Armoured electrical cable in garden

[TheSplash]

Prompted by an earlier post regarding the above I too have a question.

I moved to this property about 20 years ago and there is an armoured electrical cable in the back garden supplying lighting to the sheds. The cable is just lying on the soil behind various shrubs, the length of the back garden. It's not really noticeable and certainly isn't buried underground.

I'm thinking I would like to wrap the cable with some tape to highlight to others that it is there. I'm thinking something like a brightly coloured tape or maybe something that says 'Danger'. Does anybody know if I can buy such a tape, one that is weather resistant?

Thanks.

You'd be better fixing it off the ground. If you can fit some posts into the ground and use metal brackets to hold it in place it would be an improvement.

Duct/duck/gaffer tape comes in bright colours and is pretty durable. Alternatively is there any slack in the cable so you could bury it?

Just leave it if I were you, It is designed to be used as an exposed supply wire and has a steel armour inside to protect it against from accidental damage.

BabyBed, very little slack in the cable, not enough to bury it at all.

johnd2, posts and brackets sounds a good idea. Can you buy an all-in-one metal post/bracket to raise it off the ground? I'll be the person doing it and I'm not very handy.

Thanks.

KitchenGuy, when I first moved in 20 odd years ago a friend of mine was doing some gardening and not seeing the cable managed to cut the outer part with a spade but it didn't flash or go 'bang'. I must confess, like the previous poster he wrapped electrical tape round it too. It's lasted all this time so I'm hoping it keeps going for another 20 years!

Could you cover it with lengths of guttering which would stop accidental damage?

SoupDragon, yes, that's a good idea, I hadn't thought of that.

"KitchenGuy

Just leave it if I were you, It is designed to be used as an exposed supply wire and has a steel armour inside to protect it against from accidental damage.
"
Not correct and dangerous advice. It's against writing regulations to leave swa cable lying on the ground. Also the armour is mainly to ensure that when cut, the live conductors will be shorted to earth and the circuit protection will trip immediately. That assumes the armour is correctly earthed.

Given whoever fitted it just draped on the ground, i would assume it hasn't been earthed either. And maybe they didn't do the calculations to ensure the disconnection time. So I'd be careful.

Personally I would be rewiring it and running along the fence. Previously we had our wire going underground in a plastic conduit but it was against regs. Alternatively I like the guttering idea.

It's not allowed to be on the ground?

I have v recently moved into a house that has this. My electrician has checked it's safe (he's a mate) but now I'm worried as have 2dc who play out there.

"user1471530109

It's not allowed to be on the ground?
"
Correct , due to risk of damage.
Kids probably won't be digging etc, but loose cables can be damaged during gardening or any other ground landscaping works. Even installing on temporary structures such as wooden fences is not allowed. A wall or purpose provided supports is ok, or buried below the level of any foreseeable digging with suitable marker tape above is also ok.
But lying on the ground it can easily get trodden in and mistaken for a root and cut through with a spade or pruning equipment.
Someone on here did exactly that with a saw the other week.

Ours is not very deep and was not mentioned as an issue when electrician rewired our new shed last year.

Rule of thumb is that it should be buried at least 2 spade depths below the surface, but I think the current regs (17th edition?) say 450mm (about 18" in proper money).

To be fully compliant with the regs, it should also have warning tape buried at 150mm (6")

www.amazon.co.uk/CAUTION-ELECTRIC-CABLE-WARNING-UNDERGROUND/dp/B0071YUQCA?tag=mumsnetforum-21

There are regulations for the burying of armoured cable but being armoured does not follow on that it needs to be a buried cable. In our old factory the leads to many machines trailed across the floor from the isolators carrying 440v and as long as they were armoured they always passed inspection as did the 1000v ones trailing hundreds of metres across the quarry. I have never heard of armoured cable along a ground being an issue unless they are in a position of obvious danger of damage.

Regulations change though @KitchenGuy when were you working in the old factory? Plus this thread is about a domestic installation, not an industrial one.

Just for the record, a solid floor in a factory can be viewed as low risk of damage by the responsible electrician. In a garden at the edge on solid paving and suitable clipped or otherwise restrained, you could make a similar judgement. But run across a flower bed certainly doesn't meet regs.
For example reg 522.8.10 cover cables in the ground:
"
Except where installed in a conduit or duct which provides equivalent protection against mechanical damage, a cable buried in the ground shall incorporate an earthed armour or metal sheath or both, suitable for use as a protective conductor. The location of buried cables shall be marked by cable covers or suitable marker tape. Buried conduits and ducts shall be suitably identified. Buried cables, conduits and ducts shall be at sufficient depth to avoid being damaged by any reasonably forseeable disturbance of the ground.
"

TheSplash. I am familiar with the regs for buried cable and I am sure that there is nothing specific about flower beds in it or that it says cable cannot be ran overground. And to others, this is not his plan, the fact is the cable is already in place and I think it's all very well to put the fear of God into someone and offer advice to a guy to re-do the whole job but it's this guy that will be footing the bill.

TheSplash. A bit of common sense will see you through here. If you feel ill at ease with it being there by all means have it replaced. I assume from your account the cable is along some boundary at the back of the beds and as such has a pretty low risk of being damaged. Also, I am sure you can get through to the conductor in an armoured cable with a spade if you put the effort in and hacked the hell out of it but it's extremely unlikely to cause any damage affecting the safety of the cable with an accidental hit. Simply because that is what this type of cable is specifically designed to resist and that is why the installer used it in the first place. You are far more likely to accidentally damage one of the soft PVC mains cables running from all the appliances in your home. If you are looking to improve the safety of the instillation, as it was done over twenty years ago, the best improvement you could make is to just check it is supplied via an RCD and if not have one fitted.( standard procedure these days) which will cut off the power in milliseconds in the event of anything untoward happening.

Good luck whichever way you choose to go.

A RCD for an outside cable (supplying sockets) has been mandatory since the 15th edition, which was introduced in 1981.

They were not mandatory for indoor sockets until 17th edition ( 2008).

The poster says the cable supplies lights, but no mention of sockets.

The 16th edition makes it mandatory for ANY outdoor cable, introduced in 1991.

Although it is of course feasible that it wasn't installed by a qualified contractor, but just the previous owner of the property.

I think if a qualified contractor put it in it in he would have most likely clipped the cable somewhere so most likely not but you never know. I have seen loads just fitted to a spur or cooker outlet. I am sure we can both agree that's it's a good idea to check and if one is not fitted then to fit one.