Is this legal?

[adrianh]

I watched my neighbor's electrical "contractor", that arrived in an unmarked bakkie and do the following earlier this week:

I gather that they lay a cable to a pump at his big JoJo drum.

1. They drilled a hole from the inside though to the outside right by the DB board in the kitchen.
2. .chased a channel vertically till it reached about 2 foot off the ground. (all outside)
3. .then chased a channel about 5m long along the wall to the back of the house. (all outside)
4. I watched them install a white cable (maybe 3 times the thickness of a 3 core 20amp cable into the channel.
5. They then proceeded to slap cement over the channel and that was that.
6. I can't see where the cable ends (hopefully in a box on the wall) I will try to check (yes I am nosy)

Is this legal?
What happens it next next home owner drills a hole in the outside wall and gets electrocuted?

This sort o thing really scares me because I am a handyman type so I would definitely run the risk of drilling into such an installation.

[ians]

Thats how most electrical installations are done in 2021 ... its a pain in the butt when you fit cupboards or drill a hole for a towel rail in the bathroom and you hit the cable ... no conduit means you have to remove the tiles and chase the wall again ... it certainly not "illegal".

I am sure someone will post regs if where you can chase is a thing.

Personally I keep the wires vertical and horizontal ... but when doing work for a builder on a budget ... the wires go the shortest route ... they normally hit and run jobs ... we cut a slot the width of the blade and push the wire into the slot or just clip it to the brick and the plasters covers it.

This is how they do it in the UK ... they even put a cover over their cables ... here in SA ... no need to chase a wide gap or fit a cover over the wire ... here in SA the wire just gets slapped into the wall ... so long as the wire is flush with the wall ...its fine ... in some cases I have even seen the wore sticking out a bit ... whether you pay R250 k or R10 M ... there is a good chance your house is done in twin+E ... especially if you live in an estate ... they are the worse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvkc79jTHRA&ab_channel=GSHElectrical

[adrianh]

The UK stuff is ok but the rest is terrible. I would never put a cable in a wall unless it is in a pipe. I would also never run a pipe, let alone a naked cable horizontally across a wall.

Call me old school - those just just kinda no-no's in my mind.

[ians]

I agree 100 that is why my regular customers only get conduit installations ... some of them pay for me to go as far as Cape town to work on their properties or if specialized installtions are required ... In fact I have done 3 projects around Cape ( until recently I had never been to Cape Town on holiday only work related visits ... then I did a 10 000 km round trip to the Cape and up the other side ...even went up table mountain for the first time) ... hit and run projects where people whine about price all the time ... they get the wire installed using the shortest route with the least amount of effort.

[AndyD]

Yeah, sounds par for the course... and there's a good chance it's legal if it was a licensed electrician. The saving grace most of the time is that the plastering is usually so awful it's blatently obvious there was a chase there and probably a cable of pipe in it.

[adrianh]

The saving grace most of the time is that the plastering is usually so awful it's blatently obvious there was a chase there and probably a cable of pipe in it.

This is very true - I can see the terrible plastering from 10m away.

[skatingsparks]

This is how they do it in the UK ... they even put a cover over their cables ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvkc...=GSHElectrical

No one uses hammer and bolster.

They have these in the U.K.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHT6aLuMlsg

If I did house bashing - I'd get me one of those.

[ians]

We have both the makita and Hilti dustless chasing system ... unfortuntely all the Hilti units units are no longer supported ... so you pay premium price for a disposable unit ... R40 K to setup a disposable system is a bit over the top for house bashing.

Talk about stupid people ... who pushes a machine up the wall ... really ... if you run out of petrol do you push your car to the garage at the top or bottom of the hill or free wheel to the garage at the bottom of the hill? In saying that chasing on the floor it is easier to push the machine that pull while chasing.