4 compliant. The X simply refers that the first number after IP can be any number. The last 4 is the important bit. That said, the whole installation is worse than most DIY jobs. I think the spark who did that went by the name of Stevie Wonder...
First number refers to dust ingress, second is water ingress. Ipx4 means the dust ingress is not required but has an ingress protection of 4 for water.
@@thisnthat3530 Imo,with the lamp being that close to the shower head means it's possible for "water jets" to fly about. I think most people don't point their shower heads at the ceiling and much less at the light fixtures but hey,anything can happen...and it's still *possible* for it to happen to that light fixture. Agree?
Ipx4 is basically the same as IP44 The 1st number is protection against solid materials and X just means that protection level not formally tested. But i would always really suggest to the client to go with a ip65 fitting atleast just as a over protection.
come to that, she should also get the plasterer and carpenter/builder back. The whole job looks reasonable at first glance, but the closer you inspect, the more you find which could be done differently and better. She has been comprehensively ripped off.
Couldn’t agree more, I am an electrician and see this too often. People don’t want to spend money on something they can’t see yet they use it every day. As long as it’s working they don’t care is the attitude I come across a lot.
I’m a roofer and the amounts of time people have there bathrooms done and things and spend thousands and thousands on upgrades marking there house look good and seem to forget that that roof keeps all that water out when it rains it then leaks all over there nice new bathroom and then they moan
That is one of the problems that is world wide, even here in Canada and I suspect the USA, as long as it "looks" pretty, don't care if it will leak, crack, fall apart or kill someone, just make it look pretty because as soon as the last of the "trades" are gone, the "For Sale" sign goes up. House flippers and the plethora of "skilled handymen" are the worst.
When my pedestral fan died as a kid, maybe 10 years old i took it apart a little as it was around 8PM at night and hot and humid as. Worked out the timer had crapped out so bypassed it to allow normal fan button control sans timer. Of course i did not know electronics at all, so i used a knowingly smaller gauge cable to get me through the "night" as a temp fix with no understanding of electronics or electricity (it's all i had, i used my professional touch the insulated cable why live after an hour to test for excess heat, solid pass as i can write this). It held up for another 15+ years before i refused to move a sub $20 item to yet another house. I don't know how i survived as a kid. That works seems similar to mine, except mine worked reliably for 15 years lol. Jesus, some terrible work there.
That's bloody disgusting. The moron that did that needs connecting to his own wiring. Electrical work is so easy to get right, it makes you wonder how so many people can get it so wrong. Keep up the good work buddy.
I’m an electrician in the states and all this is super foreign to Me, but I absolutely love your passion for the trade, makes me think there’s still hope
I live in the States, and I'm not even an electrician and some of that work just looks shoddy at best, especially the uncovered wiring. That's a fire waiting to happen. Least they could do is wrap it in electrical tape.
I'm not a sparky but understand most of this stuff (bonding, wire gauges, IP ratings, MCB ratings, RCDs, switch ratings, rings,...) but I've looked at some US electrical vids too. Knew it was 110V, but what surprised me is that the 110V is actually a centre tap off the transformer and both halves are brought into the houses, so there is actually 220V available for heavy duty appliances like washing machines. The other interesting think to note is it's all single phase for residential in the UK, but in Germany, I've heard they do triple phase cookers and things.
@@andyonions7864 yeah in the states standard residential mains are considered 120/240 split-phased. BUT.... I have seen larger homes in New Orleans with 120/208 Delta high-leg before.
Poor customer really been screwed over, I've never seen a documented install this dangerous. Hopefully she allows you to make this safe for her own sake.
i don't think was screwed . sometimes clients are really cheap bastards and they find people to do the shit job ... i know someone that got fed up and made a job worthy of customer money (shit) and left a note for the inspector. inspector came, seen the note , laughed , writted off the work as not safe , customer had to pay for everithing redone again and at full price this time. money and time lost for client because the first guy was ''nice'' enough to meet client's expectation. cheap/fast/crappy job.
I'm glad you made this video. It's a typical demonstration of what we're all seeing now. Sadly it won't change until somebody starts slapping wrists with fines.
I can sympathize with you mate checking this job out. What a total bodge up.I am a retired electrician and mainly wired new houses. Always did the job right. Who ever did this work was not a proper electrician.
More than likely not a sparky. Just joe schmoe doin it for a pint. I'm an apprentice going on journeyman and I did a better job in my first year... wth
Pretty bad but I've seen worse! I recently went through a flat in Austria, built in 1914, partly re-wired in 1991. Ended up being a full rewire including the 1991 parts. Apparently before WWII the regs allowed for single-insulated singles to be run in plaster without conduit and some folks continued that practice well into the 1950s, so that's what we found. Minimum cross-sectional area for fixed wiring was 1 mm2 back in the day of rubber and fabric covered wires, 1.5 mm2 later (I'm not quite sure about the timeline, the German 1938 regs that came with the occupation certainly specified 1.5 mm2 copper or 2.5 mm2 aluminium and they were in essentially in effect until 1962). What we actually found was 0.5 mm2 doorbell wire supplying lights and sockets in some spots! The original circuit had probably been 4 or 6 amp but the 1991 sparks connected it to a 10 amp MCB and when that failed, someone swapped the wires to a spare 16 amp. That doorbell wire bodge job was apparently done in 1960 judging by the newspapers they'd stuffed into some of the holes before plastering. They couldn't be bothered to use continuous pieces of wire either, there were some runs as short as 30 cm that were two pieces of wire spliced together inside the wall! Then there must've been another round of wiring additions, oddly enough using Italian accessories in tiny little back boxes (20x50 mm, 35 mm deep). That was all done in 0.5 and 0.75 mm2 twin flex plastered in, usually taking the craziest routes through the walls. Like, why spur off a socket 50 cm off to the side from where you want a new one if you can run some 5 m of flex through two rooms, destroying a whole lot of wallpaper and plaster in that process? Or, if you want to change a ceiling light from a single-gang to a double-gang switch by adding a second switched line, why bother pulling wires through the existing conduit if you can trench halfway across a plaster & lath ceiling? The chaps back in 91 disconnected all the Italian extensions but left much of the older stuff in place. I'm fairly sure in one instance they even ripped out some perfectly fine 1.5 mm2 cable, replacing it with new that was connected to doorbell wire, just because they couldn't be bothered to find either of the two junction boxes nearby. These didn't even have covers on, just wallpaper! If they'd found the box the old 1.5 mm2 went to, they'd even have found an earth! None of the existing work, except the kitchen sockets, was earthed, all the sockets were the classic round-pin type with no earth (legal for new installations until 1958). The basic idea was that in a room without any earthed pipes etc. you couldn't receive a fatal shock, even if you touched an exposed live wire so that's why those sockets were considered acceptable (some countries kept that system much longer, Sweden until 1993!). In 1991 the sparks ran exposed earth wires to all the sockets to keep up with then-current regs but didn't do a great job either.
at 16:00 IPX4 and IP44 are equivalent. IPX4 means IP(anything)4. The first number is irrelevant as it denotes dust resistance, the second number is the water resistance. So there is nothing to "add to the list" there.
@@user-ul5gi9yw9t The light is IP44, but it doesn't look appropriate in my eyes for a bathroom, not typical for a bathroom, also, do you trust some unbranded kit with their IP ratings.
