Put a nail through a wire - what do I do?

dirtychinchilla

dirtychinchilla

dirtychinchilla

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Joined
2 May 2011
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Woking
Hi guys,

So, long and short of it is that I'm an idiot and I put a nail through a wire.

Long story is that I was putting up a mirror, and stupidly didn't check to see if there was anything behind it. I put the nail in and then realised that it was probably a bit too low, so pulled at the nail. As I did that, everything connected to the downstairs sockets switched off.

At that point, I assumed that I'd gone through a wire and therefore I isolated the sockets by switching them off at the breaker. They're all off now.

The house is only 18 months old, so it's built to up to date regulations. Therefore my understanding is that any cables in the walls are either 50 mm from the wall surface, or within metal channeling.

The nail I put in is about 1.5 mm in diameter and 20 mm long. Would this have gone through the channeling?

We've got an electrician coming round now under our Halifax Reward account thing who will only make it safe. What do you think I'm in for?

Thanks!

dirtychinchilla
 
"Make it safe" usually means isolate the effected wiring and not to fix it.

I'm not clued up on current wiring regs so can't really comment on that side of it. What kind of wall is it? Probably won't be a very big job to get someone to replace, or even do yourself.

Dave
 
Plasterboard is good, should be much easier to get a replacement cable down behind it. Fingers crossed the fix it rather than isolate it!

Dave
 
The electrician has been and he said I'd pierced the wire but not enough for it to need repairing, apparently! He's been kind enough to fill the hole in the wall for us too :)
 
Haha I feel like the fiancé will want me to pay someone to put it up at this point!

She tends not to watch when I'm hanging things on walls, which is probably for the best. I'm prone to having to do everything twice.
 
I didn't get a chance. He said it was slightly damaged but at no risk.

Fortunately, an electrician for work happens to be in today and fingers crossed he's going to come round and sort it out for me! He was pretty angry actually.
 
So the electrician from work came round, chiseled out a hole in the wall and found where I'd hit the wire. I basically managed to just nick the neutral core of one of the cables, so he taped that up so it couldn't ark if the wire ever got damp, and that's that! I've just got to fill the hole in the wall now.

Any recommendations for deep filler?
 
I did this with a hole saw and the electrician cut the cable and crimped it within the wall. Luckily the entire wall was being replastered so it wasn't a big deal, he could make all the mess he wanted.

Perhaps look at adding some bonding to a level where you can fill it so it won't shrink.
 
How deep and how wide? The answer to most filling related questions is Gyproc Easi-Fill 20, dries fast, doesn't sag, easy to sand.

Dave
 
I would try and insert some additional board into that hole and then glue/fix that to the back of the current plasterboard. That way you're not trying to fill an bottomless hole.
 
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