Shower wiring and bonding question

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Blue Fox

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Hello all,

Been to look at a shower installation today. House is a mews style house where its upstairs but there is nothing downstairs as its a roadway through to the parking at the back. The fuse box is downstairs at the back in a cupboard type thing which is under the stairs but the only access to it is from outside. The floors in this place are concrete no floor boards - I guess because its a road underneath so running a cable up from the fuse box internally is going to be a challenge to say the least, I was thinknig of running some SWA externally up the back of the house and putting that through into the loft - would that be ok?

Secondly the bonding hasn't been run to where the water incoming and stop cock is. The stop cock is in the bathroom boxed in so you can't see the pipework only the handle of the stop cock. Next to the bathroom is the airing cupboard and next to that is the kitchen and the bonding cable has been run to the pipe under the kitchen sink which is visible and 10mm. The house was built about 15-20years ago. I'm guessing it was run to there for access and visibility. Is this going to be ok left there or will I need to run a new cable to the stopcock although if I do that it won't be visible once I have boxed it ack in again. It only 2 meters max from the stop cock.

Thanks

 
Running a swa externally should only really be concidered as a last resort.It will look horrible.

The main bonding to water should be within 600mm of service pipe entering the house, as this is normally where the stop tap is, thats where normally you would bond.

However you can for ease of access and for testing place the main bonding as close as reasonably acceptable.

Providing you make a note on the certificate its location other electricians will be able to find it for any future works or inspections.

 
external SWA may not look the best, but it can be done. i would just leave bonding where it is. maybe make a note on the inside of the CU cover (since the EIC is going to get lost....)

 
you could try black PVC conduit that might look better

I know the regs say 600mm but I think common sense must play a part here

do you think the reading will be any better at the stop cock ( no I don't think so )

where was the first place you looked for the bonding ( under the kitchen sink)

 
Thanks for the replies guys. The customer isn't too bothered by the look as long as its ok as the back only looks out over a car park and theres communial bins and stuff as well, may go for pvc conduit though thats not a bad idea. As was mentioned above below the kitchen sink was the second place I looked for the bonding, first looked for stop cock but found was unable to see pipework then checked under kitchen sink so it makes sense where it is.

 
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