I lived in Thailand for 20 years, so that's some of the best domestic electrical work i've seen in 2 decades, so conjure up an image of what i've seen done and then triple it, magnify it with your worst ideas and then it'll just tell you not to buy a property in Thailand! good luck but what i've found is that sometimes, the customer doesnt listen to people and just demands and folk with no ethics will just do the work. I once heard a fat australian in phuket demand that the electrician just twist and tape in a new piece of cable when a cable melted due to the aussie bloke having 3 houses bodge wired together on 1 electric meter all on 1 knife switch with a bullet fuse and this was after the electrician old him what really needed doing! i have nightmares about Thai wiring and that place looks just like them
Shocking. A case for Trading Standards, although no doubt she won't want the hassle. Such a pain in the arse when people throw money at the final finishes, but scrimp on the infrastructure behind it. It winds me up when people tell me they've got the plasterer or tiler booked for next Wednesday when first fix isn't finished and signed off. They want the shiny stuff to go in and look good and don't care about the things they can't see, especially if things appear to be working under normal conditions (never mind if it's dangerous in the event of a fault). It's one of those jobs you probably wouldn't want to win for the remedials. Always hard work to un-cock something that's been so extensively cocked-up!
Last job I did was exactly like this same situation and I said to the guy who hired me (lovely hard working and understanding dude) that the flat is a shit show and it needs a total rewire. He said yeah, whatever it needs, especially since he would be renting. So to save cost he helped me and we did it over weekends. We rewired every single socket, every light, added what was needed and when I say rewire, I mean we literally took it back to the main fuse and earth. New DB, then wired it all as if it were a brand new build from scratch. We even fitted bath gadgets, inductive cooker etc and in the end I’d say the flat is state of the art and with his help I think it cost him around £500/600 (maybe a little more- excluding materials). But in a job like this you are right mate, nothing to do but a full rewire. I said it straight up to the customer when I had a look- we had to raggle walls back to concrete and everything but in the end it’s the only proper way to do things. One thing I’d always advise is do what I tried, then leave lots of spare cable inside the cavities available for future sparks. Also added junction boxes for lights etc where possible. We took that place from fuse wire and disaster, to split 12 way DB with dual RCD. Not heard of a problem since. All the testing was well in line too. Sometimes the hard way is the right way.
Guys, stop before I blow my fuse. Watt are you doing? Each and every pun is only amping up the amplitude of my reaction. One more joke and I'll snap in a hertz beat. I should be unphased by these, but I just can't. If only I wasn't grounded...
I messaged Chris the other day on Instagram, I think it'd be good if he set up and email address just so people of the trade can send him good/bad jobs. He could then do a series on here where he reacts to them? Anyone else think it'd be a good and different series?
I am just amazed by the electrical installation my grandfather did 40 years ago when our house was built.. Nothing has ever failed plus the 3 phase cable that's running around the house can handle over 40KW at 240ac..
we got the very same issue in south africa as well.... builders tell the client they can do everything, electrical, gas, plumbing, etc but they do not have 1 qualified person in their business
David... they shouldn't HAVE to understand... thats what regulations & qualifications are for. The owner here expects the job to be done properly & doesn't expect to have to get an EICR after completion, its supposed to be signed-off on by an ELECTRICIAN !! We all are in a position where we must put our trust in professionals such as doctors, plumbers, electricians, solicitors etc... its what we all pay for... I cannot believe for one moment that this client said to the builder "use cowboys & save me some money".... that never happened, this builder needs to be prosecuted AND shut down permanently....
In America you have to have a permit from the township or city your working in before any work begins. And are given a check list that has to be posted and checked off by an inspector at each stage to pass. And here in California you have to be certified to make up or hook up any wiring. Even if your just replacing a switch.
(5:56) - Can I come with you on your tandem or have you already got someone for the back seat? Or perhaps you meant *_"going off on a tangent",_* in which case, I don't think there is a second seat. Or is there?
Regardless of the IP rating it's not suitable. Although in terms of an EICR, if ceiling height is above 2.25M (which it probably is) its outside of all zones
Dear sir from a fellow sparkband tester.I agree with you totally that is one of the worst installs I've ever seen.a superb video sir well done.keep up the great work and videos.
Thats absolutely shocking, personally think the builder should be traced back and aired to trading standards. Poor woman had no clue what she was getting herself into
" Poor woman" ???? She is an ADULT. Do we expect absolutely no responsibility from women? It's her own fault she only hired workers to make it look pretty.
I am a retired research professor. I've worked in laboratories wired this badly. Scary. What is even worse is when the sparkies come in, do a repair on another part of the building, and your equipment stops working. Motors running backwards, one phase dropped on a three phase line, and so forth. Radio frequency signals on the lines, and other insane things. Good luck cleaning up the mess!
Don't you have standards and someone to report contractors too? In Australia the contractor would gone so quickly along with the person doing the wiring.
If that had happened in the US, I would say the job was done on the cheap, without a permit or inspection. Because it certainly wouldn't pass even a rudimentary inspection. People do this kind of thing all the time. "Why do we need permits? It just makes it more expensive!". And of course when the house burns down and the insurance company discovers the work was done without permits, they won't pay. Too bad.
@@adamshinbrot Yeah the nanny state here the only way to get away with it is for the customer to be complicit. I also showed a UK contractor and he said it's usually because there are heaps on non electricians doing work.
@@EarJuice The problem is a lot of the foreign trades aren't anywhere near qualified enough, or at all. I've worked with a few, and when pushed have admitted they're not electricians or anything near back home. They get a load of non legit certs signed (NARIC doesn't check them properly), do the 18th edition exam ( which is open book so you can't really fail), do a testing course and job done, "I'm an electrician". Or you get the 5 week wonders who think they know everything, after 5 weeks!!! A Lot of British "builders" are like that as well, brown to brown, blue to blue, it works! job done.
Great video, it’s all to common. Arrive to install an extra socket or lighting unit. Pre-work survey, no bonds, recent works, speak to the client, EICR performed & it’s horrendous. I have a few times over my career stopped in the middle of a report, consulted with the client, charged the client a nominal fee & told the client to obtain quotations for rewiring. Basically there was no point wasting my time writing up a report, where there so many defects, taking the age & condition of the installation, it would be more economical & safe to just rewire the property. I always recommend that the client takes further advice if the property is decorated to a high standard. It’s also nice to see an electrician completing the inspection process, which I see very few electricians doing considering the money they get for a report. It tends to just be testing. I charge a days rate for an EICR, so it can be done properly.
Crazy init. These people don't realise how wiring like that can potentially burn their houses to the ground or kill them under fault conditions. Proper earthing can save lives. Genuinely shocked!! Like you said you don't need to be a qualified sparky to see it's wrong, most builder contractors know what good cabling looks like. I think people underestimate the importance of electrical safety. I mean you have a gas leak, you don't get the guy down the road to bodge it back. You are more likely these days to have an electrical fire than a gas explosion. Shame you can't find the guys name and shame him watchdog style. Well done getting the message across
@@cipher1167 It is earthing, Electrician speak. I'm an electrical engineer so grounding. It's weird. Both technically can mean the same thing but not to get into it, There is Earthing, witch is domestic earth. Grounding can be sub-grounding. So you have earth but you also have sub grounds in a circuit. It was Earthing I meant though. Earthing is the correct term
@@cipher1167 Grounding can just mean common place, common ground. A car has negative ground, It just means the negative is connected to the cars shell. This is grounding, it's not earthed obviously, rubber tyres. Earthing specifically means a rod in the ground to decrease Earth resistance over your bodies resistance thus current going to earth instead of you. Your body them becomes a resistive load to earth, not enough current flowing through you to kill as there is a faster, less resistive route to earth for the current to take.
