This is fairly good compared to some of the things I have come across over the years TBH. One example being a rewire done by the homeowner who was a qualified electrician but worked on the maintenance side. All lighting was switched on the neutral so functioned but was live when off. 🤯
Unfortunately Jordan the worst bodges in my home were done by the original builders and I uncovered so many that we ended up rewiring. Safe now and certificated. Not all diyers are bad and irresponsible and we KNOW when to call in the good professionals. Good video
Once I was at my grandparents house helping with gardening and stuff, in the afternoon I went inside sat down turned on the tv and started watching whatever was on. Then about half an hour later everything in the room that was plugged in and switched on and had a switch mode psu literaly blew up, the treadmill, laptop chargers and phone chargers just made a horrible poping sound. the TV survived bc it is on a separate circuit. I was like kindof terrified and shocked at the same time (emotionaly not literaly). I got up from the couch walked into the hallway, looked up and saw black smoke above a junction box. So in the end what happened is that a 480V line somehow got shorted to a 230V line and yeah...
I had a similar situation recently and followed it up with a written report too. So hard to walk away knowing that the installation is potentially dangerous. If it was gas the supply would be capped off and a notice issued end of. Good video illustrating real world situations and the dilemma’s that we face on a daily basis.
At the end of the day its a win win situation - youtube viewers are very happy, as is the eldery couple, and jordan has covered his ass👍 - what else can you do?
I love watching your videos. While I’m not an electrician I am in a profession where I could be held liable for not following procedure. With this in mind I think you did exactly the right thing. Don’t apologise for giving them your professional opinion. It’s obviously important to cover yourself for liability but what’s more important is to make it plain that the customer is living in danger. Definitely back it up with the unsafe notice and a covering letter advising no more diy and to get it rewired with out delay.
As he had explained at the end, he seemed to look at what he did as a "Good Samaritan" work. Does that provide any degree of legal shielding if the homeowner does more work and burns the house down? I have no idea.
Totally agree! This is 'real world' stuff instead if those near testlab-perfection and perfectly clean installs that we usually see. It's vids like this that make me wish I were a fully trained sparky capable of fault finding. I'd love to 'solve the puzzle in the maze'. Had only very basic training though. Can install or add sockets or replace RCBO's and such... But work needs inspection by a true sparky before powering up. Really loving content like this.
My dad was a time served electrical fitter and ran teams fitting lifts by age 18. He was a stickler for never making mistakes. One day I caught him charging non rechargeable batteries and it was the first sign of his alzheimers. You did a good thing and I had a similar conversation with my dad. I also 'accidentally' broke his table saw and borrowed his ladders.
We did similar to my dad when we took his car away. He agreed with it at the time, and was very understanding. Then the following day he forgot all about it and got rather stressed about someone stealing the car, or why it wasn't there, and so on. He got over it before too long and we all felt better him not being in charge of a motor vehicle.
I did similar for my mum. Didn't take her car away, but made it so it wouldn't start. It sucks when you realise you are well on your way to following in her footsteps
This is not a fun thing for the family. It's okay and normal to feel relieved when they pass. Fortunately, Florida police are used to it and were willing to contact my parents every time my Grandmother called them.
What a legend, the fact you took on the job then stayed to complete without charge. The world needs more people like you. Hopefully that couple get the help they need.
the world dont need heroes - it needs only electicans which are knowing what to do. i had many years ago same situations in customer service - old houses and their installations from the scratch. as he told: it is better when they move out to renew all ~15.000-20.000 BP i think will it cost
Massive respect to you for not taking advantage of vulnerable people. We'll all be like them one day and I hope that people like yourself are there for me too.
What would "taking advantage" actually be in this situation? Forcing him to have an essential rewire ...... or letting him continue in his ways? Seriously, I have this kind of problem often as I am the guy that comes to replace the main fuse that they have blown! Exactly how bad does it have to be before we refuse to reinstate supply? ........ And how bad before a spark who goes to work there doe so too?
@@totherarf Agree with you here. Jordan's time isn't free, so by helping out this guy that's been breaking good sense, regulations (and laws?) the next customer is going to have to pay to make the the difference for following the rules. It's up to Jordan what he does but this is less helping the vulnerable, more helping someone that's dangerous to himself and future occupants of the home get away with it.
Can we just take a second to appreciate that Jordan proably spent 3-4 hours working on a rats nest of horrors for free. And then told the customer the truth.
If fairness, and assuming the channel’s monetised, he’ll have received £3-400 so far for the video so better than not videoing it and charging the customer a standard rate.
You have a good heart, I feel very touched you didn't accept any payment and gave your time away to these people. 🙏 Clearly you can't do this all the time and was hard to accept anything knowing how bad it was but some people are in need and you just sensed that from the customer. Hope you get extra work from them passing your information on.
For me it was the dangerous lack of common sense that I find terrifying! Screws through an extension block! Who in the hell does that?? Fair play to you for staying calm and leaving it as safe as you can! Also hats off to you for finding the fault and fixing it among that mess in three hours!!
Especially since nowadays they sell holders for extension blocks in order to secure them against walls and cabinets. You just put a plastic piece with a sticky pad onto the extension block and then it clicks into the holder (which can be screwed or stuck on as well).
I saw this kind of mounting IRL in a warehouse and found out there's UA-cam videos out there on how to through-mount them like that. That appears to be what he's done here. I mean you probably shouldn't! But you 'can.' It's a matter of taking out the manufacturer's case screws and drilling the moulded screw tap points in the case an extra 2mm to reach the outside of the enclosure. The screws aren't live since they only touch the plastic molded screw channel put there by the manufacturer. But the case will fall apart if the mounting screws come loose.
extension blocks are not meant to be used as permanent solutions, that's why they do not have mounting holes so you have to get 'creative' . The proper solution is a much more expensive one, hence this DIY honky-tonk
@@rialtho_the_magnificent In practice, extension blocks are used permanently all over the place. Why wouldn't they? Who would install 3 fuses and pull 6 wires to 3 double outlets to plug maybe 900W worth of electronics into their epic gaming setup when a good quality power strip is rated for 3500W and most wall sockets are fused at 16A? Sure, separate outlets for everything are theoretically safer, but someone who plugs a 16A extension block into a 10A circuit, or who overloads his extension cord will find a way to overload separate sockets, as well. Make things idiot-proof and someone will invent a better idiot.
The worst I've seen is at my own house - A 30A RCD began to pop after heavy rain, so there's the clue. Finding and ditching a spur that fed the shed cured it, but curiosity and time allowed me to investigate the cause. Digging up the garden to find the cable, a 13A twin socket had been used as a cable join then filled with silicone and then buried in a plastic bag.
The thing is imagine how much effort and time was put into siliconing and bodging it 😂 would have been quicker and cheaper to do it properly My rule of thumb generally speaking is if it’s difficult to do i must be doing something wrong. 😅
@@cianfisher7286 I agree. I have since repaired it using a resin cable joint - took maybe an hour and another hour to put a rotary isolator where the cable leaves the building in case of another issue.
i was laughing cos i have speakers in my shower, and a motion light, a cell charger/holder on a swingarm in front of the loo.😂 light is a marine grade waterproof, speakers are 5v usb. should be fine 😅 certainly better than the crusty rusted sconce that was hanging off the ceiling and the live wallboxed switch they installed 1cm from the shower 😮 or the breaker box thats in tje shower room next to the rusty old 250v boiler, the steel one with no cover because they installed that with wood screws and it fell off with the vibrations in the area. so much dodgy here im no longer the dodgy guy 😂
Jordan, I’ve been an approved NICEIC sparks for over 40 years, and just wanted to say you dealt with that exactly the Same way I would have, very fair and very honest. Over my 44 year career (time to retire I feel lol } I have come across some horror story installations where u just have to leave them safe but walk away whilst recommending complete rewire as you did. First video of yours I’ve watched btw.
Wasn't all the trouble really just in all his add-on branch circuits? I was surprised there was talk about rewiring the house. Certainly, the original wiring should be intact. No? Here, in the US, they don't allow junction boxes to be buried in the wall or any other nonsense that you can't get to. I'm sure GB is the same way. I don't really know.
@@henrystevens2258 I see around 2:51 to tell in the comments if something is alright? I'm in the US and I'm not familiar with the terms he's using. Why would he ask for advice in the comment section??? I think that's your question here. If not please advise.
The ending was so important, he needs to learn his lesson and he took it like a champ, it's nice to see someone take constructive criticism on the chin and accept that it's time to hang up the tools, I nearly ranted about how he was putting him and his neighbours at risk, but, given how accepting he was of his mistakes, he's already learnt that lesson from you. Great video, and important for all DIY fans to watch, so as to not get ahead of themselves or think they can do anything and everything.
A full rewire of that house would make for a good small series of episodes, I wonder if a sponsor would make it worth it. You could be the mr beast of electrics!
I'm retired now, One resident had some of his upstairs lighting on 6 core telecom cable, 3 solid colour wires twisted together to Positive and 3 striped wires to Neutral. Your compassion and understanding Jordan, You did the right thing. Hats off to you :)
Great video...I'm a local handyman and on occasion do very small electric jobs (generally replacing existing light fittings, plug sockets and light switches) but this gentleman has been prepared to 'fiddle' with electrics in his own home way way beyond his obviously very limited skill set. He's obviously happy to put himself and his own family at risk. God knows what sort of state he's left other properties in. You were brilliant with how you dealt with him and this video has reinforced the need for me to constantly check that I'm happy and capable of doing jobs I'm being asked to do. I've certainly refused plenty but the things customers have asked me to do tells me there are plenty of people out there prepared to take the risk of having unqualified people working on the electrics in their home or doing it themselves. Thanks
@@adee-H1066 You think he’s going back there again? I highly doubt it. And I can see exactly why he didn’t take payment, I’d have done exactly the same thing for the same reason. In fact, the only thing I’d have done differently would be having a look at where that 6mm spur ended up!
