What's this about? Well, for the PV grant, we had to have the cavity walls insulated. Various people visited to drill and check the walled and how wide the cavity was, then some form filling. One of the questions was what colour war the rendering as they would ensure any holes drilled will be refilled with the same colour mortar (I was impressed by this, but not for long!!!).

So on the day the contractors turned up I showed them what walls they had to carry out their work on. I asked them if they had any sort of cable detector as there was a number of hidden cables in the wall rendering. They said they had got one, but the batteries were flat! I told them I'll supply batteries as they will need to use it in some areas and I pointed out where the cables will be found, but they need to double check with their detector before drilling. Strangely they never came back to me about the batteries????

Anyway Job done. Found the holes drilled had been filled with a wildly different colour mortar to the actual wall, so it was a waste of time putting the colour on the form!

After the contractors had gone, I found the outside light wouldn't work. I thought the lamp had blown. Ladders out, changed the lamp, still no light.

Took the switch off the wall to check and test the connections, all okay. Looking at the wall and where the holes for the cavity insulation was pumped in, I thought that one looked awfully close to where I told the contractors that they may find cables hidden in the rendering. So move the ladder and chisel out the dodgy coloured filling, to discover the Bozo's (they're no longer contractors, but Bozo's!) had drilled through the cable for the outside light, Grrr...

On closer inspection, They had not only drilled through the out side light cable, but another lighting cable as shown below.

Now the lighting cables are protected by 5 amp fuses in the house. However.... those green cables are the mains supply to the house, and these are fused at the mains transformer which supplies our property by 100 amp fuses!!! Drilling through the lighting cable wouldn't have made anything noticeable (bangs or flashes), however if the Bozo's had drilled through the green cables!!!!!

After chiselling out a bit more to be able to strip the insulation back and making a safe and sound repair, I go off and test my outside light again. Still nothing? Stand back and take a look at the wall again, and noticed another hole very close to where I pointed out that they may find cables. Out with the chisel again, bugger, they had drilled through the cable a second time!

After making this second damaged area good, I'm pleased to say my out side light is now working again. What was the point of me pointing out where there are cables? What was the point of offering batteries for their cable detector? What was the point of saying what colour the rendering was? Had they said they hadn't got the correct colour sand, I could have offered them several tonne!