Just called by my flat to see how the damp works are going on (as I was told it was finished by the management) and to my horror I saw they have run all the socket cabling in external trunking down my walls!

The flat is Georgian, not some student doss house and visible trunking is pretty much top of my hate list.

The flat has been waterproofed with a type of mortar on the walls of the bedroom floor to ceiling and hallway up to 1.5m or so. All of the light switch wiring is embedded but they have run the wiring to the sockets externally and then used external socket boxes.

Is this normal? It looks absolutely crap! There is one left to do which has 3 wirescoming down from a hole just below the cornicing. The wall is used for a set of drawers which are now going to have to sit about 2/3 inches away from the wall if I use the socket so I would rather they just didn’t re-fit it but it has 3 twin and earths running to it so it looks like something runs off it.

😐

Sounds crap – I take it you are a tenant?

If its got 3 twin and earth of it one must be to a spur – very poor practice. It could still be blanked off just leaving the connections inside

A spur would only have the one twin going into it, hence the word spur! As for the mortar/render on the walls it somewhat defeats the object if you subsequently bollock holes into the walls to break the barrier of the waterproofing. Are you ground floor (I presume) or basement flat?

Underground flat?

It depends on what type and method they used to waterproof it really, but there is no reason why it can’t be chased in, just requires a different method.

I suspect they would have to start again to so this. They have likely either used a liquid tanking like vandex, or more probably a waterproof mortar such as izonil.

Sovereign heydi system!! You ever used it funky?? As much as they harp on about its qualities they still advise you fit a pump In a sump in the floor!!!

not a tennant – owner. Hence the concern.

They have used a Vandex type thing and then plastered over it and yup basement flat.

It seems as though they have forgotten to bury them but there is no way I am putting up with trunking running down from the cornicing.

How deep in the wall does the wiring have to be? I found a wire in the living room wall that had been drilled through when the previous owner put up shelves. They had used a terminal block to patch the live and earth back together (neutral still in one piece) and then plastered over the block in the wall. Thing is they didn’t actually screw the earth in properly so all of the sockets were not earthed and the plaster had gone into the block so any moisture and the wall becomes live!

Back to the trunking – any solutions other than them having to channel it out and do it again?

ive not used the vandex system but just had a quick look, its pretty similar to the heydi one by the looks of it. Anyhoo you can’t be puncturing the render or the system will fail so your initial assumption regarding forgetfull sparks may be right!! The main problem now is the integrity of the system if you start chasing cables in, can and worms comes to mind! What is the finishing coat over the waterproof render??

Get them to do it properly

Your flat your call – until they do it right they are not being paid.

It’s the flat rcd protected?

Best thing to do is chase out carefully, reapply vandex, set the cables into a tiny amount of drywall addy to hold them, cover in galvanised capping set into a bit more drywall addy, then plaster over with bonding and skim.

Pain in the ass to get right and you may still get moisture ingress along the chased edges.

Haven’t used the sovereign stuff yet wrighty, the rep keeps pestering me though. I use dryzone mainly because I can get it locally, very cheaply. Used to use the old injection stuff with my dad back in the day though

I would have expected this type of thing (i.e chased or trunking) to be in the original estimate. Check the estimate details before anything else.

Just had a quick look around the sovereign website, mixed a training day on tanking last week!

Funky, sovereign one is quick as its just a paint on affair with a big block brush, but hey ho, we’ve been building houses above ground in this wet country for years for a reason!! 😉

Unfortunately I have paid my installment – being handled by the management company. Just sent an email to them telling them it is completely unacceptable. They have already pissed me off by cutting up some of my decking that I removed for access and throwing out my radiator piping and one of the TRVs so I will now have odd ones (little things like that annoy me).

They also boxed in my stop cock and pipework which I am going to have to cut away as the stock cock needs replacing and I am getting a water meter fitted and need to plumb in a pipe for my workshop sink and hose. Really hate other people working on my flat while I am not there!

oh an yes, flat is RCD protected. Well it has breakers, not fuses.

Breakers are not the same as rcd’s though. Quite different

At 5 grand a ton they won’t have thrown any radiator piping away I can assure you!!! Sorry I can’t help any further but as funky said the minute you start chopping in to the render you’re causing leaching problems, less joints the better. Only advice is hold the rest of the money until you’re happy!

Could get them to bond up the wall to cover the trunking!

Either that or full dot and dab with pboard?? (Maybe)

Think the fuse box is RCDs and MCBs – what is the importance?

Have fired off an email to the management company dealing with it. Unfortunately all the money is with them so I can’t withhold anything.

Still have to find the money for a new boiler and new flooring yet (working part time while I set up a business with a colleague who did his PhD a few years before me).

Chuck out the trunking, cover cables with galvanised stuff you plaster over & dob, dab & plasterboard over. Can you cover this render stuff ? Does it need to breath in some way ? As you can tell, I know little.

There is a door frame about 2 foot away and decorative cornicing around the top so building out the wall is not an option.

Just had a very rude reply from the guy at the management company telling me to sort it out with the builder.

I am just reminding him that he is employed by me and the other flat owners and was the one who instructed the work. The builder doing the work (but not the tanking) lives above me – which is going to make it even more difficult to deal with.

Teh lesson is never pay upfront

Without dot and dabbing plasterboard over the existing walls to conceal the trunking and flush fit the sockets, chasing and re-sealing is you’re only other option.

Did you have any say in how the wiring would appear? If there’s a statement of works and it states that all wiring is to be concealed, it will need to be rectified as per contract.

All pretty substandard work by the sounds of it, mostly from lack of communication from all parties.

BTW, I’ve used Vandex and Heydi systems. No big differences really, only working times..
As for Sovereign recommending a sump and pump for basement use, that may be as back up for condensation due to lack of ventilation. Tanking acts as ground source water prevention, but whilst stopping moisture from coming into a property, it increases condensation issues.

The only document I have states that radiators and electrical sockets will be ‘reinstated’. I was asked if it was okay to move a socket to an adjacent wall which I agreed. At no point was the use of external trunking mentioned.

Just looked up he trunking and I see why I was asked about RCDs.

surely this (3rd one along) is what they should have done: http://www.safeguardeurope.com/cad/VAND-019.pdf

Yep, I’m sure that if the job had been done in Buckingham Palace, they would have found a way of doing it without unsightly trunking.

Of course more work costs more money, but were you even given a choice ?

Unless you were clearly told that the end result would look different to what you already had, then the contractor has no right at all to make their own decisions which affect the aesthetics of a building.

You have every right to be pissed off imo. I hope you get it sorted out. And if the contractor complains of the added costs it would entail to put it right, then that is solely their fault for not first consulting you – they should have clearly stipulated that trucking would be used before you gave your approval. Good luck.