I did my apprenticeship 1973 to 77 and we were shown stuff like this in the “what not to do”. I’ve seen more crossed polarities and sne/ pme issues than anything. Saw one bloke who had to wear rubber gloves ( Marigolds) to turn the sink tap on! He had no neutral so his “mate” Told him to strap it to his water pipe. 🙄🤦♂️ The water pipe was only copper to the building line then plastic. Apparently his neighbour said the ground steamed outside on rainy days. The neutral was burnt off in the main outside but he though the area board would charge him so he didn’t report it he just “ got it working”.
Interesting but too much drama for my taste. So you had a phase neutral short on a dodgy diy spur off a ring main. A lot of the other stuff was just observational and irrelevant to the fault you were looking for. It is just totally unrealistic to visit an older property and expect to find a perfect installation compliant with current regs. Fair enough, the drywall screws through the front of the distribution block was potentially lethal but that aside you do way too much hand-wringing and facial antics over relatively unimportant issues.
True professional massive respect. Very well handled from start to finish. Your empathy is a credit to you. Hope the customers stay safe little knowledge is so dangerous. Thanks for taking the time to share. All the best Pete
Thank you so much for looking after this old couple. They are someone family members and yes they are valuable and there life’s have been at risk. God Bless you 🙏❤️
It must be a universal thing all over the world. You spend an hour+ diagnosing things, banging your head against the wall. Only then does the customer remembers "Oh yeah I just did some work like 5 days ago. Yeah now that I think about it I installed this vacuum mount 30s before everything stopped working. I didn't think anything of it." Like you couldn't have just told me that before I walked through your entire house? That's why we charge by the hour I guess.
That place reminds me of the electrics in our place when we bought it. Lethal doesn't even begin to describe. I'm not a qualified spark but my first thought was rewire. I got an EICR done that confirmed my suspicions and that electrician didn't want to do it but recommended me someone who could. Before we moved in the rewire was done. Best money I've ever spent, knowing my family is safe!
Hi Jordan. You did the right thing being brutally honest. I used to be brutally honest with my old boss all the time it used to cause a whole lot of arguments and the threat of dissmissel on more than one occasion. I was supprised when we were all given our redundancy notices, when he came up to me to say farewell. He thanked me for being honest and always speaking my mind, saying that although I was sometimes a pain in the butt, he always new where we stood at the end of it.
Jordan, I’ve almost unsubscribed a number of times due to all the clickbait, but hung on in there, this has to be the best video you’ve shared for a long time simply showing your personality and humbleness. Watched your latest video today where you said you’re struggling with things a bit and burning out. Stay safe, be kind to yourself. You’re doing an amazing job, your early videos got me into leaving my old job and starting out on my own, watching you help Cory grow, the ethics and skills you’ve instilled into Ruben and the quality of the rest of the team are things you should be immensely proud of, you’ve made your dad proud, setting high standards in the industry he also loved and you continue role model the desire to achieve greatness. Take a breath, this day will pass, tomorrow will be another fresh day with new opportunities for you. Keep on keeping on dudes! 🍻
Good honesty with the DIY spark there.. some people just need telling. Complete disregard for safety, which if the worst had happened, could have affected next door as well as their house if it's semi or terraced. Shocking.. literally
I think you conducted yourself admirably throughout the whole visit and informed the customer of your findings and opinion very diplomatically. Top man. Maybe you should have put some grommets in there if you had some, for safety - maybe you did. But overall I thought you were very professional. Book me down as impressed!
I must say, this upload was like a breath of fresh air. Not for the appalling and potentially lethal electrics of course, but as a reminder as to why I subscribed to your channel years ago, when you were all on your own. Glad I didn't unsubscribe. I also follow Nick Bundy, David Savery, Cory and Delroy. Your channel has gone "high end" as your business has grown and you have employed numerous staff. I could never afford solar or banks of batteries, so I have nearly unsubscribed, but your posting today makes me glad I didn't. Well done on doing the right thing. Very wise for not taking payment and on your plans to write to them - you should assume the worst - something tragic will happen and people will be looking to the professional electrician who last spent several hours in the property. As an aside, after my landlady passed away suddenly several years ago, her relatives (who never visited her) emerged from nowhere. I had purchased all her food in her final years and due to her mental health she had not reimbursed me. I had all the receipts. Her relatives denied I'd bought her anything, gave me notice to quit and it was finally all concluded in the county court, after we sued each other. Only the lawyers won. My lanlady's relatives' behaviour was jaw-dropping and opened my eyes as to just how low people can be. Since lives at risk in your video scenario, the potential risks to you are far worse. As I said, assume the worst and create an audit trail. Hopefully you will never need to rely on it, but it will be your insurance policy.
he wouldn't have noticed if you undescribed.. or notice that you are lol. I really don't see the point when people say "I'm going to unsubscribe" or anything in that regard, unless it's just to vent a disappointment publicly for self gratification? you just do it and move on or don't do it simple as that.. or even re-do it if you change your mind, No need to broadcast it.
You were completely fair and informative with letting him know the issue. You handled the situation greatly with amazing patience! We need more people like you in this world!
It’s good to see that I’m not the only one to find places and clients like this, I applaud you and the few other professionals across the trades to have the same morals and courage to spend hours to make things as safe as you can without pay and still to ask that all important leaving question, “is there any thing els I can do to help before I leave”, luckily with this place they at very lest used 3 core cable and you had continuity on the rings, one of the places I’ve been to recently to discuss some works as they where fed up, that all of there sockets had stopped working over the last 12 months but the fuses hadn’t blown, first the easy bit, huh? why the fusses hadn’t blown? I’ll come back to that, I found that they had done all of there own extensions and spurs and where incredibly pleased with there “thriftiness” and “poly filler job” into the corners of most of the rooms walls and ceiling and pushed under the edge of the carpet, as they didn’t like to see the “ugly cables”, I literally gasped when I looked, I saw it was done with about 35 short odd lengths of recycled flymo and black and decker power tool cables, just cut and twisted and taped together with chunks all out of the sleeving like from a hedge trimmer or mower attack, this meaning the cable was Orange 0.75mm and 0.5mm fine stranded twin core artic cable (completely something to never ever do!) with mainly old plugs and sockets and sketchily terminated by just being pressed in beside or tied around the terminal screw, as there was no room to fit into the terminals opening (please never ever do) and then found this was throughout most of the sockets in the house, garden, garage and shed, then I was told, “back in the day, earthing was never a thing on the sites I worked on, so I didn’t bother with it here, it’s all a scam any way, just to make you spend more money one 3 cables when all you need is 2, to make it work” -__- (again, never! ever! follow this as rule) and if that wasn’t bad enough the bigger worry was why there sockets had stoped working, I found there was not one socket in the house that was un-scorched or didn’t have browning from excessive heat around the openings and or melted terminals or surrounds and a pile of non working extension leads they were planing to repurpose for a conservatory, then with noticing burnt patches in the carpet and lyno we had yet another in-lightening conversation, I managed to find out that they used a 3k fan heater in the winter months rather then there gas boiler so they didn’t have to have a gas bill as well as there electric bill, but confessed they just couldn’t understand why after a maximum of a few hours a socket it was plugged into would just stop working and was too hot to touch so they used metal bbq tongs to pull it out, (never ever use metal implants to remove plugs, ever!) but the other sockets worked fine till they plugged the heater in, nor why the fuse still looked good and didn’t need to be replaced, when I asked to look at there box of fuses they had a small box of different thickness bolts with the heads cut off and little brown labels of 5, 15 and 30 amp tied to them by a string, as I was given the box I was told “you know I can’t ever remember changing a fuse while we’ve been here, that’s something isn’t it? this box was given to us when we moved in by the very lovely couple”, so these bolts are what they had from the previous owners when they moved in 55 years ago 🤯 (again NEVER! EVER! EVER! Do that!) thankfully I was allowed to rectify it, but did it only for the material cost although not to there knowledge, as I asked them to tell me a price they could some what comfortable afford on there pension and so ended up donating some stock to just get it done, as my conscious just couldn’t see an elderly couple, be killed because of not being able to afford to rectify the decades of dodgy DIY, as I truly believe they had used up every last ounce of luck to of still been alive.
Very well handled indeed. It was actually a bit moving and you could see that how over time the situation had just got out of hand. Next thing is the customer knows it's all wrong, he knows deep down it's his fault and now has neither the energy or funds to put it all right. All credit to him for taking it on the chin as must have been very hard to hear.
Its a tough one, you're in between a rock and a hard place, on one hand you feel like you shouldnt be fixing the issue and restoring power to a circuit that is a dangerous, and on the other, your conscience is eating at you at the thought of a couple of elderly people being without power. I think you did the best you could with what you were against.
I'm not an electrician, at least not yet. But I do respect from the point of safety how Jordan has carried himself in this particular job. This is a great example of how you can explain to a client that a situation like this is not acceptable, but done so in a way that isn't putting the client in a position where he has committed some form of criminal offence. Well done for handling this sensitive issue in a very thoughtful way.
