Errors in replacing a light switch - need some help please

[SJT48]

Did you get a reading across live and neutral?

Have any trip switches or fuses gone open circuit? - no trip switches at all.

Have you changed any light fittings at all? - Not as yet that was meant to be the next stage.

Rewind to the last time these lights were working. When was that? I had changed the light switches in the living and one in the hallway, all was working fine, then when I changed the one we are looking into, all the others stopped working.

The only other thing I can think of is the supply to that hall switch has gone open circuit due to a loose connection down the line.

 

[securespark]

Hmmm

 

[securespark]

Is there only one consumer unit for the house?

Sometimes there's another tucked away.

The other possibility that I have seen before is a fused connection unit or RCD fused connection unit has been used to supply some lights (in the first case) or been added to give RCD protection where there was none before (in the second).

Can you post a picture of your consumer unit and the immediate surrounding area?

 

[securespark]

Just to be absolutely sure there's nothing going on at the other switch, please remove the single hall switch and show the connections in there.

And check the neutral terminal block in the double hall switch to make sure all the copper conductors are in contact with each other.

Do this with the power switched off.

 

[securespark]

Were there any short links of wire in the two hallway switches before you changed them?

 

[securespark]

Put us out of our misery, guv....

Did you find anything?

 

[SJT48]

Put us out of our misery, guv....

Did you find anything?

It's a nightmare, my father in law is a retired ex electrician and he came up to our house to have a look. The mainboard has power but the main live feed into the socket downstairs has no power, he is really surprised and at a bit of a loss. We cannot find any breaks in the cables and have tested everything in all sockets and lights in the ceiling and nothing, no power reaching at all.

 

[securespark]

I guess he has been round all the downstairs fittings looking for a bad connection?

I would check neutral continuity between the terminal block in the 2 gang switch you changed and the neutral leaving the board.

I guess your Dad has tested between live and earth and got a big fat zero?

Did you check if there was a FCU near the board?

Two of the more odd lighting faults I attended, both of which were total loss of ground floor lighting.
One was due to a double pole switch being turned off. Quite why there was a DP switch at the beginning of the circuit (in the dining room) was anybody's guess!

The other one was equally odd....and awkward!

I eventually found a junction box under the bath (at the furthest point from my reach ...) which had been leaked into over a very long time and the connections had eventually broken down completely.
I think it started off as a loose connection.

 

[securespark]

Oh, there was a third....but it was easy, it was an RCD FCU that had tripped.

 

[terryplumb]

Do you mean there is no voltage at any light fittings or light switches on the downstairs lighting circuit ?
What " sockets " are you referring to ?
If you only had this problem after working on a light switch ,with the power switched off, I would associate that with an RCD tripping.
Is the circuit protected by an MCB ?

 

[securespark]

I think by sockets, he means the 2 gang switch in the hall and others downstairs.

 

[SJT48]

Good morning all, Well this is really driving me nuts, we went over everything again and could not find any breaks in the cables, went back to the main board and the brown live cable going into the breaker at the switch had popped out, how I do not know. So, I thought cut the end strip it back a little and fix it back into the breaker and everything should work, and nothing still no power. Could it be that the breaker on the main board is faulty?

 

[SJT48]

I have just tested the breaker for voltage and it has power into the breaker.

 

[SUNRAY]

Looking at the photos it's hard to see which browns are included in the bundle.
Without knowing the wiring in the other switch my interpretation

But this does not explain loss of supply to other lights.

This

Could be the other possibility but without more clarity on the browns I can't be sure.

Earth wires not shown for clarity.

 

[securespark]

Going on what has been posted already, I plumped for your second option. But TBF, I have not seen inside the second hall switch