Brian wrote:


I'll be honest, guys - I'm getting confused.

Here's the situation. I have some ring main cables coming out of a concrete
cladded wall.

[ ... ]

I bared the wire in parts while doing this, so have had to replace that
patch of cable.

I now need some safe and reliable method of joining the old ring main cable
to new.

The best answer is to replace the whole of the run of cable which is
najjered with new stuff. It's a ring main, and Therefore each individual
run of cable's usually pretty short - from one socket to the next.
Really, truly, the 'do it once, do it right, then forget about it for
30+ years' approach is to work out where the cable you najjered runs
from, and replace the run with a new bit.

Another sensible, useful, and compliant approach is to find a place for
a new socket - it's a rare room that wouldn't benefit from a new one.
Put said socket on the non-najjered bit of cable, i.e. 'upstream' of the
bit you did Bad Things to; run a new run from there to the Ould destination.

Either way's better than putting an unexpected, uninspectable joint
somewhere in the deep middle of nowhere - it's even more confusing to
future inhabitants if the sheath colour or guage of cable changes in
mid-run.

Doing something else won't kill you or burn your house down unless
you're truly and massively cackhanded and terminally stupid, but the
pleasure of d-i-y is being able to do a *proper* job with *better*
workmanship than a pro who's trading off quality against time-to-finish.

Stefek