The old Artisan and best is back !!! I've followed you from the begining and these are the sort of videos that i think have been missing. Hopefully more like this in the future. Amazing as ever though..👍👍😊
Jordan - total respect for you there. I’m a bit of a diver and will do a few things but I think I’m reasonably competent - I cringed when I saw some of that wiring for someone who ‘was in the trade’ and the fact he said people are still contacting home for jobs! A good deed for the day - hopefully some lessons learnt!
What's wrong with speakers in the bathroom? Given that a full rewire wouldn't be affordable, surely at least updating the CU to RCBOs would provide worthwhile additional protection. Didn't you think it would have at least been worth taking a minute to slip a cut grommet over those tails entries while you were there?
So what difference would "slipping in a cut grommet over the tails" make to that nightmare? That's kinda like asking why the Captain of the Titanic didn't stick his finger in the hole! The place is a death trap, it's a case study for all safety organisations and electrical institutions, he's been lucky so far and if it hadn't been for the power cut he'd be none the wiser. "It's been working for 20yrs" he said, that's always the case and great until a fault occurs and the safety systems fail because they can't cope with it, then it's either a fire or someone takes a lethal shock. The guy gave them 3 hrs free labour, he found the fault, advised on what work needs to be done and the safety issues that concerned him, he could have taken the cash and left them in blissful ignorance or informed the supply company and had a notice slapped on it but didn't. He sorted them out, and covered himself. I'll bet my mortgage that fitting RCBO's would constanly trip the circuits IF they actually hold in the first place! Yeah great that they're doing the job but 'Odd Job Billy Bodger' would "fix that problem' for sure wouldn't he! The guy has a conscience, credit where it's due.
Even adding a grommet might be crossing a line into liability here, and Just swopping to RCBOs would probably lead to a whole world of nuisance tripping faults.
It must have been very hard to say all that to him, but it definitely needed to be said. He also said he cant do any diy anymore.. but that dyson didnt screw its self to the wall on Friday did it! 😅
I lived in a duplex that had a combination of knob and tube wiring mixed in with Romex. With some outlets in my apartment powering outlets in the other apartment and vise-versa. You literally saved that family from a house fire. Love from the States.
Not an electrician, but a friend bought a house, died and left a widow. I went and did some work and found a horror story that is possibly worse than this. I made some of it safe, but encouraged her to get a professional electrician in to go through the whole system. Great video, and well handled.
I was asked by a new neighbour recently who bought a house after the previous owner passed away to have a quick look at their electrics as they could see smoke near the floor boards they had up. There were some DIY extra sockets installed. But a quick look at the mains, VIR tails breaking down, wooden back bakerlite consumer unit and VIR outgoing circuits, no bond to gas, under size main earth, no RCD protection, etc..... They had been steam stripping wood chip wallpaper off, the smoke was from a cable with rubber insulation just dropping off with bare conductors. I switched the isolator off and said no "if's and buts" get it rewired before you do any decorating apart from paper removing or move in. The electrics were over 70 years old and falling to pieces. I was asked if it was unsafe and I fairly confident telling them it was electrically a death trap and I was surprised it hadn't caught fire. I even said there was no point wasting money on doing an EICR, it was that bad - it would just be pages of C1 and C2 codes. I literally ran back home. They have since had a full rewire by a self employed contractor.
What a horror story. I’m afraid he didn’t take anything on board you said to him as he kept talking while you were trying to tell him how dangerous it was. I would definitely put something in writing to him as you just don’t know what he is going to tell other people about your visit. I can almost hear him saying “A very nice man called Jordan came and fixed my electrics” 😳😳😳
I enjoyed this far more than your other videos, it was a pure unfiltered insight of the reality of being a sparky instead of the usual glossy filtered down stuff
I have to say i had such experience once in my life. It was about 8 years ago and I worked away on installation for a whole week. I came back home around 7PM after all day of work and about 4 hours of drive. My dad was not at home. So i unpacked, opened up a can of a cold one, sat at my computer to watch something and then the phone rang. It was my dad. He was helping out his friend with some intallation problems and needed a second pair of hands to check wiring faster in more distant parts of the house. That lady was his long friend from work and she lived near by and my dad wanted to help her out. So i just pulled on my work pants again and went to help him around 8PM. When i got there, my dad already ripped a ball of cables from a junction box and he figured out one apartment. The basement part was giving him troubles exactly for the same reason - measuring on one end and connecting/disconnecting stuff on the other end of the line. We found out that everything was good untill you switched on light in the basement apartment... After switching lights on, even sockets were shorted in this part of the house. So... Around 3AM after hours of trying to isolate that specific circuit i said i give up searching. Disconnected everything, made new terminals and slowly connected circuit after circuit. We were left with quite a few cables disconnected (no idea where they went) and checked if all sockets and light fixtures are working properly. Lady said that the previous owner was an electrician and we had our suspicions that he tried to connect somewhere to go around a power meter. We secured quite a few unidentified cables and called it a day. Yup, it was already a nice morning next day. We came back home around 8AM totally drained. I just gulped that unouched beer from last evening, changed my position from vertical to horizontal and slept for almost 12 hours 😁
You sir are a pure Gent! What a shocking state to be faced with and you were wholly right to explain the issues to them. Very professional from start to finish.
Big fan from India...❤ Being an Electrical Engineer it's great to learn and see the quality work that you have been doing over the years. Will always be waiting for your videos along the road.
Excellent video Jordan. I was an electrician myself and in fact wrote the very first NVQ for electrical installations in the late 80s and used to sit on the 16th & 17th Edition Regs team as well as many other industry bodies. I also initiated the industry's training body, JTL (JTL stands for JIB Training Limited - not Joint Training Limited as many people think!). I was the Training Manager at the JIB at the time.. You are an excellent advocate for the industry. Very impressed with your videos. Well done.
That is absolutely kind & smart of you to do (not charging them). I have only seen one house that came even close to this. The house had extremely old wiring that was deteriorated so bad that just touching with anything made the installation fall off exposing bare wire or allowing the neutal & common to touch. Then there was paneling installed with nails driven right into the electrical wire. I just told them that it was too far gone, I was afraid to do anything because of liability issues. I showed them the issues and didn't correct anything. You did the right thing. I thought the same thing when he asked for your business cards....lol. Hopefully they will somehow get the wiring reworked (the correct & safe way). Thanks for sharing this and it was definitely a mess!
I think it is good you stuck it out, because the chap may have been tempted to troubleshoot the issue himself with dire consequences. Although in the back of my mind i would be wondering if he is considering reconnecting that faulty circuit at a later date. Loving all your good work. Well done Jordan and keep up the good work. 😀
Fond memories of my grandads house. Appliances plugging into ceiling lights. Those aluminium / rubber cables strung down the garden to the shed. Everything came out of skips so it was all top quality stuff. They were quite late getting electricity to the house so they had an ex army generator. He knew just how much fuel to put in so it would run until they went to bed then cut out and turn the lights off. It's where I learnt everything I know! 😂
That’s absolutely mad. I dread to think what is lurking in some poor paying customer’s house(s) over his 30 year career as a “handyman”. Well handled, Jordan. I think you made the correct call in not taking his money. Looking back, I was onsite a couple of weeks ago installing cctv, intruder alarm and intercom systems for a new client. They had a decorator onsite, and he asked me where the nearest wholesaler was. As he needed, and I quote “some light cable, as all he had on him was socket cable”. Enough said about that I think.
You know what mate,thank god there's people like you out there.Some would of laced their trainers and bolted. But you being a decent man ,played the game and everyone is still alive. Well done mate.
So nice that you helped some older people out, at the same time you pointed out the dangers of diy electrics ,and this video points out the dangers to others , I liked the way you explained everything , and how you handled the situation , your an absolute diamond ,😁
I think you did the right thing Jordan the customer needed telling about the state of his electrics. If you issue a danger notice your covering yourself if anything goes wrong
My aunt did light installs for an old house herself and she just treated every wire interchangeably. So L, N or PE were in random terminals. No GFCI. My dad visited and leaned on the stove, got a good shock. The aunt was just like "yeah that happens with the stove" all used to it like it was nothing. One phase was connected to the chassis instead of PE. Some lights didn't work for some reason, and turns out the wires were just connected together as if electricity would find its way through the light anyway.
As an NICEIC domestic installer myself I totally relate to this video. My wife thinks I should be paid for every job I'm called to but your attitude to taking payment for this kind of stressful work is exactly the same as mine.. Thank you for that sanity check and for showing me I'm not alone! PS I reckon you've missed out on some 'lovely' rodent damage repair work there.
You did your duties to perfection sir. Dont worry about Liabilities as you are not responsible for the DIY Disaster and you told the client exactly the truth. You would do well to send the danger notice to reinforce your position. I once had a situation where DIY Gas was the problem. A boiler had been mounted in a roof space hanging from two 2x1 battens from the rafters and each batten was just nailed with 1 nail and the wood was split. I arranged Gas Safe inspection who immediately closed off the Gas supply to the property, rightly so. My relationship with client went from 100% to 0% instantly yet I did the right thing. DIY is deadly in the wrong hands. Well done to you sir. True pro 100%.
@@GuyChapman at the time the story i described made centre page spread of the Gas Safe monthly magazine... with the photos. It was described as the most dangerous installation they had ever seen.
think you handled the situation very well, been to a few jobs like this where they think they know what they are doing but that little bit of knowledge is soooo dangerous really is scary to see and as you said the fault was pretty simple but knowing where to start with that install is the hard bit and trying to make sense of it is the hard bit
Fair play to you, mate, dealt with that very fair, very honest with him. First video I've watched by you all the way through, good to see you being down to earth.
