Weird / dodgy wiring ? - advice please (UK)

[Lee Davison]

Hi all,

I'm renovating the kitchen, taken it back to empty shell and started from scratch and all going well other than one query I have with the wiring which is making me nervous.

One end of the kitchen (put in by previous owner) was previously a floor to ceiling bank of cupboards with integrated fridge freezer, washing machine etc. we pulled all of this out and the sink is now going that end and there's some wiring that needs to be removed as it will be right above the sink. Have included some pictures to explain better.

I've never seen anything done like this before there are a pair of wires coming down from ceiling (bungalow) into the socket I want to keep, one of these is connected to the l/h sockets and then a connection goes from there to the r/h socket box. The other wire goes unbroken through the l/h socket box into the r/h socket box. Both of the wires in the r/h socket box go to round connector boxes and these used to have wires coming out to the fridge and washing machine.

All I want to do is get rid of the r/h socket box above the sink safely. To my laymans eye that's the ring main coming down from the ceiling and they've split it into two separate spurs ? So can I simply cut the wire that's currently going straight through the l/h box, connect it to the left hand socket then remove the spur to the r/h side and I'm back with a proper ring main socket on the left and can block up the hole above the sink ?

(Sockets are on a 32a breaker in the fuse box).

Thanks in advance for your help - please see attached pictures for better explanation.

Cheers, Lee

 

[He who knows]

I'm renovating the kitchen, taken it back to empty shell and started from scratch and all going well other than one query I have with the wiring which is making me nervous.

Just think how nervous you would have been if you'd known all these years that that circuit wasn't a ring thanks to the previous owner's numptiness.

It was a ring until he removed the RH socket.

So can I simply cut the wire that's currently going straight through the l/h box, connect it to the left hand socket then remove the spur to the r/h side and I'm back with a proper ring main socket on the left and can block up the hole above the sink ?

Yup.

 

[Lee Davison]

Thanks He Who Knows - thought it must be but always good to get some advice from someone with a bit more knowledge.

This was the least of his numptiness, we've found much worse - for instance the wires that came out of those round connector blocks to fridge freezer and washing machine ran across the floor so had the washing machine ever leaked the wires would have been under water.

Where the old sink was he had a dishwasher next to it and ran another wire and round connector along the floor there, this one the connector itself was sitting on the floor directly under the sink / dishwasher so if either had ever leaked it would've been straight into the connector :-/

Apparently the guy owned a shop fitting company (since gone broke) so I wonder how many shops out there have similar quality electrics.

 

[He who knows]

FItters (shop/kitchen/bathroom) are notorious.