@@cipher1167 Okay a better explanation. I'll leave my last comments as they kind of are relevant but this is a definitive answer for clarity. In an electronic circuit you come in generally to a power supply, say in this case it's a 24 volt transformer with a center tap. The primary would be connected to mains, 110/230 VAC The casing and chassis will be earthed to domestic earth. now in circuit on the secondary we have a choice of what we call ground reference, this can be -12V to give 24V or center tap ground to give +12 and -12V this gives the circuit a ground reference. What ever the ground primary ground reference is usually bonded to earth. Earth and ground can mean different things in this case. On domestic supply it's taken earth and ground can mean the same thing. Earth is usually ground bonded to gas, water and domestic earth. The house technically being a circuit of it's own we say earth is grounded to pipes etc. So Earth being the planet, Earth is ground to the planet if that makes sense.
Andrew Lock I understand what you’re saying, and it makes sense to people that know about electrical theory. However, in the USA we only use grounding/grounded I’m on my 3rd year apprentice and I haven’t heard anyone say earthing in residential, industrial or commercial. Most likely Earthing is an old way of saying it? Like that was the most comprehensive way people could understand in the early stages of electrical theory? Now I know if I go to Europe what earthing is. Thank you man.
I moved into my house and was hoovering the bedroom and switched the light on and it blew the socket !!! When I took the floor boards up no 2.5 only 1.5 wired off the down stairs light !! Shower upgrade , no cable up grade ! Cooked the tiles off the wall !! I am considering re training as an electrician! But seeing this kind of work looks harder to sort out other people’s stuff than doing a complete re wire !!!
wow i was surprised when you found 167V at that socket that means with the full line voltage at 247v there is an 80V drop that is a serious fire hazard i hope you told this lady its a tinder box
Got you beat. Did a remodel where likewise i came in after some butcher of a contractor buried wire-nut splices IN the drywall. Not behind. In. Cut a shallow trough in the drywall, made his illigal flying splice junction and then slopped drywall mud over the whole shabang effectively hiding the junction. And he did that everywhere. I told the customer that they didn't need an electrician, they needed a lawyer.
What also screws in there nicely are No 8 screws. I never use it as an earth though, just for holding lights up. Pyro does last a very long time and I've had to use existing bits in the past (even though it wasn't my choice). But it much rather put new cable in anyday.
oh man you should have come to tunisia (worked there for a year as a S&L tech) they could do so much worse that this. for example i can remember them putting in lights by cutting open some of my speaker cable (4 core) and using the two unused ones for mains because they couldn't be bothered with an earth connection or to run new cables 😂
Don't those remodels require a building code inspection by the local township or city? I'd bet the owner could get all of their money back if the work was done outside code regulations.
There's no legal requirement to tell the authorities you are having electrical work done and they probably wouldn't have the qualified staff and resources to carry out these inspections. Many homes are death traps but of course it will never happen to them.
Enjoying your channel! I encounter many nightmares in my own line of low-voltage work and I know enough about electrical codes in my country (Western Canada) where its easy to spot shoddy work. I'm not sure how your channel popped up in my feed (I'm having to look up all the UK nomenclature) but I'll doff the proverbial to the algorithm and count me as a subscriber.
In switzerland a guy come after the work is done and something like this would never happen in our countr...Whatever i wish i would never see something like this one day. 😂😂 Good luck dude ! 👍🏻
If you read this I’d like your input - I agree totally shocking installation (excuse the pun) but what do you think of splitting dual RCD boards on the new edition? I prefer splitting them as power - lighting. As in high - low. I know it can be random and just generally mixed but I would say the regs should have a case for having a separate fast RCD for any “wet circuits” - toilets, bathrooms, showers etc. Thoughts? Cause then that would stop you ever finding an install like that again, since you would find constant RCD trips all the time to the point where no circuits would work. Or evidently not work in certain areas that the customer would notice.
no, no small claims is not enough for that kind of danger you can go directly to the high court for anything over £1000 don't fucking mess with county court they are useless. in this case there is more than material damages for the cost of replacing the wiring you have to include that the property was put at risk of fire and any occupants safety was put at risk
They'll just declare bankruptcy and get a new person to run the company. A shit company we last had problems with it was the blokes wife officially in charge because the last time he got taken to court he declared bankruptcy. You won't get a penny back from them.
After I watch one like this, I watch one with immaculate bends and planned projects as to remember that real OCD "do it right" electricians are still out there.💪
@@Cjrelectrical well anyway 'its a hard bubble to crack.' Such a lot of work to do there. You will have to 'burn the midnight oil at both ends' to get it all done. When you told the customer about all this did it seem like you were 'pulling the rug from under the carpet' ? 😂
happens in the states too, was at a job the other day in a church the lights weren't coming on and i get above the drop ceiling to take a look at how it was all routed (may i remind you this is an old church that was renovated in the the 80s with drop ceilings) they ran a conduit with new feed lines to the switch and just tied it into the old knob and tube wires from the old lights and extended the old wire with new wire down to the new lights in the drop ceiling. why didn't they just run new wire its a drop ceiling it was all there why was tying into the old knob and tube even a thought at this point.
Even as a competent DIYer, that looks like an absolute state. Makes me wince just looking at it. Even the absolute basics haven’t been followed. I would be taking the builder to court over this.
Builders and remodels do this kind of crappy job all the time all over the world. The reason? That is how they get the job by cutting corners and doing things illegally. I do remodels for living and I get underbid by others doing this kind of job all the time. Sadly, the owners don't care as long is it looks good outside and cheap. I once was subcontracting for another builder and got in argument with the contractor doing electrical work. I quote him for moving junction boxes and pulling new cables cause they were removing part of the wall. I was told "why make it so complicated? Just put splices in the wall. It is not getting inspected and nobody will ever see it." LOL..
We built our own house in Switzerland and comparing this to our electrical installation makes it even funnier. Our fusebox, for instance, is like one by two meters big and every room is fused separately. The security standards here are crazy and that's why something like this could literally never happen here.
but the thing is it is good practice if there is an earth terminal connect the terminal as he said its a metal fitting so it does need an earth becase its METAL WHAT if it comes live and there is no earth fuck the thing been water resistant think about someone getting electricuted
While the fitting might, what about the lamps? I am not sure if has fixed lamps, but if they are replaceable then there is more potential for issues - that is even before you get to the "no earth needed" - if so, why are the lamps connected to the shell with earth leads, and there is even a choke (that will do stuff all disconnected)
Its probably only double insulated if you use them shitty connector blocks that are already on the fitting with that black sleeve over it. By using his own connector blocks, he's fucked it!
I think the point is being missed here. Why put it in zone 1 in the first place but I agree it should be earthed particularly as its in a bathroom. I am not a qualified electrician but worked in the industry all my life on single and 3 phase equipment which I was qualified for.
I think it looks like a pretty standard UK flat. When I rented a house in Sheffield 10 years ago, it was just as bad, hahaha. Here in Sweden, you have to be certified to touch any electrical fittings. As a "civilian" you're only allowed to touch anything after the socket, nothing else. If a certified electrician was found doing this kind of work, his certification would be instantly lost...
It always amazes me seeing the huge differences in how the USA compares to other countries in the electrical industry. Very interesting to see how the differences tie into the similarities.
What an absolute piss poor job! They need reporting before someone gets seriously injured.. The sad thing is, in 13 years of being a Sparkie I myself have noticed work like this on a daily basis the last few years. The Zs says it all! Along with the massive amount of defects.. id be putting UNSATISFACTORY in Bold on the EICR.
Sad thing is the nic arnt intrested in who does these crap jobs all they're interested is that You put it right. I've been a sparky since 1996 and noticed over the last 10 years a massive increase in bodge jobs. Part p has done nothing to stop the cowboys in my opinion! Feel like walking away from jobs like this one, it's depressing to watch lol, clearly not a sparky who did any of that,
Electricians day testing and inspecting the cause of a few mental breakdowns. Horrible horrible conditions and quite scary to think about living with that..mess? However you want to call it. Awesome video and even I as a non electrician learnt a few things, thanks!