Wow just wow. Much respect to you for firstly staying and taking on frankenstein's monster, and also being honest with the gent and calling out his dangerous work, so well done true tradesmen. Sometimes the best you can do is just make them safe, recommended a complete rewire as you did and walk away without charging the client.
Oh my lord. Handled that well Jordan. I would Of walked in, done an abalt turn and walked out. Deary me how has that house not blew up! Unfortunately he will always say. “Well it’s always worked” well handled Jordan. Re wire or nothing!
Greetings, Jordan Unfortunately, this is all to common. As an independent electrical contractor in the United States, I come across senior citizens who are unable to have repair work done. As professionals, we want to help. Breaks my heart.
I agree. its the fault of this country that people are in this situation and not being able to afford safety. He guessed the rewire would be around 3k which he obviously doesn't have and when he was told it was far more he stepped right back. People just don't have the money to pay £70 a socket. Don't blame them for trying to survive.
It's "lovely" to see a video that doesn't feature a battery, solar or an EV charger. A video from the good old days. More of these please, or similar. Keep up the great work.
These types of messy electric wiring, possibly from the 50s, plus bad DIY add-ons, are more common than you think; at least this is my direct experience of houses I have seen in 30 years of living in London.
@@fluphybunny930 it depends on the country, generally speaking it's not really legal. But there aren't big fines unless osmething goes wrong. Insurances wouldn't pay a single cent if they found out tho, and professionals won't work on it. IF it gets super worse some legislations can kick you out of your own house if it is too unsafe, but that requires someone reporting it.
Regular electricians can't really do that, only certified inspectors are allowed to condemn installations. Property owners can do modifications "at their own risk" (hence why people mention insurance companies in these replies a lot). Technically, an electrical installation only needs to be conform/legal when the property changes hands and even then it can be lacking if an inspection report is included in the sale's documentation. Currently it is then up to the buyer to "put it right" within 3 years. I bought my current appartment in 2021 and it is currently an inspection fail because the electrical panel cover doesn't have a latch, but, instead, a spring to hold it shut (like a lot of late 20th century refurbs; you have to completely open it or it snaps back shut). I'm not losing any sleep over it.
The times I have been to places, and found DIY bodges. It once took me ages to find a fault that wasn't there. It would blow a 30amp MCB but showed no fault, then occasionally I found the fault and it disappeared again. Turned out to be an arc fault about 6 inches up the wire from a socket on a very damp wall. Its surprising what Water ingress can do. It Wicks up the Earth wire, turns it Green and it grows spikes which can cut into the other cables. It goes pop and clears.
As horrendous as the DIY job is, sometimes I can see why people would resort to it. I'm struggling to find a sparky to do a couple of small jobs I need doing, to the point where I am thinking about tackling them myself. I don't want to but so far all the local electricians I have contacted are not interested in the work unless its a full house rewire or a kitchen install. No one wants to do the smaller more routine jobs. It's really frustrating.
This is the first video I've watched of yours and hats off to you, handled incredibly well and to accept no money for the work shows what a credit you are to the profession and proves that decent people still exist. Very kind, well done.
Good job there, they obviously really appreciate it. Totally agree with your sentiment, but I reckon quite a bit could be done to ameliorate the situation a bit. Especially that bargain basement socket screwed into the wall. That worries me a lot.
I certainly don't think he did anything to help them except let them off 10 quid...he provided no astute or caring advice (council grants/citizens advice/go-fund-me/whip around) or any real assistance and the open question of no RCD whatsoever haunts me (I live in Thailand and I know all about this crap). I would have retrofitted and tested some safety 30ma trip stuff for free and not bragged all about how wonderful he is and how sad these oldsters are on his obnoxious self-glorifying effing clickbait channel. A nasty piece of modernism to the n'Th degree.....
I would have quoted for the whole rewire and told him to get other quotes for it too, he might not be able to afford an Artisan Electrics rewire but he might be able to afford another company. As you say, better that it's all sorted and people are safe than lose business you'd never have got anyway
unfortunately materials are still going to be about the same price ,and the labour time is never going to change, just the rate / hr which has a minimum no matter which way you cut it. The awkward bit of work to me looked to be what was going on at the immersion ? heater / ch pump area which seemed to have no stucture as to thought on the purpose of it.
What a blinking "STAR" I just know how you felt, ex tradesman doing his best on his pension but fading, brings tears to ones eyes and its great to see the human spirit is still alive and kicking in our younger generation. Well done "sparks" you deserve a humanistic medal. Dc
Much respect to you I think these people are very vulnerable and honestly I think the whole electrical system needs to be ripped out and all renewed it's definitely I fire risk especially with screws going into extension cables
this sounds like the perfect oppertunity for Artisan to step up to the plate and show what a superb company they are and do a free rewire, the viewers would love it :)
I was thinking along those lines...or share the job with some of the other UA-cam sparkies....or have some sort of charity whip round....maybe Jordan's church community could help out? There must be a way to help them out that doesn't leave you guys too much out of pocket but gives you peace of mind...@artisanelectrics? It would make great content and be a huge boost to your company's reputation and that of anyone else who got involved.
Extreme makeover home edition style: send them away on holiday for 5 days, bunch of UA-cam sparks get in there and sort it out. Could possibly gofundme a chunk of it too.
Glad that you decided to be blunt and tell the customer about this horror installation, infact it was your duty to tell/warn him as a professional. Hope nothing disatrous happens as a cause of the circuit bodging.
I think you handled it pretty perfectly to be honest. I always thought your average DIY person couldn't touch anything that went into the consumer unit. Good on you for not charging where quite frankly you had justification to do so. Also good on the ''customer'' for understanding your chastisement and not taking it personally.
Let me know your worst DIY finds...
Hopefully, this is as bad as it gets! 🤔😖🙄
Watch til the end 😅
This is fairly good compared to some of the things I have come across over the years TBH. One example being a rewire done by the homeowner who was a qualified electrician but worked on the maintenance side. All lighting was switched on the neutral so functioned but was live when off. 🤯
Unfortunately Jordan the worst bodges in my home were done by the original builders and I uncovered so many that we ended up rewiring. Safe now and certificated. Not all diyers are bad and irresponsible and we KNOW when to call in the good professionals. Good video
Once I was at my grandparents house helping with gardening and stuff, in the afternoon I went inside sat down turned on the tv and started watching whatever was on. Then about half an hour later everything in the room that was plugged in and switched on and had a switch mode psu literaly blew up, the treadmill, laptop chargers and phone chargers just made a horrible poping sound. the TV survived bc it is on a separate circuit. I was like kindof terrified and shocked at the same time (emotionaly not literaly). I got up from the couch walked into the hallway, looked up and saw black smoke above a junction box.
So in the end what happened is that a 480V line somehow got shorted to a 230V line and yeah...
You handled that situation perfectly and added a touch of class with not accepting any payments. Fair play, Jordan.
Thanks
I would not have taken the money either for the same reason as he did : Isolate the shorted circuit and get out to keep the liability to a minimum.
I had a similar situation recently and followed it up with a written report too. So hard to walk away knowing that the installation is potentially dangerous. If it was gas the supply would be capped off and a notice issued end of. Good video illustrating real world situations and the dilemma’s that we face on a daily basis.
At the end of the day its a win win situation - youtube viewers are very happy, as is the eldery couple, and jordan has covered his ass👍 - what else can you do?
I love watching your videos. While I’m not an electrician I am in a profession where I could be held liable for not following procedure.
With this in mind I think you did exactly the right thing. Don’t apologise for giving them your professional opinion. It’s obviously important to cover yourself for liability but what’s more important is to make it plain that the customer is living in danger. Definitely back it up with the unsafe notice and a covering letter advising no more diy and to get it rewired with out delay.
This is probably the most shocking and surprising thing I've ever seen. I've never seen an electrician not charge before
😂👍🏻
Dude charges $120,000 plus for a re wire. he doing ok
$120000? Is he rewiring the Burj Khalifa??
He geta views and hot hot youtube money so its better not to charge
As he had explained at the end, he seemed to look at what he did as a "Good Samaritan" work. Does that provide any degree of legal shielding if the homeowner does more work and burns the house down? I have no idea.
This is the content we want! Not all perfect solar installs and car chargers. Jordan at his best here showing compassion and understanding 😊
I appreciate that! More to come!
100%
Agreed. This was a great watch, however painful it was for Jordan.
Totally agree! This is 'real world' stuff instead if those near testlab-perfection and perfectly clean installs that we usually see. It's vids like this that make me wish I were a fully trained sparky capable of fault finding. I'd love to 'solve the puzzle in the maze'. Had only very basic training though. Can install or add sockets or replace RCBO's and such... But work needs inspection by a true sparky before powering up. Really loving content like this.
Not going to stay in business long taking that type of work on. And charging nothing. It doesn’t pay the bills lads.
My dad was a time served electrical fitter and ran teams fitting lifts by age 18. He was a stickler for never making mistakes. One day I caught him charging non rechargeable batteries and it was the first sign of his alzheimers. You did a good thing and I had a similar conversation with my dad. I also 'accidentally' broke his table saw and borrowed his ladders.
We did similar to my dad when we took his car away. He agreed with it at the time, and was very understanding. Then the following day he forgot all about it and got rather stressed about someone stealing the car, or why it wasn't there, and so on. He got over it before too long and we all felt better him not being in charge of a motor vehicle.
