electricial fault finding in epsom

faulty Wiring in Epsom

Early in May we received a telephone call from a householder living in Epsom. She and her husband had only bought their dream cottage two months earlier and had found that their RCD was tripping out at least once a week. Not only was it annoying, it was also worrying them.

Whilst she was on the phone we tried was to get them to check if it was the wiring or an appliance they were using that was causing the problem. Her husband followed our instructions but just could not trace it.

So in we went!

Things didn’t start well – we had to remove the entire kitchen cupboard just to get at the consumer unit! Happily, that’s not something we need to do very often but we do come across this several times a year. It never ceases to amaze us why boards are fitted in such inaccessible places where you can’t open the lid or the cover. After the cupboard had been removed, we discovered some real bodges including no Earth sleeving and the wrong size of Earth wire.

Once into the unit, with the RCD disconnected, using our electrical safety test equipment, we found that low insulation readings on the cables was the cause of this particular wiring fault. OK, so we knew what we were looking for and we began our methodical detective work. A couple of hours later, we traced the fault to a spur coming off the ring circuit. Job done!

In the end, sorting this particular wiring problem didn’t cost them a lot of money, £135 to be precise, but the underlying issues will mean that the whole house needs re-wiring. It’s a bit of a sad story really as the couple had looked at quite a few period properties in not only Epsom but Cheam and Banstead too. When they settled on this one, they spent over £750 on a building survey. On the surface, a building surveyor would not have noticed anything out of the ordinary with the electrics but with our experience, we could see that over the years, old cables had been joined to new. It was a mess. It’s a real shame that they didn’t contact us whilst buying their house in Epsom as we could have saved them about five grand!

So if you are thinking about buying a period property in Epsom, Cheam or Banstead, keep in mind this cautionary tale and call us in to check the electrics.