Garden house rewire and workshop feed, Gurab Zarmikh

The brief

A detached house with a garden and a small woodworking shop at the far end. The workshop was fed from a kitchen socket by a flexible cable lying on the ground, and the house fuse blew every time the saw started. The previous winter, a storm had also taken out the router and television.

How it was done

1. 01 Existing circuits insulation tested; the bedroom wiring was kept and the kitchen and bathroom circuits replaced
2. 02 House board replaced and split into nine circuits, with RCD protection on sockets and wet areas
3. 03 Type 2 surge protective device fitted at the incomer and connected to earth
4. 04 New earth pit installed and its resistance measured
5. 05 65 m of buried armoured cable to the workshop, sized for the saw’s starting current
6. 06 Sub-board in the workshop with a main switch, RCD and separate circuits for machines and lighting
7. 07 Every circuit labelled, with a single-line diagram of the house and workshop handed over

The outcome

The saw and workshop machines now run without affecting the house, and the cable on the ground is gone. A fault on one circuit no longer blacks out the whole house. Earth resistance and insulation figures are recorded in the handover pack.