I did similar for my mum. Didn't take her car away, but made it so it wouldn't start.
It sucks when you realise you are well on your way to following in her footsteps
This is not a fun thing for the family. It's okay and normal to feel relieved when they pass. Fortunately, Florida police are used to it and were willing to contact my parents every time my Grandmother called them.
You actually can charge normal batteries, they just aren't very good at it... I used to have a charger specifically for that years ago.... 😀
@@gibfear Article and project in Everyday Electronics in the 80s. Ripple charging was the trick.
What a legend, the fact you took on the job then stayed to complete without charge. The world needs more people like you. Hopefully that couple get the help they need.
the world dont need heroes - it needs only electicans which are knowing what to do.
i had many years ago same situations in customer service - old houses and their installations from the scratch.
as he told: it is better when they move out to renew all ~15.000-20.000 BP i think will it cost
Massive respect to you for not taking advantage of vulnerable people. We'll all be like them one day and I hope that people like yourself are there for me too.
What would "taking advantage" actually be in this situation? Forcing him to have an essential rewire ...... or letting him continue in his ways?
Seriously, I have this kind of problem often as I am the guy that comes to replace the main fuse that they have blown! Exactly how bad does it have to be before we refuse to reinstate supply?
........ And how bad before a spark who goes to work there doe so too?
@@totherarf Agree with you here. Jordan's time isn't free, so by helping out this guy that's been breaking good sense, regulations (and laws?) the next customer is going to have to pay to make the the difference for following the rules. It's up to Jordan what he does but this is less helping the vulnerable, more helping someone that's dangerous to himself and future occupants of the home get away with it.
not all of us. some of us will die before that :D
Conversely, I wanted my house alarm disconnected. Was charged £80 just for removing the fuse on the spur.
@@guitarplayerwannabee So what did you do for the 8 or so hours the SCAB made it's racket because it detected the wires were cut on the mains?
Corey's work has gone downhill since leaving Artisan and now you have to fix his work 🤣
😂😂😂
😂 oof harsh 😂😂
The months haven't been kind to Cory either
I'd just say "Oy"
Caught red handed
Can we just take a second to appreciate that Jordan proably spent 3-4 hours working on a rats nest of horrors for free. And then told the customer the truth.
Free? But what about the free filming for UA-cam at the punters expense?
@@santorini8423 hardly at his expense. This would have easily cost a few hundred quid. Customer was lucky.
If fairness, and assuming the channel’s monetised, he’ll have received £3-400 so far for the video so better than not videoing it and charging the customer a standard rate.
He says 2.5 hours in the video. The guy is a saint.
@@RabRossUK so 2.5hrs and the videos probably brought in £3-400 so far? I’m not saying he’s not a top guy but that looks to be decent return.
You have a good heart, I feel very touched you didn't accept any payment and gave your time away to these people. 🙏 Clearly you can't do this all the time and was hard to accept anything knowing how bad it was but some people are in need and you just sensed that from the customer. Hope you get extra work from them passing your information on.
For me it was the dangerous lack of common sense that I find terrifying! Screws through an extension block! Who in the hell does that?? Fair play to you for staying calm and leaving it as safe as you can! Also hats off to you for finding the fault and fixing it among that mess in three hours!!
Especially since nowadays they sell holders for extension blocks in order to secure them against walls and cabinets. You just put a plastic piece with a sticky pad onto the extension block and then it clicks into the holder (which can be screwed or stuck on as well).
I saw this kind of mounting IRL in a warehouse and found out there's UA-cam videos out there on how to through-mount them like that.
That appears to be what he's done here.
I mean you probably shouldn't! But you 'can.'
It's a matter of taking out the manufacturer's case screws and drilling the moulded screw tap points in the case an extra 2mm to reach the outside of the enclosure. The screws aren't live since they only touch the plastic molded screw channel put there by the manufacturer. But the case will fall apart if the mounting screws come loose.
extension blocks are not meant to be used as permanent solutions, that's why they do not have mounting holes so you have to get 'creative' . The proper solution is a much more expensive one, hence this DIY honky-tonk
@@rialtho_the_magnificent In practice, extension blocks are used permanently all over the place. Why wouldn't they? Who would install 3 fuses and pull 6 wires to 3 double outlets to plug maybe 900W worth of electronics into their epic gaming setup when a good quality power strip is rated for 3500W and most wall sockets are fused at 16A?
Sure, separate outlets for everything are theoretically safer, but someone who plugs a 16A extension block into a 10A circuit, or who overloads his extension cord will find a way to overload separate sockets, as well.
Make things idiot-proof and someone will invent a better idiot.
@@rialtho_the_magnificent It's "permenary"!
The worst I've seen is at my own house - A 30A RCD began to pop after heavy rain, so there's the clue. Finding and ditching a spur that fed the shed cured it, but curiosity and time allowed me to investigate the cause. Digging up the garden to find the cable, a 13A twin socket had been used as a cable join then filled with silicone and then buried in a plastic bag.
I am shaking my head on this one. ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVEABLE!!!!!!! JUST ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVEABLE!!!!!!!
Wow.
The thing is imagine how much effort and time was put into siliconing and bodging it 😂 would have been quicker and cheaper to do it properly
My rule of thumb generally speaking is if it’s difficult to do i must be doing something wrong. 😅
@@cianfisher7286 I agree. I have since repaired it using a resin cable joint - took maybe an hour and another hour to put a rotary isolator where the cable leaves the building in case of another issue.
What a creative solution!
This is the content we love! No expensive cameras, b-roll or fancy slow-mo’s. Handled brilliantly too.
Had to laugh when you said "at least he doesn't have a socket in his bath"
😂😂😂
Don't give him ideas. 😝
"I just want to go home"
I laughed when the clip fell off the consumer unit 😂
i was laughing cos i have speakers in my shower, and a motion light, a cell charger/holder on a swingarm in front of the loo.😂
light is a marine grade waterproof, speakers are 5v usb.
should be fine 😅 certainly better than the crusty rusted sconce that was hanging off the ceiling and the live wallboxed switch they installed 1cm from the shower 😮 or the breaker box thats in tje shower room next to the rusty old 250v boiler, the steel one with no cover because they installed that with wood screws and it fell off with the vibrations in the area. so much dodgy here im no longer the dodgy guy 😂
Jordan, I’ve been an approved NICEIC sparks for over 40 years, and just wanted to say you dealt with that exactly the Same way I would have, very fair and very honest. Over my 44 year career (time to retire I feel lol } I have come across some horror story installations where u just have to leave them safe but walk away whilst recommending complete rewire as you did. First video of yours I’ve watched btw.
Welcome to the channel! Glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for sharing your insights.
Wasn't all the trouble really just in all his add-on branch circuits? I was surprised there was talk about rewiring the house. Certainly, the original wiring should be intact. No? Here, in the US, they don't allow junction boxes to be buried in the wall or any other nonsense that you can't get to. I'm sure GB is the same way. I don't really know.
How can you ask such a stupid question at 6.30 of course it's not bloody exceptable
@@henrystevens2258 Re: Stupid question. First off, who are you addressing? What are we talking about here? Where's the problem?
@@henrystevens2258 I see around 2:51 to tell in the comments if something is alright? I'm in the US and I'm not familiar with the terms he's using. Why would he ask for advice in the comment section??? I think that's your question here. If not please advise.
The ending was so important, he needs to learn his lesson and he took it like a champ, it's nice to see someone take constructive criticism on the chin and accept that it's time to hang up the tools, I nearly ranted about how he was putting him and his neighbours at risk, but, given how accepting he was of his mistakes, he's already learnt that lesson from you. Great video, and important for all DIY fans to watch, so as to not get ahead of themselves or think they can do anything and everything.
Best video in ages. Started it on the toilet and ended up watching it all the way through 👏🏼 . Pray for my legs 😅
😂
the 2 minutes of pins and needles feels like an eternity and the feet feeling like breeze blocks is madness 🤣
please keep your toileting habits to yourself
A full rewire of that house would make for a good small series of episodes, I wonder if a sponsor would make it worth it. You could be the mr beast of electrics!
You handled the situation very well. Quite right that you called him out on how bad the situation was.
Thanks
I'm retired now, One resident had some of his upstairs lighting on 6 core telecom cable, 3 solid colour wires twisted together to Positive and 3 striped wires to Neutral. Your compassion and understanding Jordan, You did the right thing. Hats off to you :)
Great video...I'm a local handyman and on occasion do very small electric jobs (generally replacing existing light fittings, plug sockets and light switches) but this gentleman has been prepared to 'fiddle' with electrics in his own home way way beyond his obviously very limited skill set. He's obviously happy to put himself and his own family at risk. God knows what sort of state he's left other properties in. You were brilliant with how you dealt with him and this video has reinforced the need for me to constantly check that I'm happy and capable of doing jobs I'm being asked to do. I've certainly refused plenty but the things customers have asked me to do tells me there are plenty of people out there prepared to take the risk of having unqualified people working on the electrics in their home or doing it themselves. Thanks
You are a good man for helping out the elderly couple. Nice job sir, increased my respect for you massively.
Thank you kindly
I admire your working approach
he didnt help them at all he left them in a perilous situation with no route out !
@@ebaystarsTo be fair, they did this to themselves
Should he have had their service shut down, or do it all for free in your view? What one would help more than what he did?
There’s no way I could’ve left that job without just having a quick look at where that spur ended up!
I wanted to see that too!!
