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The report below was sent to trading standards with photo's included.

The initial call was to rectify wiring that had previously been carried out by other electricians. The reason for the call was that the owner had inspected their work from the loft access hatch and had noticed some taped joints which concerned him.

Our findings were as follows.

  
         
  Bathroom & Hallway  
         
         
         
 
1. Several connections over the bathroom area had been made with connector strip and insulating tape.
   
2. One connection appeared to be in a conventional junction box but upon closer inspection it was found that the inner terminals had been broken out and the connections made with connector blocks. Also it was a 20A junction box had been used on a 30A circuit.
   
3. The connection for the illuminated mirror / shaver point in the bathroom was to the final ring circuit. The cable had two taped joints before connection to the final ring circuit. With no fuse protection or earth.
   
4. A neutral conductor was required and this had been done thus. A cable had been connected to an existing neutral in the loft by connector block but it had been made using the ‘brown’ or phase conductor of a piece of three core cable.
   
5. On the connections that were remade on the 23rd Jan in the bathroom area no earth connection had been carried over. The customer had queried this with the third party electricians but was told that an earth was no required.
   
6. All cabling in the bathroom area had been made using 3 core cable but with only the black and brown conductors being used.
 
         
 
7. A switch in the hallway was supposed to be of the two way type e.g. 1 gang 2 way to enable two way switching of the hallway lights. This did not work and was due to a 1 gang 1 way switch being used however the second strapper cable had been left un-terminated behind the switch in the steel back box. This was presumably due to the fact that the customer had to supply all the materials and was not aware of the type of switch required . He was not notified of this error however at the time of installation.
   
8. The inline extractor fan for the bathroom had been fitted in the loft to a joist but the connection terminal box on the fan had been removed and remade with oversized connector strip and had been done in such a way a to prevent the ducting to be fitted correctly. The ducting both from the bathroom and from the fan to the exterior of the building had not been fitted.
   
9. No fire hoods had been fitted to the three downlighters in the bathroom. And incorrect connection made to down lights terminal connections
   
10. The shower booster pump was on the plasterboard and also the pipe from that shower pump which was PVC hep pipe and was on top of one of the down lighters. And was wired from the lighting circuit which was controlled via a 45amp pull cord switch, when the shower was used the MCB dropped out.
   
11. No supplementary bonding carried out
   
12. Where the ceiling pull cord for light had been flitted a hammer had been used we presume to smash through plaster board. Then a piece wood? About 1" square was placed for screw which about 4" long to hold pull cord switch
 
         
         
  Kitchen      
         
  During the remedial work it was necessary to switch of the power to the final ring circuit, to enable the aforementioned connections to be rectified. There is a breaker in the consumer unit for the garage however when this was switched of and a ‘Socket & See 32’ tester was put into the 13A socket in the garage (a) it was not dead and (b) the tester indicated an earth fault. This led to further investigation and discussion with the customer. The findings were as follows.  
         
         
 
1. All the 13a socket outlets in the kitchen do not have an earth connected.
   
2. All the sockets in the kitchen appear to have been wired in 1mm 3 core cable and NOT 2.5mm twin and earth cable as per regulations.
   
3. A double 13A socket outlet has been installed within the 300mm from hob unit, this contravenes current regulations.
   
4. The hob unit has been wired by 2.5mm twin and earth cable into a 13A plug op.
   
5. One double 13A socket outlet in the kitchen had been terminated with connector blocks and then had a phase and neutral connected to the faceplate again with no earth connection.
   
6. Terminations for the sockets in the loft have been made with connector blocks tape and foam pipe lagging.
   
7. The kitchen lights do not appear to have any earths connected.
   
8. There are cables loose in front of the boiler which is housed in a cupboard unit this is a potential hazard.
   
   
 
9. cables run above work top horizontal between sockets chased into plaster with tiles now fitted above work top
   
10. cooker no earth connection, taped joint in steel box filled with polystyrene. Phase not under control of cooker switch only neutral was
   
   
  More could follow when we carry our remedial work. No certificate was issued or Notification to Building control. We also understand that the price was on a piece of paper and was asked to be paid in cash.  
         
         
  BARTON ELECTRICAL IPSWICH LTD
64 DALES VIEW ROAD
IPSWICH
D101755

PHONE NO 07976685746