On 20 Oct 2003, Terry D wrote

A K wrote:
I have a house that is 1 year old. In the lounge I have 2 bog
standard ceiling pendants. I have bought some new light fittings
and got an electrician to come and fit them (yes I am a hopeless
girlie when it comes to DIY!). When he unscrewed the pendants he
had found that the hole had been filled completely with
expandable foam together with all the wires. he said that it
would be a whole days job to do the lights as he would need to
get all the foam off the wired and would then need to test to
make sure he hadn't damaged them.

he told me that I should contact the builder and ask him to sort
it out as this was not up to NHBC standard, apparently some
unscrupulous builders get their electricians to do this to secure
the fitting when there is not a joist present to screw the
fitting to. He said that NHBC will make them lift the bedroom
floor and put a joist in!

Can anyone tell me if this is correct? I am concern if having
the wiring coated and encapsulated in this stuff is a fire
hazard.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Angela

Firstly I would advise you to avoid this 'electrician' like the
plague as he's obviously trying to make money out of you - the
'whole days job' tale is just ridiculous.

It does sound a bit generous -- from a diy perspective, I'd have
thought that 3 hours or so would do for lifting the upstairs
floorboards; cutting the existing cable out; inserting a wooden
plate; running a new cable from a junction box; installing the new
light fitting to plate; and replacing the floorboards. (Would one
really try and clean the foam off existing wires instead of running a
new circuit cable to the fitting?)

That said, the guy doesn't sound like a cowboy to me -- I'd have
thought if he was, he would've pushed harder for the day's work, and
not have advised getting the NHBC involved to get the builder to do it.

--
Cheers,
Harvey

For e-mail, change harvey to whhvs.