I’d have subscribed and paid to see that …… just for curiosity’s sake
Jordan may find it next time he's called there to investigate the next lash up🤭.
Hats off though for the kind gesture of not taking a payment.
@@adee-H1066 You think he’s going back there again? I highly doubt it.
And I can see exactly why he didn’t take payment, I’d have done exactly the same thing for the same reason.
In fact, the only thing I’d have done differently would be having a look at where that 6mm spur ended up!
Yeah, same! I'd be very curious
I have done a lot "pro bono" work, usually for elderly ladies living on their own on a tight budget. You 100% did the right thing.
There's some good people about, well done.
I did my apprenticeship 1973 to 77 and we were shown stuff like this in the “what not to do”. I’ve seen more crossed polarities and sne/ pme issues than anything. Saw one bloke who had to wear rubber gloves ( Marigolds) to turn the sink tap on! He had no neutral so his “mate” Told him to strap it to his water pipe. 🙄🤦♂️ The water pipe was only copper to the building line then plastic. Apparently his neighbour said the ground steamed outside on rainy days. The neutral was burnt off in the main outside but he though the area board would charge him so he didn’t report it he just “ got it working”.
Jesus H Christ! 🤠 Yeehaww
Poor guy had dug a meteoric crater for himsef and you helped him out - hats off to you.
You handled this situation so well. 👏 Very wise not to accept any money or leave a business card. I hope they have access to YT to watch this back!
Thanks 🙏
I feel sorry for his wife, and I hate to feel the embarrassment she would have from watching this and seeing the comments.
Id send him the YT link 😊
Interesting but too much drama for my taste. So you had a phase neutral short on a dodgy diy spur off a ring main. A lot of the other stuff was just observational and irrelevant to the fault you were looking for. It is just totally unrealistic to visit an older property and expect to find a perfect installation compliant with current regs. Fair enough, the drywall screws through the front of the distribution block was potentially lethal but that aside you do way too much hand-wringing and facial antics over relatively unimportant issues.
@@annettegifkins-xl8uli doubt she’s watched this and she probably already knows none of it was safe
True professional massive respect. Very well handled from start to finish. Your empathy is a credit to you. Hope the customers stay safe little knowledge is so dangerous. Thanks for taking the time to share. All the best Pete
As hard as it is, being honest and brutal in these situations, surely is the best policy !
Thank you so much for looking after this old couple.
They are someone family members and yes they are valuable and there life’s have been at risk.
God Bless you 🙏❤️
It must be a universal thing all over the world. You spend an hour+ diagnosing things, banging your head against the wall. Only then does the customer remembers "Oh yeah I just did some work like 5 days ago. Yeah now that I think about it I installed this vacuum mount 30s before everything stopped working. I didn't think anything of it."
Like you couldn't have just told me that before I walked through your entire house? That's why we charge by the hour I guess.
That place reminds me of the electrics in our place when we bought it. Lethal doesn't even begin to describe. I'm not a qualified spark but my first thought was rewire. I got an EICR done that confirmed my suspicions and that electrician didn't want to do it but recommended me someone who could. Before we moved in the rewire was done. Best money I've ever spent, knowing my family is safe!
Hi Jordan. You did the right thing being brutally honest. I used to be brutally honest with my old boss all the time
it used to cause a whole lot of arguments and the threat of dissmissel on more than one occasion. I was supprised
when we were all given our redundancy notices, when he came up to me to say farewell. He thanked me for being
honest and always speaking my mind, saying that although I was sometimes a pain in the butt, he always new where we
stood at the end of it.
Jordan, I’ve almost unsubscribed a number of times due to all the clickbait, but hung on in there, this has to be the best video you’ve shared for a long time simply showing your personality and humbleness.
Watched your latest video today where you said you’re struggling with things a bit and burning out. Stay safe, be kind to yourself. You’re doing an amazing job, your early videos got me into leaving my old job and starting out on my own, watching you help Cory grow, the ethics and skills you’ve instilled into Ruben and the quality of the rest of the team are things you should be immensely proud of, you’ve made your dad proud, setting high standards in the industry he also loved and you continue role model the desire to achieve greatness.
Take a breath, this day will pass, tomorrow will be another fresh day with new opportunities for you.
Keep on keeping on dudes! 🍻
Thank you I really appreciate that comment!
Good honesty with the DIY spark there.. some people just need telling. Complete disregard for safety, which if the worst had happened, could have affected next door as well as their house if it's semi or terraced. Shocking.. literally
I think you conducted yourself admirably throughout the whole visit and informed the customer of your findings and opinion very diplomatically. Top man. Maybe you should have put some grommets in there if you had some, for safety - maybe you did. But overall I thought you were very professional. Book me down as impressed!
'conducted'
I must say, this upload was like a breath of fresh air. Not for the appalling and potentially lethal electrics of course, but as a reminder as to why I subscribed to your channel years ago, when you were all on your own. Glad I didn't unsubscribe. I also follow Nick Bundy, David Savery, Cory and Delroy. Your channel has gone "high end" as your business has grown and you have employed numerous staff. I could never afford solar or banks of batteries, so I have nearly unsubscribed, but your posting today makes me glad I didn't. Well done on doing the right thing. Very wise for not taking payment and on your plans to write to them - you should assume the worst - something tragic will happen and people will be looking to the professional electrician who last spent several hours in the property. As an aside, after my landlady passed away suddenly several years ago, her relatives (who never visited her) emerged from nowhere. I had purchased all her food in her final years and due to her mental health she had not reimbursed me. I had all the receipts. Her relatives denied I'd bought her anything, gave me notice to quit and it was finally all concluded in the county court, after we sued each other. Only the lawyers won. My lanlady's relatives' behaviour was jaw-dropping and opened my eyes as to just how low people can be. Since lives at risk in your video scenario, the potential risks to you are far worse. As I said, assume the worst and create an audit trail. Hopefully you will never need to rely on it, but it will be your insurance policy.
Landlords in general suck. Nickle and dime you every chance they get
he wouldn't have noticed if you undescribed.. or notice that you are lol. I really don't see the point when people say "I'm going to unsubscribe" or anything in that regard, unless it's just to vent a disappointment publicly for self gratification? you just do it and move on or don't do it simple as that.. or even re-do it if you change your mind, No need to broadcast it.
You were completely fair and informative with letting him know the issue. You handled the situation greatly with amazing patience! We need more people like you in this world!
It’s good to see that I’m not the only one to find places and clients like this, I applaud you and the few other professionals across the trades to have the same morals and courage to spend hours to make things as safe as you can without pay and still to ask that all important leaving question, “is there any thing els I can do to help before I leave”, luckily with this place they at very lest used 3 core cable and you had continuity on the rings, one of the places I’ve been to recently to discuss some works as they where fed up, that all of there sockets had stopped working over the last 12 months but the fuses hadn’t blown, first the easy bit, huh? why the fusses hadn’t blown? I’ll come back to that, I found that they had done all of there own extensions and spurs and where incredibly pleased with there “thriftiness” and “poly filler job” into the corners of most of the rooms walls and ceiling and pushed under the edge of the carpet, as they didn’t like to see the “ugly cables”, I literally gasped when I looked, I saw it was done with about 35 short odd lengths of recycled flymo and black and decker power tool cables, just cut and twisted and taped together with chunks all out of the sleeving like from a hedge trimmer or mower attack, this meaning the cable was Orange 0.75mm and 0.5mm fine stranded twin core artic cable (completely something to never ever do!) with mainly old plugs and sockets and sketchily terminated by just being pressed in beside or tied around the terminal screw, as there was no room to fit into the terminals opening (please never ever do) and then found this was throughout most of the sockets in the house, garden, garage and shed, then I was told, “back in the day, earthing was never a thing on the sites I worked on, so I didn’t bother with it here, it’s all a scam any way, just to make you spend more money one 3 cables when all you need is 2, to make it work” -__- (again, never! ever! follow this as rule) and if that wasn’t bad enough the bigger worry was why there sockets had stoped working, I found there was not one socket in the house that was un-scorched or didn’t have browning from excessive heat around the openings and or melted terminals or surrounds and a pile of non working extension leads they were planing to repurpose for a conservatory, then with noticing burnt patches in the carpet and lyno we had yet another in-lightening conversation, I managed to find out that they used a 3k fan heater in the winter months rather then there gas boiler so they didn’t have to have a gas bill as well as there electric bill, but confessed they just couldn’t understand why after a maximum of a few hours a socket it was plugged into would just stop working and was too hot to touch so they used metal bbq tongs to pull it out, (never ever use metal implants to remove plugs, ever!) but the other sockets worked fine till they plugged the heater in, nor why the fuse still looked good and didn’t need to be replaced, when I asked to look at there box of fuses they had a small box of different thickness bolts with the heads cut off and little brown labels of 5, 15 and 30 amp tied to them by a string, as I was given the box I was told “you know I can’t ever remember changing a fuse while we’ve been here, that’s something isn’t it? this box was given to us when we moved in by the very lovely couple”, so these bolts are what they had from the previous owners when they moved in 55 years ago 🤯 (again NEVER! EVER! EVER! Do that!) thankfully I was allowed to rectify it, but did it only for the material cost although not to there knowledge, as I asked them to tell me a price they could some what comfortable afford on there pension and so ended up donating some stock to just get it done, as my conscious just couldn’t see an elderly couple, be killed because of not being able to afford to rectify the decades of dodgy DIY, as I truly believe they had used up every last ounce of luck to of still been alive.