I hate seeing electrical work done so badly. I react the same way you do. Feel like its pointless to test anything or even bother with a cert at all after a visual inspection like that! These wannabe electrician builders make us seem expensive and put us out of work whilst they reap the benefits. All the training we have to do, and money we have to fork out to get to where we are! Bastards
True. This guy needs to be reported to the health n safety executive before he kills someone. It's common practice in Oz where I'm from its common knowledge that whomever you have working in whatever trade the need the to be licenced
Yes, the wankers should get the electric chair. Just before switching it on, tell them this is what you get for attempting to kill people. Good riddance to shit builders who think they are electricians. Shooting them is just far too quick and easy.
In my home I've learned the protective ground has been used as neutral, so everything that has ground attached to it gives me a nice little buzz when touched.
Wow poor woman, but it’s got to be done. Needs some sort of reimbursement from the builder. I’ve see some installs in my time but this has got to be the worst, absolute polished turd!
Totally random question on an old video but... I replaced a failed fluorescent tube light (with a metal frame) in the kitchen with an LED fitting that has a metal bracket that can be touched (if you can reach 10ft up). Is replacing this OK? It's an old house and the lighting has no earth. Should I replace it with a new light fitting that has a plastic housing or just expect that if my children grow into giants then they will be sensible enough not to go poking the light fittings lol.
Just so everyone is aware I am now rewiring this flat check out my latest videos
I was gonna say.. they want someone like you who pointed out the problems to rewire, not go find some clown to waste more money. Nice to make some one happy re doing a hardware something or other for their home or car, make them safer, and happier, get paid for your honest efforts... It's a nice feeling.
@@softsmoken Do you know if she got the money back from the previous "electrician"?
@@BatXDude geez I dunno... Probably not. That might fall into a well you got this uncertified no permits pulled work done and you accepted it so it's kind of done.. but she could try.
Awesome CJR, we get the same crap going on here (Canada) as well! Cheers
BatXDude if she really wanted to she could go to small claims court and probably get it that way with videos and pictures of the shoty work they did as evidence OR she can spread the word that he’s no good al she has to do is tell ten people and guess what the chain started
Would love it if you included an update of how the owner reacted and what steps she’s taking
Your idea of how much things cost made me laugh 😂 if they paid 50/60k for that kitchen then the client was ROBBED
@@Macron87 yeah, that flat doesn't even look like a 100k flat!
That kitchen looks like a bnq marletti range , about 5k worth 😂
I think it depends where you live. In my area, these prices seem about right. Fun times in the second most expensive city in the world ^.^
That flat is probably worth close to half a million. Maybe if you got a time machine ride back to the 80's you could pick it up for under 100k.
That flat is in London, it had a total revamp not just the kitchen & 50-60k is a reasonable price... For a good job.
If they’ve been charged £50k for that kitchen they should contact the police.
I've worked on kitchens that are the size of that entire flat and even then with high end materials being used the bill was less then £25k
@Richard Fife I'll do it for 40k all in. Tell you what I'll do the neighbours while I'm there.
It really depends on things such as the area because if it’s a more fancy and richer area, the cost will definitely be higher
Thats why we use tubings in Switzerland so we can replace the cables if it's needed, without destroying the walls and the ceilings
While we also have that black ribbed tubing in the walls, you will never know what pain in the ass is to replace cable in one of those.
It is better for the wallet, but it is really frustrating, especially when a wire gets stuck somewhere and you have to fiddle with it.
@@lazar2175 you are obviously not using enough lube mate ;)
@@spaceeDolphin That may reduce the pain in the ass factor ;)
in sweden we use thoese as well but lets say so, if you haven`t pulled cables into it or replaced, you dont know how to install it.
Fuck yes. That's how it should be done
I know this is an old video, but....I'm not a spark but I do enjoy watching pros at work. I bought a 3 storey 7 bedroom house a few years ago. It was a big Victorian house that had been converted to three flats and then converted back again to a single home. We were told it had been completely rewired but no certificates were available. That should have rung alarm bells, but to be honest you deal with so much rubbish buying a house you end up just wanting to get it done so things slip past. I called out a local spark, father and son team, brilliant. They came to fit a 32 amp car charger for me.What they found still gives me the shivers, just like watching Chris's video. In the cupboard where the (totally inadequate cu for that size of house) cu was situated, the ceiling had been lowered. In the void above were dozens of old school round junction boxes that took the old red and black twin and earth forward to the cu in new colours. This was done by the developers 'electrician'. It cost us a fortune to rectify. The developer, of course, went bust and opened up the next day under a different name. I know that nobody wants a ton of legal issues, but, it would be so good to be able to name and shame without fear of comeback. What these jokers do is not only dangerous but potentially lethal. Keep up the great work please.
You've got to admit though, the tiling is nicely done.
IP44 is IPX4 compliant. The X simply refers that the first number after IP can be any number. The last 4 is the important bit. That said, the whole installation is worse than most DIY jobs. I think the spark who did that went by the name of Stevie Wonder...
I wonder if a shower qualifies as a "water jet"?
First number refers to dust ingress, second is water ingress.
Ipx4 means the dust ingress is not required but has an ingress protection of 4 for water.
@@synony6 Yeah, but the "manual" showed X5 for a water jet so I was just wondering if a shower qualified as one. I'm leaning towards it not doing so.
@@thisnthat3530 Imo,with the lamp being that close to the shower head means it's possible for "water jets" to fly about. I think most people don't point their shower heads at the ceiling and much less at the light fixtures but hey,anything can happen...and it's still *possible* for it to happen to that light fixture. Agree?
Does any of that really matter when the fitting isn't earthed?
Ipx4 is basically the same as IP44 The 1st number is protection against solid materials and X just means that protection level not formally tested.
But i would always really suggest to the client to go with a ip65 fitting atleast just as a over protection.
Agree sometimes I’ll even go ip68 just to go beyond minimum requirements
If that much money has been spent on the flat, i'd get the painter back as well as the sparky.
He painted the floor aswell. 17:13
the guy that did that job, wasn't a 'sparky' by any stretch of the word.
come to that, she should also get the plasterer and carpenter/builder back. The whole job looks reasonable at first glance, but the closer you inspect, the more you find which could be done differently and better. She has been comprehensively ripped off.
Nobody wants to spend £3000 to £4000 for a rewire but will spend £1000’s on stuff they can see...always gets me angry like you
Couldn’t agree more, I am an electrician and see this too often. People don’t want to spend money on something they can’t see yet they use it every day. As long as it’s working they don’t care is the attitude I come across a lot.
I’m a roofer and the amounts of time people have there bathrooms done and things and spend thousands and thousands on upgrades marking there house look good and seem to forget that that roof keeps all that water out when it rains it then leaks all over there nice new bathroom and then they moan
I've made a lot of mistakes doing that..
God yeah! We had a bathroom upgrade all done to high specification and then there was a bad downfall and rain was coming through the ceiling!!!
That is one of the problems that is world wide, even here in Canada and I suspect the USA, as long as it "looks" pretty, don't care if it will leak, crack, fall apart or kill someone, just make it look pretty because as soon as the last of the "trades" are gone, the "For Sale" sign goes up. House flippers and the plethora of "skilled handymen" are the worst.
I used to install, troubleshoot, and repair fire alarm systems. The wiring jobs you would find sometimes were absolutely insane.
More joints than Bob Marleys ashtray
Eire 420 ... Lol.. yeah.. And more ash if it's not put right sooner rather than later..
