Electrician or joke?
Posted 11-27-2007 at 11:57 AM by grumpygit
A friend of mine bought a house 3 years ago and decided to renovate it.
He had to get the wiring looked at and so he called in the electrician.
4 days @ £200 a day later the electrician announced that he had finished and it was all now okay.
Over the next few months the electrician was called back to sort out problems with something causing an earth fault.
Eventually he came up with the suggestion that the house was haunted and that was causing the problem with the electrics.
After we fell about laughing and told him where to stick his latest bill, i suggested to my friend that a new electrician was probably a good idea.
The next day the new electrician turned up and after about 2 hours of looking around and a lot of headscratching he said that it was the trip switch that was faulty and he had replaced it.
I was not sure about this as i had checked the trip switch and it was fine, but my friend said that he would see what happened.
Over the next 18 months the earth fault seemed to be okay and the RCD never tripped at all.
Today i got a phone call from him to ask if i could come and speak to the kitchen fitter who was working there because he said there was a problem with the electrics and my friend knows nothing about that sort of thing.
I got there and started to have a check around.
When i turned of the fuse for the sockets, some of them were still live.
When i turned of the lighting circuit half the lights still work.
The original electrician has just tapped everything into the nearest power source.
I found the source of the original earth fault to be a nail that shorted between two wires.
The most worrying thing is the way that the second electrician sorted out the earth fault, He removed the earth wire from the RCD so that it couldn't trip.
Tomorrow i start completely re-wiring his house and he is going to see a solicitor
He had to get the wiring looked at and so he called in the electrician.
4 days @ £200 a day later the electrician announced that he had finished and it was all now okay.
Over the next few months the electrician was called back to sort out problems with something causing an earth fault.
Eventually he came up with the suggestion that the house was haunted and that was causing the problem with the electrics.
After we fell about laughing and told him where to stick his latest bill, i suggested to my friend that a new electrician was probably a good idea.
The next day the new electrician turned up and after about 2 hours of looking around and a lot of headscratching he said that it was the trip switch that was faulty and he had replaced it.
I was not sure about this as i had checked the trip switch and it was fine, but my friend said that he would see what happened.
Over the next 18 months the earth fault seemed to be okay and the RCD never tripped at all.
Today i got a phone call from him to ask if i could come and speak to the kitchen fitter who was working there because he said there was a problem with the electrics and my friend knows nothing about that sort of thing.
I got there and started to have a check around.
When i turned of the fuse for the sockets, some of them were still live.
When i turned of the lighting circuit half the lights still work.
The original electrician has just tapped everything into the nearest power source.
I found the source of the original earth fault to be a nail that shorted between two wires.
The most worrying thing is the way that the second electrician sorted out the earth fault, He removed the earth wire from the RCD so that it couldn't trip.
Tomorrow i start completely re-wiring his house and he is going to see a solicitor
Total Comments 6
Comments
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Well its not really that funny, is it? When your kids are sleeping in a house that could potentially burst into flames but how far can you go to make sure this guy is what he says he is ? And if you went and looked him up in a directory which supposedly only lists qualified, experienced, reliable people, how much extra is that goin to cost? Maybe people think," The reason he is expensive is because his name is in this book, nothing to do with how qualified he is" Lets face it, we are all guilty of trying to cut one or two corners depending how much money is available but thats just plain stupid if you consider that peoples lives could be in this guys hands. Its a shame to say it but everything is about money and if you think about it the world might have been a much better place without it.Posted 02-04-2008 at 09:26 AM by deejay100six
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I've done plenty of electrical work in houses and what you've described is just horrible!
Is the solicitor general similar to the Better Business Bureau that we have in the US? If we receive shoddy work we report tham to the BBB and things are usually sorted that way.Posted 03-14-2008 at 09:19 AM by ebackhus
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A solicitor is the same as a lawyer. He is taking both electricians to court to get his money back for the faulty work that was carried out.
Both electricians have been reported to the appropriate authorities and trading standards are investigating them.
I have finished re-wiring his house and everything is now working safely.Posted 05-25-2008 at 04:44 PM by grumpygit
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You sure the guy didnt work for microsoft ?Posted 06-11-2008 at 06:58 PM by linuxrules
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I sense some bias in the previous comment.Posted 06-14-2008 at 11:45 PM by ebackhus
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<chuckles>Posted 08-13-2008 at 06:38 PM by stressfreesoul
