As electrical contractors, there’s an element of predictability to our working days.
It doesn’t matter if we’re wiring a new industrial unit, installing a complete Smart Home Automated System, a programme of Fixed Wire Testing for a landlords properties or doing all the electrics for a development of new luxury apartments – we know, pretty much, how long it’ll take and what the days hold.
Yesterday was a little different, we came across something that not one of our team had encountered in our combined 142 years of experience working with electrics.
When a fault happens we have the knowledge, experience and equipment to track it down without a problem. However, when something so bizarre happens it can throw the best of us.
One of the projects we are completing is a rewire of a home and as one of our engineers was working in the bathroom, he couldn’t get power to a certain point. As an experienced electrician he followed all the usual procedures. He tested from front to back, back to front, individual components – nothing! The only thing left was the fixed wire itself, but having installed hundreds of thousands of miles of cable over the years we knew it couldn’t be that as there’s never, ever been an issue.
In the end, suitably frustrated and exasperated, we pulled out the wiring section and installed it all new again.
Yes, of course, we now had power.
When we stripped the electrical wire back piece by piece we found a tiny section where the insulation simply hadn’t formed properly between two of the wires – clearly it could never work.
Flabbergasted? Not a strong enough word.
I have no idea what the odds are of it happening, what I do know is that will be something our engineers will talk about for a while.