🤣I'm nicking that one
When my pedestral fan died as a kid, maybe 10 years old i took it apart a little as it was around 8PM at night and hot and humid as. Worked out the timer had crapped out so bypassed it to allow normal fan button control sans timer. Of course i did not know electronics at all, so i used a knowingly smaller gauge cable to get me through the "night" as a temp fix with no understanding of electronics or electricity (it's all i had, i used my professional touch the insulated cable why live after an hour to test for excess heat, solid pass as i can write this). It held up for another 15+ years before i refused to move a sub $20 item to yet another house. I don't know how i survived as a kid. That works seems similar to mine, except mine worked reliably for 15 years lol. Jesus, some terrible work there.
Always nice to have a bit of slack on the kitchen sockets 😆
Hahahaha
Give you the option of moving socket on to the other wall, future proof 😂
😂🤣
@@miike_1m229 With that much slack you could move it to the next county!
I thought It was a fishing rod left inside by John Wayne
Name and shame the builders if the client knows there name. Another great video Chris.
That's bloody disgusting. The moron that did that needs connecting to his own wiring. Electrical work is so easy to get right, it makes you wonder how so many people can get it so wrong. Keep up the good work buddy.
I’m an electrician in the states and all this is super foreign to Me, but I absolutely love your passion for the trade, makes me think there’s still hope
I live in the States, and I'm not even an electrician and some of that work just looks shoddy at best, especially the uncovered wiring. That's a fire waiting to happen. Least they could do is wrap it in electrical tape.
I'm not a sparky but understand most of this stuff (bonding, wire gauges, IP ratings, MCB ratings, RCDs, switch ratings, rings,...) but I've looked at some US electrical vids too. Knew it was 110V, but what surprised me is that the 110V is actually a centre tap off the transformer and both halves are brought into the houses, so there is actually 220V available for heavy duty appliances like washing machines. The other interesting think to note is it's all single phase for residential in the UK, but in Germany, I've heard they do triple phase cookers and things.
@@andyonions7864 yeah in the states standard residential mains are considered 120/240 split-phased. BUT.... I have seen larger homes in New Orleans with 120/208 Delta high-leg before.
Poor customer really been screwed over, I've never seen a documented install this dangerous. Hopefully she allows you to make this safe for her own sake.
i don't think was screwed . sometimes clients are really cheap bastards and they find people to do the shit job ... i know someone that got fed up and made a job worthy of customer money (shit) and left a note for the inspector. inspector came, seen the note , laughed , writted off the work as not safe , customer had to pay for everithing redone again and at full price this time. money and time lost for client because the first guy was ''nice'' enough to meet client's expectation. cheap/fast/crappy job.
@@contytub if she had spent hundreds of thousands as he said on the flat.. she was clearly not cheap.
why screwed ? Hes the idiot who did not checked the work
I'm glad you made this video. It's a typical demonstration of what we're all seeing now.
Sadly it won't change until somebody starts slapping wrists with fines.
Fines ? This sort of thing should be jail time
I can sympathize with you mate checking this job out. What a total bodge up.I am a retired electrician and mainly wired new houses. Always did the job right. Who ever did this work was not a proper electrician.
More than likely not a sparky. Just joe schmoe doin it for a pint. I'm an apprentice going on journeyman and I did a better job in my first year... wth
@@joshstrom2791 XD
Probably not even done the competent persons scheme.
Pretty bad but I've seen worse!
I recently went through a flat in Austria, built in 1914, partly re-wired in 1991. Ended up being a full rewire including the 1991 parts.
Apparently before WWII the regs allowed for single-insulated singles to be run in plaster without conduit and some folks continued that practice well into the 1950s, so that's what we found. Minimum cross-sectional area for fixed wiring was 1 mm2 back in the day of rubber and fabric covered wires, 1.5 mm2 later (I'm not quite sure about the timeline, the German 1938 regs that came with the occupation certainly specified 1.5 mm2 copper or 2.5 mm2 aluminium and they were in essentially in effect until 1962). What we actually found was 0.5 mm2 doorbell wire supplying lights and sockets in some spots! The original circuit had probably been 4 or 6 amp but the 1991 sparks connected it to a 10 amp MCB and when that failed, someone swapped the wires to a spare 16 amp. That doorbell wire bodge job was apparently done in 1960 judging by the newspapers they'd stuffed into some of the holes before plastering. They couldn't be bothered to use continuous pieces of wire either, there were some runs as short as 30 cm that were two pieces of wire spliced together inside the wall!
Then there must've been another round of wiring additions, oddly enough using Italian accessories in tiny little back boxes (20x50 mm, 35 mm deep). That was all done in 0.5 and 0.75 mm2 twin flex plastered in, usually taking the craziest routes through the walls. Like, why spur off a socket 50 cm off to the side from where you want a new one if you can run some 5 m of flex through two rooms, destroying a whole lot of wallpaper and plaster in that process?
Or, if you want to change a ceiling light from a single-gang to a double-gang switch by adding a second switched line, why bother pulling wires through the existing conduit if you can trench halfway across a plaster & lath ceiling?
The chaps back in 91 disconnected all the Italian extensions but left much of the older stuff in place. I'm fairly sure in one instance they even ripped out some perfectly fine 1.5 mm2 cable, replacing it with new that was connected to doorbell wire, just because they couldn't be bothered to find either of the two junction boxes nearby. These didn't even have covers on, just wallpaper! If they'd found the box the old 1.5 mm2 went to, they'd even have found an earth! None of the existing work, except the kitchen sockets, was earthed, all the sockets were the classic round-pin type with no earth (legal for new installations until 1958). The basic idea was that in a room without any earthed pipes etc. you couldn't receive a fatal shock, even if you touched an exposed live wire so that's why those sockets were considered acceptable (some countries kept that system much longer, Sweden until 1993!). In 1991 the sparks ran exposed earth wires to all the sockets to keep up with then-current regs but didn't do a great job either.
50/60 thousand on that kitchen..... yeah right
Yeah, there is no way that is a 60k kitchen...
He also said 4 grand for a rewire!! It's only a flat!
@@samsamm777 I think it's because you would need to rip everything apart.
50k kitchen with plastic socket fronts and the boiler on show. as if haha.
10k max
60 Grand For that kitchen, what you on?, I think you're getting the decimal points mixed up 😂.
4k to rewire, no more than 1 weeks work
@@tombruton Exactly.
5k for the kitchen, 55k labour, that's what I charged them :)
You could of pulled that socket cable and took it back to the consumer and make a ring circuit lol
at 16:00
IPX4 and IP44 are equivalent. IPX4 means IP(anything)4. The first number is irrelevant as it denotes dust resistance, the second number is the water resistance.
So there is nothing to "add to the list" there.
Yeah, was all good until that bit..
@@user-ul5gi9yw9t The light is IP44, but it doesn't look appropriate in my eyes for a bathroom, not typical for a bathroom, also, do you trust some unbranded kit with their IP ratings.
@@davidprivate5786 It's DAR lighting, not unbranded. Said it was good when in the kitchen
I lived in Thailand for 20 years, so that's some of the best domestic electrical work i've seen in 2 decades, so conjure up an image of what i've seen done and then triple it, magnify it with your worst ideas and then it'll just tell you not to buy a property in Thailand! good luck but what i've found is that sometimes, the customer doesnt listen to people and just demands and folk with no ethics will just do the work. I once heard a fat australian in phuket demand that the electrician just twist and tape in a new piece of cable when a cable melted due to the aussie bloke having 3 houses bodge wired together on 1 electric meter all on 1 knife switch with a bullet fuse and this was after the electrician old him what really needed doing! i have nightmares about Thai wiring and that place looks just like them
Not to mention Thailand's overhead lines but oh God, they're so messy!