Very well handled indeed. It was actually a bit moving and you could see that how over time the situation had just got out of hand. Next thing is the customer knows it's all wrong, he knows deep down it's his fault and now has neither the energy or funds to put it all right. All credit to him for taking it on the chin as must have been very hard to hear.
"Cave of wonders" & "I want to go home". Im still laughing hard. Pure gold 😂
Its a tough one, you're in between a rock and a hard place, on one hand you feel like you shouldnt be fixing the issue and restoring power to a circuit that is a dangerous, and on the other, your conscience is eating at you at the thought of a couple of elderly people being without power. I think you did the best you could with what you were against.
Thanks - totally agree
Very fair comment
I'm not an electrician, at least not yet. But I do respect from the point of safety how Jordan has carried himself in this particular job. This is a great example of how you can explain to a client that a situation like this is not acceptable, but done so in a way that isn't putting the client in a position where he has committed some form of criminal offence. Well done for handling this sensitive issue in a very thoughtful way.
The old Artisan and best is back !!! I've followed you from the begining and these are the sort of videos that i think have been missing. Hopefully more like this in the future.
Amazing as ever though..👍👍😊
Awesome! Thank you!
Jordan - total respect for you there. I’m a bit of a diver and will do a few things but I think I’m reasonably competent - I cringed when I saw some of that wiring for someone who ‘was in the trade’ and the fact he said people are still contacting home for jobs! A good deed for the day - hopefully some lessons learnt!
Having this man recommend you to other people he has "helped" with wiring would yield more work than any electrician should ever desire 🤣
What's wrong with speakers in the bathroom?
Given that a full rewire wouldn't be affordable, surely at least updating the CU to RCBOs would provide worthwhile additional protection.
Didn't you think it would have at least been worth taking a minute to slip a cut grommet over those tails entries while you were there?
Isnt it likely the leakage currents from the "wiring" would have tripped any modern RCBO?
So what difference would "slipping in a cut grommet over the tails" make to that nightmare? That's kinda like asking why the Captain of the Titanic didn't stick his finger in the hole!
The place is a death trap, it's a case study for all safety organisations and electrical institutions, he's been lucky so far and if it hadn't been for the power cut he'd be none the wiser. "It's been working for 20yrs" he said, that's always the case and great until a fault occurs and the safety systems fail because they can't cope with it, then it's either a fire or someone takes a lethal shock.
The guy gave them 3 hrs free labour, he found the fault, advised on what work needs to be done and the safety issues that concerned him, he could have taken the cash and left them in blissful ignorance or informed the supply company and had a notice slapped on it but didn't. He sorted them out, and covered himself. I'll bet my mortgage that fitting RCBO's would constanly trip the circuits IF they actually hold in the first place! Yeah great that they're doing the job but 'Odd Job Billy Bodger' would "fix that problem' for sure wouldn't he!
The guy has a conscience, credit where it's due.
Even adding a grommet might be crossing a line into liability here, and Just swopping to RCBOs would probably lead to a whole world of nuisance tripping faults.
It must have been very hard to say all that to him, but it definitely needed to be said. He also said he cant do any diy anymore.. but that dyson didnt screw its self to the wall on Friday did it! 😅
Makes me feel much better about my DIY efforts (which have generally been signed off by electricians without any changes).
I lived in a duplex that had a combination of knob and tube wiring mixed in with Romex. With some outlets in my apartment powering outlets in the other apartment and vise-versa.
You literally saved that family from a house fire. Love from the States.
Not an electrician, but a friend bought a house, died and left a widow. I went and did some work and found a horror story that is possibly worse than this. I made some of it safe, but encouraged her to get a professional electrician in to go through the whole system. Great video, and well handled.
I was asked by a new neighbour recently who bought a house after the previous owner passed away to have a quick look at their electrics as they could see smoke near the floor boards they had up. There were some DIY extra sockets installed. But a quick look at the mains, VIR tails breaking down, wooden back bakerlite consumer unit and VIR outgoing circuits, no bond to gas, under size main earth, no RCD protection, etc..... They had been steam stripping wood chip wallpaper off, the smoke was from a cable with rubber insulation just dropping off with bare conductors. I switched the isolator off and said no "if's and buts" get it rewired before you do any decorating apart from paper removing or move in. The electrics were over 70 years old and falling to pieces. I was asked if it was unsafe and I fairly confident telling them it was electrically a death trap and I was surprised it hadn't caught fire. I even said there was no point wasting money on doing an EICR, it was that bad - it would just be pages of C1 and C2 codes. I literally ran back home. They have since had a full rewire by a self employed contractor.
100% agree with you. With that amount of crumbling wiring you don't even need to bother testing, just do a full rewire.
What a horror story. I’m afraid he didn’t take anything on board you said to him as he kept talking while you were trying to tell him how dangerous it was. I would definitely put something in writing to him as you just don’t know what he is going to tell other people about your visit. I can almost hear him saying “A very nice man called Jordan came and fixed my electrics” 😳😳😳
I enjoyed this far more than your other videos, it was a pure unfiltered insight of the reality of being a sparky instead of the usual glossy filtered down stuff
should just tell the wife, she’ll never let him touch any wiring ever again. surer than a padlock on a breaker box.
Ring Circuits: "Save a little bit of copper, but increase billable hours by 400%"
Hate them.
I have to say i had such experience once in my life. It was about 8 years ago and I worked away on installation for a whole week.
I came back home around 7PM after all day of work and about 4 hours of drive. My dad was not at home. So i unpacked, opened up a can of a cold one, sat at my computer to watch something and then the phone rang. It was my dad. He was helping out his friend with some intallation problems and needed a second pair of hands to check wiring faster in more distant parts of the house. That lady was his long friend from work and she lived near by and my dad wanted to help her out.
So i just pulled on my work pants again and went to help him around 8PM. When i got there, my dad already ripped a ball of cables from a junction box and he figured out one apartment. The basement part was giving him troubles exactly for the same reason - measuring on one end and connecting/disconnecting stuff on the other end of the line. We found out that everything was good untill you switched on light in the basement apartment... After switching lights on, even sockets were shorted in this part of the house.
So... Around 3AM after hours of trying to isolate that specific circuit i said i give up searching. Disconnected everything, made new terminals and slowly connected circuit after circuit.
We were left with quite a few cables disconnected (no idea where they went) and checked if all sockets and light fixtures are working properly. Lady said that the previous owner was an electrician and we had our suspicions that he tried to connect somewhere to go around a power meter. We secured quite a few unidentified cables and called it a day. Yup, it was already a nice morning next day.
We came back home around 8AM totally drained. I just gulped that unouched beer from last evening, changed my position from vertical to horizontal and slept for almost 12 hours 😁
You sir are a pure Gent! What a shocking state to be faced with and you were wholly right to explain the issues to them. Very professional from start to finish.
Big fan from India...❤
Being an Electrical Engineer it's great to learn and see the quality work that you have been doing over the years.
Will always be waiting for your videos along the road.
Excellent video Jordan. I was an electrician myself and in fact wrote the very first NVQ for electrical installations in the late 80s and used to sit on the 16th & 17th Edition Regs team as well as many other industry bodies. I also initiated the industry's training body, JTL (JTL stands for JIB Training Limited - not Joint Training Limited as many people think!). I was the Training Manager at the JIB at the time.. You are an excellent advocate for the industry. Very impressed with your videos. Well done.
That is absolutely kind & smart of you to do (not charging them). I have only seen one house that came even close to this. The house had extremely old wiring that was deteriorated so bad that just touching with anything made the installation fall off exposing bare wire or allowing the neutal & common to touch. Then there was paneling installed with nails driven right into the electrical wire. I just told them that it was too far gone, I was afraid to do anything because of liability issues. I showed them the issues and didn't correct anything. You did the right thing. I thought the same thing when he asked for your business cards....lol. Hopefully they will somehow get the wiring reworked (the correct & safe way). Thanks for sharing this and it was definitely a mess!
I think it is good you stuck it out, because the chap may have been tempted to troubleshoot the issue himself with dire consequences.
Although in the back of my mind i would be wondering if he is considering reconnecting that faulty circuit at a later date.
Loving all your good work.
Well done Jordan and keep up the good work.
😀
Fond memories of my grandads house. Appliances plugging into ceiling lights. Those aluminium / rubber cables strung down the garden to the shed. Everything came out of skips so it was all top quality stuff. They were quite late getting electricity to the house so they had an ex army generator. He knew just how much fuel to put in so it would run until they went to bed then cut out and turn the lights off. It's where I learnt everything I know! 😂
That’s absolutely mad. I dread to think what is lurking in some poor paying customer’s house(s) over his 30 year career as a “handyman”. Well handled, Jordan. I think you made the correct call in not taking his money.
Looking back, I was onsite a couple of weeks ago installing cctv, intruder alarm and intercom systems for a new client. They had a decorator onsite, and he asked me where the nearest wholesaler was. As he needed, and I quote “some light cable, as all he had on him was socket cable”. Enough said about that I think.
You know what mate,thank god there's people like you out there.Some would of laced their trainers and bolted. But you being a decent man ,played the game and everyone is still alive. Well done mate.
So nice that you helped some older people out, at the same time you pointed out the dangers of diy electrics ,and this video points out the dangers to others , I liked the way you explained everything , and how you handled the situation , your an absolute diamond ,😁
Handled very well. The gent knew that he’d done wrong, but you told him without upsetting them.
I think you did the right thing Jordan the customer needed telling about the state of his electrics. If you issue a danger notice your covering yourself if anything goes wrong
Huge respect to you.
