Fusebox access disaster

iwillhtfu

How has the thread gotten this far without any pictures. Hard to make sense of what you're describing OP but seems odd that it would happen deliberately or be an over sight.

Is it possible this is an old obsolete meter/DB?

When the extension was being done perhaps there were plans in place to rewire and move the meter location that never materialised, so the builder just finished the wall to get paid.

Unless you're willing to take a hammer and chisel to the wall yourself you're not going to find out much more info here.

Post a picture out of curiosity.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120479973#Comment_120479973

I used to work in construction. It's not unusual to see buried fuse boxes, manhole covers etc. When I bought own new build house, they had concreted over a man hole in the side passage we needed to access to sort out an issue. Have seen fuse boards walled off and even server rooms with access walked off.

My issue is how does he have permission to rewire the whole house (a much bigger job). But not make a small hole to find the fuse board. That's what makes no sense.

phormium

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120480063#Comment_120480063

Manholes I can easily believe, I have one under the paving slabs of a porch! Fortunately seldom I have to access it as one either side as well but it's the main bathroom one and grandchildren with a liking for using a whole roll of toilet paper meant that once again I had to pick out the cement between slabs and lift 2 to get minimal access of about 6" gap, could really do with taking up 4 but that's an awful mess!

I could understand boxing in a fuseboard in some manner but not building a full block wall in front of it! Hard to make a small hole too in a block wall compared to cutting out a bit of plasterboard to figure out where it might be. Even the loss of space in the room by building another internal block wall outside the fuseboard is just odd! I'd drill a hole and stick in a flexible camera, I have one I got online for very little and it connects to phone app and shows pic there, handy yoke.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120479779#Comment_120479779

Again, I commend your dedication to looking after the house but this goes way beyond anything they asked you before

Have you spoken to the owner yet? You need to be working in close collaboration with them on this, it isn't your house and you don't have any power to make decisions for it

Frankly the whole house sounds like it needs renovation and it will cost a lot of money, who's planning to pay for it?

Flinty997

I think as soon as it had serious electrical problems it becomes a safety/fire issue. The OP should refuse any responsibility for it.

How big are the slabs in the attic. Can one be lifted.

How long since the extension was built.

Cerco

This whole saga is not credible. Probably a safe behind the wall without a key.😋

Girl Geraldine

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120477417#Comment_120477417

Did they specifically ask you to manage the rewiring of the house, or to get any electrical work done?

If not, and they just asked you to take care of it, then in my opinion you shouldn't be doing anything material to the house, just keeping the weeds down, and making sure it is kept secure and doesn't flood or burn down. Being asked to take care of a house and then going on a solo run to burst holes in walls and rewire the house seems like a massive overstepping of your brief if you were just told to take care of it, without specific instructions to do any more than that.

You can't just decide to re-wire someone elses house on your own. You need to discuss this with them. And most importantly, who is going to pay for the re-wiring job, and all the ancillary work like making good of breakouts and plaster? You can't just assume they will pay for work. Nor should you be paying for work to someone elses house.

If you have a sincere belief that the house is electrically dangerous, then call an electrician to assess it and inform the owners and get their wishes on it. If it is dangerous and no way to switch off in the house then the electrician can call ESB Networks to disconnect the supply from the pole/minipillar to make the situation safe. This is what you should be doing, not going on solo-runs that the owners are nonethewiser too.

Girl Geraldine

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120478500#Comment_120478500

Not your business to ask about the account, but it is somehow your business to make moves on your own to re-wire the house at a cost of many thousands?

If I was the owner, I would not be impressed to be getting a re-wiring bill of maybe € 10k after asking a fella to cut the lawn and turn the heating on once a week.

What are these "slabs" in the attic? Insulation slabs, concrete floor slabs, plasterslabs, or cavity closer blocks?

Why are you balking at the idea of getting a holesaw and borescope, but you seem very keen to take on the more dramatic and less logical approach of taking a sledgehammer to the wall. Doing that with a sledge would make absolute shít of the place, you could blow plaster off large areas of the the wall from the insane vibrations, crack ceilings, etc.

