no earth wire in my house

[anisaadil]

hi people sorry for the delay

yes was up til 3.05am.
basically my washing machine was not working as it should called insurance whom advised ive got no earth in the socket and it is dangerous so he would not fix the washer

now i know my house has got earth to sum areas e.g. part of the lights have got earth, but some havent, same with the sockets sum have, and sum havent. so earth is here but noty everywhere
any clues?

thanks for all your helpfu;l relpies

Just so you understand the seriousness of this; if an appliance, say for example your washing machine was to develop a fault whereby a live (the red or brown) wire were to touch a metal part, the fuse wont blow, either on the plug or the fusebox. What effectively happens is your appliance casing, if metal, becomes live.

An appliance could be anything. It could be a metal lamp, netal spot lights, it could even be your pipework coming into contact with a live wire. As a worst case, imagine how you would feel if a poorly fitted wire in a metal light switch were to come loose, and make that switch live?


It really isnt worth discussing this, the earth connection is fundamental to the safety of everyone in your home. It needs to get sorted as soon as possible.

hi thanks for making me realise how serious this is, i will get someone qualified to come and have a look and let you know what they have advised

 

[anisaadil]

now i know my house has got earth to sum areas e.g. part of the lights have got earth, but some havent, same with the sockets sum have, and sum havent. so earth is here but noty everywhere
any clues?

How do you know this? What tests have you done?

Can you supply any pictures, sparks (I am not one) like pictures.

You don't actually need a CPC for the lights if the switches and lights are plastic, but of course your sockets must have earth wires.

hi thanks for reply
i know this as the guy whom come to fix the washer opened the socket and found no earth wire in it, and as this socket is underneath my sink i have had sthe odd electric shock but not knowing whats causing it and left kit until mentioned by insurance guy.

as for the lights e.g my dining room light does have earth where as in the next room which is the living room there is no earth wire in the light this was checked by me, there is no sign of the earth wire.

does this sound like a full rewire job? or part rewire/

 

[anisaadil]

this is complicated

can anyone suggest an answer to last qoute????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????/

 

[ban-all-sheds]

i know this as the guy whom come to fix the washer opened the socket and found no earth wire in it, and as this socket is underneath my sink i have had sthe odd electric shock

So there's more wrong than just the lack of an earth.

as for the lights e.g my dining room light does have earth where as in the next room which is the living room there is no earth wire in the light this was checked by me, there is no sign of the earth wire.

If you have any metal switches, stop using them. Even if you think they are earthed, because your house has clearly been fiddled with by Mr Stupid, so you cannot trust anything.

does this sound like a full rewire job? or part rewire/

Impossible to say - you need to get it all inspected.

 

[EngStudent]

hi thanks for reply
i know this as the guy whom come to fix the washer opened the socket and found no earth wire in it, and as this socket is underneath my sink i have had sthe odd electric shock but not knowing whats causing it and left kit until mentioned by insurance guy.

as for the lights e.g my dining room light does have earth where as in the next room which is the living room there is no earth wire in the light this was checked by me, there is no sign of the earth wire.

does this sound like a full rewire job? or part rewire/

Pictures! Give us some pictures of the cables, then we can decide whether the CPCs have just been cut back by some idiot, or if some of the cabling is that old that there are no CPCs.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

And you need to be a bit more patient waiting for replies, FFS!

 

[anisaadil]

hi thanks for reply
i know this as the guy whom come to fix the washer opened the socket and found no earth wire in it, and as this socket is underneath my sink i have had sthe odd electric shock but not knowing whats causing it and left kit until mentioned by insurance guy.

as for the lights e.g my dining room light does have earth where as in the next room which is the living room there is no earth wire in the light this was checked by me, there is no sign of the earth wire.

does this sound like a full rewire job? or part rewire/

Pictures! Give us some pictures of the cables, then we can decide whether the CPCs have just been cut back by some idiot, or if some of the cabling is that old that there are no CPCs.

hi
you need to advise me what pictures you want and what of, yes i konw cables but which ones

thanks for reply

 

[anisaadil]

And you need to be a bit more patient waiting for replies, FFS!

thankyou for your reply but as you can imagine am worried as been told this is dangerous

 

[EngStudent]

hi
you need to advise me what pictures you want and what of, yes i konw cables but which ones

thanks for reply

Start with the consumer unit, then isolate the power (flick the main switch off), remove a couple of sockets/switches that you know have no earth wires in them and give us a couple of pictures. If you can get more than the red/black/brown/blue conductors in the shot (i.e. a grey/black/whatever 'outer sheath') that'd be great.

 

[anisaadil]

hi
you need to advise me what pictures you want and what of, yes i konw cables but which ones

thanks for reply

Start with the consumer unit, then isolate the power (flick the main switch off), remove a couple of sockets/switches that you know have no earth wires in them and give us a couple of pictures. If you can get more than the red/black/brown/blue conductors in the shot (i.e. a grey/black/whatever 'outer sheath') that'd be great.

im on to it. its gona have to be tommorow now

 

[riveralt]

does this sound like a full rewire job? or part rewire/

May I suggest that you get an electrician in to complete a Periodic Inspection Report on your property as soon as possible. This report will give a full breakdown of the electrical issues within your property and rate them in priority order for repair.

It may well be that someone has just snipped the earth wires back but its better to be sure - electricity can kill when it is uncontrolled.

While you have been asked for pictures it will not change the fact that there appears to be something seriously wrong with your electrical circuits (shocks at the sink should be enough to convince you of this).

So stop asking questions and get someone in to do the PIR immediately!

 

[ericmark]

There are cheap testers like this which will do a limited check on sockets and show which are OK.
However reading what you have said likely better not to attempt any DIY and likely best option is to get an electrician to test everything.

For sockets there is no option there must be an earth. However although lights should have earths connected it is not quite so important and by selecting double insulated lamps and fittings one can get around not having an earth to the lights.

I did in about 1985 come across a house where very few earths had been connected and I remember trying to connect them all it was a nightmare and in the end I found there was a break in the earth in the loft space and there was no access to it so needed the landlord to arrange for access. So never finished the job.

You may find something similar and of course time is money so it may be that in some places it is cheaper to renew than to locate the problem. However you must live in the mean time and a tester like
this or the other one shown will allow you at least to work out what sockets are reasonably safe while your waiting for work to be done.

However they are around £50 so it would depend on how quickly you can get an electrician. There are cheaper socket testers but the cheaper ones do not test how good the earth is they only show there is one. If your house is protected by a RCD then you could use the cheaper testers.

 

[anisaadil]

does this sound like a full rewire job? or part rewire/

May I suggest that you get an electrician in to complete a Periodic Inspection Report on your property as soon as possible. This report will give a full breakdown of the electrical issues within your property and rate them in priority order for repair.

It may well be that someone has just snipped the earth wires back but its better to be sure - electricity can kill when it is uncontrolled.

While you have been asked for pictures it will not change the fact that there appears to be something seriously wrong with your electrical circuits (shocks at the sink should be enough to convince you of this).

So stop asking questions and get someone in to do the PIR immediately!

hey your right ive got someone coming in tommorow to have a look, no pictures are going to help me. i'll let you know what happens.....