I was surprised they installed the new meter too.
My aunt did light installs for an old house herself and she just treated every wire interchangeably. So L, N or PE were in random terminals. No GFCI. My dad visited and leaned on the stove, got a good shock. The aunt was just like "yeah that happens with the stove" all used to it like it was nothing. One phase was connected to the chassis instead of PE. Some lights didn't work for some reason, and turns out the wires were just connected together as if electricity would find its way through the light anyway.
The light only works if you plug in the TV - that's not so hard to understand 😂
As an NICEIC domestic installer myself I totally relate to this video. My wife thinks I should be paid for every job I'm called to but your attitude to taking payment for this kind of stressful work is exactly the same as mine.. Thank you for that sanity check and for showing me I'm not alone! PS I reckon you've missed out on some 'lovely' rodent damage repair work there.
You did a great thing! Yes, he needed to hear it, he was DIY too much, and the way you handled him and his wife was amazing! Your a great person!
Oh my god! When you said it was bad I was not expecting it to be that bad!!
🤣🤣🤣
You did your duties to perfection sir. Dont worry about Liabilities as you are not responsible for the DIY Disaster and you told the client exactly the truth. You would do well to send the danger notice to reinforce your position.
I once had a situation where DIY Gas was the problem. A boiler had been mounted in a roof space hanging from two 2x1 battens from the rafters and each batten was just nailed with 1 nail and the wood was split. I arranged Gas Safe inspection who immediately closed off the Gas supply to the property, rightly so. My relationship with client went from 100% to 0% instantly yet I did the right thing. DIY is deadly in the wrong hands.
Well done to you sir. True pro 100%.
Jesus. DIY GAS? What kind of lunatic does that?
@@GuyChapman at the time the story i described made centre page spread of the Gas Safe monthly magazine... with the photos. It was described as the most dangerous installation they had ever seen.
@@stevesvids yikes!
You're a kind and a gentleman helping out people in need having to DIY to cut corners.
Ten out of ten for your patience and politeness with the owners of the property. -A great recommendation
I'd have passed that to Dave Savery Electrical. His take on this would break the internet 😂
🤣🤣🤣
wouldn't be just the wife crying if DS was involved 🤣
The whole video would be bleeped out 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Mixed in with his "mad customer" video he would just leave the industry.
@Arachnoidification I saw that video. I would have left the industry after an experience like that. 🤦♂️
All I’d say is it’s a good thing you filmed it. Well done in how you handled it.
think you handled the situation very well, been to a few jobs like this where they think they know what they are doing but that little bit of knowledge is soooo dangerous
really is scary to see and as you said the fault was pretty simple but knowing where to start with that install is the hard bit and trying to make sense of it is the hard bit
Fair play to you, mate, dealt with that very fair, very honest with him. First video I've watched by you all the way through, good to see you being down to earth.
Wow just wow. Much respect to you for firstly staying and taking on frankenstein's monster, and also being honest with the gent and calling out his dangerous work, so well done true tradesmen.
Sometimes the best you can do is just make them safe, recommended a complete rewire as you did and walk away without charging the client.
Oh my lord. Handled that well Jordan. I would
Of walked in, done an abalt turn and walked out. Deary me how has that house not blew up! Unfortunately he will always say. “Well it’s always worked” well handled Jordan. Re wire or nothing!
Greetings, Jordan
Unfortunately, this is all to common. As an independent electrical contractor in the United States, I come across senior citizens who are unable to have repair work done. As professionals, we want to help. Breaks my heart.
It’s a really hard situation - between a rock and a hard place as they say
I agree. its the fault of this country that people are in this situation and not being able to afford safety. He guessed the rewire would be around 3k which he obviously doesn't have and when he was told it was far more he stepped right back. People just don't have the money to pay £70 a socket. Don't blame them for trying to survive.
It's "lovely" to see a video that doesn't feature a battery, solar or an EV charger. A video from the good old days. More of these please, or similar. Keep up the great work.
LOL :D
These types of messy electric wiring, possibly from the 50s, plus bad DIY add-ons, are more common than you think; at least this is my direct experience of houses I have seen in 30 years of living in London.
I think the customer is lucky that you didn't condemn the whole system and pull the main supply fuse
I'm surprised any of this is legal tbh
I was under the impression that only electricians could do certain jobs.
@@fluphybunny930 it depends on the country, generally speaking it's not really legal. But there aren't big fines unless osmething goes wrong. Insurances wouldn't pay a single cent if they found out tho, and professionals won't work on it. IF it gets super worse some legislations can kick you out of your own house if it is too unsafe, but that requires someone reporting it.
Regular electricians can't really do that, only certified inspectors are allowed to condemn installations. Property owners can do modifications "at their own risk" (hence why people mention insurance companies in these replies a lot).
Technically, an electrical installation only needs to be conform/legal when the property changes hands and even then it can be lacking if an inspection report is included in the sale's documentation. Currently it is then up to the buyer to "put it right" within 3 years.
I bought my current appartment in 2021 and it is currently an inspection fail because the electrical panel cover doesn't have a latch, but, instead, a spring to hold it shut (like a lot of late 20th century refurbs; you have to completely open it or it snaps back shut). I'm not losing any sleep over it.
@@fluphybunny930 Depends on where you live. The more guns people have, the less stuff the gov't can make "illegal".
@@l337pwnagePerfectly put.
You should have given him all of your business cards. His clients would have kept you and the boys in constant work for the rest of your working life😂
The times I have been to places, and found DIY bodges.
It once took me ages to find a fault that wasn't there.
It would blow a 30amp MCB but showed no fault, then occasionally I found the fault and it disappeared again. Turned out to be an arc fault about 6 inches up the wire from a socket on a very damp wall. Its surprising what Water ingress can do. It Wicks up the Earth wire, turns it Green and it grows spikes which can cut into the other cables. It goes pop and clears.
As horrendous as the DIY job is, sometimes I can see why people would resort to it. I'm struggling to find a sparky to do a couple of small jobs I need doing, to the point where I am thinking about tackling them myself. I don't want to but so far all the local electricians I have contacted are not interested in the work unless its a full house rewire or a kitchen install. No one wants to do the smaller more routine jobs. It's really frustrating.
This is the first video I've watched of yours and hats off to you, handled incredibly well and to accept no money for the work shows what a credit you are to the profession and proves that decent people still exist. Very kind, well done.
Thanks and welcome to the channel!
Good job there, they obviously really appreciate it. Totally agree with your sentiment, but I reckon quite a bit could be done to ameliorate the situation a bit. Especially that bargain basement socket screwed into the wall. That worries me a lot.
I certainly don't think he did anything to help them except let them off 10 quid...he provided no astute or caring advice (council grants/citizens advice/go-fund-me/whip around) or any real assistance and the open question of no RCD whatsoever haunts me (I live in Thailand and I know all about this crap). I would have retrofitted and tested some safety 30ma trip stuff for free and not bragged all about how wonderful he is and how sad these oldsters are on his obnoxious self-glorifying effing clickbait channel. A nasty piece of modernism to the n'Th degree.....
Loved how you switch the mcb on with the handle of the screwdriver! I think we all do that 😄😄😄
😅
I would have quoted for the whole rewire and told him to get other quotes for it too, he might not be able to afford an Artisan Electrics rewire but he might be able to afford another company. As you say, better that it's all sorted and people are safe than lose business you'd never have got anyway
unfortunately materials are still going to be about the same price ,and the labour time is never going to change, just the rate / hr which has a minimum no matter which way you cut it. The awkward bit of work to me looked to be what was going on at the immersion ? heater / ch pump area which seemed to have no stucture as to thought on the purpose of it.
You were brutally honest and I loved it.
What a blinking "STAR" I just know how you felt, ex tradesman doing his best on his pension but fading, brings tears to ones eyes and its great to see the human spirit is still alive and kicking in our younger generation. Well done "sparks" you deserve a humanistic medal. Dc
Much respect to you I think these people are very vulnerable and honestly I think the whole electrical system needs to be ripped out and all renewed it's definitely I fire risk especially with screws going into extension cables
This is great Jordan and reminds me of the old days when you were on your own trying to fish random cables through a village hall floor 😂
this sounds like the perfect oppertunity for Artisan to step up to the plate and show what a superb company they are and do a free rewire, the viewers would love it :)
If only we could afford it 😅
@@artisanelectrics pass the Batten to Nick Bundy I am sure he would do it 😂😂😂
I was thinking along those lines...or share the job with some of the other UA-cam sparkies....or have some sort of charity whip round....maybe Jordan's church community could help out?
There must be a way to help them out that doesn't leave you guys too much out of pocket but gives you peace of mind...@artisanelectrics?
It would make great content and be a huge boost to your company's reputation and that of anyone else who got involved.
Extreme makeover home edition style: send them away on holiday for 5 days, bunch of UA-cam sparks get in there and sort it out.
Could possibly gofundme a chunk of it too.
@@judebrown4103that's a great idea - so glad there's folks like you still in this world, there's hope yet! 👍🏻
Glad that you decided to be blunt and tell the customer about this horror installation, infact it was your duty to tell/warn him as a professional. Hope nothing disatrous happens as a cause of the circuit bodging.
I think you handled it pretty perfectly to be honest. I always thought your average DIY person couldn't touch anything that went into the consumer unit. Good on you for not charging where quite frankly you had justification to do so. Also good on the ''customer'' for understanding your chastisement and not taking it personally.