Massive cable under first floor floor board

[consumer done over]

Could it be an armoured cable running from your existing consumer unit (may be joined to T&E somewhere close the CU if you cant see it) in the house, up under the floorboards then off outside to the garage or some sort of outbuilding?

Do you have any buildings external to the house that have power?

As its already been said its unlikely to be a DNO cable but its certainly possible, but if its a power cable then any decent spark should have been able to identify what it is and where it goes within reason.

All the best
Dan

done more investgation. I'll try and get a pic tomorrow, hopefully the chinese internet cafe will let me load it over lunchtime.

it seems to run above in the ceiling above the CU area, runs through one small front room (which is above CU area), through the landing and seems to drop at the beginning of the extension wall. The wall was taken out when the extension was built (downstairs and upstairs were both extended) so if the cable did run outside it must have had to have been moved at the time of the extension. The cable does not run in the floorboard under the new extension, it stops before the extension begins.

Near the back extension there was a old immersion heater which was removed ten years ago. I am hoping that either:

a) the cable supplied immersion heater and is obsolete.

b) if it was a mains cable it will have been disconnected at the time of the extension cause the internal wall was knocked down to extend both the first and second floor.
Cable is about 2 to 3 cm wide and quite slender.

Wil continue to investigate and report with pc hopefully.

 

[Lectrician]

Oval cable suggests it is not a DNO concentric.







RF - I just thought the meter mounted on a plastic box didn't look great, with the 'copex' strangled over to the CT chamber. I prefer to see the meter mounted on the CT chamber front, or within an 'empty' CT chamber. All DNO's are different though.

 

[RF Lighting]

It seems to be the standard way our DNO does them.

CT meter on a gewiss type box, and copex to the CT chamber

 

[JohnD]

... it stops before the extension begins. ...

you mean you've found the end, or you mean you can't see where it goes?

 

[Lectrician]

It seems to be the standard way our DNO does them.

CT meter on a gewiss type box, and copex to the CT chamber

Out DNO use these:

CT chamber with meter on the door. They do have other methods, but this is the prefered and default way.

Excuse the unclipped earth (which is not allowed to enter the CT chamber). It was clipped when complete

 

[RF Lighting]

(Sorry about the hijack)

 

[dannyboi2003]

done more investgation. I'll try and get a pic tomorrow, hopefully the chinese internet cafe will let me load it over lunchtime.

it seems to run above in the ceiling above the CU area, runs through one small front room (which is above CU area), through the landing and seems to drop at the beginning of the extension wall. The wall was taken out when the extension was built (downstairs and upstairs were both extended) so if the cable did run outside it must have had to have been moved at the time of the extension. The cable does not run in the floorboard under the new extension, it stops before the extension begins.

Near the back extension there was a old immersion heater which was removed ten years ago. I am hoping that either:

a) the cable supplied immersion heater and is obsolete.

b) if it was a mains cable it will have been disconnected at the time of the extension cause the internal wall was knocked down to extend both the first and second floor.
Cable is about 2 to 3 cm wide and quite slender.

Wil continue to investigate and report with pc hopefully.

I still say its an armoured cable, do you have any sheds or outbuildings that have power and light in them? If an extension has been built since the cables been installed then its possible its now hidden in the cavity. As you have access to the ceiling area above the CU can you see if the cable drops down in the CU's direction?

I'll await a pic but my money is definitely on an armoured cable thats still powering something. Can you post a pic of your CU so we can see what circuits it has, these may give us a clue.

Cheers
Dan

 

[Lectrician]

2-3cm wide and quite slender does not sound like an armoured cable to me

Sounds very oval

 

[Steve]

Go on, I'll join in. This time a smart meter, installed as in Rob's photo.

Sorry for hijack

 

[Lectrician]

Ya see, our DNO use the same meter, but fit it to a sturdy cabinet - Not a cheap gewiss type box

That aerial on top of the last pic - I am assuming remote metering? Quality install that!

 

[consumer done over]

2-3cm wide and quite slender does not sound like an armoured cable to me

Sounds very oval

right here is the beast Not very good photos but you can see the flat thing.



I've found out that it continues under the extension. you will notice that
it is placed under a newish looking joist but above an old joist. Basically
there was a roof above the old joist which was knocked put and a bedroom built above.
I think the other poster must have been right in saying there was some sort of "shed" in the original layout. This must have been under the old roof mentioned above. This was probably removed to extend the kitchen.
You will see from the last two pics that the beast splits into two smaller wires which have been insulated with blue tape.

 

[dannyboi2003]

Looks like old VIR cable to me, i stand corrected with regards to it being armoured cable

As its disconnected and taped up you would be safer to assume its still live until you can verify visually that its disconnected at both ends, but as your having a re-wire dont worry about it, leave that to the sparky as we can now confirm its not a DNO cable and can be removed during the re-wire.

All the best
Dan