If all is as you say, then this is primarily a job for a small builder to take on, they can do the opening up work, at the direction of the electrician. Electrician will do their work, then the builder comes back to do whatever re-reinstatement and making good.

The fact that it makes absolutely no logical sense to entomb a fusebox behind a concrete wall. As someone says, it is the equivalent of welding the bonnet of the car shut. Added to that, it would have been physically impossible to fit out and commission the electrics in the extention without being electrocuted because the fully energised fuse box would already have been entombed behind the wall at that stage.

There is a lot of stuff not adding up here. I am starting to have my doubts about the legitimacy of this story. At this point I am actually thinking "pics or gfto". Substantiate the story because it is not credible at the moment.

Alun

I agree 100% with the above two posts. A lot of things just don't add up, and I'm becoming more convinced it's a wind-up of some sort, although I fail to see what the purpose of it is.

whizbang

I have seen an old house extension build up with a new structural wall internal to the existing old external wall, then extended outwards, and then the old external wall removed.

Worked beautifuily..!

johndoe99

so the OP is taking care of a house which involves dropping by now and then, to make sure its safe. Then for some inexplicable reason he decides he will fix the electrics. You name is not Frank Spencer by any chance.

dublincc2

Spoke to my cousin and cleared a lot of this up.

My late uncle who was a builder himself built the wall in front of the fusebox a few months after the extension was completed so everything was already done at that point. He then filled the void with concrete from the opening in the attic according to my cousin so there is actually no point in the wall that is hollow, the void is filled up meaning the fusebox and meter are completely and utterly encased. As to why my uncle decided to do this my cousin doesn't know but remembered that he was very keen to do it and he was the only one who worked on it. As for electricity there was no problem in the years thereafter, perhaps the box being covered in concrete actually contributed to everything staying in place.

I told him that it didn't make much sense from what I had heard and nobody seems to know why my uncle completely sealed off and then filled up that void where the fusebox is.

It seems that the wall will be demolished after all for the rewiring to start, I'm backing out of this on my cousin's request but he asked me to handle the guys in site who are doing the job. This and rewiring was all going to be funded by him.

So it looks like that's it, there is no way to access it without destroying the whole wall as the void was filled with cement in addition to bring bricked off. At least I won't have to personally do any work on this.

elperello

Glad you got to the bottom of it.

One of the most unusual construction stories I ever heard of.

blackbox

hmmmm

I'm calling horse shite on this whole story.

finnyob

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120493884#Comment_120493884

Seconded. The motion is carried.

Concrete is a conductor (albeit a bad one) - wet concrete even more so. The whole lot would have gone boom as soon as the cavity was allegedly filled up from above.

Presumably the cement mixer was lifted into the attic and the water, sand and cement was put into it from there? How gullible do you think we are?!

phormium

Pity, it was a great story, I'd have liked a better ending! I still can't help wondering about years and years of estimated bills with no meter reading!

While I shouldn't give it more head space you could always fill the void as you build, wouldn't need more than a bucket or two of cement then in attic to seal gap 😊

HotWaterCylinder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120494300#Comment_120494300

In fairness I've never had my meter read. Nothing sinister I just have electric gates and never home when they call.

phormium

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120494312#Comment_120494312

Yes but do you submit the readings yourself? Mine is seldom read either but I submit readings regularly myself. Surely your bill isn't estimated though for years, I know my Dad got a letter telling him no actual reading had been submitted or read for over a year and basically to do it.

HotWaterCylinder

very true

phormium

Just realised I'm actually wrong about the meter, it's the fuseboard that is entombed in the wall, the meter is on the side wall of house! In my house meter is outside, fuseboard is inside, in my Dad's much older house both meter and fuseboard are on internal wall in kitchen so it obviously varies.

But OP said at one stage meter was on different wall to fuseboard so meter could be read. I am not going to think about this anymore 🤣