Electricity and water

[FantaIsFine]

Hi,

The spark has put an outside socket in my new wall at low height. A tap is supposed to be going on the same wall and naturally a socket should go above that.

I think he's going to say that I agreed the height which I MAY have done, can't remember. But, I'd love feedback as to if it should have been my own responsibility to consider before agreeing height and raise a tap as a factor at that point or if it's reasonable to expect him as a professional to have asked if a tap were planned to be nearby?

I also think the project manager should have caught it perhaps (?).

FWIW the position of a tap has always been there, it's not a new thing. If it had been asked, I would have had a definite answer.

I'm not asking can the socket be raised - it can - just, should I have been the one to think about and mention a tap.

We've been working to inadequate plans all along. Not known to me at the beginning they were inadequate so I'm aware NOW while all this should have been exactly specified to begin with, it wasn't, and I'm being asked to make a lot of decisions myself on the hoof (and under pressure, which I'm bad at) as we go along and that I'm not really qualified for. Which they know.

Further, is it fair to ask for beautiful brickwork now spoiled to be made good, if I can hold myself exonerated?

Thank you!

if it's reasonable to expect him as a professional to have asked if a tap were planned to be nearby?

Unless you had mentioned that a tap was being provided in the same location I can't see why he should have assumed it was a possibility or feel the need to ask.
TBH it would be very unusual to have a tap and S/O directly adjacent to each other.

Is the tap going directly above or will it be further along the wall?
I would have thought that it would have been down to you to point out there was a tap going in if its not already there. If its already there then the spark should have fitted it away from the water source as per the 18th edition.

Hi both, thanks for the replies - yeah the thing was they were never supposed to be side by side, I'd placed the socket deliberately high in my plans because of it and the project manager knew about intended placement of both to begin with.

Turns out it was fitted without referring to my confirmed plans.

But if it should have been my catch then fair enough and that was the opinion I was after, I was just disappointed that it wasn't picked up before I noticed and that nobody ever asked, checked or remembered.

Off to read up on 18th Edition. The spark (both?) 100pc ought to know about this, proper electrician but he's been off site since.

Thanks again!

If it’s an outdoor socket it will be IP rated anyway so not going to be an issue. Agree with the above, the tradesmen aren’t psychic so unless you implicitly mentioned your plans to the sparky then he’s just cracked on and rightly so.

I'd say the project manager (or whoever directed the electrician that day, to in stall the socket there) is the one responsible for specifying that, since both the tap and the sockets are in the plans.

What's going on the tap/socket? It's not ideal, but if the tap is rarely used/used for a hosepipe, and the socket is just used for Christmas lights, then there's not going to be a lot of crossover anyway and you could keep the nice brickwork as it is instead