I'm still working on insulating my attic. I knew it would be a long process, but with every task I have to do, it seems to open up a whole other tangential job which I must first contend with.
Tasty electrons
I found this Electrical cable running through the attic and unlike all the rest it has been nibbled by rats, in some places all the way through to the copper wire. I told my wife and son it was mice but I knew, for a fact we had a rat infestation last winter. Someone had left a box of grass seed in the attic and I could see lots of evidence that there had been a feast and scat party.
First copper sighted
I was quite surprised to find a copper wire as most of the other cables seem to be rubberised stranded steel, our house is showing it's age. I don't think copper had been invented when my father built this house. In the heal of the hunt, this wire must have been upgraded at one time. I plan to get the whole place rewired but this discovery called for urgent attention and since it was a Sunday and without anyone I could call I decided to remedy it myself. It was not safe to leave it like this a second longer as it was very close to plumbing which could have caused an arc.
First, I needed to trace the wire and see where it went. Very carefully I didn't run my hand along it and finally found it came to a socket in the living room which powers the TV. Maybe the rats were trying to tune in. I traced back the other way to the fuse board and was able to isolate the circuit.
At the other side of the wall from the TV socket is a hot press and this is a spaghetti junction of wires doing I don't know what but I was easily able to find the culprit as it was the only grey one. I got my son the cut the cable to check if it was live , luckily for me it wasn't.
Out with the old, in with the new
I spliced a new cable to the end and then pulled the old one up into the attic so it would take the new one along for the ride. I was happy how easy this went and just made sure my wife was on hand to help feed it through if it got stuck.
Back in the attic I cut the old cable close to the fuse board and got ready to do a join. I wasn't going the try wiring directly in as I know that is an electrician's job and not something that a nincompoop like me should attempt.
A marriage made in heaven
The old wire was fine form there on and after stripping the ends I was able to make the join with the new one. I left a bit of length so the pro had some to play with as he (or she) was joining it into the fuse board.
To join I used these little doohickies. I had seen them used by electricians in the past and found them in my local hardware shop. They are used to join two wires and are easy to attach and unattach. For the nerds out there they are rated at 450v and 32A so since the favour of my electronicals is 220V 13A they should be fine for this temporary job.
Just pop your wires in and close the latch. I was actually impressed by how well they gripped the wire.
Where it all started in the end
Back at the socket, I had left a small length of wire on the other side of the wall which I was again able to splice to and pull through the wall to the socket then it was a simple process of screwing in the new wire making sure brown was Live Blue was neutral and yellow and green was earth. Ignore that other wire that was just a spare one to be sure to be sure it was earthed.
When all was said and done I gave my son the honour of turning everything one again. I really love the way he trusts his daddy. Luckily for him everything sprung to life and he survived another day to watch Minecraft videos.