Homeowner to contractor: "What about the electrical work?".
Contractor: "Oh yeah, we got a guy that knows how to do that stuff".
Shocking. A case for Trading Standards, although no doubt she won't want the hassle. Such a pain in the arse when people throw money at the final finishes, but scrimp on the infrastructure behind it. It winds me up when people tell me they've got the plasterer or tiler booked for next Wednesday when first fix isn't finished and signed off. They want the shiny stuff to go in and look good and don't care about the things they can't see, especially if things appear to be working under normal conditions (never mind if it's dangerous in the event of a fault). It's one of those jobs you probably wouldn't want to win for the remedials. Always hard work to un-cock something that's been so extensively cocked-up!
not everyone can afford it all. and some will take the risk, it's human nature.
Trading standards won't care less, and they won't get involved in disputes.
Very little stopping a cowboy workman these days,
@@brendanoneil3489 I'm glad they are much more gung ho in Australia.
usually...
Haha un-cock. True
Last job I did was exactly like this same situation and I said to the guy who hired me (lovely hard working and understanding dude) that the flat is a shit show and it needs a total rewire. He said yeah, whatever it needs, especially since he would be renting.
So to save cost he helped me and we did it over weekends. We rewired every single socket, every light, added what was needed and when I say rewire, I mean we literally took it back to the main fuse and earth. New DB, then wired it all as if it were a brand new build from scratch. We even fitted bath gadgets, inductive cooker etc and in the end I’d say the flat is state of the art and with his help I think it cost him around £500/600 (maybe a little more- excluding materials).
But in a job like this you are right mate, nothing to do but a full rewire. I said it straight up to the customer when I had a look- we had to raggle walls back to concrete and everything but in the end it’s the only proper way to do things.
One thing I’d always advise is do what I tried, then leave lots of spare cable inside the cavities available for future sparks.
Also added junction boxes for lights etc where possible.
We took that place from fuse wire and disaster, to split 12 way DB with dual RCD. Not heard of a problem since. All the testing was well in line too. Sometimes the hard way is the right way.
I laugh anytime an electrician says "absolutely shocking"
He's probably a switched on guy ,that's about as current a joke I can think of.(sorry).
@@raychambers3646 Go ohm, you're drunk.
I might be in capacitor tated, you cant me charge for it.
I only became a sparky because I was no good at the polevolt.(or jokes )by the way if you are going to charge me I will brace myself!cheers
Guys, stop before I blow my fuse. Watt are you doing?
Each and every pun is only amping up the amplitude of my reaction. One more joke and I'll snap in a hertz beat.
I should be unphased by these, but I just can't. If only I wasn't grounded...
I am no electrician but that looks to me like a very good recipe for a warm and cosy bonfire... hehehehe
Obviously no good - no bell wire used!
I messaged Chris the other day on Instagram, I think it'd be good if he set up and email address just so people of the trade can send him good/bad jobs. He could then do a series on here where he reacts to them? Anyone else think it'd be a good and different series?
He’d have a lot of material!!
DaC27 96 thecjrshop@gmail.com
Thanks for listening mate! Look forward to it
Top idea mate! Be very interesting to see.
We could also have one showcasing our top work, mind you it will take a while getting though my back catalogue
I am just amazed by the electrical installation my grandfather did 40 years ago when our house was built.. Nothing has ever failed plus the 3 phase cable that's running around the house can handle over 40KW at 240ac..
"This installation is *shockingly* bad." .... hehe. First 10 seconds, I like.
we got the very same issue in south africa as well.... builders tell the client they can do everything, electrical, gas, plumbing, etc but they do not have 1 qualified person in their business
A lot of domestic customers don't understand what's right and wrong. They think that because it works it's safe
David... they shouldn't HAVE to understand... thats what regulations & qualifications are for.
The owner here expects the job to be done properly & doesn't expect to have to get an EICR after completion,
its supposed to be signed-off on by an ELECTRICIAN !!
We all are in a position where we must put our trust in professionals such
as doctors, plumbers, electricians, solicitors etc... its what we all pay for...
I cannot believe for one moment that this client said to the builder "use cowboys & save me some money"....
that never happened, this builder needs to be prosecuted AND shut down permanently....
In America you have to have a permit from the township or city your working in before any work begins. And are given a check list that has to be posted and checked off by an inspector at each stage to pass. And here in California you have to be certified to make up or hook up any wiring. Even if your just replacing a switch.
Strange but absolutely entertaining, if I didn't laugh i think I'd cry
(5:56) - Can I come with you on your tandem or have you already got someone for the back seat?
Or perhaps you meant *_"going off on a tangent",_* in which case, I don't think there is a second seat.
Or is there?
hahahha
Regarding the lamp in the bathroom. If IPX4 is required then IP44 should be ok right since the IPX4 dont care about solid object ingression. :)
Regardless of the IP rating it's not suitable. Although in terms of an EICR, if ceiling height is above 2.25M (which it probably is) its outside of all zones
@@londontrada He measured the distance and it was only 2.1m to the ceiling, this means the fixture is in zone 1.
@@thomasbonse ah, well there you are.
He clearly said the fitting was in zone 1 and required an ipx4 which the fitting was an ip44 which means the fitting itself is fine
Who cares about the IP rating, the bloodly thing had no earth!
Great work! Would love to hear how your customer responded to the check you did!
I would have loved seeing the owner's reaction to this report.
Dear sir from a fellow sparkband tester.I agree with you totally that is one of the worst installs I've ever seen.a superb video sir well done.keep up the great work and videos.
Thats absolutely shocking, personally think the builder should be traced back and aired to trading standards. Poor woman had no clue what she was getting herself into
Rogue Traders for who ever carried out work to the electrics in this property. Shocking work.
Deffo needs the client to report the trader (the builder) to trading standards!
i feel so bad for this poor woman!!
Ryan Literally shocking work.
" Poor woman" ???? She is an ADULT. Do we expect absolutely no responsibility from women? It's her own fault she only hired workers to make it look pretty.
I am a retired research professor. I've worked in laboratories wired this badly. Scary.
What is even worse is when the sparkies come in, do a repair on another part of the building, and your equipment stops working. Motors running backwards, one phase dropped on a three phase line, and so forth. Radio frequency signals on the lines, and other insane things. Good luck cleaning up the mess!
Don't you have standards and someone to report contractors too? In Australia the contractor would gone so quickly along with the person doing the wiring.
If that had happened in the US, I would say the job was done on the cheap, without a permit or inspection. Because it certainly wouldn't pass even a rudimentary inspection. People do this kind of thing all the time. "Why do we need permits? It just makes it more expensive!". And of course when the house burns down and the insurance company discovers the work was done without permits, they won't pay. Too bad.
@@adamshinbrot Yeah the nanny state here the only way to get away with it is for the customer to be complicit. I also showed a UK contractor and he said it's usually because there are heaps on non electricians doing work.
@@EarJuice The problem is a lot of the foreign trades aren't anywhere near qualified enough, or at all.
I've worked with a few, and when pushed have admitted they're not electricians or anything near back home. They get a load of non legit certs signed (NARIC doesn't check them properly), do the 18th edition exam ( which is open book so you can't really fail), do a testing course and job done, "I'm an electrician". Or you get the 5 week wonders who think they know everything, after 5 weeks!!!
A Lot of British "builders" are like that as well, brown to brown, blue to blue, it works! job done.
@@darrenng162 One phone call and massive fines to the contractor and individuals here.
