HELP PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Indigo]

Hi, I hope someone can help me, I am trying to fix the lights in the hallway, 2 gang switch, 1 is 2 way. At the moment when I switch the 1 way switch all the lights go out! I have tried changing the wires and looking at diagrams but I seem to have more wires than I need.

What I have is 4 grey wires coming from the wall (no.1 being on the left)
no.1 has 1 black, 1 red and 1copper leading to a green/yellow wire.
no.2 has 1 red and 1 copper leading to a different green/yellow wire.
no.3 has 1 red.
no.4 has 1 red, and there is also 1 short red wire not attached to anything!

Please help, my actual switch has 6 terminals 3 top 3 bottom, labelled com and 1 way and 2 way. Thanks.

 

[breezer]

you will need to identify which wire does what, so unless you can do that you should call an electrician

 

[Big_Spark]

Sounds like a DIY disaster has met a DIY disaster..

Call an Electrician, it'll save the medical costs of your heartattack trying to sort it out.

 

[Indigo]

Thanks for replying, the lights were like this when we moved in, to get round the downstairs light having to be left on all the time they just took the bulb out! I wanted to sort it out but after looking at all the self-help books I could this was a last attempt.
I suppose people are reluctant to call engineers etc. because you don't know even if it is a simple problem they will automatically say the whole house needs rewiring!

Thanks anyway.

 

[Big_Spark]

Indigo, considering the rubbish job made of the two way lighting by some half arsed cowboy, it would be advisable to get in a couple of contractors to look at the installation and give their opinions, but also get one to do a full periodic inspect and test.

If you have only just moved in, then you may be able to claim the cost of this work from the seller as this was not revealed in the survey and was not disclosed by the seller.

I believe the legal time limit for the claim is 3 years, but a solicitor could tell you more.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

If you have only just moved in, then you may be able to claim the cost of this work from the seller as this was not revealed in the survey and was not disclosed by the seller.

Good luck with that - I doubt that it would be regarded as the seller's fault if the buyer's or lender's surveyor didn't do his job properly. And if nobody explicitly asked the seller questions about the wiring, then how can he be delinquent in not disclosing them?

By all means give it a try, but don't hold your breath.

 

[Big_Spark]

Ban, I agree in principle, but if the Guy has lived there 20 years then it could be argued that he is responsible, further, he knew of this problem when selling, so he is negligant for not revealing an obvious fault in the property.

 

[masona]

Can anybody tell me just what are the surveyor job role is ? !!!!
When we buy a property,what do they know about electric,gas and so on? So in the future do have to get each trademan for electric and gas etc for inspection before buying ? I think all the surveyor does,is to tell the bank manager it's worth lending the money on this property for structural sound.

My mum's moved into a smaller property last year and the electrician found live wires all under the floorboards.He believe the last owner has storage heater and got rid of them then push the wire under the floorboards then carpet it over !! Now in theory who would've pick this up before buying ?

 

[Big_Spark]

Now in theory who would've pick this up before buying ?

The surveyor should have, did he not lift the floorboards to inspect underfloor and the joists for damp or structural integrity?

This is one of the problems in this country, surveyors regularly do not do their job, yet we all let them get away with it.

It is because of situations like this that they are introducing Part P

 

[securespark]

When I bought my current property, we had a full structural carried out - at a cost in 1999 of 800 quid.

Even then, he said that he has not made a detailed inspection of gas, plumbing electrics, etc... so in effect he was only there to report on the building fabric.......

 

[Big_Spark]

When I bought my current property, we had a full structural carried out - at a cost in 1999 of 800 quid.

Even then, he said that he has not made a detailed inspection of gas, plumbing electrics, etc... so in effect he was only there to report on the building fabric.......

That's my point...what use is he as a surveyor if he only looks at the building..and why £800!!

I thought Dick Turpin wore a mask, but apparently not, he wears a suit and clipboard

 

[dingbat]

A surveyor, structural or otherwise, will not test anything. It's not his job. S/he will carry out visual inspections only and recommend further testing if (and it's a big if) anything is obviously wrong. The surveyor is not expected/insured to pull up floor coverings, let alone floorboards and s/he will certainly never open up electrical eccessories - you could simply screw a number of sockets to the wall and as far as a surveyor is concerned their existence will be duly noted but their function will not be tested. Same for plumbing - if there's a tap there it might work, it might not...

A full structural survey might get you more detail, but I doubt it - one full structural I paid for (when young and green) revealed "evidence of loft space" (pitched roof, flat ceilings... no s**t Sherlock!) and went on to recommend a structural engineer's report for all the areas of concern that were the lender's reason for insisting on a full structural in the first place.

For a simple mortgage survey the surveyor's sole responsibilty is to the lender, to verify that the property represents adequate security for the loan. Caveat emptor ("buyer beware") is the law of the land. All a previous owner has to say is that he was unaware of any problems and it will be nigh-on impossible to prove otherwise. Out of interest, in a property I quoted on last night the previous consumer unit has been disconnected completely and the tails were left dangling, uninsulated and within inches of each other - yes, live. And that's the condition in which the property was purchased. The survey recommended that the property might benefit from a rewire...

 

[Indigo]

I agree it is 'Buyer Beware', we had a full survey but we might as well as rolled up the money and smoked it! The surveyor made notes like "the roof seems sound at the moment but might leak in the future"!
Everything was might do and maybe, just covering themselves but it means you're no wiser. The survey is just for the lender so you might as well get the cheapest one.
All the money we spent for him to state the obvious but he fails to notice that the previous owner took away old gas heaters only to leave the pipes just cut and the ends squashed together! It's a good thing we didn't smoke that money after all!

 

[masona]

the last owner has storage heater and got rid of them then push the wire under the floorboards then carpet it over !! Now in theory who would've pick this up before buying ?

I dread to think if the surveyor did lift the floorboards up and touch the live wires.
Personally I think the surveyor should have his/her team of employee of electrician and corgi-reg plumber etc, for their skills to carry out inspection to the team for a final survey reports.

 

[securespark]

Indigo

The surveyor is not necessarily there for the lender - we have no mortgage and the survey was comissioned by us for us, to let us know what we needed to knock off the offer price.

A basic survey is carried out on behalf of the mortgage co (if there is one) to let them know how much the property is currently worth (ie can they get their money back if the 5h hits the fan?)

In the end, we knocked 15K off which included the cost of the survey, and the vendor bought it (or rather, we did!)