Wet plaster/bonding around electric sockets

[Middo99]

Hi guys,

I had some renovation work done in my lounge a few months back - as I am a complete novice at this sort of thing I payed the professionals to come in. Had solid oak floorboards put in which raised height of skirtings which meant sockets had to be raised too. The sparky dug out what seemed to me to be an excessively oversized hole for the metal back box and filled the gap between it and the plaster with some sort of reddish bonding agent. This bonding has never dried properly - for a while it had some sort of fungus spores growing from it, which have since gone but as you can hopefully see from the included photo the plaster/bonding around the sockets is spoilt. Now the sockets have shorted out and trip the fuse at the main switchboard for the flat.

Sparky turned out to be a bit of a cowboy and won't come back. Not sure I want him back anyway. Any advice on how this should be treated would be greatly appreciated so I don't sound like a formless gimp ready to be fleeced by another sparky. Thanks heaps,

Dave

Untitled

• Middo99
• 14 Mar 2011
• 2

Untitled

• Middo99
• 14 Mar 2011
• 2

Untitled

• Middo99
• 14 Mar 2011
• 2

Untitled

• Middo99
• 14 Mar 2011
• 2

 

[Chri5]

Bonding does have a use by date, if it was past it's use date it tends to never quite set- however it would dry out.

You need to take a bolster to the area around the back box (being carefull near wires (investigate those- I'd imagine there vertical between socket and floor) and see what's going on.

To me it looks as if there is damp, what's on the otherside of the wall to the socket?

 

[Middo99]

Thanks for the reply.

The wall is a party wall, the neighbouring flat has a bookcase on their side. No radiators or other pipework.

As it's a basement flat I've had this wall tested for damp and was advised it was a problem with the bonder.

Wires come into the back box from above. how do i tell where they're running behind the plaster?

 

[Chri5]

I it a basement flat or have you added (or converted) a basement in a house ?

The socket was once a single and the sparks made it two ? (old cable and new cable colours).

Reason I ask is that if the work was simply local to the socket then tanking won't have been too disturbed.

Again I'd suggest chopping out the general area and looking for damp. The condition of the back boxes suggest more than a simple 'poo' bonding job.

And thanks for the extra photo's they werem't there when I 1st posted.