Great video, it’s all to common. Arrive to install an extra socket or lighting unit. Pre-work survey, no bonds, recent works, speak to the client, EICR performed & it’s horrendous. I have a few times over my career stopped in the middle of a report, consulted with the client, charged the client a nominal fee & told the client to obtain quotations for rewiring. Basically there was no point wasting my time writing up a report, where there so many defects, taking the age & condition of the installation, it would be more economical & safe to just rewire the property. I always recommend that the client takes further advice if the property is decorated to a high standard. It’s also nice to see an electrician completing the inspection process, which I see very few electricians doing considering the money they get for a report. It tends to just be testing. I charge a days rate for an EICR, so it can be done properly.
7:49 brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "extension socket" :-|
Used to be a spark. Love this channel and do not miss installs of this ilk!
Crazy init. These people don't realise how wiring like that can potentially burn their houses to the ground or kill them under fault conditions. Proper earthing can save lives. Genuinely shocked!! Like you said you don't need to be a qualified sparky to see it's wrong, most builder contractors know what good cabling looks like. I think people underestimate the importance of electrical safety. I mean you have a gas leak, you don't get the guy down the road to bodge it back. You are more likely these days to have an electrical fire than a gas explosion. Shame you can't find the guys name and shame him watchdog style. Well done getting the message across
In Europe it’s earthing? I thought the universal way of saying it was grounding/grounded. Earthing sounds more like planting something like a tree.
@@cipher1167 It is earthing, Electrician speak. I'm an electrical engineer so grounding. It's weird. Both technically can mean the same thing but not to get into it, There is Earthing, witch is domestic earth. Grounding can be sub-grounding. So you have earth but you also have sub grounds in a circuit. It was Earthing I meant though. Earthing is the correct term
@@cipher1167 Grounding can just mean common place, common ground. A car has negative ground, It just means the negative is connected to the cars shell. This is grounding, it's not earthed obviously, rubber tyres. Earthing specifically means a rod in the ground to decrease Earth resistance over your bodies resistance thus current going to earth instead of you. Your body them becomes a resistive load to earth, not enough current flowing through you to kill as there is a faster, less resistive route to earth for the current to take.
@@cipher1167 Okay a better explanation. I'll leave my last comments as they kind of are relevant but this is a definitive answer for clarity. In an electronic circuit you come in generally to a power supply, say in this case it's a 24 volt transformer with a center tap. The primary would be connected to mains, 110/230 VAC The casing and chassis will be earthed to domestic earth. now in circuit on the secondary we have a choice of what we call ground reference, this can be -12V to give 24V or center tap ground to give +12 and -12V this gives the circuit a ground reference. What ever the ground primary ground reference is usually bonded to earth. Earth and ground can mean different things in this case. On domestic supply it's taken earth and ground can mean the same thing. Earth is usually ground bonded to gas, water and domestic earth. The house technically being a circuit of it's own we say earth is grounded to pipes etc. So Earth being the planet, Earth is ground to the planet if that makes sense.
Andrew Lock I understand what you’re saying, and it makes sense to people that know about electrical theory. However, in the USA we only use grounding/grounded I’m on my 3rd year apprentice and I haven’t heard anyone say earthing in residential, industrial or commercial. Most likely Earthing is an old way of saying it? Like that was the most comprehensive way people could understand in the early stages of electrical theory? Now I know if I go to Europe what earthing is. Thank you man.
Your channel makes me laugh, I'm in construction and will occasionally do a like for like change, but every builder should know a sparks lol.
I'm no electrician, but I just had to watch the thumbnail, and I was already horrified.
I moved into my house and was hoovering the bedroom and switched the light on and it blew the socket !!! When I took the floor boards up no 2.5 only 1.5 wired off the down stairs light !! Shower upgrade , no cable up grade ! Cooked the tiles off the wall !! I am considering re training as an electrician! But seeing this kind of work looks harder to sort out other people’s stuff than doing a complete re wire !!!
16:10 Metal fitting but "double insulated" according to the label.
I'd say it's IP20 and not double insulated at all!
Brilliant video I’m an electrician myself and I see the same faults when I test old and new jobs.
Looks like they had "uncle Jamal" in on that job! 😂😂😂
Your a great guy to show the work has been done badly by the past builders
7:49 I see she went with a built in deluxe counter top extention socket. 😂
from my experience these things happen because 90% of the time the customer just ''knows someone who can do the electrics cheaper''
wow i was surprised when you found 167V at that socket that means with the full line voltage at 247v there is an 80V drop that is a serious fire hazard i hope you told this lady its a tinder box
daniel little it’ll be a poorly terminated neutral
Got you beat. Did a remodel where likewise i came in after some butcher of a contractor buried wire-nut splices IN the drywall. Not behind. In. Cut a shallow trough in the drywall, made his illigal flying splice junction and then slopped drywall mud over the whole shabang effectively hiding the junction. And he did that everywhere. I told the customer that they didn't need an electrician, they needed a lawyer.
14.48 the name of the screws your after are 2BAs. God I'm old.
What also screws in there nicely are No 8 screws. I never use it as an earth though, just for holding lights up.
Pyro does last a very long time and I've had to use existing bits in the past (even though it wasn't my choice). But it much rather put new cable in anyday.
Thanks for the entry phone tip. Can’t believe I’ve never thought of it haha
This industry is littered with people “just giving it a go”. It’s obvious the fitter is untrained. The bonding shows that. What a mess.
Really love that extendable double socket. Class work.
I'm surprised guys don't worry about being sued. I don't touch anything if it's not a job that I can stand behind my work in court.
my own wiring looks extremely neat in comparison lol what a madman
"I'm going off on a tangent" an angle.
Not a tandem, that's a bicycle made for two.
cype man loool are you saying you won’t trust someone who can’t speak English to do your electrical work?
@@kryptoniteee If you can gather that information from my comment, then yes. 🙄
oh man you should have come to tunisia (worked there for a year as a S&L tech) they could do so much worse that this. for example i can remember them putting in lights by cutting open some of my speaker cable (4 core) and using the two unused ones for mains because they couldn't be bothered with an earth connection or to run new cables 😂
Don't those remodels require a building code inspection by the local township or city? I'd bet the owner could get all of their money back if the work was done outside code regulations.
Just for new homes not remodels
There's no legal requirement to tell the authorities you are having electrical work done and they probably wouldn't have the qualified staff and resources to carry out these inspections. Many homes are death traps but of course it will never happen to them.
Enjoying your channel! I encounter many nightmares in my own line of low-voltage work and I know enough about electrical codes in my country (Western Canada) where its easy to spot shoddy work. I'm not sure how your channel popped up in my feed (I'm having to look up all the UK nomenclature) but I'll doff the proverbial to the algorithm and count me as a subscriber.
One look and I would have walked away!
More hassle than anything‼️
Aren't these jobs inspected at all during work being done?
In switzerland a guy come after the work is done and something like this would never happen in our countr...Whatever i wish i would never see something like this one day. 😂😂 Good luck dude ! 👍🏻
3:39 . . Don't wiggle that cable too much. . The building might fall down and you would get the blame
Lol
If you read this I’d like your input - I agree totally shocking installation (excuse the pun) but what do you think of splitting dual RCD boards on the new edition? I prefer splitting them as power - lighting. As in high - low.
I know it can be random and just generally mixed but I would say the regs should have a case for having a separate fast RCD for any “wet circuits” - toilets, bathrooms, showers etc.
Thoughts?
Cause then that would stop you ever finding an install like that again, since you would find constant RCD trips all the time to the point where no circuits would work. Or evidently not work in certain areas that the customer would notice.
She needs to request builder to rectify all, if he refuses, then start small claims case for cost.
