cable puncture?

[Newby2]

Recently, I put down several nails on the floor board of the en-suite in my upstairs bedroom, trying to cure the squeaking noise problem of the floorboard. Later on when I opened up the front panel of the en-suite shower I saw a pipe (or cable) running beneath the floor (there may be a hole in the joist allowing the pipe through). The "pipe" has a blue shield (which is flexible, you can move round it) and does not look like a water pipe. Is it electric cable?

I can tell one of the nails is pretty close to the cable (from the noise that I knocked on the floor board I could tell there is a hole in the joist below), but not sure if it has hit the cable or not. All electrics in my house work fine so far, but is there any way to tell if the nail has hit the pipe without lifting the floorboard? Thanks a lot.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

The "pipe" has a blue shield (which is flexible, you can move round it) and does not look like a water pipe. Is it electric cable?

is there any way to tell if the nail has hit the pipe without lifting the floorboard?

Yes - you can cut an inspection hole in, or remove, the ceiling of the room below.

 

[ericmark]

As BAN says you need to post pictures. Either me or my son managed to screw a floor board screw through a central heating pipe in my dads house.

I took 4 months before it started to leak and we found out our error.

With power cables even worse and it can go on for years without the fault showing it's self.

As a result in 2008 the rules changed and any non protected cable within 50 mm of surface now needs RCD protection. But any wiring before that date could give anyone a lethal shock if floor board nails or screws were to perpetrate it. Wet feet could make contact where normally one would never know.

Seem to remember there was a Jonathan Creek who done it program with that theme?

 

[ColJack]

unfortunately eric, the RCD protection applies to walls only, not floors and ceilings..