I was expecting hidden cameras, ref for TV program.
no, no small claims is not enough for that kind of danger you can go directly to the high court for anything over £1000 don't fucking mess with county court they are useless. in this case there is more than material damages for the cost of replacing the wiring you have to include that the property was put at risk of fire and any occupants safety was put at risk
They'll just declare bankruptcy and get a new person to run the company. A shit company we last had problems with it was the blokes wife officially in charge because the last time he got taken to court he declared bankruptcy. You won't get a penny back from them.
After I watch one like this, I watch one with immaculate bends and planned projects as to remember that real OCD "do it right" electricians are still out there.💪
@6 minutes “Im just going off on a Tandem”. Love it
Ha! I noticed that too.
It's 'tangent', Chris... not 'tandem'; that's a two person bicycle. 🤣
👍 not the first one to say it 👍
@@Cjrelectrical well anyway 'its a hard bubble to crack.'
Such a lot of work to do there. You will have to 'burn the midnight oil at both ends' to get it all done.
When you told the customer about all this did it seem like you were 'pulling the rug from under the carpet' ?
😂
@@Cjrelectrical i think you maybe though lol . who did this mess name shame .
@@richardwalsh5882 true dat!
happens in the states too, was at a job the other day in a church the lights weren't coming on and i get above the drop ceiling to take a look at how it was all routed (may i remind you this is an old church that was renovated in the the 80s with drop ceilings) they ran a conduit with new feed lines to the switch and just tied it into the old knob and tube wires from the old lights and extended the old wire with new wire down to the new lights in the drop ceiling. why didn't they just run new wire its a drop ceiling it was all there why was tying into the old knob and tube even a thought at this point.
I'd like to meet the "electrician" that did that job - to understand where he learned that crap.
I got some suspicions though...
there are alot of electricians that are not certified
You don’t need to be certified to see how much of a shit job that is. Absolute basics.
Even as a competent DIYer, that looks like an absolute state. Makes me wince just looking at it. Even the absolute basics haven’t been followed. I would be taking the builder to court over this.
Builders and remodels do this kind of crappy job all the time all over the world. The reason? That is how they get the job by cutting corners and doing things illegally. I do remodels for living and I get underbid by others doing this kind of job all the time. Sadly, the owners don't care as long is it looks good outside and cheap.
I once was subcontracting for another builder and got in argument with the contractor doing electrical work. I quote him for moving junction boxes and pulling new cables cause they were removing part of the wall. I was told "why make it so complicated? Just put splices in the wall. It is not getting inspected and nobody will ever see it." LOL..
thats a housing bubble for you.... everyone is in for the quick buck and find a buyer more stupid.
We built our own house in Switzerland and comparing this to our electrical installation makes it even funnier. Our fusebox, for instance, is like one by two meters big and every room is fused separately. The security standards here are crazy and that's why something like this could literally never happen here.
Swiss plugs are unfused though, unlike in the U.K.
Would explain the size difference in units you see
Surely that bathroom light is fine? IP44 meets the IPx4 requirements for zone 1 and it had a class 2 symbol on it so it doesn't need an earth.
but the thing is it is good practice if there is an earth terminal connect the terminal as he said its a metal fitting so it does need an earth becase its METAL WHAT if it comes live and there is no earth fuck the thing been water resistant think about someone getting electricuted
The double square symbol means the fitting is double insulated, therefore no earth required
While the fitting might, what about the lamps? I am not sure if has fixed lamps, but if they are replaceable then there is more potential for issues - that is even before you get to the "no earth needed" - if so, why are the lamps connected to the shell with earth leads, and there is even a choke (that will do stuff all disconnected)
Its probably only double insulated if you use them shitty connector blocks that are already on the fitting with that black sleeve over it. By using his own connector blocks, he's fucked it!
I think the point is being missed here. Why put it in zone 1 in the first place but I agree it should be earthed particularly as its in a bathroom. I am not a qualified electrician but worked in the industry all my life on single and 3 phase equipment which I was qualified for.
I think it looks like a pretty standard UK flat. When I rented a house in Sheffield 10 years ago, it was just as bad, hahaha. Here in Sweden, you have to be certified to touch any electrical fittings. As a "civilian" you're only allowed to touch anything after the socket, nothing else. If a certified electrician was found doing this kind of work, his certification would be instantly lost...
Cowboy electrician that is bad workmanship and needs to be accountable for is actions
It always amazes me seeing the huge differences in how the USA compares to other countries in the electrical industry. Very interesting to see how the differences tie into the similarities.
What an absolute piss poor job! They need reporting before someone gets seriously injured.. The sad thing is, in 13 years of being a Sparkie I myself have noticed work like this on a daily basis the last few years. The Zs says it all! Along with the massive amount of defects.. id be putting UNSATISFACTORY in Bold on the EICR.
UNSATISFACTORY IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT, FUCKING DISASTER WOULD BE MORE APPROPRIATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sad thing is the nic arnt intrested in who does these crap jobs all they're interested is that You put it right. I've been a sparky since 1996 and noticed over the last 10 years a massive increase in bodge jobs. Part p has done nothing to stop the cowboys in my opinion! Feel like walking away from jobs like this one, it's depressing to watch lol, clearly not a sparky who did any of that,
Electricians day testing and inspecting the cause of a few mental breakdowns. Horrible horrible conditions and quite scary to think about living with that..mess? However you want to call it. Awesome video and even I as a non electrician learnt a few things, thanks!
I hate seeing electrical work done so badly. I react the same way you do. Feel like its pointless to test anything or even bother with a cert at all after a visual inspection like that! These wannabe electrician builders make us seem expensive and put us out of work whilst they reap the benefits. All the training we have to do, and money we have to fork out to get to where we are! Bastards
True. This guy needs to be reported to the health n safety executive before he kills someone. It's common practice in Oz where I'm from its common knowledge that whomever you have working in whatever trade the need the to be licenced
Yes, the wankers should get the electric chair. Just before switching it on, tell them this is what you get for attempting to kill people. Good riddance to shit builders who think they are electricians. Shooting them is just far too quick and easy.
Glad you are fixing this mess, maybe call a plumbing contractor as well - scary soldering on the plumbing @ 7:15+
Hundreds of thousands !!?? your having a laugh mate.
That's what i thought. I would have done it for 40k at a snip.
@@pitchershipy5014 London mate
In my home I've learned the protective ground has been used as neutral, so everything that has ground attached to it gives me a nice little buzz when touched.
If the plugs works then what’s the problem 😂
The entire building industry is full of cowboys, plumbing, electrical... everything.
Chris, any chance you can let us know what happened what the tennant said etc?
James Foley I’ve got to quote for a full Rewire etc
@James Foley i she wants him to send her a quote for a full chased in Rewire, new consumer unit, rest of the ceilings batten down and over boarded.
Wow poor woman, but it’s got to be done. Needs some sort of reimbursement from the builder. I’ve see some installs in my time but this has got to be the worst, absolute polished turd!
@@James_scott86, you can't polish a turd, only roll it in glitter! 😉
I would not even touch that stuff.. if a fire breaks out you get the blame.. and I think the same dude did the soldering on the pipes😂
As the Yanks say... "you touch it, you own it" ....🙄😒
That's is a grade A shit storm, I know I would have been just like you and be standing there pulling my hair out!!!
Totally random question on an old video but... I replaced a failed fluorescent tube light (with a metal frame) in the kitchen with an LED fitting that has a metal bracket that can be touched (if you can reach 10ft up). Is replacing this OK? It's an old house and the lighting has no earth. Should I replace it with a new light fitting that has a plastic housing or just expect that if my children grow into giants then they will be sensible enough not to go poking the light fittings lol.